Hello From Cuba – Part four – Bureaucracy Galore –
Hello From Cuba – Part four – Bureaucracy Galore – The University Of Havana
Yesterday I needed to sign in for my Spanish path on the University of Havana. The Campus of the University is an astoundingly beautiful collection of classical homes and a Cuban tank graces the entrance to the library.
At nine am all of the overseas scholars, approximately forty of them, met inside the Edificio Varona and we were shepherded via lots of professors into an extremely antiquated lecture corridor. (By the way, of the five or 6 washroom stalls within the womens lavatory, merely 1 or 2 have bathrooms in them, no lavatory seats, and no working water within the sinks. Again a signal of particularly run-down infrastructure…)
There they told us about the program, yet handiest in Spanish, which was once okay for me, on the grounds that I speak Spanish, but approximately part the organization become utterly misplaced. We then had to do a quick written placement test to evaluate our present Spanish competencies after which the bureaucracy began.
We found out that we needed the subsequent files:
– a copy of our passports
– an reliable reproduction of the hotel guest card and/or a replica of the licence of the inner most Casa Particular
– two hundred CUC (Convertible Cuban Pesos) in dollars for a 2-week direction or more for other courses
– forty CUC for converting our tourist visa to an educational visa (in financial stamps which we had to gain abuot five km away)
– 2 passport photos
– 25 CUC in cash to expedite our instructional visa if we are on the town for merely 2 weeks.
I related up with a group of foreign scholars and we headed off collectively on our quest to meet the Cuban wish for Burocratismo. We first got income at bank at the Hotel Havana Libre, then bought the passport portraits achieved (to be well prepared for pickup three hours later), then looked for the other financial institution on Calle 23 that might offer us with the 40CUC stamps for the tutorial visa. With extremely long lineups world wide, this took us about 2 or three hours.
Then we were given basically hungry and we were approached by using a native “Jinetero” (eating place tout) who promised us a complete meal with leading dish, salad and facet dish for 6 or 7 CUC. We walked with him, merely to discover that the wait on the Paladar (private restaurant) may be about 45 minutes to even sit down, no longer inclusive of foodstuff instruction time.
So we walked up Calle 21 and a private eating place owner approached us for a meal and we gave in and came interior. It changed into a amazing colonial villa, aside from that the guest room with is vital 3 tables and 12 seats was once in a dark small dingy room perfectly with out home windows.
However, we had a scrumptious domestic-cooked meal, I had roasted chicken with rice & beans, salad and a lemon tender drink, fascinated about 8 CUC (approximately 8 US$). 2 of my scholar colleagues were from Germany and the alternative fellow is from Toronto as effectively, yet firstly from Poland. We had a few monstrous conversations and it become entertaining linking up with a bunch of Europeans in Havana.
After a transient relaxation inside the lodge, my friend Pedro to come back picked me up in the night time and I couldnt aid however inform him about my trip with the Cocotaxi driving force the day gone by, who had tried to opt for me up, inspite of my clarifications and statements that I turned into married and now not concerned about any amorous pursuits.
Pedro defined that sexual kinfolk in Cuba are a particularly ordinary, trouble-free-going thing and that it can be very regular for human beings to link up for brief “meaningful in a single day relationships”. He pointed out the Cuban workers as very “passionate and scorching-blooded”, I wager that explains a few the advances that I have been receiving to this point, certainly due to the fact that there may be additionally rather quite a few sex tourism where guys http://finngxxn151.iamarrows.com/day-yacht-charters-cabo-the-ultimate-luxury-yachting-experience-worldwide-12 (or even women folk) come to Cuba to engage in genuinely available erotic reviews.
Pedro and I walked by the historical town and of route along the Malecon (the seafront boulevard) and noticed the attractive Plaza Vieja and the Plaza de la Catedral where a mass changed into being held for the passing of Pope John Paul II.
This changed into very wonderful, considering Cuba is a Communist / legitimate atheist u . s . and there are a great deal fewer Catholics nowadays than prior to the Revolution. Actually a whole lot of Cubas faith is a mix of Catholicism and Santeria (religious practices of the African slaves). Regardless of religiousness, Cuba has declared a three-day “duelo nacional” (a countrywide mourning interval for the Pope) and the mass used to be attended through a whole bunch of people.
Pedro and I then had a nice meal in the “Barrio Chino” (Havana’s Chinatown) for 5.60 CUC (much less than US$6) for two of us and 2 vegetarian foods and mushy drinks. After a pleasing dinner he once again flagged down a regional confidential motor vehicle motive force and gave him about 1 CUC for determining us up and losing us off at my Hotel. At midnight I dropped into mattress, exhausted.
However, at four am this morning I awakened with best intestinal complications. Apparently my Chinese meal had not change into me so good and I had serious digestive topics emanating from both facets of my frame. This morning I realy felt rotten and I ended up by way of my possess clinical equipment for the first time and took some Immodium.
I used to be unable to devour breakfast, however I made my way to the college the place at nine am our programs started. Surprisingly the situation verify had positioned me into the level of “perfeccionamiento”, the best stage and the level of Spanish in my category become indeed very top. The class incorporates 7 students, a young woman from England, a younger lady medical pupil from Denmark, a center-elderly female medical doctor from Finland, a younger male legislations pupil from Sweden, a young female and man from Norway and myself from Austria/Canada.
Obviuosly there is a totally heavy Scandinavian slant in my magnificence and it seems anybody within the magnificence is a hobby sociologist, political scientist, environmentalist and historian. We asked some particularly difficult questions about Cuban existence, the political process, the economic hardships, the double financial system, the crisis of girls and blacks in Cuba, machismo and the location of the atmosphere.
Some of those questions made our girl professor feel really uncomfortable and it appeared like she was squirming underneath the barrage of probing political and sociological questions. She acquired very shielding a few times approximately the Cuban manner and simplest when we mentioned the good and poor factors of European and Canadian societies did she lighten up a touch and develop into somewhat more open and frank about the truly Cuban life. It appears that to at the moment Cubans have got to be very cautious about what they say in public.
For example, she frankly admitted that racism nevertheless exists in Cuba and to nowadays it's nonetheless a country with a whole lot of machismo. However, she did not admit that Internet get admission to and get entry to to non-Communist media is forbidden for Cubans, she comfortably defined it as an fiscal dilemma. (Several of my colleagues had heard in any other case in their travels in Cuba, with no trouble that a Cuban shouldn't be allowed to have entry to the Internet). She also admitted that it just isn't allowed for Cubans to discuss with the vacationer regions of the Cayos (e.g. Cayo Coco) that is solely reserved for travelers and Cubans haven't any get right of entry to to that area whatever, a certain level of rivalry one of several locals.
Class ended about 1:20 and my dissatisfied belly did no longer enable me to consumption any cuisine. I headed returned to my hotel, slept a little and have been on the Internet for the earlier 2 or so hours (racking up a invoice of about $US 20.00 or s0), documenting my time out.
It’ll be a quiet night time tonight since I am looking to relax my abdomen. But I am positive the adventures and the discovering will proceed tomorrow.