Cuba.

Hello clan! Welcome to my very first post (dedicated to Ninang Cita and Ate Catherine who were bugging me to make one). I have a feeling this is going to be very, VERY long. Read it if you want, don't if you don't, but it should be interesting. Anyways, as you may or may not have known, I'm a part of my school's Senior Jazz Band playing the trombone, and am also a part of our Senior Vocal Jazz Ensemble singing 'the guy's part,' if you will. Every few years, my school takes both groups down to Cuba, and I just so happened to return from that trip yesterday! It was a 9-day trip, spending 2 days in Cienfuegos, and the rest in the capital city, Havana. I'm the Music Steward at our school, which is basically a position appointed by the music teachers that serves as a student representative of the musical community, and also helps out the music teachers here and there, meaning that I had to do a lot of organizational work before we left. Not nearly as much as our music teachers though; kudos to them. Speaking of which,

This is Steve Burrage. He's our band director and head of the music department at Southridge. He's mainly a trumpet player, but plays everything really. He's a real funny guy. Good sense of humour, which always makes jazz rehearsals exciting.

This is Jenna Parker. She mans the choir. She sings (obviously) and plays alto sax/various woodwinds. She has a really sarcastic sense of humour, which is why her and I are like....tight. She's SO fun to be around.

This is Paul Doig. Yes, I know he's sleeping and looks funny in this picture, but this is the only one I have of him....he isn't actually a music teacher by the way. He teaches Physics, but 3 teachers were required for a group our size. He does sing in a gospel choir though, which I think is a good reason, among others, of why he was picked to go with us.

This is Sam King. He plays guitar and alto sax. He's not a teacher. He's a Southridge Alumnus that was invited to go with us. He's been a great contributer to our music program this year, to both band and choir, thus the invite.

This is Iovanni (he's the one that's not me). No that's not a typo. It's Giovanni minus the G. I call him Io because it sounds cool. And 'cause it's shorter....Anyways, he was our tour guide for the trip. He's definitely the coolest tour guide you will ever meet. He knew a lot of his stuff and was also really funny. He just bonded with all of us instantly. We were pretty sad to let him go.
Anyways, on with the trip!

Days 1 & 2
Our flight left Vancouver at 9PM. Ate seemed pretty happy to see me off :(. Our flight was about 5 hours long, and the 3-hour time difference meant that we would arrive at the airport in Varadero at 5AM!! From there, we took a 4-hour bus ride to our hotel in Cienfuegos. The weather when we arrived was kind of dark and stormy. Someone asked the forecast for the day. Io told us we were in for a few hurricanes; apparantly they were common in Cuba. We didn't know if he was joking or not. We didn't want to either... Io gave us the option to have him give us a little Cuban history, or to sleep. Considering it was 2AM Vancouver time....we decided to sleep, no offense to Io. When we got to our hotel, we were given brunch, which seemed really awkward considering how long we had been up. we were given some really strange ham and tomato sandwiches....not a very good 'welcome to Cuba' meal, but we dealt with it. We had the afternoon free 'til lunch time, after which we departed for the beach!! It wasn't a very nice beach; the sand was all rocky and cigarette-butty, but much nicer ones were to come later. Then we returned to the hotel for free time. I decided to use this time to explore the hotel. We definitely had some very pretty views. Out of our bedroom window was our hotel's pool, while out the bedroom door at the balcony was a very nice ocean view. Out the front was a very large, interesting statue. It was of a hermit crab from the front, but if you went around to its back, you would see human feet sticking out of its butt....strange eh? Anyways, we had dinner: our first official Cuban meal. We had chicken and RICE!! I felt very at home there :). After dinner, the choir rehearsed, then the jazz band. The people who were only in one of the groups had a bit of free/rest time, but unfortunately for the 4 of us that were in both groups, we got no rest, so we were pretty exhausted by the end of the day.

Day 3
After a good 40-hour day, we were very refreshed after a good night's sleep. That morning, we went to the colonial village of Trinidad. It was basically a really old village with stone houses and buildings and cobblestone streets and stuff. We did some sightseeing and shopping there, then had lunch with ice cream for dessert. By the way, after every lunch and dinner would be ice cream for dessert. It. Was. Amazing. Anyways, my ice cream came out way before I had finished my meal, so half if it was melted by the time I got to it. I ate what was left of it and decided to make some art with the leftover cream stuff. This yin yang was my result. I was pretty happy with it. After lunch, we went back to the hotel for some down time. On the bus ride there, there were SO many crabs crossing the highway! A little odd we thought, but apparantly they were crossing to the ocean to lay their eggs. Unfortunately, a lot of them were ran over in the process, which left tons of smushed crab on the road. BUT, if they ever saw a car approaching, some would try and scurry away, but the bold ones would assume a fighter's pose! and die with dignity! Good for them. That evening was our first performance at an open-air cultural centre. Ironically enough, half the audience was a field hockey group from....Vancouver. Oh well. We played alright, I guess. We finished off with Superstition by Stevie Wonder. They seemed to enjoy it; they shouted for an encore, which we complied with by playing Eye of the Tiger....hehe. It was pretty cool.

