Today class was really boring because we are still learning the same three grammatical forms we've been working on for the last three days. We practiced things like: "If I were president, I would..." and "If I had drunk a lot last night I would have done..." [in Spanish, obviously]. I understood it the first day so now I feel like we're beating a dead horse and I don't want to be in class anymore.
Brittany, Madison and I ate lunch at Habana Pizza (the same place I ate yesterday), and while we were eating we saw Pepe. Duane went to Varadero on Monday and was going to come back today but he missed too many things during the time he was gone (it was against the rules to go somewhere overnight anyway) so now he's getting kicked out and has to go back to the US. Pepe has to do a lot of paperwork about it now too. I don't know what Duane expected, but I'm sure he isn't happy. I'm curious about what happened and hope to learn more tomorrow. I feel a little bad for Duane though, it would suck to get sent home!
Brittany, Madison and I ate lunch at Habana Pizza (the same place I ate yesterday), and while we were eating we saw Pepe. Duane went to Varadero on Monday and was going to come back today but he missed too many things during the time he was gone (it was against the rules to go somewhere overnight anyway) so now he's getting kicked out and has to go back to the US. Pepe has to do a lot of paperwork about it now too. I don't know what Duane expected, but I'm sure he isn't happy. I'm curious about what happened and hope to learn more tomorrow. I feel a little bad for Duane though, it would suck to get sent home!
The conferencia today was about Public Health in Cuba. I wasn't very interested, but it is true that they have a really good system here. All the Cubans we've talked to are really proud of the health care here too. They've eradicated 13 diseases in Cuba with immunizations, they have more doctors per capita than any other country, and all the health services are free. Even the dentist is free! I think that Cuba has a lot of beneficial things that we don't have in the US--it's safer (even in the biggest city--very low violent crime rate here), free education and health care... Maybe it's better to lose a little individual freedom to help everyone.
Madison, Brittany and I were going to go to Coppelia today but Brittany ended up going to the Museo de Chocolate with the others.
Oh, I almost forgot that after lunch Madison and I bought bootleg CDs from the place next to Habana Pizza. I bought all of Shakira's discography and a CD of videos and songs of Prince Royce and Romeo Santos. The guy there also told me that he could try to find "Fresa y Chocolate" on DVD for me. Madison and I will went back to the place to get our nails done, but the girl who does them wasn't there. Then we walked to Aqua but they couldn't do our nails and the other salon close to Madison's house was not open. All we wanted was cheap manicures! Defeated, we went to Madison's house. It was so hot that she didn't want to do anything else, but I went to Cine Yara to see a movie.
It was a little strange, but a man gave me a ride to Cine Yara for free. I wasn't having any luck catching a maquina, and the guy picked me up. His car was new and it had a label that read "MEP: Nivel Central". Anyway, I arrived at Cine Yara with more time and a little more money than I had expected.
I had to wait to buy my ticket until 5pm, although the movie began at approximately 5:10. While I was waiting, I met a Cuban guy named Alexander and we talked about the theatre and movies. He studies French and loves French films. He also recommended the La Infanta theatre here because it has four screens and is the nicest in town. He told me his favorite US movie is "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". He told me about all of the theatres and showed me the Cartalera, which you can buy for 1 peso moneda nacional (about 5 cents--I bought one) and it has all of the movies listed at all of the different movie theatres in Havana, as well as articles about the movies. The movie at Cine Yara today was "Venecia" and he told me that it's good and so I was excited to see it. He was really nice and I was happy that I met him, and that I was able to have such an in-depth conversation all in Spanish. I think I'm really improving.
The ticket only cost me 2 pesos moneda nacional, and I bought a little bag of popcorn for 5 pesos MN and a can of pop for 0.60CUC. In total, (including my copy of the Cartalera), the excursion cost me less than $1 USD.
Inside the theatre two men who were sitting in front of me were listening to loud music on their hone and it didn't seem to bother anyone. When it got dark, there was applause and during the first short movie (a really boring one called "Historia de Una Casa"), a bunch of people were taking photos and videos of it. It all seemed strange to me.
