Hello From Cuba – Part four – Bureaucracy Galore –
Hello From Cuba – Part 4 – Bureaucracy Galore – The University Of Havana
Yesterday I had to join for my Spanish path at the University of Havana. The Campus of the University is an astoundingly appealing sequence of classical buildings and a Cuban tank graces the entrance to the library.
At 9 am the whole foreign students, about forty of them, met inside the Edificio Varona and we had been shepherded via quite a number professors into a totally antiquated lecture hall. (By the means, of the 5 or 6 washroom stalls inside the womens bog, simplest 1 or 2 have lavatories in them, no toilet seats, and no going for walks water inside the sinks. Again a sign of slightly run-down infrastructure…)
There they instructed us about the program, however most effective in Spanish, which became o.k. for me, for the reason that I speak Spanish, but approximately 0.5 the organization changed into permanently lost. We then had to do a quickly written placement look at various to evaluate our present Spanish expertise and then the bureaucracy started out.
We chanced on out that we crucial right here data:
– a copy of our passports
– an professional replica of the inn visitor card and/or a replica of the licence of the personal Casa Particular
– two hundred CUC (Convertible Cuban Pesos) in earnings for a 2-week course or greater for other courses
– 40 CUC for changing our tourist visa to an educational visa (in financial stamps which we needed to gain abuot 5 km away)
– 2 passport photos
– 25 CUC in money to expedite our academic visa if we're in town for purely 2 weeks.
I linked up with a host of overseas scholars and we headed off together on our quest to fulfill the Cuban prefer for Burocratismo. We first received salary at financial institution on the Hotel Havana Libre, then received the passport photography finished (to be all set for pickup three hours later), then sought for the alternative bank on Calle 23 that might give us with the 40CUC stamps for the academic visa. With tremendously lengthy lineups far and wide, this took us approximately 2 or 3 hours.
Then we got exceedingly hungry and we were approached by using a native “Jinetero” (restaurant tout) who promised us a entire meal with predominant dish, salad and area dish for six or 7 CUC. We walked with him, simplest to discover that the wait at the Paladar (confidential eating place) would be approximately 45 minutes to even take a seat down, now not such as nutrition instruction time.
So we walked up Calle 21 and a non-public eating place proprietor approached us for a meal and we gave in and came inside. It became a desirable colonial villa, excluding that the visitor room with is essential three tables and 12 seats changed into in a darkish small dingy room thoroughly with no windows.
However, we had a delicious home-cooked meal, I had roasted white meat with rice & beans, salad and a lemon delicate drink, curious about eight CUC (about 8 US$). 2 of my student colleagues had been from Germany and any other fellow is from Toronto as smartly, but firstly from Poland. We had some full-size conversations and it was once wonderful linking up with a bunch of Europeans in Havana.
After a quick relaxation within the inn, my good friend Pedro lower back picked me up in the night and I couldnt support yet tell him about my journey with the Cocotaxi driving force the day prior to this, who had tried to opt for me up, in spite of my clarifications and statements that I was married and no longer all for any amorous pursuits.
Pedro explained that sexual kin in Cuba are a slightly common, light-going issue and that it's very user-friendly for other folks to link up for brief “meaningful overnight relationships”. He cited the Cuban humans as very “passionate and sizzling-blooded”, I wager that explains several the advances that I were receiving up to now, surprisingly because there is additionally surprisingly a large number of sex tourism wherein guys (or even women) come to Cuba to have interaction in absolutely on hand erotic experiences.
Pedro and I walked because of the outdated town and of direction along the Malecon (the seafront boulevard) and saw the amazing Plaza Vieja and the Plaza de la Catedral wherein a mass became being held for the passing of Pope John Paul II.
This was once very thrilling, in view that Cuba is a Communist / authentic atheist us of a and there are plenty fewer Catholics in these days than sooner than the Revolution. Actually so much of Cubas faith is a aggregate of Catholicism and Santeria (non secular practices of the African slaves). Regardless of religiousness, charter a yacht Cuba has declared a three-day “duelo nacional” (a nationwide mourning period for the Pope) and the mass used to be attended with the aid of enormous quantities of people.
Pedro and I then had a pleasant meal within the “Barrio Chino” (Havana’s Chinatown) for 5.60 CUC (much less than US$6) for 2 laborers and a pair of vegetarian meals and gentle liquids. After a nice dinner he back flagged down a local personal automotive driving force and gave him approximately 1 CUC for deciding on us up and dropping us off at my Hotel. At nighttime I dropped into bed, exhausted.
However, at four am this morning I awakened with great intestinal concerns. Apparently my Chinese meal had now not transform me so neatly and I had extreme digestive issues emanating from each facets of my body. This morning I realy felt rotten and I ended up the usage of my personal medical package for the primary time and took some Immodium.
I became unable to eat breakfast, yet I made my method to the school wherein at 9 am our courses began. Surprisingly the placement look at various had put me into the extent of “perfeccionamiento”, the highest degree and the extent of Spanish in my elegance was once certainly very prime. The type consists of 7 students, a young female from England, a young feminine medical scholar from Denmark, a center-elderly lady surgeon from Finland, a young male rules pupil from Sweden, a young woman and guy from Norway and myself from Austria/Canada.
Obviuosly there may be an extremely heavy Scandinavian slant in my elegance and it appears everybody in the type is a pastime sociologist, political scientist, environmentalist and historian. We requested some highly troublesome questions about Cuban life, the political system, the economic hardships, the double financial system, the challenge of girls and blacks in Cuba, machismo and the difficulty of the surroundings.
Some of these questions made our feminine professor consider ultra uncomfortable and it appeared like she was once squirming below the barrage of probing political and sociological questions. She were given very defensive a few times approximately the Cuban components and merely after we discussed the best and terrible elements of European and Canadian societies did she lighten up a touch and turn out to be a piece more open and frank about the precise Cuban existence. It turns out that to this present day Cubans should be very cautious approximately what they are saying in public.
For illustration, she frankly admitted that racism nevertheless exists in Cuba and to this present day it truly is nevertheless a rustic with a considerable number of machismo. However, she did not admit that Internet entry and get right of entry to to non-Communist media is forbidden for Cubans, she sincerely explained it as an monetary subject. (Several of my colleagues had heard or else in their travels in Cuba, really that a Cuban shouldn't be allowed to have entry to the Internet). She additionally admitted that it isn't very allowed for Cubans to talk over with the visitor components of the Cayos (e.g. Cayo Coco) that's solely reserved for tourists and Cubans haven't any entry to that quarter whatsoever, a convinced level of competition a number of the locals.
Class ended approximately 1:20 and my disappointed stomach did now not enable me to consumption any nutrition. I headed returned to my resort, slept a little bit and have been at the Internet for the beyond 2 or so hours (racking up a invoice of approximately $US 20.00 or s0), documenting my time out.
It’ll be a quiet night this night for the reason that I am seeking to cool down my abdominal. But I am positive the adventures and the researching will keep tomorrow.