Hello everyone!!! I cannot believe that it’s already Thanksgiving – time for turkey, family, and football (Americano!). We all have a lot to be thankful for this year!
First of all, we have a new President. Having seen how the United States looks from the perspective of a Latin American country, it makes me so proud to be able to say that we now have a biracial, part African-American President who wants to enact change in our society. Things are and will be getting pretty bad with the economy, but the fact that we can still afford the internet to post to and read blogs is pretty good, eh? I suppose we definitely have that to be thankful for.
I personally am also quite thankful for the support I have received down here from my Cuban friends, my international friends, my Harvard classmates, and my “ANAP family.” It would have been so hard integrating in here had it not been for the friends I have met at the University, and the help of everyone at ANAP. I have met incredible people in my classes, and have gone with them to performances, run into them around campus, and have just sat around talking with them. It was an amazingly wonderful feeling the other day to be on campus for a mere half hour and run into several people that I know, greet them, and see how their lives are going. Something so simple as feeling like I fit in would have seemed so distant two months ago!!! It is incredible to me, and I am so thankful for having met the people that I have met, and having had the amazing conversations that I have had.
I am also, as always, very thankful to my friends and family back home. I wrote about this in the last post, but I am always so appreciative for all of the love. Thanks, everyone!
I think that most of all, though, I am so grateful for the opportunities (which often manifest themselves as random chance occurrences) that God has given me, especially this program in Havana. Everything that has ever happened in my life has happened as a result of the appearance of a very well-timed idea, word, person, etc. – I chose half of my classes as a result of stopping in a classroom by chance, and I also met most of my friends when someone started a random conversation. I cannot help but feel blessed for all the gifts that have been given to me in this life, and cannot help but realize what a miracle it is to be alive and joyful in this beautiful world that we live in. God is very present and alive, and He is constantly working in our lives in ways we often don’t understand. I’m constantly trying to remind myself of that, even when I get frustrated with living here - things often are often more difficult to “resolver,” but Cubans always maintain a strong graciousness in handling all of life’s problems. Looking at how very little Cubans have, it has made me a lot more thankful for everything I do have: access to internet, the ability to contact my family in the US, access to the CUC, medicine, etc. We are very very blessed, indeed. After all, “la vita e bella” – always.
Have a happy Thanksgiving, everyone. : )
Thursday, November 27, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Emailers and readers, far and wide!!
I just wanted to take a quick blog post to thank all of you for reading my blog so much and keeping updated on my posts! I recently received a slew of emails from lots of different people I haven't seen in a while, all being so encouraging and sending lots of love!! Thank you, thank you, thank you so much to everyone for reading and supporting me - I really appreciate and enjoy all of your comments and emails!!! :)
In the past few days I have been thinking a lot about what a great network of individuals I have surrounding me - my family, my friends, my teachers, my coworkers - everyone. The fact that you all read my blog and share it with friends still astounds and humbles me more than you can ever imagine.
In short, this post is for you, the reader, the poster, the emailer - thank you so much for all your support and encouragement!!! :)
Love you all,
Christina :)
In the past few days I have been thinking a lot about what a great network of individuals I have surrounding me - my family, my friends, my teachers, my coworkers - everyone. The fact that you all read my blog and share it with friends still astounds and humbles me more than you can ever imagine.
In short, this post is for you, the reader, the poster, the emailer - thank you so much for all your support and encouragement!!! :)
Love you all,
Christina :)
Sunday, November 16, 2008
More fun in the land of many hurricanes... :)
It has been an interesting past couple of days in this parallel universe I like to call Cuba. First of all, I have been getting to meet with some pretty cool organizations and individuals from various lines of work, and getting their perspectives on everything about Cuba, in addition to sharing some of my own perspectives on my country. I feel like our discussions have been so fruitful and insightful, and can’t help but be excited for the fact that Obama is going to open up the line of communication so that the US and Cuba can have these same kinds of discussions. If only our countries could talk the way I have been talking for the past few days, I know they would at least reach some level of understanding with one another!
One of the first groups I got to meet with was CEMI, or the Centro de Estudios de Migracion Internacional, which basically studies international migration (specifically, a lot of the experts there study Cuban youth migration to the states). Diane, one of my fellow classmates, is currently doing a program with HAVMUN, or Havana Model United Nations, and somebody randomly gave her name to CEMI to arrange a meeting. She invited me along, because she knew that this is something that I want to do my senior thesis on, and BOY was I happy I went! When we got to their office – which was located about fifty feet from where I have my classes every day, by the way, unbeknownst to me! – we were immediately shown to this little conference room, where four younger-looking, but very professional young scholars were seated, with notepads and a platter of coffee cups. They started asking us a lot of questions about the American stance on Cuba, how Cuban-Americans factor into the mix, what the typical American youth feels toward Cubans, the stereotypes of America, etc. They were so excited and overwhelmed at the information we provided them for their studies, because it’s difficult to download or obtain books about the material they are studying in Cuba. Our offers to put them in touch with Cuban-American student groups on campus and various other resources was so exciting and groundbreaking for them, I couldn’t help but want to help them. It was an amazing meeting, and I look forward so much to keeping in contact with them throughout the rest of my time at Harvard (for thesis research in addition just to keeping in contact with them – they seemed like such genuinely wonderful people!).
