insect bites, ninja fights

i was bit the other night by either a scorpion, a hornet, or bee.
the result was my hand swelling up to that of an inflated rubber glove.
i´m not exactly sure what bit me, but it was bad and i´m going to assume i´m allergic to things.
i forgot to take a photo, but it was pretty funny, if i get bit again it will be documented.

havana graffiti pics coming soon.

The Fuster Gallery

Being one of a number of US Students (not a large number but 100+)  studying medicine in Cuba, not study abroad through a US university but actually living here and studying for long term (6 years minimum), gives us the opportunity to meet people we would most likely not have met back home (last year I met the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa) as well as the opportunity to see a lot of new and interesting things. Today we were invited by some visitors to Cuba to an art Gallery right down the highway from where we live to have lunch and talk at the Fuster Gallery. The meal was great, the conversation better, and the art work of Fuster was amazing. He does ceramic and mosaic work and has grown his work out of his house and into his neighborhood. Amazing stuff. I asked if I could come back to photograph, he said "any time" so look for more photos from this amazing place in the future. If you make it to Cuba you need to check out the Fuster Gallery in Jaimanitas.

paz sin fronteras

Colombian singer Juanes came to Cuba and put forth a big old concert with number of other international stars in the Plaza de la Revolución, well over a million people were in attendance, school even hooked up free buses out there. Good times.

the stage from where i was sitting (standing for 4 hours? pass)

shout out to my chilean friends. flags of all nations were flying

a room with a view

every day when i wake up and lift my head this is what i see: 

other side of the hallway is the ocean view kind of blocked by another dorm.

currently living with uruguayans and brazilians. estou falando muito portugues.

a ton of new delegations have arrived at the school as well, some 20+ new countries are now being represented from as close as the Caribbean, to as far as the South Pacific, countries I've never even heard of. It's going to be a good year.

cancun

gate B1 and i'm out. 

updates from the field coming soon.

back to the grind

Back to school/Cuba next week, catch me before I'm out.

calle. santos suarez, la habana, cuba.

It's hard to do color balance on photographs with ridiculous color hues, thus is Cuba.

and the gorilla turned to the zoo keeper and signed, "please, kill me..."

This weekend I journeyed 12 hours west to the Grand Rapids area (Michigan for those not in the geographical know) with my brother (formerly of Brooklyn, now of Jersey) and his family to go see my other brother and his family out there. Good times overall even got to kick it with my SSWE/ELAM buddy on some small world coincidence. On Saturday we all hit up the John Ball Zoo  (not too shabby for a smallish zoo) which was in a totally random location.

gorilla. grand rapids, michigan, usa.

Is it just me or do the grand majority of animals in zoos look depressed? I can barely recall my weekly childhood visits to the Bronx Zoo but I'm sure they looked just as sad. I'll be visiting the Zoológico de La Habana later this year, so we'll see if the same theory stands abroad.