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The RETURN

So after being in Cuba, we flew back into Costa Rica and stayed for one night and then hopped on a bus at about 430am the next morning to be on a plane headed back to the good ol' USofA. Now, something about the flights. American Airlines. Terrible. Like you should never take this airline ever, like the only reason why you should is if there was no other alternative. They have terrible service, old planes with lame tvs and chairs and overhead storage. The list can go on and on and on. But I won't as it needed to be a short blurp.

MIAMI

A little something about Miami. The place is like a refined Latin American. Spanish is like the dominant language there. I ordered food, along with others, using Spanish the first night there. This makes sense as to why the program picked Miami as the hub, it is a nice easier in and out of hispanic culture. Also, it really does not compare to the awesome Downtown LA. Yes it is cool that they have South Beach and the ocean but nothing else really.

Another thing is that I will address your question of why I didnt take more pictures here. And the answer is inconclusive. I am not sure why I didnt. But we did walk past the hotel where the movie the Birdcage was filmed. And also the nice pathways on the beach should be used out here in SoCal.

Our main goal, as a program, in Miami was to address the issue of reentry shock. It is a valid thing to discuss as it does raise some good points of not making any drastic decisions. For me, you should have a reentry shock of appreciation for what you did and for your country and everything it provides and does for you. So that is my little golden nugget of the day haha

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Last day...IN CUBA

So on this day, we visited the Revolution Square. We had driven past this area multiple times and today we had are chance to stop, look, take pictures, learn history and enjoy. That monument that looks somewhat like the Washington monument or the Bastille in Paris, is the one where Fidel stood in front of after the revolution. Around the area, on the buildings, you can see giants portraits of Che and Camilio who were key leaders with Fidel. At night time, those portraits light up as they are neon lights which i believe are white.

But the most exciting part, for me, was the classic car show we got. We will it really wasn't a show but the classic cars that you always think of and see part of Cuba were a reality. There cars belonged to the taxi drivers who particularly catered to the tourists so those cars were in tip top condition. After this, we just headed on out to the airport, and flew back to Costa Rica haha

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Monday December 12th

This was our last day out in Varadero. We had the morning time free to roam about the streets and the beach for one last time. We took advantage of that as we strolled along the beach shore line for about an hour and we picked up some cool sea shells along the way.

On our way back to Havana, we had the great opportunity to swing by the Cuban National Soccer Stadium. Why you may ask? Well, it was to see the Costa Rica vs. Cuba International Friendly Match. It was quite a nice experience as we saw two sports on the forbidden island. The sad thing about the stadium is that it looks like an old high school stadium. Most of the Cuban athletes do not play outside of the country because of the high rate of athletes that stay behind in the countries they play in. But other than that it was a good experience to see all the Cuban people riled up as they tied 1-1 when Cuba had the lead for pretty much the entire game and then lost it with 5 minutes of play left...bummer

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Sunday, December 11th

On this day, we made our trip to a beautiful beach in Varadero. This beach we went to is actually a beach that you can see Fidel Castro swimming in some of the documentaries about his life. The city is completely surrounded by water as a river separates it from the mainland. The place is about 3 hours from Havana. We stayed at an evangelical center which hosts many groups from the US and others. The only thing was that the girls stayed at one house and the guy's house was about 1 mile away. So anytime we had little reunions, the guys had to make that little trek to the girls area. We stayed here for one night.

One of the first pictures you see here is of the longest bridge in Cuba. The place is called the Bacunayagua. Here is a nice little place to stop and hop on out of the bus/car or taxi and check out the view. In addition, you can find really good souvenirs here for a decent price. I bought 9 keychains for 5 bucks.

NOTE: shopping here is limited, so do not plan to buy much here other than little souvenirs that you may have forgotten at the Crafts mart. Souvenirs are a little more expensive and plus the thing to buy here are cigars and rum, but I am not encouraging that. It is nice to go and check out the facilities and know about it.

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Saturday, December 10th

So the main event on this day was the Afro/Cuban Cultural Dance show we saw that night. It was a private showing just for us. The performers were apparently all Santeria believers as some dances they use and since Santeria is traced back to African descent. The first part of the show was dedicated to this.