In addition to this meeting, I also got to meet with a Cuban intellectual property lawyer in Miramar who is connected to Harvard Law School, and she gave us some insight into how the legal system functions here. Every lawyer is controlled by the state, and the legal system functions in pretty much the same way as it does in the US. One cool detail that is different, though, is the hiring of untrained, “average joe” judges for one to five year stints to serve in court cases. These “judges” actually have no legal training, and have to leave their regular jobs to work for the government in this role in serving as a judge. It’s kind of like jury duty, because your place of hire is required to keep your job open for you until you return back to work!! Crazy, huh? : )
In slightly less dorky news, I got to meet up with my friend Yudi from class (and her boyfriend, and some of her friends) the other night and go out to a free, intimately small concert at the Melia Cohiba Hotel (in the lounge area), for the promotion of the new solo cd of a Cuban singer named Diana Fuente. I really like the music, and I got to see one of the famous Cuban musicians from the movie Habana Blues singing live (and playing this REALLY cool guitar that just had a line of wood surrounding the strings, and then just had a metal frame where the edge of the guitar should have been). It was as though the strings were floating in midair, and was SO cool. Everyone did an excellent job performing, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert (mostly because of the excellent company, I must say!). : )
As for news at ANAP, things have been a bit tense around here lately. The main boss of ANAP (the one who talks to Raul and Fidel, the one in charge on the national level) came to visit the Residence a few weeks ago to check up on the workers here and making sure things were running smoothly, and was rather perturbed to find that nobody was doing what they were supposed to. The bartender wasn’t in the bar, the front guard was nowhere to be found, etc. Usually, I would go into the kitchen after breakfast or dinner to see what’s up with Yohanka, Pablito and Camilo, but lately I haven’t been messing around with that, because there always seems to be a higher-up watching. Students technically aren’t supposed to go into the kitchen, but naturally, when you live for two months with someone, you are going to want to help clean up the dinner dishes and bring them into the kitchen to be washed – it’s only natural!! But, workers aren’t supposed to have too much contact with the guests or else you can get fired… and people have gotten and do get fired for this. Therefore, I have had to cut down my talking with Camilo and Johanka (Pablito’s on vacation!), and it’s killing me!!! I love talking to them and joking around with them, and this whole “walking-on-thin-ice” thing is really really nervewracking. It’s not as though I have stopped talking to people entirely, I’m just taking extra caution. It’s strange to feel limited in having relationships with people who feel like your family, because you have lived with them, essentially, in the same house, for two months.
I am constantly amazed at how equally I can feel love and disgust for this city at the same time. I am in love with the people, with the sights and the beauty of the art, music, and dance, but am constantly burdened by the meaning of it all – that behind the weathered façade is a people, but also a morphed and deformed ideology that is killing the city from the inside out. The city is obviously decaying, but is decaying in an all-comprehensive, no-holds-barred sense – in its moral integrity, in its solidarity, in its buildings (of course). The old Lada and Chevy cars, fixed up with paint to hide the rust, are representations of this culture of covering over the problem with a happy exterior – in fact, everything seems to be a metaphor to that effect – buildings, cars, people made up in camisoles and makeup, donning precariously-high-looking wooden skyscraper heels that “clop” as you walk with that unmistakable Cuban sway.
I know that I will miss Havana more than I ever imagined that I would, but at the same time, I also know that I will NOT miss the power outages, the frustration felt by myself and others at the prevalence of “the system,” the “Big Brother” sense you feel every time something new comes out about how the government is watching me while I’m staying here (example: my friend Brigid, who lives upstairs, was told that the neighbors spying on her shouldn’t bother her, because the government intends that they keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not up to trouble. She’s also not allowed to leave ANAP to find a cheaper residence.). As much as I will miss this place, I cannot wait to be home.
