LA IS GLORIOUS! I love my apartment, I love all my family and friends here, and if I've been haranguing you to hang out, it is only because I love you so much and cannot wait to see you!!! I clocked in 14 miles in the last 2 days and I am feelin' on fire! It'a so amazing to run outside in my favorite neighborhood! And even though I am slightly sick of beaches, I never tire of Santa Monica! and I've been pigging out on all the foods I couldn't eat in Mexico and Cuba, like AYCE SUSHI TONIGHT!!! Muahaha watch out little fishies!
They did not stamp our passports after leaving, and that's why I'm back safe and sound in the States! It's actually not illegal for Americans to go to Cuba, it's only illegal if you spend money there. But if you stay in Cuba for longer than a day, then they assume that naturally, you've spent $ there.
Mike had to pull some strings to get us back home to LA on Monday night (aka. he yelled at a United Airlines worker) because our flight back to LA was actually Tuesday, but we both wanted to be home so badly and he somehow convinced them it was their mistake :) If he ever tries that trick on me, I'm sticking it to him in the family jewels.
ANYWAY, Cancun was SO SPRING BREAK WOOOO FUN! the waves were perfect, and the beach was gorgeous! mike tried (unsuccessfully) to teach me how to dive under them, but I did successfully drink lots of ocean water and get pulled out by a rip current!
We basically went out every night and slept till noon... all the clubs are open bar in Cancan, and the BEST club by far was Coco Bongo! It's named after the club in The Mask, and in between clubbing music, they put on awesome Vegas-styled shows with flashy dance numbers, bad impersonations, and leggy show girls. It was worth every penny of the $55 cover! They did recreations of Moulin Rouge, Jackson 5, The Mask (of course), Madonna, Cirque du Soleil, Batman... every commercial-ie, pop culture reference you can think of. It's DEFINITELY a must-see if you're ever in Cancun, and they didn't even pay me to say that!
Here's us before CoCo Bongo in our schmancy porch of our hotel room!
Us eating at an awesome restaurant in Downtown, away from the touristy stuff, before we went to a Casino and I won 300 pesos! Memo: don't go to Senior Frogs... it's tacky and full of high school kids.
One of the days we also rented a car, stick-shift style, and drove to the ruins of Tulum... sure we were stuck in the car together for about 12 hours, and Mike's leg cramped up because the vehicle is meant for a 5'5'' Mexican man, but I learned the basics of how to drive a stick!!!! :D And we got to eat authentic Mayan food! Which reminds me... I could really go for a peanut butter cookie right now... The market didn't have them today :( sad day. (by "market" I mean Pavillions but it just sounds better like that)
If Cancun weren't so overly touristy, pricey, and commercialized, I would maybe even consider going back there just for the beaches! Mike got us a really nice room at this resort called The Grand Avalon... it was a beaut! This is me and Mike with our new friends:
We were in Cancun for 6 days and the vacation was going oh-so-smoothly and we were having a good time, when we spontaneously decided that it would be fun to fly to Cuba! Pete and Yoni parted with us during that part of the trip... well aren't they smart?!? little did we know what we were getting ourselves into...
Not only is Cuba probably the most "big brother"-esque country I have, and ever will, travel to, it is also the one where I've felt the least welcomed. Propaganda for Castro, Che, Socialism, and the Revolution, are literally EVERYWHERE you look. I felt like we were as close to Orwell's 1984 as the real world can be... unsettling! All I can say is, you don't know what Democracy is until you've experienced Communism.
We also got jipped REALLY BADLY constantly, and almost everyone looks like they're out to get you, or your money. Also, I think I saw about 15 Asians the entire time I was there, and Cubans only have 1 word for Asians, which is Chino/a [pronouced Chinae]. People don't look to happy to be living there. Some Cubans described the government as "suffocating"... we even talked to this couple from Mexico City who said they thought Mexico was a Third World country, but it's nothing compared to Cuba! Even some of the classiest establishments tried to gyp us... They really hate tourists... Especially American tourists. hmm I wonder why... (yes that's bush with a nazi hat)
We stayed in Havana for 2 days, and Playa Santa Maria for 2. Hotels were WAYYY too expensive for us... over 100 cucs a night, so we stayed in casa particulars, which are houses that rent out rooms, for about 30 cucs a night. 100 cucs = $87, but all transactions on the US dollar, and ONLY the US dollar, come with a 10% fee. Cubans have 2 currencies... cucs for foreigners, and cuban pesos for Cubans, where everything is priced a lot lower in cuban pesos.
