Hello From Cuba – Part 4 – Bureaucracy Galore –
Hello From Cuba – Part 4 – Bureaucracy Galore – The University Of Havana
Yesterday I needed to check in for my Spanish route at the University of Havana. The Campus of the University is an astoundingly captivating assortment of classical structures and a Cuban tank graces the entrance to the library.
At 9 am the complete overseas pupils, approximately forty of them, met inside the Edificio Varona and we have been shepherded through alternative professors into a truly antiquated lecture hall. (By the way, of the 5 or 6 washroom stalls in the womens lavatory, handiest 1 or 2 have toilets in them, no bathroom seats, and no working water within the sinks. Again a sign of as an alternative run-down infrastructure…)
There they advised us approximately the program, yet purely in Spanish, which was ok for me, due to the fact that I talk Spanish, however about part the crew was wholly misplaced. We then had to do a short written placement attempt to evaluate our current Spanish capabilities after which the forms started out.
We located out that we vital the ensuing paperwork:
– a duplicate of our passports
– an reliable copy of the hotel visitor card and/or a copy of the licence of the non-public Casa Particular
– 2 hundred CUC (Convertible Cuban Pesos) in dollars for a 2-week direction or greater for different courses
– forty CUC for converting our traveller visa to an academic visa (in financial stamps which we had to attain abuot five km away)
– 2 passport photos
– 25 CUC in dollars to expedite our instructional visa if we are on the town for in basic terms 2 weeks.
I connected up with a bunch of overseas college students and we headed off in combination on our quest to meet the Cuban choose for Burocratismo. We first got income at bank on the Hotel Havana Libre, then obtained the passport graphics achieved (to be able for pickup three hours later), then looked for the alternative financial institution on Calle 23 that may supply us with the 40CUC stamps for the instructional visa. With fairly long lineups in all places, this took us about 2 or three hours.
Then we obtained sincerely hungry and we were approached by means of a local “Jinetero” (restaurant tout) who promised us a whole meal with predominant dish, salad and edge dish for six or 7 CUC. We walked with him, only to find out that the wait on the Paladar (private restaurant) would be about forty five mins to even sit down down, not adding delicacies practise time.
So we walked up Calle 21 and a individual eating place proprietor approached us for a meal and we gave in and came inside. It turned into a pretty colonial villa, unless that the guest room with is essential 3 tables and 12 seats was once in a darkish small dingy room entirely with out home windows.
However, we had a scrumptious domestic-cooked meal, I had roasted chicken with rice & beans, salad and a lemon delicate drink, fascinated by eight CUC (approximately 8 US$). 2 of my student colleagues were from Germany and any other fellow is from Toronto as nicely, yet at first from Poland. We had a few huge conversations and it become appealing linking up with a bunch of Europeans in Havana.
After a temporary rest inside the motel, my friend Pedro back picked me up in the night and I couldnt lend a hand however inform him about my knowledge with the Cocotaxi driver the day prior to this, who had attempted to pick out me up, inspite of my clarifications and statements that I turned into married and now not focused on any amorous movements.
Pedro defined that sexual relatives in Cuba are a fairly long-established, straightforward-going component and that it's far very undemanding for folk to hyperlink up for rapid “meaningful in a single day relationships”. He referred to the Cuban men and women as very “passionate and sizzling-blooded”, I wager that explains more than one the advances that I had been receiving so far, extraordinarily given that there is also quite a lot of intercourse tourism where guys (and even girls) come to Cuba to engage in truthfully available erotic stories.
Pedro and I walked through the historic the town and of path alongside the Malecon (the seafront side road) and saw the attractive Plaza Vieja and the Plaza de los angeles Catedral wherein a mass changed into being held for the passing of Pope John Paul II.
This become very appealing, given that Cuba is a Communist / reputable atheist country and there are so much fewer Catholics in the present day than previously the Revolution. Actually plenty of Cubas religion is a mixture of Catholicism and Santeria (devout practices of the African slaves). Regardless of religiousness, Cuba has declared a three-day “duelo nacional” (a nationwide mourning interval for the Pope) and the mass changed into attended via lots of of employees.
Pedro and I then had a nice meal within the “Barrio Chino” (Havana’s Chinatown) for five.60 CUC (much less than US$6) for two worker's and 2 vegetarian meals and gentle beverages. After a pleasing dinner he once again flagged down a regional individual auto driving force and gave him approximately 1 CUC for picking out us up and shedding us off at my Hotel. At nighttime I dropped into mattress, exhausted.
However, at 4 am this morning I woke up with important intestinal troubles. Apparently my Chinese meal had now not grow to be me so smartly and I had extreme digestive complications emanating from the two aspects of my physique. This morning I realy felt rotten and I ended up utilising my very own clinical equipment for the first time and took a few Immodium.
I became unable to devour breakfast, however I made my approach to the tuition where at nine am our lessons started. Surprisingly the position attempt had positioned me into the level of “perfeccionamiento”, the very best stage and the extent of Spanish in my classification became certainly very prime. The classification carries 7 college students, a younger woman from England, a younger girl scientific pupil from Denmark, a center-aged Day Yacht Charters BVI lady physician from Finland, a younger male regulation student from Sweden, a younger lady and guy from Norway and myself from Austria/Canada.
Obviuosly there may be a totally heavy Scandinavian slant in my class and it seems anybody in the elegance is a hobby sociologist, political scientist, environmentalist and historian. We asked some highly rough questions on Cuban life, the political technique, the financial hardships, the double economic system, the obstacle of women and blacks in Cuba, machismo and the obstacle of the environment.
Some of those questions made our woman professor sense particularly uncomfortable and it seemed like she become squirming under the barrage of probing political and sociological questions. She acquired very protective some occasions approximately the Cuban components and simply after we discussed the nice and undesirable elements of European and Canadian societies did she lighten up a touch and come to be a bit more open and frank approximately the real Cuban existence. It seems that to this present day Cubans should be very cautious about what they are saying in public.
For instance, she frankly admitted that racism nonetheless exists in Cuba and to today it's miles nevertheless a country with quite a lot of machismo. However, she did now not admit that Internet get right of entry to and get right of entry to to non-Communist media is forbidden for Cubans, she sincerely explained it as an financial challenge. (Several of my colleagues had heard otherwise in their travels in Cuba, truly that a Cuban is simply not allowed to have get entry to to the Internet). She also admitted that it seriously isn't allowed for Cubans to discuss with the traveler places of the Cayos (e.g. Cayo Coco) which is completely reserved for tourists and Cubans don't have any get right of entry to to that quarter whatever, a specific factor of contention one of many locals.
Class ended about 1:20 and my dissatisfied belly did not enable me to intake any delicacies. I headed lower back to my inn, slept a touch and were on the Internet for the beyond 2 or so hours (racking up a bill of about $US 20.00 or s0), documenting my holiday.
It’ll be a quiet night this night when you consider that I am looking to calm down my belly. But I am definite the adventures and the learning will maintain the next day to come.