The second half of the show was dedicated to modern Cuban dances/rhythms. Those include the cha cha cha, mambo, salsa, rumba and others. One was interesting was the interaction during the second half of the show. The performers would come out to us and ask some of us to imitate what they did. Some had to dance and others had to mimic a call and response. An example of this is how in Cuba you can find vendors who sell their items in song. At the very end of the show, we were all called up to join them on stage and dance with them.

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Let's Play BALL!! CUBA Style

Friday December 9th

On this day we had our one HUGE golden event...a classic Cuban baseball game. We arrived during the best time and saw the best game because it was the clash of the rivals, Industriales vs. Santiago

The interesting thing about this is that tourist have their own section. It is right smack down in the middle of the stadium behind home plate so you are completely surrounded by the Cuban people. That is an interesting experience because on one side you have the home team and on the other the visiting team so you definitely see the enthusiasm, hear the jokes and all the fans. If you really wanted to experience the Cuban culture this would be the place. You get all kinds of people here and the food and you can use both monetary systems, you can hear all the spanish chants and see just how into baseball Cubans really are. It is quite the experience.

An interesting thing about sports in Cuba is that they do not actually have just athletes like we do. Their athletes hold normal jobs during the off season and when the season comes, they have to submit a letter to their job, approved by the government, so that they can take time off to play. Their salary remains the same, according to whatever job they currently hold. So if they are a professor/teacher, then they will continue to receive that salary while playing. You cannot really by the sport jerseys over there because they are government owned. But you can get lucky and hopefully snag one from someone who is selling the jersey that they were given by a player haha

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Thursday December 8th

On this day...in history (haha just kidding), but in Cuba, we had three main events: Psychiatric Hospital visit, free time near the University of La Habana, and the Crafts Mart.

Cuban Psychiatric Hospital

We visited the top psychiatric facility in the country that still implements an old organization of the facility not used in modern day. The place is divided up into the kinds of patients and the genders and their statistical numbers regarding patient treatment and diminishing of hospital size is quite impressing. The people at the facility live pretty nicely as they participate in many activities. We got to be part of and see some of these activities such as the musical performance below where we got called up to participate in the dancing.

University of La Habana

During our lunch free time here, we got to walk up the same steps as many Cuban college students and even the same steps that Fidel once walked on and even addressed the people at. The campus is really nice and has the Harvard/USC?East Coast feel to it but with the beautiful Southern California weather.

Here you have to be careful with people who come up and befriend you and give you a nice little tour of places and then even end up offering a drink called a "Negron" which they say is a very Cuban drink (alcoholic). At the end, they ask for money and such. So just try and stay away from them and DO NOT drink the drink as no one is really sure of what is in it. For lunch we ate at a nice little mom and pop place where the bus dropped us off and we had burgers. The entire meal, with a drink (which was AMAZING) was less than a dollar.

Crafts Mart

This is place is the go to place to bring your money too. Any souvenir that you would want or even imagine is available here. They have shirts, paintings, hats, toys, cigar cases, gizmos and gadgets, you name it you got it. If you do not bring all your money to this place you will regret it because you won't find a lot of things here elsewhere or even for the same prices. I got 3 handmade/painted magnets for $2. You could get nice little paintings 5 for $10. This place is also all private ownership. These are real Cuban people with their real businesses so it is nice to contribute to them and give them a little income.

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Wednesday December 7th

Middle of the week in Cuba we went off to learn about their educational system and what better way then to take a nice little site visit out to an elementary school. At the school we met with the principal who explained the Cuban system. Every child gets an education in Cuba and all curriculum is all uniform. In addition there is complete separation of church and state so no special arrangements can be made to meet any religious request. In addition, the teachers stick with their students throughout the years and then start over again once they graduate. During the visit we got to see some of their activities such as participating in relay races and even a kickball game. Also, they had a special surprise for us. They sang us a couple of songs, here is a nice little clip of that...

In the evening, we went out to have a nice little Cuban experience and we did that by going here.

