Suzanne Nelson is a Sarah Lawrence alumna who attended the Cuba program. Below are reflections from her time in the program.

"No two days are the same, but most start with eggs… and this morning was no exception. As usual, I turned on the water pump before sitting down to eat because the pressure is low in the sink and I like to take a shower before leaving the house. Without any morning classes, I could take my time getting out the door. I walked down the few blocks to 31st Street to catch the public bus, or “gua-gua,” which I appreciate for its ability to cram people far above reasonable capacity.

I took the bus to Vedado, which is the more businesslike, modern part of town. I like it there, usually better than Habana Vieja, because although the latter is marked with beautiful, aging buildings and colorful markets, foreigners tend to blend in more in Vedado, and I am able to walk the streets undisturbed by hustlers and street vendors. I spent most of the morning and early afternoon performing various errands—using the Internet café, buying a new notebook, waiting in the bank line for an hour—and spent a half hour writing in my journal in a nearby park where a group of boys were playing baseball using a pipe for a bat. Lunch consisted of pizza bought on the street along with some kind of fruit drink made from a powder, which is not a bad deal at 30 cents.

The University of Havana classrooms are spread out over different parts of Vedado, but today I went to the Biology faculty for my tutorial in Conservation Biology, for which I had prepared a dozen questions about the text. During our session, my teacher patiently answered each question before sending me downstairs with a graduate student to visit the currently closed-to-visitors Natural History Museum, located on University grounds. So far, I enjoy the class—but not the four flights of stairs it takes to get to her office!

On the way home, I stopped by the laundromat and talked the lady behind the register out of charging me double for the detergent that we both know was not put in my clothes in the first place. Dinner was pretty measly, so I took off again with two other students from the program and met up with a couple of Cuban friends in Barrio Chino for good, cheap Chinese food. We splurged on a máquina (American car-turned-taxi from the 50’s) on the way back instead of a gua-gua because we felt lazy and could afford to splurge on the 40 cents apiece that it costs.

After poring over maps for a solo weekend trip to Pinar del Rio Province and finishing the reading for tomorrow’s CEDEM class, I’m ready to call goodnight to everybody downstairs and climb into bed. The shutters are open so that the warm sun will filter through in the morning and I will be able to hear when everyone hollers at me to get out of bed. (I invariably oversleep on Fridays.)"