First Impressions

My name is David. I am a junior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill studying in Havana between January and May 2010 as part of an organized study abroad program hosted by the University of Havana. I arrived in Havana two and half weeks ago. Unfortunately, because the internet here is slow and limited, I haven't had the time to put up the pictures and blog posts that I've written. What follows is what I wrote two weeks ago, upon arriving in Havana. If you have any questions or just want to say hi, you can always write to me at dgilmore@email.unc.edu.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Cuba is a place of contradictions. It is a place that is not completely stuck in the past, but not totally in the present either. People wait in lines to receive their rations of bread and eggs while in other areas of town stores sell the latest in fashion trends. Old Chevrolets, Fords and Buicks from the 50s share the roads with brand new BMWs and Range Rovers. Billboards and posters exclaim, “Patria o Muerte! Venceremos!” while the Cubans walking by wear New York Yankees caps, Polo shirts and Nike shoes on their way to see an American film. Young people walking along the malecon (ocean boardwalk) sing songs by the Black Eyed Peas, Maroon 5 and Lenny Kravitz while (publicly) espousing communist doctrine. Doctors make 12 dollars a month while the most exclusive of Havana’s clubs charge $10 for a cover. University students study heavy subjects like biology and journalism for five years for free but end up making less money than garbage-collectors.
I don’t plan on coming to any conclusions about Havana or Cuba yet – I’ve only been here for four days and it would be ridiculous to think I know anything about how this country works. But my first four days here seem to be indicative of the fact that Cuba is far more complex than I had imagined.



A Cuban woman sitting in Habana vieja

Our arrival

We arrived to Havana on Sunday after a one-day layover in Nassau. Our flight went well; on the way, I talked to a Bahamian man who was visiting his son on the island. He said he had been to Cuba and loved it before, but warned me: “Have no expectations,” he said. “Cuba is totally different.” His words reflected what others had told me prior to coming. “Don’t expect anything,” people counseled. “You’ll love it, but it’s different.”

The Cuba I saw when I stopped off the plane was not so different from other countries I had visited in Latin America. Immigration and customs went easily and enough, and soon we were meeting with Rodney (the program director) and Marta (the resident director that will stay with us until May). Still, what I saw on the bus ride from the airport to our residence was not different. Some buildings had fallen into disrepair and in general things seemed a little grittier (the product of years of heavy pollution from cars), and there were the famous almendrones – old American museum pieces that Cubans call cars – but the scene was not that distinct from that of, say, Costa Rica. The one noticeable difference was the lack of advertisements and billboards – instead, large billboards plastered with the faces of Fidel Castro, Che Guevara, Camilo Cienfuegos and Raul Castro and quotes like “Patria es humanidad”, “Hasta la victoria siempre” and others criticizing the U.S. embargo and calling for the release of the “Cuban Five”. We rode by the Plaza de la Revolucion, a huge square that has a massive monument to Jose Marti, Cuba’s founding father, as well as several buildings decorated with the faces of Che, Castro and other revolutionary figures.

The bus ride to our residence took about half an hour. We got off in front of a large light blue colored house called Residencia Costillar de Rocinante. The place, which is not a hotel but not a dorm either, is used by visiting universities and journalists to stay at while in Havana. Located in Vedado, a residential section of Havana that is home to the famous Hotel Nacional as well as the University of Havana, Vedado is a neatly organized area that is newer than Habana Vieja but that retains some historic charm, most of which is manifested in the old mansions that line its streets. Vedado is located adjacent to central Havana, the home of the Capitol building and commercial area of the city, and about twenty minutes (by bus) away from Habana Vieja, the oldest and most touristy part of the city.
The residence itself is nice if simple. My room, which I share with the other two guys on the program, is on the third floor and has a window that has a good view. Though somewhat small for three people, we have our own bathroom, mini-fridge and TV which gets BBC, the Weather Channel and Showtime.

The last few days we have spent going back and forth to the University, which is about a fifteen minute walk from our place. The walk is nice and we go on one of the street’s main boulevards, Calle 23. At the University we’re going to take five courses divided into two quarters. During the first, we’ll take History of Cuba and International Relations; in the second, we take Introduction to Cuba and Cultura Cubana. Throughout the semester we’ll also take a Spanish class. In between quarters we’ll go on a trip to Santiago de Cuba, on the opposite side of the island.