  This is like the it spot in Cuba for ice cream. It is called Coppelia. The set up at the place is a little confusing if you aren't told how it works. The place has multiple locations in which you can sit down and have some ice creams and some places may have different flavors or they all may have the same. You may have to check the signs or just man up and use your Spanish skills to find out. This place where we were at served the ice cream in nice little "copas" or glasses while other places serve them in a rectangular plastic container. 

*NOTE* you have to have cuban pesos to purchase things here. You may use a CUC (CUban convertible peso) but do not use more than one CUC because you will overpay if you do.

Around this area there is the old Hilton which was taken over by the government and is still state run today and a couple of blocks down you find the Malecon and the ocean. 

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Tuesday the 6th in Cuba

This consisted of three main events: Museo de la Revolucion, Old Habana, and the oldest Spanish fort that is still in use.

First off, our means of transportation in Cuba was with a big yellow bus painted with colors for Pastors for Peace. It is a nice organization that helps us get into Cuba so if you want to go, you should look into that organization.

Museo de la Revolucion This place is called the museum of the revolution but it really is the museum of the history of Cuba. Here we were given a tour by our translators (he use to translate for Fidel) daughter. Through this we learned about Cuba's history and its national heroes such as Che and Camilio Cienfuegos. The museum building was used by Batista who was the Cuban dictator before Fidel. When you walk in, you can see bullet holes in the wall from an assault that was made by 5 rebels who tried to take him out. Also we got to enter into the Presidents office and all the furniture in the room is the original one. Most of things in the museum are originals because of how recent the revolution was, well not that recent but more recent than our Independence fight. Upon exiting the museum, there is a building where you can see the boat (La Granma) that was used by Fidel to start the July 26th move on Batista.

OLD HABANA This is possibly one of the coolest places. It is like a little Europe with its streets and buildings. It is an awesome tourist area with book vendors on the streets, wood streets, nice hotels, restaurants, beautiful church and...La Bodeguita del Medio.

This last place mentioned has a nice little history flare to it. This is the place where Ernest Hemingway use to come and get a mojito everytime he came out to Cuba.

During your time here, you could get surrounded by singing Cubans. This actually happened to some of the students in our group.

The area also has the building where the old US embassy use to be and the hotel where Jimmy Carter stayed when he came out to visit Cuba. 

Also, if you like souvenirs, this is a nice place to get them because the vendors out by the main square have some really old stuff like cameras from the 40's or magazines or buttons or baseball cards.

THE OLD FORT This place was cool because they reenact the closing of the port from way way back in time. All the people are dressed up in colonial costume and they shoot a real cannon at precisely 9pm. This is also a nice place to buy souvenirs like mugs or hats or Cuban license plates. They sell souvenirs for $1, so that is quite the steal.  

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CUBA TRIP Series

So we flew into Cuba on Sunday, December 4th and that in itself was quite they adventure. We flew with an airline called Copa Airlines and we had a layover in Panama City which is pretty much like the Miami of Central America. The airport in Panama was nice with lots of fast food restaurants and shops but their drinking fountains did not work.

In addition, our layover was suppose to be quick, but it ended up being like a 2 hour layover because the back up electrical power on the plane wasn't working and neither was the AC. They had this problem before but failed to fix it the first time so we boarded once then had to get off and re-board when they fixed it. 

So those are pictures to prove our time in the Panama City airport.

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Hello Good Ol' USA

Well, I have officially returned to US soil after my daring study abroad experience. The program ended with a nice 8 day trip in Cuba in which I brought back some goodies and a lot of knowledge regarding Cuba.

Currently, I am at the Airport Regency here in Miami, Florida. I will be spending about a day and a half doing some re-entry fun activities.

So over the next couple of days, I will be giving y'all a day by day experience of Cuba and show you all the good pictures and share all the activities

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The last hours....

Well...my Costa Rica study abroad adventure is coming to a close with about 12 days left. I will be departing my host family home at 5am tomorrow morning and hopping on a plane out to Panama and then to Cuba for 8 days.