The movie was good. It was about three women and a crazy night in Havana. I was lucky because there were subtitles in English and without them I don't think I would have understood half of the crazy, fast Cuban Spanish. I saw a lot of familiar things in the movie--places, expressions, products from Cuba or Havana. My Cartalera said that 95% of the movie was improvised by the three actresses and that they included details from their real lives. Because of that the movie was really good and felt authentic, although I thought that it was a little short.
A different movie begins tomorrow and a different one that I want to see begins next week, so I think I'll probably go see it before leaving Cuba.
After dinner Ailyn and Lute gave us a class in salsa/casino dancing that was really fun! I think that I learned a little too, although I'm not good and it's difficult to keep counting the right steps when spinning. We tried to explain to them how middle school dances just set us on the path of bad dancers from an early age. We watched some salsa music videos after our dance "class" until we were too tired to stay up anymore. So anyways, good night!
xoxo, xenophile
Madison, Brittany and I were going to go to Coppelia today but Brittany ended up going to the Museo de Chocolate with the others.
Oh, I almost forgot that after lunch Madison and I bought bootleg CDs from the place next to Habana Pizza. I bought all of Shakira's discography and a CD of videos and songs of Prince Royce and Romeo Santos. The guy there also told me that he could try to find "Fresa y Chocolate" on DVD for me. Madison and I will went back to the place to get our nails done, but the girl who does them wasn't there. Then we walked to Aqua but they couldn't do our nails and the other salon close to Madison's house was not open. All we wanted was cheap manicures! Defeated, we went to Madison's house. It was so hot that she didn't want to do anything else, but I went to Cine Yara to see a movie.
It was a little strange, but a man gave me a ride to Cine Yara for free. I wasn't having any luck catching a maquina, and the guy picked me up. His car was new and it had a label that read "MEP: Nivel Central". Anyway, I arrived at Cine Yara with more time and a little more money than I had expected.
I had to wait to buy my ticket until 5pm, although the movie began at approximately 5:10. While I was waiting, I met a Cuban guy named Alexander and we talked about the theatre and movies. He studies French and loves French films. He also recommended the La Infanta theatre here because it has four screens and is the nicest in town. He told me his favorite US movie is "The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". He told me about all of the theatres and showed me the Cartalera, which you can buy for 1 peso moneda nacional (about 5 cents--I bought one) and it has all of the movies listed at all of the different movie theatres in Havana, as well as articles about the movies. The movie at Cine Yara today was "Venecia" and he told me that it's good and so I was excited to see it. He was really nice and I was happy that I met him, and that I was able to have such an in-depth conversation all in Spanish. I think I'm really improving.
The ticket only cost me 2 pesos moneda nacional, and I bought a little bag of popcorn for 5 pesos MN and a can of pop for 0.60CUC. In total, (including my copy of the Cartalera), the excursion cost me less than $1 USD.
Inside the theatre two men who were sitting in front of me were listening to loud music on their hone and it didn't seem to bother anyone. When it got dark, there was applause and during the first short movie (a really boring one called "Historia de Una Casa"), a bunch of people were taking photos and videos of it. It all seemed strange to me.
The movie was good. It was about three women and a crazy night in Havana. I was lucky because there were subtitles in English and without them I don't think I would have understood half of the crazy, fast Cuban Spanish. I saw a lot of familiar things in the movie--places, expressions, products from Cuba or Havana. My Cartalera said that 95% of the movie was improvised by the three actresses and that they included details from their real lives. Because of that the movie was really good and felt authentic, although I thought that it was a little short.
A different movie begins tomorrow and a different one that I want to see begins next week, so I think I'll probably go see it before leaving Cuba.
After dinner Ailyn and Lute gave us a class in salsa/casino dancing that was really fun! I think that I learned a little too, although I'm not good and it's difficult to keep counting the right steps when spinning. We tried to explain to them how middle school dances just set us on the path of bad dancers from an early age. We watched some salsa music videos after our dance "class" until we were too tired to stay up anymore. So anyways, good night!
xoxo, xenophile