Cuba!!!

So Cuba...

I’m here, have been here for a week, and I already don’t want to leave.  There are colors everywhere!  I have seen at least four different flowering shrubs that I have never seen before in my life, and even the trees here bloom!  To live in the Caribbean my entire life, oh what a blessing that would be!

Even more colorful than the flowers are the people.  Being an American I totally expected everyone to be hostile towards us.  I could not have been more wrong.  We had a taxi driver two days ago whose name was Raul Luis who said that it was only our governments that kept our two cultures apart.  Cubans love Americans, at least that’s what he said in Spanish. 

            We start classes tomorrow, so this past week all we’ve been doing is setting up our apartments and exploring the city.  It sounds simple, but in a communist country it is definitely harder than it seems.  We went to the supermarket which is entirely different than anything I’ve ever experienced.  Brands? What are those?  It blew my mind because the shelves were full, but it was shelf upon shelf and row upon row of, for example, the same can of olives.  I would have taken a picture but you are only allowed a wallet inside.  There are also days when they just don’t have things, for example, Tuesday you can’t buy salt.  Toilet paper? Forget it.

            There is no fresh produce in the “supermercado” (supermarket), you have to buy everything in roadside stands.  Slightly sketchy until you take the first bite of a fresh pineapple and then you wonder how you’ve lived your life without it.  It’s winter here, so they are in their third cycle in the growing season and fruit isn’t as good as the vegetables are.  We’ve had to experiment with four or five different potatoes because they have so many variations of sweet potatoes and potatoes. 

            Exploring the city has been a blast, a bit difficult because my Spanish is slightly rusty but getting better with more practice.  Riding the bus has been the most eye-opening experience while I’ve been here by far.  Cubans say that the bus system is like an R-rated movie, with all the sex, violence, and strong language associated with it.  Space is a commodity that is not in big supply, and you make friends quickly.

            More about the specific places we have traveled to follow!