1.28.10

Warning: it seems like I may not be able to load photos to this silly blog thing. So as a mediocre author once put it, stop reading! Save yourself the trouble now. It will only become more ramble-y and painful to read from here, I can guarantee it.
Still reading? well you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

Anyway, last night we went to the supermarket and bought what little they had. There wasn’t much. Among our best buys was guava paste (so good- so unhealthy) and another find was a giant tin of soda crackers. For dinner we stirred up some ground beef, rice and cheese. It was a bit strange but edible. All day today we searched for a panadería with no success. We were directed to several locations but all turned out to sell either hot dogs, or tiny pastries (tempting, but no good for sandwiches). This morning we took the P-1 bus to the center for western hemispheric studies to meet our professors. Our meeting had a very energetic and exciting vibe to it, which makes it easy to feel excited about our classes. These professors will be working with our tiny group and with us individually to teach the third world perspective and the history and current climate of Cuba from the Cuban perspective. They were so nice, but also very intimidating-ly smart as they are evidently well acclaimed in this country in their respective fields. After meeting them and discussing some general course and safety information we went out to lunch (I had a bucanero- Cuban Beer as did everyone involved in our schooling over the next few monthes. My appetite is back! I’m on the up and up. My end of the table discussed how much colder Boston is than anywhere else. The last time the professor at my end of the table had been to Boston (they work for the Harvard department of Latin American Studies for Harvard’s Cuba abroad program) was during September 11th- he had a very different experience flying out of the country in October than he had had coming in. Thinking about 9/11 really makes me feel old. I find it hard to believe that happened so long ago.
Anyway, then we wandered (and took the bus- 5 centavos!) back to the hotel where we started some of our hundred of pages of reading for next week. So, officially, I’m happy to announce that I can now explain how people started farming, and producing food. I even know how people started to pick out foods to eat. I feel like some of you at home have asked me before, mike perhaps? Well ask me when I get back and I’ll explain it to you, I’m several pages further along in Hillevi’s encylopedia of random information. Score.