Joplyn Raavel - May 11th

Today we started the day with our daily lectures, this one being about Cognitive Flexibility and Emotional regulation, during which a scenario was presented to students that pertains to making a choice and how to understand the difference in opinions of choices. After a short break for coffee and discussions amongst students about this scenario, how we would handle it, and how to respect or understand why others would do otherwise, we continued this discussion along with other productive discussions during our debrief.

This has, thus far, been the typical morning in Havana, however each day getting lunch on our own is always a different experience. Today, Tamara, Kat, Stanley, and I chose to spend a small amount on money for lunch in order to save for a larger meal in the future, however we ended up getting much more than expected. Due to my lack of certain Spanish language knowledge, I ended up with a pork burger with everything on it. This includes topping such as pineapple and Canadian bacon. It was intimidating, but I was ready. Trying new foods was a huge part of why I wanted to come to Cuba, and this burger did not disappoint. Despite the massive creation sitting in front of me, I was able to have a very engaging conversation with my peers, which left  me feeling good about the ability to have a productive conversation with fellow students.

After lunch, which was the highlight of most students’ day, was Salsa dancing. Our instructor taught us some basic salsa movements, and gave us time to practice them while he watched and (often, in my case) critiqued and fix our movements. My partner RJ was definitely a trooper, being with someone whose movements are the envy of robots everywhere, and whose palms could probably nourish a garden a square mile long. Eventually, we got the hang of it, and were twisting and turning with the best of them. When it came to learning from the instructor, multiple female students were picked from the crowd to be an example to follow, most of which looked amazing while doing so (shout out to them), others, to put it nicely “needed a little help” (shout out to me). All in all, I think everyone thoroughly enjoyed learning to dance Salsa, and hopefully we will get more practice turning and stepping before our farewell dinner in a couple weeks, and blow away those around us.

Tonight, we plan to attend a hip-hop show at the Castillo, which seems to be an event of much excitement among students. Hopefully this show will be able to uphold the standards American movies such as Step Up have set for our idea of hip hop dancing.

The burger of my dreams. Pineapple, Canadian bacon, cucumbers, carrots, cheese, an egg and lettuce, all stacked on a pork patty with a sesame seed bun (IN THAT ORDER) 

Ariel was one of those who was doing great, so shout out to her.