After classes, Madison, Pepe and I went to the bookstore that I really liked last week. I bought a Spanish copy of The Little Prince for my mentee back home, and an old, pretty copy of Don Quijote for me. I received a free book again too, and I chose one that Pepe recommended--it was called Invierno Insolato or something like that. Madison had been in a bad mood earlier but the bookstore cheered her up a bit, and she was even better after we had lunch at La Rampa. Afterwards we went to the Habana Libre pool with the other girls.
The pool there costs 15CUC, but it includes use of a towel and up to 13CUC in food and drink purchases. I loved the pool. We spent the rest of the day (until 7pm) at the pool, just swimming and relaxing. I had a cubata and later Habana Vieja Reserva with an ice cube, and I had a cheesecake too. It was great. I swam a lot because I love swimming and because the pool was so clean and beautiful. Madison and I chatted a lot with Pepe and a little with the other girls. We had some fun with my underwater camera, too. We met the cutest little girl from Chile--her name was Mia and she was swimming all around the pool with floaties on her arms and was talking to everyone.
I sunburned a little bit at the pool and I'm super tan after spending this long in Cuba. My arms and shoulders are even darker than Pepe's! Now that I'm so tan my blue eyes stand out more, and it helps to not get pestered so much if I wear sunglasses when I'm walking around the streets. There are some blonde Cubans but not many blue-eyed blondes, so I think the sunglasses help me blend in a bit better.
After our fun day at the pool, I bought a bottle of aguardiente (so I can make canchancara at home!) and took a maquina to my house. I ate supper and looked at some pictures from the trip until the power went out for about half an hour or so. After that I went back to organizing my things, created a budget for the rest of the trip, and wrote this.
Hasta mañana.
xoxo, xenophile