Henry Levine ’17
Majors: Spanish and Psychology
IFSA Butler: Universidad de La Habana Program, Havana, Cuba
Spring 2016
It is an amazing time to be in Cuba. After mildly electrocuting myself trying to turn on a light the first day, I began acclimating myself to Cuba. Cars from the 1950’s and 60’s serve as taxi cabs now, able to take you from one part of the city to another for a mere 40 cents.
The streets are lined with faded pink, blue, red, and green buildings, most with crumbling columns or balconies. Shirtless men sit on the sidewalks playing dominoes and drinking rum. After an unusually cool first month, the temperature has begun to spike, driving me to the beach on multiple occasions. The tropical water has been “too cold” for the Cubans, but serves me extremely well, especially when compared to the Atlantic. 
Although I miss weekend trips to Sugarloaf, weekly salsa lessons have begun to fill that gap. In terms of food, most meals consist of rice and either pork, chicken, or fish, and are sometimes accompanied with fried platanos or other viandas. Internet is only available at certain parks and street corners. While this can be frustrating, it also makes you more present. Considering the amount of times I check my phone at school and at home, this has definitely been beneficial to me.
This is a really interesting time for Cuba. As the country’s infrastructure continues to picturesquely deteriorate, relations with the US are warming. Prior to President Obama’s visit this week, the EDM group Major Lazer arrived in Havana and put on a free concert, where an estimated 400,000 Cubans attended. Tomorrow, the Tampa Bay Rays will play the Cuban national team, and later this week, the Rolling Stones will put on a free show where attendance is estimated to be anywhere between 500,000 to a million. As for President Obama, I was able to see his motorcade go by, but tickets to his speech are hard to secure, so I will probably watch on TV. Walking around Havana Vieja, we spotted a live NBC broadcast where my home state representative, Congressman Peter Welch, was being interviewed. I was able to introduce myself afterwards, and he was kind enough to take a picture with me. So it’s definitely an exciting time for Cuba-US relations.
As for me, there are still a lot of mojitos claiming to be the best in Havana that I need to sample, and I think some of my Salsa moves could use some more tweaking, so I’ll focus on that.