One of the first groups I got to meet with was CEMI, or the Centro de Estudios de Migracion Internacional, which basically studies international migration (specifically, a lot of the experts there study Cuban youth migration to the states). Diane, one of my fellow classmates, is currently doing a program with HAVMUN, or Havana Model United Nations, and somebody randomly gave her name to CEMI to arrange a meeting. She invited me along, because she knew that this is something that I want to do my senior thesis on, and BOY was I happy I went! When we got to their office – which was located about fifty feet from where I have my classes every day, by the way, unbeknownst to me! – we were immediately shown to this little conference room, where four younger-looking, but very professional young scholars were seated, with notepads and a platter of coffee cups. They started asking us a lot of questions about the American stance on Cuba, how Cuban-Americans factor into the mix, what the typical American youth feels toward Cubans, the stereotypes of America, etc. They were so excited and overwhelmed at the information we provided them for their studies, because it’s difficult to download or obtain books about the material they are studying in Cuba. Our offers to put them in touch with Cuban-American student groups on campus and various other resources was so exciting and groundbreaking for them, I couldn’t help but want to help them. It was an amazing meeting, and I look forward so much to keeping in contact with them throughout the rest of my time at Harvard (for thesis research in addition just to keeping in contact with them – they seemed like such genuinely wonderful people!).
In addition to this meeting, I also got to meet with a Cuban intellectual property lawyer in Miramar who is connected to Harvard Law School, and she gave us some insight into how the legal system functions here. Every lawyer is controlled by the state, and the legal system functions in pretty much the same way as it does in the US. One cool detail that is different, though, is the hiring of untrained, “average joe” judges for one to five year stints to serve in court cases. These “judges” actually have no legal training, and have to leave their regular jobs to work for the government in this role in serving as a judge. It’s kind of like jury duty, because your place of hire is required to keep your job open for you until you return back to work!! Crazy, huh? : )
In slightly less dorky news, I got to meet up with my friend Yudi from class (and her boyfriend, and some of her friends) the other night and go out to a free, intimately small concert at the Melia Cohiba Hotel (in the lounge area), for the promotion of the new solo cd of a Cuban singer named Diana Fuente. I really like the music, and I got to see one of the famous Cuban musicians from the movie Habana Blues singing live (and playing this REALLY cool guitar that just had a line of wood surrounding the strings, and then just had a metal frame where the edge of the guitar should have been). It was as though the strings were floating in midair, and was SO cool. Everyone did an excellent job performing, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed the concert (mostly because of the excellent company, I must say!). : )
As for news at ANAP, things have been a bit tense around here lately. The main boss of ANAP (the one who talks to Raul and Fidel, the one in charge on the national level) came to visit the Residence a few weeks ago to check up on the workers here and making sure things were running smoothly, and was rather perturbed to find that nobody was doing what they were supposed to. The bartender wasn’t in the bar, the front guard was nowhere to be found, etc. Usually, I would go into the kitchen after breakfast or dinner to see what’s up with Yohanka, Pablito and Camilo, but lately I haven’t been messing around with that, because there always seems to be a higher-up watching. Students technically aren’t supposed to go into the kitchen, but naturally, when you live for two months with someone, you are going to want to help clean up the dinner dishes and bring them into the kitchen to be washed – it’s only natural!! But, workers aren’t supposed to have too much contact with the guests or else you can get fired… and people have gotten and do get fired for this. Therefore, I have had to cut down my talking with Camilo and Johanka (Pablito’s on vacation!), and it’s killing me!!! I love talking to them and joking around with them, and this whole “walking-on-thin-ice” thing is really really nervewracking. It’s not as though I have stopped talking to people entirely, I’m just taking extra caution. It’s strange to feel limited in having relationships with people who feel like your family, because you have lived with them, essentially, in the same house, for two months.
I am constantly amazed at how equally I can feel love and disgust for this city at the same time. I am in love with the people, with the sights and the beauty of the art, music, and dance, but am constantly burdened by the meaning of it all – that behind the weathered façade is a people, but also a morphed and deformed ideology that is killing the city from the inside out. The city is obviously decaying, but is decaying in an all-comprehensive, no-holds-barred sense – in its moral integrity, in its solidarity, in its buildings (of course). The old Lada and Chevy cars, fixed up with paint to hide the rust, are representations of this culture of covering over the problem with a happy exterior – in fact, everything seems to be a metaphor to that effect – buildings, cars, people made up in camisoles and makeup, donning precariously-high-looking wooden skyscraper heels that “clop” as you walk with that unmistakable Cuban sway.
I know that I will miss Havana more than I ever imagined that I would, but at the same time, I also know that I will NOT miss the power outages, the frustration felt by myself and others at the prevalence of “the system,” the “Big Brother” sense you feel every time something new comes out about how the government is watching me while I’m staying here (example: my friend Brigid, who lives upstairs, was told that the neighbors spying on her shouldn’t bother her, because the government intends that they keep an eye on her to make sure she’s not up to trouble. She’s also not allowed to leave ANAP to find a cheaper residence.). As much as I will miss this place, I cannot wait to be home.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Puttin' on the Ritz!!!