So its a bittersweet parting due to the fact that I have lived with my host family out here for 3 months and then will be leaving at the crack down.

But on the good side, I will have the opportunity to go and see Cuba and here from a lot of important people and see the new changes Cuba is undergoing.

So, in Cuba I will have zero access to internet and phone service so I will be off the map for 8 days until I return to Costa Rica on the 12th for a night or when I am back in the States in Miami on the 13th.

So until then, farewell Costa Rica.

Woo picture of my packing up

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Today, December 1st, marked the official bringing in of the Christmas season.

It started at 6pm out in front of the Teatro Nacional and will continue tomorrow. It will consist of children's choirs and older kids and UCR's choir.

In addition, the streets of San Jose, such as Avenida Segunda (2nd), Avenida Central, Paseo Colon, and the parks will all have Christmas lights.

The event we went out to see tonight was the Christmas tree that was lit at the Children's Hospital which is right next to the Hospital San Juan de Dios.

The cool thing is that while we were there (LASP student friends) we witnessed an accident. A car got sandwiched in between two buses. We actually saw it happen and heard the crunch. It was the white buses fault. It makes it difficult because there aren't any lines painted on the streets so you can imagine the craziness especially since it was right outside the Children's Hospital. But hey, only in Latin America.

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Black Friday....Viernes Negro

This is what you will see on Black Friday out here in Latin America. In addition to:

-long lines -thousands of people -birds pooping on you (not that it happened to me) -bags everywhere -extra looking over shoulders for pick pocketers -complete mayhem -limited entrances into stores (in groups of 5, 10 or 20) -inability to move inside a store or find a good line

So yes, Black Friday was almost the same out here in Costa Rica as it probably was out in the US. It is actually a pretty new occurrence out here, like 2 to 3 years of running and it was the craziest one yet with stores offering up to 75% off. And also a White Christmas at the local Wal-Mart.

So, in conclusion, all I purchased that day was a pack of 50 dvds. 

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Ox Cart Parade

So today in San Jose...something extraordinary happened. The group of girls I was with got to meet a celebrity of a Costa Rican reality TV show called Combate and it was one of the contestants. When i get the pick I'll share. But for now to the good stuff.

OX CART PARADE IN SAN JOSE

They came from afar....Escazu...and started with a band...then a half an hour wait until they showed up.

They showed in all their glory, muscle, stature, strength, style, artistic design, dress and cultural pride.

This was the Ox Cart Parade. A truly Costa Rican tradition that occurs many times in different areas and this was the one closest to us to attend.  PS...if you get pooped on during the parade by an ox...you get good luck for a year. This didn't happen today which is both good and bad.

The designs on the carts are wonderful and truly show the Costa Rican heart for happiness and love for past time. For now I have two videos and right after I'll post the slide show.

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San Jose Ox Cart Parade that came into town from Escazu

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Hydroponic Agriculture

Hydroponic...what in the world does that mean?! 

hydroponics: it is a method of growing plants using mineral nutrient solutions in water without soil.

whew...well that was easy enough. Don't really need to explain anything else. HA! just kidding, here we go.

During my coffee farm experience, I pretty much learned this cutting edge technology being used out here in Costa Rica and probably elsewhere as well. This kind of agriculture technique has been proven to be very successful with lettuce and another green veggie I can not remember. But pretty much all you do is build a nice box, and get a styrofoam board and make cut out holes to place the plant in. When you fill the box with water, you fill it to a point where only half the root of the plant is submerged in water and the other half is not. *must make sure your hands are clean as well as the water otherwise it will fail* Then you just purchase your nutrient solution salts, you create three and apply them daily and in 22 days...BAM you got lettuce.

I also learned how to make all these wooden boxes and containers and learned how to plant in them, in a plastic punching bag, using different soils like volcanic rock, normal soil, coconut shell soil and others.

cool facts! potassium deficiency: plant leaves have burned tip look phosphorus deficiency: purple veins on tomato plant or on the leaves calcium deficiency: crinkled tips on leaves or brown fruits nitrogen deficiency: yellow leaves on bottom of plant sulfur deficiency: top leaves of the plant turn yellow