The family we stayed with in Havana was soooooo sweet! It wasn't the nicest part of town, but it was the most affordable. They even provided fruitas and coffee for us every morning :) The casa particular in Playa Santa Maria was also nice, and it came with cozy little bed bugs... yaye!
Ok I'm making it sound really bad, but I am actually very glad I got to see Cuba, a country we only read about, see in old movies, ior imagine when we pretend to reenact the dance routine from Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights. (Yes, I know we all do that, don't deny it!) Also, whats perfect is that it's typical Cuban custom to ask for them to make your drink stronger if you feel so inclined... so of course I did ALL THE TIME. Most useful phrase I've learned on the trip: Mas forte, por favor :)
I got to try a Cuban cigar, and now I know why all these old men like it so much! It has this deep, aromatic taste that lingers in your mouth, and makes you just a bit light headed and relaxed. The lady we were living with even brought out coffee for us to enhance the taste! I also got to drink Havana "ron', which is supposedly "so smooth you can drink it straight!" ... I guess what some ppl consider smooth I consider a scathing, burning sensation... I had to use tuna pizza for chaser. their rum is 40% alcohol content! I also got to ride in those oldie American cars, which can fit about 5 adults or 8 mini-people in the backseat. That car is probably worth almost $100,000 in the states, but everyone has one like it in Cuba.
Also, we went to a Havana night club, Casa de la Musica, and pretended like we knew how to salsa like everyone else, but really we just shook our shoulders and bum bums at random intervals :D
We drank at the bar Ernest Hemingway frequented often while he was in Havana and mentions in his literature, La Bodeguita del Medio... anyone else find it ironic that one of the most famous Cuban icon is Hemingway... an AMERICAN author? They love him there. Or maybe that's their only claim to fame. Cuba surprisingly has an extremely high literacy rate of 97%, almost no bums, and everyone is well fed. But what's the point in having an education if you can't exercise it? Our bartender at the Hemingway bar graduated from the University with an Economics degree... but there's no place for it except framed in his living room wall.
Many aspects of the Cuban government sounds good in theory... like having stipends so that everyone gets enough, making sure the basics are provided for... but it also breeds widespread idleness, because there is no need to actually do any work if you know a paycheck with your name on it will be coming, regardless. it crushes incentive, and (what I think are some of the most important) natural human characteristics like competition, personal ambition, and most importantly, it stifles individualism and a hope for improvement and progress. There is no massive disparity in social hierarchy like in the States and many other 1st world countries, which could be a good thing, but then everyone in Cuba seems to be almost equally poor. (These are just my observations... don't persecute me if I'm wrong!) The buildings are beautiful, but no one renovates them so they sit there crumbling and molding.
Here is Mike and I enjoying our toasty Cuban cigar on the porch of our casa particular in Playa Santa Maria... I'm a newb and could not get it started for the life of me. I also convinced Mike that it was our duty to finish the bottle of Havana Rum we bought because it was our last day in Cuba :) He was a baby so I had to finish most of it myself (I'm not an alcoholic or anything...) The lady we stayed with kept taking pictures of me with my eyes closed, so I finally just gave up on asking her. just ignore my squinty eyes
This nice couple paid for our ice cream at the giant Ice Cream Palace called Coppelia (their ice cream sucks and this is coming from someone who is easily impressed with anything sweet), when our waiter charged the Cuban couple 40 cents, and proceeded to charge Mike and I $10! While they were sitting at the same table as us!!! Luckily Mike understands some Spanish, It was unbelievable! This couple makes up for the evil couple the day before, who tricked us into thinking it was their 8th anniversary and that it is Cuban custom for us to pay for their mojitos or else we weren't allowed to leave the bar... and this is after the bartender put 2 suspicious drops in our drinks and not theirs... How am I still alive?!?
