The Social Life

The social life here is really interesting, and apparently pretty different than most other countries in Latin America and perhaps the world in general. This is because for the cubans, it all revolves around houseparties and dancing, but minimal drinking and clubbing. The great club scene you hear about in Cuba is mainly reserved for the tourists, because most cubans can´t afford the entry charge. The same goes for bars and other forms of drinking. Alcohol is just too expensive for normal cubans to consume on a frequent basis. The same goes for drugs, there isn´t much using of anything anymore. Earlier, the gov´t had a problem with tourists taking drugs out of the country, so 4 years ago they really cracked down hard on everyone. Now, since the penalties are so high, there aren´t as many people dealing and prices are a lot higher. Weed is about 10 times more expensive that it was 4 years ago. This dichotomy in prices and the exclusion of cubans from alot of normal activities results from the dual economy that exists here. I alluded to this briefly in the last entry, that there are two currencies here, CUC and moneda nacional (pesos). Tourists pay in CUC but cubans recieve wages in moneda nacional. One CUC is equal to about $0.80 usd, or 24 pesos, but judging from prices of commodities bought in pesos, I estimate that 1 peso is like 50 us cents. This means that to a cuban, a 3 CUC cover charge at a club is like paying 36 dollars. That´s a big difference. Thus, the gov´t and tourist industry can separate cubans from tourists by charging in CUC. But on the bright side, you can buy non-namebrand cigars for only 1 peso (5 cents). So instead of clubbing and bar-hopping, there are tons of house parties, parties in the becas (student apartment complexes), and parties on the malecon (the wall bordering the sea). For instance, last week I went to a semi-weekly dance at my friend´s beca. First let me say that these becas are a shitty excuse for student housing. They are really far from theuniversity (at least a 30 minute walk and at most a 30 min. unreliable busride), and really shitty buildings crammed with students. In the size of a small university double, they have 4 students. But if you don´t have relatives living in Habana, you don´t have any other choice. Anyway, between two dormitories is a small social hall with a sound system and space to dance. Even without much alcohol, these kids were tearing up the dance floor. I have never in my life seen people that could dance like this in such a high concentration. I can´t put their skill into words, but i´ll just say it is obvious they´ve been salsa dancing and shaking their hips since they were born. I´ve been learning to salsa here and have gotten to the point where my partners are pleasantly surprised when they dance with me. But that doesn´t say much considering they assume all north americans can´t dance at all. In comparison to the cubans, that is a pretty accurate stereotype. Although these individual or student parties are more fun than a club filled with strangers and extranjeros, the social life can be a bit of a hassle a lot of the time. For the beca party and a friend´s birthday party last night, we waited for a bout 45min for a bus crammed full of people, rode 30 min outside of the city, and then walked for a while. On the way back, we waited another 40 min at about 1.30 am and then had to run down the bus because it stopped at a different stop. But it was fun because to keep ourselves busy we started singing songs. Also, people cannot get enough of my ¨chubby¨ jokes, you know the one where you press your cheeks together and say ¨hi, my name is chubby...¨. I think they love it because of the southern accent, because they also love it when we say ¨life is like a box of chocolates¨ala
Forrest Gump.
Another interesting aspect of the social life here is the sexual life. I´m including sex as social because it kindof is here. It´s more open, and more common. People talk about it way more freely, and PDA is the norm. But then again, there isn´t much of a choice for that. It is really a challenge to have sex in private here. Most people live in houses with extended families, sharing a room or even a bed with at least one other person. So if you want to have sex, you either can risk being heard by a family member or have sex outside, sort of in public. For this reason, sex becomes less secretive and hidden. And amazingly, people have way more partners even with the obstacles. A cuban often loses theirvirginity at about 13 or 14, and by the time they are 21, have had over 30 partners. I´ve also been told several times that cubans are better in bed than any other ethnicity. My professor even said this in class one morning. My friend Adriana told me in complete seriousness that it is because the hot climate make bodies more-limber. I wonder if there is biological evidence to back up that theory.

By the way, I now have free internet at the university, so if any one emails me, i can probably write back somewhat soon. Write me at anna.vanderhorst@gmail.com. Also, i don´t have anyone´s email address, so y´all need to write me first.