Amanda

It's 2 in the morning and I really wish I was sleeping, but I can't until I write about this. OMG. So tonight, we were hanging out in the residencia, and Honorio, Danny, and I decided to go down to the gas station/liquor store to buy a few rum juiceboxes. Innocent enough. Well, we get there and were deciding which flavors to buy, when all of a sudden this Cuban girl starts talking to us, and tells us that we should just buy a small bottle of rum and some juice to go with it. Yes, this was the most economical option, and we had already thought of it. But we wanted the juiceboxes. But in the end, we ended up buying the rum anyway. So as we were walking out, this girl (Amanda) says to us, "oh, wait a minute". Now, this was after 1) she had already asked if Danny was the son of Honorio and myself, implying that we were old, 2) saying that Danny was 33 (we are all 22, so she was REALLY aging Honorio and I if we were the parents), and 3) told Honorio that he was fat. Anyway, she ends up coming with us to a little bar/food place next door. She won't let us talk to the waiters, telling us they will rip us off, and goes to get us some chicken (they charge her the same prices they charged us the other night anyway).

Next, as we open the rum, she starts telling Danny that he has lots of problems in his legs, and that she can't take his pulse through his veins the normal way "because he suffered some kind of trauma as a child". OMG. Tremendous medical advice- and she says that she's a doctor. So the whole time she's hitting in Danny, who is clearly not interested. She's touching him, offering massages, etc. The pollo is taking forever, so she goes to find out about it. In the meantime, this guy that works at a stand next to the bar walked by. He'd already met Danny a few nights ago, and whispered, "Hey Mex (Danny is Mexican), that girl is no good". Now, it's just Danny and I at the table at this point, and we both look at each other like WTF?!?! She comes back and we hear more crackpot medical advice. Then she starts asking us to buy a pack of cigarettes for her. We offered her the remains of a pack that we had on us. She declined, saying they were not the type that she preferred. Honorio responded by telling her that he doesn't usually drink rum either, but since that's what's here, that's what he drinks (beggars can't be choosy, as Danny told her). She didn't really like that, but drops the subject for a second. Finally, the chicken comes, so Honorio and I rip into it. She continues asking for cigarettes, and I have to say the guys have more balls than I do, because I probably would have given in. Since the guys are still denying her, she goes to ask other people at the bar for a cigarette. I soon see her talking to the cook and gesturing wildly towards our table. I alert Honorio (Danny was talking to someone at the stand next door, trying to find out more information about this girl), and as we are rapidly shoving rice, beans, and fried chicken down our throats, we have this intense debate about whether or not we should stay or run away (we'd already paid for the food, no worries). We keep saying "oh, we should go", yet continously eating and making no move to escape. Finally, she went in the bathroom, enough was enough, and we start sprinting towards our residencia across the street (thank God we never told her where we lived), grabbing a confused Danny on the way.

This was definitely my most bizarre experience so far. I don't even know how to describe it, and I need to think more about it before I can properly reflect, but I needed to write all this down immediately. All I can say is that I'm currently sitting on my balcony, in cold and windy weather, scared that somehow she'll know I'm in the penthouse of this building and all of a sudden come get me. And let me say, I've met lots of strange people in all my travels, but never had quite the same feeling as I got tonight.

My last reflections of the night are this: 1) I get lots of medical advice in other countries that I will feel free to never use. For instance, in DR I was told not to shower after eating or I would suffer a stroke. Here, hearing Amanda's advice to Danny convinced me that Cuban health care may not be as good as I thought, at least not if she's really a doctor..., and 2) Americans have lots of faults. I completely understand this. However, I also feel that as a population, Americans are not as pushy. At least, for me and the people that I am close to in the States, this is certainly true, but it's definitely not a universal thing in the world.

Time to sleep, but more comments on this at a later date.