If there was ever any doubt in my mind that I am having an excellent stay in this beautiful country, the past two days have erased said doubt away completely. Last night, I came back from using the internet at the Melia Cohiba hotel around 6:30, and my group had already eaten dinner at 6 and left to go to a club with our waitress, Johanka, so nobody was in the restaurant. (Staff and guests aren’t supposed to hang out outside of ANAP, so this was all done covertly – operation “have fun with our friends from the kitchen” had commenced before my arrival!).
When I entered the restaurant, Pablito, Camilo and Albertico (one of the bartenders for the in-ANAP bar who was taking Johanka’s place that night) all came over like my three fairy godfathers and asked me how my day was, said they would bring dinner out right away, and did I know how to get to the café where everyone was going dancing?? I said I had forgotten how to get there, and immediately Albertico offered to drop me off. It was incredible - I felt like such a well-taken-care-of princess!
I ate dinner, dropped my plates off in the kitchen to be washed, and then went to go get ready, but by the time I was ready to leave, I realized that it was 7:30, and the ladies were coming back at 9, so it wouldn’t be worth it to head out. I wasn’t really bummed – I love spending nights in the house – but I didn’t really have anything to do, so I hung out in the kitchen and asked if I could do anything to help. That was the best question I have ever asked thus far this semester, in or out of class!
I ended up playing waitress for the night, bringing out food to a late-night diner/guest, and setting the table for the next morning’s breakfast (Camilo came out and corrected most of my work). I got to fetch things around the restaurant for Pablito and clean up the tabels, and it made me feel so good because I felt like I was cleaning up my house, which I actually miss a lot (it’s so weird, but I miss ironing and washing dishes and such. Mom and Dad, please take note – I DID say this at one point in my life).
Tonight, we ended up going out to eat at a paladar, which is basically a really fancy and expensive Cuban restaurant. Usually, paladars don’t have certain dishes when you ask for them off the menu (especially with the food shortages from the hurricane), but this paladar was EXTRA special! It’s called la Guarida, and it’s located in the apartment where the famous Cuban movie Fresa y Chocolate was filmed!!! It was so weird to recognize the rooms from scenes in the movie!!!
Most importantly, however: THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! They had everything on the menu, which included everything from rabbit with peppers and avocado to full-fledged salads (we’re talking REAL tomatoes here, with LETTUCE and fancy dressing and cucumber and cabbage!!!!), in addition to roasted chicken, snapper, salmon, octopus, and grouper. I ordered a girly drink called a Mary-something (rum with pineapple juice, grenadine (!), and maraschino sauce in a very cosmopolitan glass!), and got the octopus salad, in addition to this AMAZING spinach crepe concoction with an amazing vinaigrette sauce and chicken on the inside. MMMM! It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted – seriously!
Let’s provide a little background to the Cuban dining out experience. Most Cuban eateries, even the nice ones, are [attempts] at imitations of fine restaurants in Europe or the US. Often they are up three flights of stairs, in what could probably be someone’s back porch or living room (and most likely once was). The food is delicious, but you could probably encounter a better version of the same food (lasagna, which was delish, but lacking pasta, salads made of basically cabbage chopped into cole slaw pieces and cucumbers, fried chicken) back in the US.
La Guarida was the closest I have seen to a “fine dining” establishment, and could most likely hold its own as a US, culinarily-innovative institution. I wanted to cry when I tasted how delicious the spinach was, and ate REAL tomatoes with REAL onions and REAL FRESH BASIL LEAVES (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and a DELICIOUS sauce with my octopus salad (and REAL lettuce!). You have no idea how much my heart was so happy just to have that brief moment of ecstasy in which I was reminded of the luxury of having every type of food available at any given time. The octopus salad I ordered made me think so much of home, of my grandfather and seafood salad at Christmas Eve dinner, where the family gathers around, and in Italian tradition, eats a huge seafood meal and then opens presents. Food to me is a key element of my existence, and eating really good food tonight really reminded me of home and family, as I can connect most of my experiences being with my extended family involving meals of some kind (going to parties and sitting around the sweet table, commenting on someone’s amazing recipe for a pasta dish, looking at huge Thanksgiving turkey(s) or even ordering pizza and sitting around the kitchen table, talking late into the night over cups of coffee about politics, the kids, plans for vacation, or engagements to be married). I always associate good food around a big table with my family, and the moments of sharing life and the goings-on of the day with one another. It was a bittersweet moment of recognition, but I was nonetheless made extremely content by my meal.