Day 4
Our 2-day stay in Cienfuegos was over, which meant a bus trip to Havana!! In order to liven up the multi-hour bus trip, we stopped en route at a crocodile zoo. There, we saw crocs of all ages and sizes. Right up front was a 'take-your-picture-with-a-baby-croc' station, so most of us went to have our picture with a baby croc. He would give us a his hat to wear, then his croc with its mouth tied with a rope, and let us snap a photo! I went last, so I got to be special. The croc man said something in spanish along the lines of 'something something sombrero,' so naturally I thought he wanted his hat back, so I put it back on his head. Turns out he wanted me to make a crocodile-hat....they're actually very soft. Their skin's so smooth and their bellies are all squishy. I guess that's why they're so wanted for bags and shoes and stuff. We eventually got to Havana. Our hotels were nice I guess. Instead of a huge building with little rooms, it was multiple buildings, each serving as a hotel, like cabins of you will. The hotel staff there treated us to salsa dance classes every night. The Cubans probably made fun of us for dancing so...Canadian. We were obviously pretty awkward at first, but my partner and I were defs the best by the end. :P


Day 5
Our first morning at the new hotel sucked. We had a blackout. And our water was down. Some sort of repair going on. We don't really know for sure. Anyways, I jumped in the pool for my shower. I wasn't very happy. Oh well. That morning was our second performance. It was for a high school specializing in music, so practically every student there was better than us. They definately enjoyed it though. They cheered louder than any other audience we had, which boosted our self-confidence/adrenaline, which led to us performing way better than we probably ever have before. Afterwards, we went for a bus tour of Old Havana. I'm not gonna go into the details, but I will post a few interesting pics.
Big Che.

Fourth biggest Jesus in the world.

This is El Capitolio, which is identical, give or take a few inches, to the US Capitol Building in Washington DC.

These guys are talking about baseball. It's true; Io told us.

Oh, here's some Cuban trivia for you. Instead of their plate numbers being differenciated by provinces/states, they differ by colour, each meaning something different, i.e. Green meant military owned, yellow for private owned, lalala. White, however, meant Fidel Castro's inner circle....which was obviously a rare sight. Luckily enough for us, there was one parked in an alley we walked through. Cool eh??

For dinner, we had lengua. Not many ate it. I did, and felt very much at home :)

Day 6
We were asked to bring various childrens' toys and games and some medical supplies...because we would be spending a day at an orphanage. A group of us was assigned to play with the orphans, who were 0-5 years old, which is VERY tiring. And groups of us were assigned to cook, clean, and repair stuff. I know I don't sound very excited about this, but it was definitely a rememberable experience, and they were very greatful for it.



Day 7
We entered some form of Jazz Festival...I didn't fully understand it; I just know we were to perform. It was probably the least exciting of our performances...but a performance nonetheless. After the fest, we went the Jazz Cafe, where we would be performing later that night. We got to listen to a group called...I don't remember, but they're famous Cuba-wide and have even performed here in Vancouver. Anyways, their closing number, which just so happened to be the one i video'd, made me REALLY excited! Although I didn't get the whole thing on video, I'm sure you'll all be as excited as I was.

The guy second from the left was my favourite; he was their percussion section. But all in all, they were definitely amazing. Anyways, later that night, we returned to the Jazz Cafe, the coolest jazz hangout in all of Cuba. So we were under a little pressure there. We defs pulled it off though. The band was amazing, and the choir was even moreso. The choir's best number, and my personal favourite, is the Ike & Tina Turner cover of Proud Mary (Rollin' on the River...) Here is a video of the song (not us performing it) if you want to hear it. Anyways, the crowd was amazing, and some of them even started singing along. It was pretty cool :) ; definitely a great end to our performances.
Day 8
We started out this day with a walk along the Malecon, basically a really long seawall, then proceeded to the largest open-air market in La Habana. I defs spend all my money there on pasolubong. I got to bargain on everything. It was tons of fun. If we ever reunite in Canada (HINT HINT), you can all see this really cool piece of art I got. Oh, and my bongos as well. After the market, we had lunch and headed to Santa Maria beach, which was by far the best beach we had been to. The sand was so soft and white, the waves were huge; it was ALMOST comparable to Buracay. Anyways, we returned to our hotel for our final dinner in Cuba, then had a huge dance party. The dance party was, sadly, a substitute for a huge jam session, which would've been much cooler, but...eh. It was our sad :( farewell to Cuba.

Day 9
We were to either sleep or stay up til 2AM, where we would depart for Varadero to catch a 7:15AM flight back to YVR. It was pretty sad for all of us to be leaving such a fun country, and to be leaving behind Io, but a 16 hour sleep was waiting for me back home. Speaking of Io, we asked him the first place he would go to if he were allowed to leave Cuba. He said Canada:). We asked him why. He replied with, 'I want to see a moose.' :P