Day 9 090105
Shortly after I closed down my computer yesterday evening I got ill. Must have been food poisoning or something. I don’t know, but I have never bin that sick my whole life. It was like thousands of knives stabbing my stomach and I spent the night almost unconscious at the bathroom floor shivering and sweating. I could not even keep down one sip of water without throwing up. Spent Monday in bed, got a little better but it started again at night.
I passed out in pain, woke up on Tuesday morning feeling fine and fit for class.
Weird..
Day 10 090106
We got a lot of new students. The 2 old men quit and we now we are a totally young dynamic group now ready and eager to learn. It is really fun. Went to the Mercado today to practise vocabulary and I bought a fruita bomba and a pinja:)
After class we went to the museo al a revolution. It was really interesting. It started with the war of independence then it moved on to the revolution. A lot of socialistic propaganda, but you could also see Ché Guevara’s old trousers and medical equipment.
We visited the office of Batista and watched the boat Granma, witch Fidel and Che used to enter Cuba from Mexico. Cuba has a really interesting history and defiantly worth reading more about.
Tonight we are going to a traditional Cuban concert.
söndag 25 januari 2009
Day 8
Sunday
Walked around the village and took the bus to La Habana in the afternoon. I am pretty tired from the weekend and K is ill….
My computer is full, my stomach is upset and I was feeling grumpy today until I read some really sweet e-mails…
Thank you ;)
Walked around the village and took the bus to La Habana in the afternoon. I am pretty tired from the weekend and K is ill….
My computer is full, my stomach is upset and I was feeling grumpy today until I read some really sweet e-mails…
Thank you ;)
Day 7
Saturday
Vinales is a tiny village located in valley. The whole area is a huge national park, preserved by UNESCO. Early in the morning a neighbour took us for a 5hr walk and guided tour around.
It was totally amazing…
The morning light when the sun got up over the valley was incredible and so was the nature.
We visited tobacco farmers where we smoked and rolled cigars. Fruit plantages, and we were really surprised to see how pineapples grow…The farmers gave u a lot of delicious fruits to eat and we sipped strong black coffee made from coffee beans direct from their garden.
We crawled around in Caves in the limestown montains and walked in a forest.
200 photos (4GB) later we spent the rest of the day at the Hotel La Ermita, located on a mountain top. The view from their pool over the whole valley was perfect!
Vinales is a tiny village located in valley. The whole area is a huge national park, preserved by UNESCO. Early in the morning a neighbour took us for a 5hr walk and guided tour around.
It was totally amazing…
The morning light when the sun got up over the valley was incredible and so was the nature.
We visited tobacco farmers where we smoked and rolled cigars. Fruit plantages, and we were really surprised to see how pineapples grow…The farmers gave u a lot of delicious fruits to eat and we sipped strong black coffee made from coffee beans direct from their garden.
We crawled around in Caves in the limestown montains and walked in a forest.
200 photos (4GB) later we spent the rest of the day at the Hotel La Ermita, located on a mountain top. The view from their pool over the whole valley was perfect!
Day 6
Friday 090102
Class is really fun, and our teacher Xiomara is so nice! She is really positive and gets us to talk and understand Spanish even tough we can’t:)
In my very rudimental Spanish I told her I am going to Vinales and then she gave us the address to her friends living there.
It is so much fun to travel around on the country side in Cuba because you stay with Cuban families in so called casa particulares. They rent out a room and cook really good dinner for about 15-25 cuc.
I think setting up Casa particulares for tourists, was one step in saving the economy after “the periodo especial” 1991, fall of the Soviet Union. It means families got a license from the government to rent out rooms.
The families are really friendly and I think it is a really good way of living as a tourist (instead of boring hotels) in order to get closer to the language, the people and the culture.
Class is really fun, and our teacher Xiomara is so nice! She is really positive and gets us to talk and understand Spanish even tough we can’t:)
In my very rudimental Spanish I told her I am going to Vinales and then she gave us the address to her friends living there.
It is so much fun to travel around on the country side in Cuba because you stay with Cuban families in so called casa particulares. They rent out a room and cook really good dinner for about 15-25 cuc.
I think setting up Casa particulares for tourists, was one step in saving the economy after “the periodo especial” 1991, fall of the Soviet Union. It means families got a license from the government to rent out rooms.
The families are really friendly and I think it is a really good way of living as a tourist (instead of boring hotels) in order to get closer to the language, the people and the culture.
Day 5, hours later....
Evening…
Todos por la revolution!
Thousands of people had gathered in front of the tribuna antiimperialista. A big plaza in front of the American embassy used for demonstrations and celebrations.
