GAMETIME

Top three things about Cuban Baseball games:

1. You can’t buy an Industriales (The Havana National team) T-Shirt or hat while the game is going on (because duh, the woman who owns the store wants to watch the game too).
2. To show support, Cubans remove their car horns out of their cars and honk them (much like we ring cowbells).
3. When the Industriales hit one out of the park and score a home run, the stadium goes nuts. Men embrace, women cry…and everyone wants to grab a baby.

It is hard to imagine this, but there are no advertisements or between inning entertainment for the fans. People are there to watch really great baseball and don’t even leave to get snacks (they might miss a big play!). Imagine being singled out at a Greensboro Grasshopper game (or Durham Bulls…or any team for that matter) for wanting beer or hotdogs.

(Of course there was no beer nor hotdogs at this game. There was popcorn. And it was delicious.)

In the spirit of such a game, Catherine and I decided to do a double-hitter and take boxing class back-to-back Wednesday and Thursday.

That means eight hours of my life in the past two days was with Nardo, mi profe, who asked for everything I had…and then asked me to run stairs.

Wednesday’s practice with China (pronounced chee-nah, the only other girl at the gym) was not so bad. Those four hours flew by.

Thursday was different.

Thursday, Nardo finally asked us why we were taking “el clase de boxeo” and we told him. We want to learn to defend ourselves. His intense eyes softened and he said, “Ok. No Problem.”

Then he worked us extra hard and showed us the good places to punch people. I.e. the chin and the stomach.

He then said we had a lot of potential. If Nardo says Catherine and I have the potential to kick ass for real, then my life is almost complete (it will be complete when he says we actually do kick ass...but I still have 2 more months).

The other pictures I'm trying to upload are:
1. Nardo and his French friends
2. Lizzie, Emily and Kelly after they played basketball in los juegos del caribe
3. Flowers my roomie bought to brighten our room


todo mi amor,

la reina de rositos de maiz (popcorn),
Sara la fresa