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Hi There From Cuba - Part 4 - Paperwork Galore - The College Of Havana
Hotel Havana Libre, Tuesday, April 5, 2005, 7:20 pm
Yesterday I had to join my Spanish course at the College of Havana. The Campus of the College is an astoundingly lovely assortment of classical buildings and a Cuban tank graces the doorway to the library.
At 9 am all the overseas college students, about forty of them, met within the Edificio Varona and we had been shepherded by various professors into a very antiquated lecture hall. (By the way, of the 5 or 6 washroom stalls in the girls´s rest room, only one or 2 have bathrooms in them, no rest room seats, and no working water within the sinks. Again a sign of fairly run-down infrastructure...)
There they advised us about the program, but solely in Spanish, which was okay for me, since I communicate Spanish, but about half the group was completely lost. We then had to do a fast written placement take a look at to assess our present Spanish abilities and then the forms began.
We found out that we needed the next paperwork:
- a replica of our passports
- an official copy of the lodge visitor card and/or a replica of the licence of the non-public Casa
Explicit - 200 CUC (Convertible Cuban Pesos) in cash for a 2-week course or more for other courses
- forty CUC for altering our tourist visa to an instructional visa (in fiscal stamps which we needed to get hold of abuot 5 km away)
- 2 passport pictures
- 25 CUC in cash to expedite our academic visa if we're on the town for only 2 weeks.
I linked up with a bunch of international students and we headed off together on our quest to meet the Cuban need for Burocratismo. We first obtained cash at financial institution on the Resort Havana Libre, then obtained the passport footage completed (to be ready for pickup 3 hours later), then looked for the other financial institution on Calle 23 that would supply us with the 40CUC stamps for the educational visa. With extremely long lineups in all places, this took us about 2 or three hours.
Then we received really hungry and we have been approached by an area "Jinetero" (restaurant tout) who promised us an entire meal with main dish, salad and aspect dish for 6 or 7 CUC. We walked with him, solely to find out that the wait at the Paladar (personal restaurant) could be about 45 minutes to even sit down, not including food preparation time.
So we walked up Calle 21 and a non-public restaurant owner approached us for a meal and we gave in and got here inside. It was a good looking colonial villa, except that the guest room with is compulsory three tables and 12 seats was in a darkish small dingy room fully without windows.
Nevertheless, we had a delicious residence-cooked meal, I had roasted hen with rice & beans, salad and a lemon smooth drink, all for eight CUC (about 8 US$). 2 of my student colleagues had been from Germany and the opposite fellow is from Toronto as effectively, but initially from Poland. We had some nice conversations and it was fascinating linking up with a bunch of Europeans in Havana.
After a short relaxation within the resort, my good friend Pedro once more picked me up in the night and I couldn´t help but tell him about my experience with the Cocotaxi driver yesterday, who had tried to select me up, regardless of my clarifications and statements that I was married and not eager about any amorous activities.
Pedro defined that sexual relations in Cuba are a comparatively widespread, easy-going thing and that it is very frequent for folks to link up for quick "significant overnight relationships". He referred to the Cuban individuals as very "passionate and scorching-blooded", I suppose that explains a few the advances that I have been receiving to this point, significantly since there may be additionally various intercourse tourism the place men (and even women) come to Cuba to interact in simply accessible erotic experiences.
Pedro and I walked through the old town and naturally along the Malecon (the seafront boulevard) and saw the beautiful Plaza Vieja and the Plaza de la Catedral the place a mass was being held for the passing of Pope John Paul II.
This was very fascinating, since Cuba is a Communist / official atheist nation and there are much fewer Catholics at the moment than before the Revolution. Truly much of Cuba´s religion is a combination of Catholicism and Santeria (spiritual practices of the African slaves). No matter religiousness, Cuba has declared a 3-day "duelo nacional" (a nationwide mourning interval for the Pope) and the mass was attended by tons of of people.
Pedro and I then had a nice meal in the "Barrio Chino" (Havana's Chinatown) for 5.60 CUC (lower than US$6) for 2 people and a pair of vegetarian meals and soft drinks. After a nice dinner he again flagged down an area non-public automobile driver and gave him about 1 CUC for picking us up and dropping us off at my Hotel. At midnight I dropped into mattress, exhausted.
However, at four am this morning I awoke with major intestinal problems. Apparently my Chinese language meal had not change into me so properly and I had critical digestive issues emanating from both sides of my body. This morning I realy felt rotten and I ended up utilizing my own medical package for the primary time and took some Immodium.
I used to be unable to eat breakfast, however I made my approach to the university the place at 9 am our courses started. Surprisingly the position check had put me into the extent of "perfeccionamiento", the highest level and the extent of Spanish in my class was certainly very high. The class consists of seven college students, a younger lady from England, a younger feminine medical scholar from Denmark, a middle-aged female physician from Finland, a young male regulation pupil from Sweden, a younger woman and man from Norway and myself from Austria/Canada.
Obviuosly there is a very heavy Scandinavian slant in my class and it seems everyone in the class is a passion sociologist, political scientist, environmentalist and historian. We requested some moderately robust questions about Cuban life, the political system, the financial hardships, the double financial system, the state of affairs of ladies and blacks in Cuba, machismo and the situation of the environment.
A few of these questions made our female professor really feel extraordinarily uncomfortable and it seemed like she was squirming underneath the barrage of probing political and sociological questions. She acquired very defensive a number of instances in regards to the Cuban system and solely after we discussed the nice and unhealthy aspects of European and Canadian societies did she loosen up a bit and develop into a bit extra open and frank about the actual Cuban life. Evidently to at the present time Cubans must be very cautious about what they say in public.
For example, she frankly admitted that racism nonetheless exists in Cuba and to this present day it is still a country with a variety of machismo. Nonetheless, she didn't admit that Web entry and entry to non-Communist media is forbidden for Cubans, she simply defined it as an financial issue. (A number of of my colleagues had heard otherwise in their travels in Cuba, merely {that a} Cuban just isn't allowed to have entry to the Internet). She additionally admitted that it isn't allowed for Cubans to go to the tourist areas of the Cayos (e.g. Cayo Coco) which is solely reserved for tourists and Cubans don't have any access to that space in any way, a particular point of contention among the many locals.
Class ended about 1:20 and my upset abdomen did not allow me to consumption any food. I headed back to my hotel, slept a little and have been on the Web for the past 2 or so hours (racking up a bill of about $US 20.00 or s0), documenting my trip.
It´'ll be a quiet evening tonight since I'm trying to settle down my stomach. But I am certain the adventures and the educational will continue tomorrow.
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