I even got the chance to order chamomile tea (te de manzanilla), which was amazing, mostly due to the fact that it is not as available in Cuba (available meaning offered everywhere at a low price) as coffee is. The experience is one we will hopefully be repeating on Thanksgiving and one I will most certainly not forget any time soon. One can’t often be too picky when the only thing one can afford is rice and beans and maybe some veggies from the agro (maybe some pork or chicken, too), and when the market runs out, there’s not really much you can do but resolver by just making do with what you have.
In the Special Period (the time during the early 90s where Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin), there were stories of eating everything possible to stay alive. To think of all the luxury I just enjoyed – it would never be available to your average Cuban. Tonight, as I was heading home with my friends, we hailed a maquina by the Malecon to get us back to ANAP. The driver was a former sailor who was a rich Cuban, and he didn’t even charge us for taking us home. I think it had something to do with the fact that we had a really good convo on the way back, and he outwardly stated that he was one of the few Cubans who could afford to not accept the money we offered him. I just can’t believe the system I’m in, and how biased it is; although it pledges undying loyalty to socialism, it is a deformed Russian socialism that is reproduced constantly and incorrectly. He said that is only Cuba had gone with Che’s socialism, it would have been fine.
I’m not so sure about that, but what I do know is that it’s much easier to be able to say that and buy yourself a nice gourmet pizza at the end of the day than it is to say that and be going hungry, because you only make $15 every month and can’t afford to pick up that tab.
When I entered the restaurant, Pablito, Camilo and Albertico (one of the bartenders for the in-ANAP bar who was taking Johanka’s place that night) all came over like my three fairy godfathers and asked me how my day was, said they would bring dinner out right away, and did I know how to get to the café where everyone was going dancing?? I said I had forgotten how to get there, and immediately Albertico offered to drop me off. It was incredible - I felt like such a well-taken-care-of princess!
I ate dinner, dropped my plates off in the kitchen to be washed, and then went to go get ready, but by the time I was ready to leave, I realized that it was 7:30, and the ladies were coming back at 9, so it wouldn’t be worth it to head out. I wasn’t really bummed – I love spending nights in the house – but I didn’t really have anything to do, so I hung out in the kitchen and asked if I could do anything to help. That was the best question I have ever asked thus far this semester, in or out of class!
I ended up playing waitress for the night, bringing out food to a late-night diner/guest, and setting the table for the next morning’s breakfast (Camilo came out and corrected most of my work). I got to fetch things around the restaurant for Pablito and clean up the tabels, and it made me feel so good because I felt like I was cleaning up my house, which I actually miss a lot (it’s so weird, but I miss ironing and washing dishes and such. Mom and Dad, please take note – I DID say this at one point in my life).
Tonight, we ended up going out to eat at a paladar, which is basically a really fancy and expensive Cuban restaurant. Usually, paladars don’t have certain dishes when you ask for them off the menu (especially with the food shortages from the hurricane), but this paladar was EXTRA special! It’s called la Guarida, and it’s located in the apartment where the famous Cuban movie Fresa y Chocolate was filmed!!! It was so weird to recognize the rooms from scenes in the movie!!!
Most importantly, however: THE FOOD WAS DELICIOUS!!!!! They had everything on the menu, which included everything from rabbit with peppers and avocado to full-fledged salads (we’re talking REAL tomatoes here, with LETTUCE and fancy dressing and cucumber and cabbage!!!!), in addition to roasted chicken, snapper, salmon, octopus, and grouper. I ordered a girly drink called a Mary-something (rum with pineapple juice, grenadine (!), and maraschino sauce in a very cosmopolitan glass!), and got the octopus salad, in addition to this AMAZING spinach crepe concoction with an amazing vinaigrette sauce and chicken on the inside. MMMM! It was the most delicious thing I have ever tasted – seriously!
Let’s provide a little background to the Cuban dining out experience. Most Cuban eateries, even the nice ones, are [attempts] at imitations of fine restaurants in Europe or the US. Often they are up three flights of stairs, in what could probably be someone’s back porch or living room (and most likely once was). The food is delicious, but you could probably encounter a better version of the same food (lasagna, which was delish, but lacking pasta, salads made of basically cabbage chopped into cole slaw pieces and cucumbers, fried chicken) back in the US.