Today it was a celebration all right…
Show started with an incredible dance show from club tropical, it was rhythmic, acrobatic and colourful. After that everything started to move and shake when the salsa superstars Paul FG and Los Van Van came on stage. Standing in the middle of a moving and singing crowd it was really hard to take photos, but I got a perfect shoot at a baby held up in the sky. His first sight of revolution, or at least the celebration of it:)
Todos por la revolution!
Thousands of people had gathered in front of the tribuna antiimperialista. A big plaza in front of the American embassy used for demonstrations and celebrations.
Today it was a celebration all right…
Show started with an incredible dance show from club tropical, it was rhythmic, acrobatic and colourful. After that everything started to move and shake when the salsa superstars Paul FG and Los Van Van came on stage. Standing in the middle of a moving and singing crowd it was really hard to take photos, but I got a perfect shoot at a baby held up in the sky. His first sight of revolution, or at least the celebration of it:)
torsdag 1 januari 2009
Day 5 Cuban impressions
Day 5.. Cuban impressions
Pool day… got pretty late yesterday.
I had some time to think about Cuba today by the pool.
It is hard to describe Cuba without getting political, but I will try not to…because I don’t know so much about it.
Havana is an amazing and interesting city with fascinating and very diverse architecture!
Habana veja is restored and filled with tourists. Centro Habana is very hectic, run down and filled with locals. In vedado there are some buildings white a typical soviet architecture.
And in Miramar where we stay, there is the Russian embassy that looks like a grotesque obelisk. Have to take a photo of that! Pretty fun to get a feeling of Eastern Europe among the palm trees.
The people are poor, but being used to Africa, Havana doesn’t look poor at al. It actually doesn’t look like anything I have seen before, and I have been travelling a bit…
There is no slum and even though some things are still like in the 50th I don’t miss the modern luxury we have in Europe. It is like time stood still here.
They are missing a lot, for example we went to the supermarket the one day they had apples. Everyone was crazy and bought hips of them. But you can’t blame communism for lack of things, when it is the American trade embargo….
Other Caribbean islands are poor as well and I meet so many Haitians’, Jamaicans’, and Dominicans that had fled poverty in their countries when I worked in Brooklyn.
There is a high education level in Cuba, good health system (but they miss a lot of equipment thanx to the embargo..). Woman make up 66,4% of the professional and technical workforce. Free kindergarten and 1 year maternity leave makes a carer possible. I don’t have the number of child mortality, but I think it is low.
From some stories I heard from Cubans, the system seems to be a bit bureaucratic and Kafka-esque. I have been talking politics to people working with tourism and I think working with luxury tourism and capitalism and live in socialism is not a good combination in order to be happy…
Cuban also spends a lot on culture and sport and that together with a good health system and high education level makes it a rich country to me.
Cuba; an independent social republic? Or Evil totalitarian one-man dictator ship?
I can not answer that. And again... I know so little about it.
I will defiantly read up on it now, starting with Thomas Gustafson’s book, Cuba (that I returned to the library before finishing it….:)
Being a doctor that just started the job, I haven’t spent the last year thinking much about politics. I can see that having money for the first time in my life :) and spend so much time with other doctors, I moved away a bit from my social working class ideology the last year.
…Well, now it came back.
Pool day… got pretty late yesterday.
I had some time to think about Cuba today by the pool.
It is hard to describe Cuba without getting political, but I will try not to…because I don’t know so much about it.
Havana is an amazing and interesting city with fascinating and very diverse architecture!
Habana veja is restored and filled with tourists. Centro Habana is very hectic, run down and filled with locals. In vedado there are some buildings white a typical soviet architecture.
And in Miramar where we stay, there is the Russian embassy that looks like a grotesque obelisk. Have to take a photo of that! Pretty fun to get a feeling of Eastern Europe among the palm trees.
The people are poor, but being used to Africa, Havana doesn’t look poor at al. It actually doesn’t look like anything I have seen before, and I have been travelling a bit…
There is no slum and even though some things are still like in the 50th I don’t miss the modern luxury we have in Europe. It is like time stood still here.
They are missing a lot, for example we went to the supermarket the one day they had apples. Everyone was crazy and bought hips of them. But you can’t blame communism for lack of things, when it is the American trade embargo….
Other Caribbean islands are poor as well and I meet so many Haitians’, Jamaicans’, and Dominicans that had fled poverty in their countries when I worked in Brooklyn.
There is a high education level in Cuba, good health system (but they miss a lot of equipment thanx to the embargo..). Woman make up 66,4% of the professional and technical workforce. Free kindergarten and 1 year maternity leave makes a carer possible. I don’t have the number of child mortality, but I think it is low.