In Cuba, there is no such thing as variety. I ate the same brand of helados for 3 days straight and made Mike eat it too, even though he says ice cream makes him nauseous (gasp, off with his head!!!) I didnt eat candy for 4 days because there was none, so right after we got off the plane from Cuba, we bought $20 worth of candy and chips at the airport :) Serious reeses pieces withdrawals...
Since coming home from Cuba, it's been really hard to look at people the same way. Well, not the people whom I know and love... I will always love you guys no matter what! But strangers and passerby's, especially since I work in Beverly Hills and see overly made-up housewives with Juicy sweats and fake blond hair hanging out at Urth Cafe on a daily basis, or men in crisp business suits and sunglasses walking authoratively down the street... it's difficult to see people as anything more than actors and actresses, pieces of molded clay, products manufactured by the environment.
Just like everybody in Cuba are just products of their environment, just like I am probably a product of my environment. A plastic Hollywood model is only what she is because of the external forces that have affected her, including her surroundings and experiences. She has been sculpted to behave the way she does, think the thoughts she does, have the cares she has in the world (physical appearance, sexuality, how to behave, what to eat, etc...) as much as I am who I am because of where and how I was raised, what I've been exposed to. As much as a middle class kid who only cares about going to a good school and making enough money to support a family in the future is molded so... all these values are imprinted into us, and we follow them, for the most part, mindlessly. Is anything what we, ourselves, really and truly want deep down? Or are we too scared to question, or just too unoriginal, to imagine anything different from what we know?
If a wealthy man from a 1st world country who has always been accustomed to luxuries such as marble tiled bathrooms, ordering filet mignon or foie grae at a restaurant on a whim, playing golf on the weekends, sleeping in 400 thread count sheets... and he wakes up one morning and finds that he's a poor waiter in Cuba, how long would it take him to adapt to the external? Probably a year in squalor conditions with nothing to do but stare out into the dirty pavement, a bathroom with iffy plumbing and disgustingly salty water, the same meals everyday, diesel cars that barely start up, laughable choices for clothing, TV, books, pastime options, no incentive to produce or contribute any more than he has to... one year take more or less, and he would be completely submerged in the lifestyle and culture of the people there, indistinguishable and perceived with the likes of any other Cuban (disregarding race/physical appearance). Inherently, he isn't a better person because of the luxurious life he had, because it is all only an accustomedness and adaptation that he was privileged enough to have. But a poor Cuban can just as easily enjoy the big screen TV with a million channels, if his life allows him to.
People adapt to their surroundings, and become used to what they know. So how can, or how is, anybody better than the next person? It puts everyone on a leveling ground. We are all just molded by our environment, and 99% of us wouldn't behave any differently, if our situations switched. If I had been born in Cuba, would I just wake up every day looking forward to how many Cristal's I can drink, passing by the time? I would like to think that I can break beyond the system and world presented to me, and choose and think for myself... but who can say?
Cubans aren't allowed access to the internet... so I wonder if they will ever know what's beyond those aquamarine waters? Maybe they are content, and I have yet to understand if that's a good thing or not.
Again, all I have to say is how I end almost every post, which is that I am blessed, lucky, and extremely grateful! Already, Cuba seems far, far away and my thoughts are no longer concerned with human nature, systems of government, and the world at large, and have now reverted to things like what concerts and movies I want to check out, things I want to do with my friends in LA, how much sushi I can cramp into my stomach tonight... Funny how the mind works, huh? Out of sight, out of mind.
Anyway, more than ever, I value the people I love and have in my life, the things that I have and the possibilities that await, and the luxury of choice and being able to pave my own path, and the infinite contributions I can make and create.This is my life, these are my circumstances, and I'm going to make the most of it :)