La Guarida was the closest I have seen to a “fine dining” establishment, and could most likely hold its own as a US, culinarily-innovative institution. I wanted to cry when I tasted how delicious the spinach was, and ate REAL tomatoes with REAL onions and REAL FRESH BASIL LEAVES (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), and a DELICIOUS sauce with my octopus salad (and REAL lettuce!). You have no idea how much my heart was so happy just to have that brief moment of ecstasy in which I was reminded of the luxury of having every type of food available at any given time. The octopus salad I ordered made me think so much of home, of my grandfather and seafood salad at Christmas Eve dinner, where the family gathers around, and in Italian tradition, eats a huge seafood meal and then opens presents. Food to me is a key element of my existence, and eating really good food tonight really reminded me of home and family, as I can connect most of my experiences being with my extended family involving meals of some kind (going to parties and sitting around the sweet table, commenting on someone’s amazing recipe for a pasta dish, looking at huge Thanksgiving turkey(s) or even ordering pizza and sitting around the kitchen table, talking late into the night over cups of coffee about politics, the kids, plans for vacation, or engagements to be married). I always associate good food around a big table with my family, and the moments of sharing life and the goings-on of the day with one another. It was a bittersweet moment of recognition, but I was nonetheless made extremely content by my meal.
I even got the chance to order chamomile tea (te de manzanilla), which was amazing, mostly due to the fact that it is not as available in Cuba (available meaning offered everywhere at a low price) as coffee is. The experience is one we will hopefully be repeating on Thanksgiving and one I will most certainly not forget any time soon. One can’t often be too picky when the only thing one can afford is rice and beans and maybe some veggies from the agro (maybe some pork or chicken, too), and when the market runs out, there’s not really much you can do but resolver by just making do with what you have.
In the Special Period (the time during the early 90s where Cuba’s economy went into a tailspin), there were stories of eating everything possible to stay alive. To think of all the luxury I just enjoyed – it would never be available to your average Cuban. Tonight, as I was heading home with my friends, we hailed a maquina by the Malecon to get us back to ANAP. The driver was a former sailor who was a rich Cuban, and he didn’t even charge us for taking us home. I think it had something to do with the fact that we had a really good convo on the way back, and he outwardly stated that he was one of the few Cubans who could afford to not accept the money we offered him. I just can’t believe the system I’m in, and how biased it is; although it pledges undying loyalty to socialism, it is a deformed Russian socialism that is reproduced constantly and incorrectly. He said that is only Cuba had gone with Che’s socialism, it would have been fine.
I’m not so sure about that, but what I do know is that it’s much easier to be able to say that and buy yourself a nice gourmet pizza at the end of the day than it is to say that and be going hungry, because you only make $15 every month and can’t afford to pick up that tab.
Thursday, November 6, 2008
OBAMERICA!
I cannot explain how elated I am to have found out that Barack Obama will be our next President!!! Picture a group of students in the melia cohiba hotel, at 11 pm at night, crowded around a tv watching intently to see that Obama had reached 270 electoral votes. It was the most emotionally charged thing I have ever sat through, and when we found out that he had won, we all were crying and hugging and so happy to be alive at that moment. This is history, people. Obama is a person who has united so many different constituencies, so many different people can see themselves in him. He is pursuing the same dream that my grandfather pursued, he represents everything that my grandfather and other Italian-Americans worked so hard for in this country, which is equality, a good life for their families, and hope for a better future for his children. He represents everyone in this nation equally, regardless of skin color, or age, or economic status. I couldn't be happier, and walk around everywhere here with a smile, proud to say "I'm American!!" once more, something I feel like I couldn't do before.
When you have the opportunity to study history from the perspective of a Latin American country, the US comes off as much less benevolent than your typical US high school class would lead you to believe. The US has often played the role of imperialist bully in the world, and it makes me disappointed to see the country I love so much head down such a bad path. I have hope for the future that we will rebuild our international relations, renew our economy, and go back to the glory days of Clinton. (Nonno, I hope you know I wrote that!).
The fact that Obama is half black and half white was such a beautiful factor in this equation. The significance of this for me is twofold, because in Cuba everyone is so excited to have a president who looks like them, and will TALK to Raul Castro!!! WOW! And our first family is now black. It's a beautiful thing when diversity is becoming the face of America, and I'm so happy that it's finally reflected in the white house. I couldn't be prouder of my country, and where we are going right now - OBAMERICA!
I cannot stop smiling, nor do I think I ever will. My generation has been through so much, and cannot wait to see what happens as history unfolds itself. I think that being in Cuba has made me appreciate my love for my country so much more, because it's such a rare thing to be an American in Cuba. Here, I am not from Massachusetts, I am American, and now I'm proud to be labeled as such, because my president is someone I can take pride in, and someone who can unite my country together like it has never been united before.
GOD BLESS THE USA, ESPECIALLY FOR THEIR EXCELLENT CHOICE OF A BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING PRESIDENT!!!!!!!
