I feel like I could talk about the driving and the cars here endlessly, but that would get old and boring. However, I\u2019d like to go more into detail on what it\u2019s like for the average person walking the streets of our neighborhood, Vedado, which does include a bit more on the automobiles.<\/p>\n
My roommate and I have a 20 minute walk to school every morning. At that time, Vedado is in full hustle-and-bustle. We\u2019re in the business district, so we see workers left and right rushing to work, trying to pick up m\u00e1quinas. Nurses wearing their scrubs walk leisurely to their clinics, while moms in heels click quickly down the uneven sidewalks, dragging their kids behind them to get to school on time.<\/p>\n
The streets are dirty, but so are the streets in New York City. It\u2019s not unsightly. Aside from the streets with m\u00e1quinas, all the streets are one way, and since the neighborhood follows a block system, this creates endless 4-way intersections. Yet there are no stop signs. All cars and motorcycles simply slow down when they\u2019re coming to an intersection \u2013 motorcyclists often turn off their engines on downhills and let gravity take charge, too. It\u2019s amazing there aren\u2019t more accidents, as there are no crosswalks, either. However, for many Cubans, their car is their lifeline, nearly as important as their house; for this reason, though they seem reckless, they know exactly what they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
Instead of pigeons or squirrels scuttling around, there are tons of stray cats and dogs walking around. None are interested in humans, much to our relief and<\/em> sadness. Surprisingly, we\u2019ve seen all types of breeds of both, despite it being too hot a climate for some. For instance, we\u2019ve seen several huskies.<\/p>\n Despite being in a city, there\u2019s a lot of green surrounding us. Houses usually have a front gate that opens to a patio with lots of tropical trees and bushes. At any time of day, you see people out on their stoops chatting. Unfortunately, many of these people are men taking part in an extremely prevalent cat-calling culture. Cat calls here are called \u201cpiropos.\u201d No matter your age, what you\u2019re wearing, the color of your skin, so long as you are a woman, it is almost inevitable that you will pass men making kissing, hissing or clicking noises at you. If you are a foreigner, you\u2019ll often hear \u201cWhere you fron, beautiful lay-dee?\u201d or \u201c\u00a1Qu\u00e9 linda!\u201d \u201cBoyfrien? Novio? Marry me?\u201d Those are the non-vulgar calls, anyway. To any outsider, this sounds terrifying and downright wrong. However, we\u2019ve come to accept it as part of the culture. My host mother explained to my roommate and I that piropos are deep-seated in the history and culture of Cuba, and they\u2019re unlikely to go away. To the men that make the comments, it\u2019s not meant to be threatening or taken seriously \u2013 it\u2019s simply a game. They\u2019re trying to get a reaction out of you the way your sibling teases you to get a rise out of you. It\u2019s best to ignore the piropos, but one can have some success by taking a picture of the man to get into his personal space, or by saying things like \u201cHey, I think I know your wife!\u201d or \u201cI think I know your daughter!\u201d These statements don\u2019t always work, but they\u2019re something to do when you\u2019re feeling irritated and powerless.<\/p>\n Between the houses are little shops built out of homes. There are few touristy trinket places in Vedado, but there are many cafeter\u00edas, places where you can get a variety of delicious foods for less than a dollar. I could go into the types of food, but that will be a post of its own! In addition, shoe repair shops are common and you can find beauty salons and hairdressers in between. Main streets are home to formal restaurants, theaters, and bars. It\u2019s very difficult, however, to find shops with basics, such as shampoo and soap or even cooking oil and rice. The number of fresh fruit and vegetable stands is solid, at the very least.<\/p>\n Though we\u2019ve been here only two weeks, the streets of Vedado feel more and more like home to us with each day. They feel familiar and safe, and after seeing other neighborhoods \u2013 Miramar, Centro Habana, Habana Vieja \u2013 we can easily say that we\u2019re happy to be where we are.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I feel like I could talk about the driving and the cars here endlessly, but that would get old and boring. However, I\u2019d like to go more into detail on what it\u2019s like for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cuba"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=526"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/526\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/excrcl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}