Sun, 18 May 2003 09:38:51 -0700 (PDT)
First week in Cuba

Oh yeah, I didn't finish my jounal of what happened last week.

On the first day that I arrived here, I got totally ripped of on a meal. I went into a restaurant, and was looking at the menu, and most things cost about $4 or $5 bucks, and there was a part that didn't have prices on it that I didn't really look at that closely. So of course the waiter recomended something from that section, and when the bill came it was $14 (which is a lot of money here). I have since found a place that I can get the same amount and same quality of food for $1, but it is really just someones house, where they sell food (rice&beans with meat on top) in a carton.

Also, I joined a gym last week. The son of the family that I am staying with told me that he knew of a place close by that would cost $2 per day ... which sounded expensive to me, until I found out that the "official" tourist gym costs $10 per day.So I went and looked at the gym, and to find it I had to walk through what looked like a broken down abandoned building, had to duck under some pipes, and then had to go down some steps, crouch throug a door that was 4 feet tall, and lo-and-behold, there was a gym down there .... sort of ... actually, more like a small room with lots of people, and some weights. There was also a pump in the room that was leaking water all over the floor. So, I though that $2 was a bit expensive, and I bargined the guy down to $12 bucks for the next month, which is still probably more than he earns from all the other clients combined.

One other thing about cuba, is that they have certianly never heard of using mufferlers on their cars here. Every vehicle spews out black smoke as they drive by, and they are super loud, but that is true of every latin-american country that I have been in. The one difference with the cars/driving here is that people actually obey the street signs, don't speed, and don't drive like maniacs.

5 of the peopl that I go to school with went on an excursion yesterday, and had a car accident ... I think that all are OK, with one girl receiving a minor cut.

Last night, I just went down to the street along the waterfront, and there was a live band just there playing their instruments for fun. The singer was obviously very gay, as he would ocassionally dance with some of the other men around him. At one point he had a condom filled up with air, which he sang into as though it were a microphone. That part of the street was actually a very gay part of town, but some straight people go there as well. Lots of transvestites there too ... some of them looked very convincing.

I think that I am going to go to the beach this afternoon ..

-Alexander