When you have the opportunity to study history from the perspective of a Latin American country, the US comes off as much less benevolent than your typical US high school class would lead you to believe. The US has often played the role of imperialist bully in the world, and it makes me disappointed to see the country I love so much head down such a bad path. I have hope for the future that we will rebuild our international relations, renew our economy, and go back to the glory days of Clinton. (Nonno, I hope you know I wrote that!).
The fact that Obama is half black and half white was such a beautiful factor in this equation. The significance of this for me is twofold, because in Cuba everyone is so excited to have a president who looks like them, and will TALK to Raul Castro!!! WOW! And our first family is now black. It's a beautiful thing when diversity is becoming the face of America, and I'm so happy that it's finally reflected in the white house. I couldn't be prouder of my country, and where we are going right now - OBAMERICA!
I cannot stop smiling, nor do I think I ever will. My generation has been through so much, and cannot wait to see what happens as history unfolds itself. I think that being in Cuba has made me appreciate my love for my country so much more, because it's such a rare thing to be an American in Cuba. Here, I am not from Massachusetts, I am American, and now I'm proud to be labeled as such, because my president is someone I can take pride in, and someone who can unite my country together like it has never been united before.
GOD BLESS THE USA, ESPECIALLY FOR THEIR EXCELLENT CHOICE OF A BEAUTIFUL, AMAZING PRESIDENT!!!!!!!
Game Time (from Nov. 3rd)
Hello, everybody!! So, we’re officially past the halfway point of being in Cuba!!! Yayyy! I feel much more acclimated to the pace of the city now, and am starting to get more comfortable engaging in activities and knowing my way around. I still slip up, though, from time to time, as is wont to happen in a very different country. For example, I had seminario (basically a graded question-and-answer session) today in my Sociology of Work class, and ended up reading the wrong “lectura” (reading), and gave a short schpiel on something entirely unrelated to my question. But, our professor, in all fairness, had not clarified which article he wanted us to read, and he just laughed it off, because we’re innocent foreigners who didn’t know any better. I think that means that he will give us a good grade for our presentations (they were only about five minutes or less). I did pretty well on the pop quiz he gave out, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign… : )
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trying to branch out and be involved more in academic and cultural activities, because I feel as though I have been moping around in the house feeling homesick for the past few weeks, and am ready to take advantage of all the opportunity I have here to learn from people. There are a lot of centers here of various kinds – centers for psychological studies, centers for culture, centers for the CDR (don’t worry, I’m not becoming socialist!), etc. I just want to make sure that I have milked this experience for all its worth, but these past few weeks it had been difficult to deal with the fact that I’m so far away from home. I think the trick is just to stay busy, so that you are so busy having fun and getting involved that you don’t miss the people you love most in this world – otherwise, you’ll drive yourself crazy. It’s a blessing and a curse to have so much time to think, because sometimes, thinking about certain things (like homesickness) too much can cause an idea to tangle itself up in your brain and mess up your other thought processes. I’m glad that I’ve been so busy with schoolwork this week!
But, not only is this the week of crazy seminario work (I have THREE in TWO DAYS!), but also the week of THE ELECTION OF THE NEXT US PRESIDENT! All of us here are ridiculously excited and eagerly awaiting the results of the election. We’re going to camp out in a nearby hotel and take over their lounge area tv for the day, coming intermittently through class.
Then, seeing as we will hopefully want to celebrate Wednesday night, we decided to make a group dinner (I’m making pasta!!!). I went to the CUC market the other day to buy meat (I have yet to buy onions still from the agromercado, which is like an open-air market, as opposed to the CUC market, which is basically in a mall), and discovered that all the meat was: A) frozen, and B) VERY not-fresh-looking. ALSO, can I take this time to mention how there is NO ground beef anywhere here??? I found giant turkey legs, really gross looking ribs, and tons of deli meat, but no ground beef! I ended up with a package that looked less questionable marked, “res,” or “beef,” and brought it back to ANAP. Little did I know, the “hígado” part of the label, which I had overlooked beforehand, actually means, “liver,” meaning that I had bought cow liver to flavor my pasta sauce with. Uck. I gave it to Camilo and Pablito (our cooks - we’re pretty good pals, me and the kitchen staff – I hang out and talk with them a lot in the kitchen and the restaurant…), and Pablito told me that Camilo could probably make a “picadillo” (ground-up meat dish) out of it, after we had a good, hearty laugh with Joanca, a waitress who works at ANAP, about the fact that I had bought COW LIVER instead of beef. Oh, how funny those language barriers are!!! : )
Needless to say, the pasta sauce is going to be vegetarian, I guess… : ) No Italian sausages here in Cuba… : )
I’m really really really excited to be cooking. I love and miss the smell of garlic in olive oil, with onion and tomato sauce. Everything here is fried, but in vegetable oil, so it will be so good to have a real, authentic Italian pasta dish, when typically pasta here is served with a very basic thin, salty tomato paste. I’m just glad I was able to find olive oil (!) and oregano (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in various locations. It’s so hard just to find, let alone stomach the prices (olive oil was 6 bucks for a little bottle!!) of certain “luxury” foods here.
