Miercoles, quarto Febrero

Cool in Havana this morning, with strong winds. Heavy rain Monday night, which brought in this temperature change. Monday featured meeting jurados por Premio Literario Casa de las Americas – I may have mentioned this before. Los jurados included such luminaries as Carmen Boullosa ( Mexico), Carlos Noguera (Venezuela), Hector Tizon (Argentina), Beatriz Helena Robledo (Colombia), Teresa Cardenas (Cuba), and Roberto Marquez (Puerto Rico – EE.UU).

Had almuerzo at local restaurant where cost is very little – based on national money of Cuba, which is much lower than CUC. So a meal for two – pollo con fried arroz y ensalada plus dos cervezas -cost $5!!! Will be eating here as the food was good and it is only two blocks from our residence.

In my efforts to get some fluency con espanol, I talked with Gabriel (Gabi), Hector’s ijo, about tutoring me in the language. He will come by tomorrow (martes) and we will see if things can work out. I got some good time in on rosetta stone Spanish language program and soprano too today. Then had la cena con estudiantes in their residence – about siete blocks down from us – have a penthouse suite on the 12th floor overlooking the Malecon and Atlantic Ocean. It was good sitting and talking with them.

Came back and sat up with Alan looking at videos and talking about music and culture and Caribbean history. He is a walking history book.

On Martes, spent time with rosetta stone and soprano again. Casa technician came over and tried to get SKYPE working but no good. I need Michel, who was the 1st one that configured my laptop, but he is not back till Lunes. Took a walk over to Teatro Mella, named for founder of Cuban communist party, to see about tickets for William Vivano, popular Cuban musician who is giving concert Tuesday night, but sold out. Alan thinks students may be able to hook us up…we will see. Notice that UNESCO has a site here as well as national ballet and national symphony sites too. And the national escuela de musica is just a couple of blocks away. Will have to investigate all this in the coming weeks. And the Havana Jazz Festival begins next week…more to come about that.

Gabi shows up on time and we talk about him giving me Spanish lessons and me giving him English lessons. We agree to begin next week, 3 days weekly, for the remainder of the month – lunes, miercoles y jueves from 4:30 to 5:30. I hope that his tutoring along with rosetta stone will help me get some fluency. Alan agrees.

After dinner, we go around to Theater Mella and meet students who have hooked us up for the Vivano concert – costs us $2 each to get in! Place is packed, mostly with younger folks. Vivano is a vocalist and guitarist. Band includes, keyboards, traps, bongos and congas, tablas, elec guitar, elec bass, 3 horns (2 tmpts and 1 sax), and two singers. They do about 100 minute performance, many songs clearly known by the audience who engage in singing along and dancing too. We are back in the crib by eleven. Weather is definitely cool and very windy now. Hit the sack round midnight after talking about upcoming trip with estudiantes to Matanzas from Thursday through Sunday. Should be exciting and informative. Matanzas is sometimes called the Athens of Cuba.