Very hard to wake up this morning. Breakfast in hotel, followed by a 25-30 minute tour-bus ride to Santa Maria and la Playa. “Havana blue” skies, “Havana blue” water, “Havana blue” new favorite color! Lobster red- less pleasant color of my back and neck : ( . Clouds rolled in after lunch and we discussed our upcoming semester of courses and grading. Then we politely argued about the Cuban’s ability to dissent publicly. Dr. McKelvey is a huge supporter of the revolution, and of Cuban society. I’m not sold on the process but it will be an interesting semester to try to figure it all out. Then we bussed back to our hotel- my program-mates bought expensive Cuban cigars from the neighboring hotel. The pool is huge- it should be fun to check that out later. It is bizarre living in a hotel. I feel like an old ex-patriot. Anyway, we decide to go to pan.com, a restaurant that is the equivalent of American subways. It was great- I got a milkshake and a two-foot-long sandwich for about 7 bucks. The sandwich presented some problems as it drew a lot of attention. The table next to us wanted to take my picture. I wanted to hide. After we went out to get a cab home. The cab driver looked us up and down and said- ‘6 cuc’. We declined and began to walk. When we saw the next cab, I got us a ride for 2! Probably still overpriced, but not quite as outrageous. In summary, a bit more relaxed a day- I’m nervous about doing all this on my own after orientation is over- And paying for it all on my own.
*also, I forgot to mention the other day we found ourselves in Old Havana at night without a flashlight. It was definitely a failed Andres test because we had to find and huddle around a streetlight looking at a map like a bunch of lost tourists. Oh well, we found the Buena Vista Social Club in the end- that might give me half a point on the way to apprenticeship.
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