From some stories I heard from Cubans, the system seems to be a bit bureaucratic and Kafka-esque. I have been talking politics to people working with tourism and I think working with luxury tourism and capitalism and live in socialism is not a good combination in order to be happy…
Cuban also spends a lot on culture and sport and that together with a good health system and high education level makes it a rich country to me.
Cuba; an independent social republic? Or Evil totalitarian one-man dictator ship?
I can not answer that. And again... I know so little about it.
I will defiantly read up on it now, starting with Thomas Gustafson’s book, Cuba (that I returned to the library before finishing it….:)
Being a doctor that just started the job, I haven’t spent the last year thinking much about politics. I can see that having money for the first time in my life :) and spend so much time with other doctors, I moved away a bit from my social working class ideology the last year.
…Well, now it came back.
onsdag 31 december 2008
Day 4
Day 4 New year ..
Spanish class was fun today. I actually spoke Spanish! Hurray! Then we went down town to a funny little market where tourist buys souvenirs. Fund a bunch of stuff I do need to posses, but kept it down to 2 dolls for my nieces. Have to come back another day with a big bag…
A walk around after late lunch, (where we waited 2 hours and missed most of the best photo light for the afternoon) we took a stroll from Habana veja to Centro Habana. I am gaining more courage everyday to walk up closer to people and take photos…Still I need a new lens. I need a new lens!
We found out how to travel like locals a couple of days ago. You can take an old car from close to Hotel Inglaterese for 1 cuc instead of paying 10cuc for a tourist cab.
It is impossible to know that there is a taxi stand there unless you ask around…
Anyway, meet some intrusting guys from Bolivia at the taxi stand. They study sport here,
and were really exited about 50yrs of revolution. They gave me a Ché Guevara coin! Nice:)
New Years Eve…
Came back from town pretty late and at 7 pm we still didn’t have any plans. We didn’t feel like going to a big gala dinner or tropical show for tourist. Cubans stay at home with their family on New Year and celebrate the revolution day 1st of January. It is going to be 50yrs tomorrow and there will be a big outdoor party at the tribuna antiimperalista town in Malacon in vedado. I look forward to that!!!
Ended up celebrating New Year in a Jazz club in Havana. That was cool. Band didn’t start until 10pm so first we sat in local pub listening to a really god Son band. Loved it!! I have to buy Buena Vista social club film and Cd when I get back.
Jazz band played some kind of salsa-jazz mix, and at the end all got up and danced. Great party!! We didn’t feel like going home afterwards so we strolled around and landed in a club, where some really nice, and very young 1st year medical students from Dominican republic, Peru and Bolivia showed us the latest Reaggaton moves:)
Here are allot of students from all over. Met so many today that study here in Cuba and they all go to Havana to celebrate New Year and revolution day.
They told us that education here is high standard and a degree from Cuba is appreciated in other countries.
Spanish class was fun today. I actually spoke Spanish! Hurray! Then we went down town to a funny little market where tourist buys souvenirs. Fund a bunch of stuff I do need to posses, but kept it down to 2 dolls for my nieces. Have to come back another day with a big bag…
A walk around after late lunch, (where we waited 2 hours and missed most of the best photo light for the afternoon) we took a stroll from Habana veja to Centro Habana. I am gaining more courage everyday to walk up closer to people and take photos…Still I need a new lens. I need a new lens!
We found out how to travel like locals a couple of days ago. You can take an old car from close to Hotel Inglaterese for 1 cuc instead of paying 10cuc for a tourist cab.
It is impossible to know that there is a taxi stand there unless you ask around…
Anyway, meet some intrusting guys from Bolivia at the taxi stand. They study sport here,
and were really exited about 50yrs of revolution. They gave me a Ché Guevara coin! Nice:)
New Years Eve…
Came back from town pretty late and at 7 pm we still didn’t have any plans. We didn’t feel like going to a big gala dinner or tropical show for tourist. Cubans stay at home with their family on New Year and celebrate the revolution day 1st of January. It is going to be 50yrs tomorrow and there will be a big outdoor party at the tribuna antiimperalista town in Malacon in vedado. I look forward to that!!!
Ended up celebrating New Year in a Jazz club in Havana. That was cool. Band didn’t start until 10pm so first we sat in local pub listening to a really god Son band. Loved it!! I have to buy Buena Vista social club film and Cd when I get back.
Jazz band played some kind of salsa-jazz mix, and at the end all got up and danced. Great party!! We didn’t feel like going home afterwards so we strolled around and landed in a club, where some really nice, and very young 1st year medical students from Dominican republic, Peru and Bolivia showed us the latest Reaggaton moves:)
Here are allot of students from all over. Met so many today that study here in Cuba and they all go to Havana to celebrate New Year and revolution day.
They told us that education here is high standard and a degree from Cuba is appreciated in other countries.
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