Well, I’m off to study for my seminarios tomorrow (one is on Freud and the interpretation of dreams, the other is on Cecilia Valdes, which is a 553 page book written entirely in old, Cuban Spanish. I read the WHOLE THING, which I’m so so so proud of myself for (I don’t mean that to sound egotistical, it’s just that I have never done anything like that before!), and even though I didn’t understand it all, I just plugged through it, and was amazed that I was able to read it all and can use it now in my seminario and speak intelligibly about it). I suppose if the Holy Spirit caused the apostles to speak in tongues, it can help me read a book in Spanish, right?
Love you and miss you all!,
Christina : )
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about trying to branch out and be involved more in academic and cultural activities, because I feel as though I have been moping around in the house feeling homesick for the past few weeks, and am ready to take advantage of all the opportunity I have here to learn from people. There are a lot of centers here of various kinds – centers for psychological studies, centers for culture, centers for the CDR (don’t worry, I’m not becoming socialist!), etc. I just want to make sure that I have milked this experience for all its worth, but these past few weeks it had been difficult to deal with the fact that I’m so far away from home. I think the trick is just to stay busy, so that you are so busy having fun and getting involved that you don’t miss the people you love most in this world – otherwise, you’ll drive yourself crazy. It’s a blessing and a curse to have so much time to think, because sometimes, thinking about certain things (like homesickness) too much can cause an idea to tangle itself up in your brain and mess up your other thought processes. I’m glad that I’ve been so busy with schoolwork this week!
But, not only is this the week of crazy seminario work (I have THREE in TWO DAYS!), but also the week of THE ELECTION OF THE NEXT US PRESIDENT! All of us here are ridiculously excited and eagerly awaiting the results of the election. We’re going to camp out in a nearby hotel and take over their lounge area tv for the day, coming intermittently through class.
Then, seeing as we will hopefully want to celebrate Wednesday night, we decided to make a group dinner (I’m making pasta!!!). I went to the CUC market the other day to buy meat (I have yet to buy onions still from the agromercado, which is like an open-air market, as opposed to the CUC market, which is basically in a mall), and discovered that all the meat was: A) frozen, and B) VERY not-fresh-looking. ALSO, can I take this time to mention how there is NO ground beef anywhere here??? I found giant turkey legs, really gross looking ribs, and tons of deli meat, but no ground beef! I ended up with a package that looked less questionable marked, “res,” or “beef,” and brought it back to ANAP. Little did I know, the “hígado” part of the label, which I had overlooked beforehand, actually means, “liver,” meaning that I had bought cow liver to flavor my pasta sauce with. Uck. I gave it to Camilo and Pablito (our cooks - we’re pretty good pals, me and the kitchen staff – I hang out and talk with them a lot in the kitchen and the restaurant…), and Pablito told me that Camilo could probably make a “picadillo” (ground-up meat dish) out of it, after we had a good, hearty laugh with Joanca, a waitress who works at ANAP, about the fact that I had bought COW LIVER instead of beef. Oh, how funny those language barriers are!!! : )
Needless to say, the pasta sauce is going to be vegetarian, I guess… : ) No Italian sausages here in Cuba… : )
I’m really really really excited to be cooking. I love and miss the smell of garlic in olive oil, with onion and tomato sauce. Everything here is fried, but in vegetable oil, so it will be so good to have a real, authentic Italian pasta dish, when typically pasta here is served with a very basic thin, salty tomato paste. I’m just glad I was able to find olive oil (!) and oregano (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in various locations. It’s so hard just to find, let alone stomach the prices (olive oil was 6 bucks for a little bottle!!) of certain “luxury” foods here.
Well, I’m off to study for my seminarios tomorrow (one is on Freud and the interpretation of dreams, the other is on Cecilia Valdes, which is a 553 page book written entirely in old, Cuban Spanish. I read the WHOLE THING, which I’m so so so proud of myself for (I don’t mean that to sound egotistical, it’s just that I have never done anything like that before!), and even though I didn’t understand it all, I just plugged through it, and was amazed that I was able to read it all and can use it now in my seminario and speak intelligibly about it). I suppose if the Holy Spirit caused the apostles to speak in tongues, it can help me read a book in Spanish, right?
Love you and miss you all!,
Christina : )
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)