The Best Way to Lose Weight

Come to Cuba. Everyday, we are hungry. The best way to describe Cuban food, is similar and far an few between. Not to say it is their fault because the embargo, more correctly known here as the blockade has allowed extremely limited options for the Cuban people especially with food choices. Our house mom makes delicious food, but it is repetitive. For breakfast we have a scramble of eggs with some tomatoes and other bland vegetables, bread, guayba (guava), pineapple (if its available), coffee, juice usually made by Maria (our house mom) herself, ham and cheese. The cheese here is that waxy kind that is not very good which is disappointing since cheese is one of my favorite foods. For dinner we usually have rice, black beans, vegetables, some sort of meat, juice again made by Maria. Dinner is usually my favorite because there is always a slight variation with what we have. For lunch we are on our own, which means buying certain meats from street vendors and usually eat them on bread or with rice. I usually buy ham sandwiches which is the backbone of Cuban meals. However, these meals come around every 5 hours or so. I am used to the luxury of having fast food, cafes and other sorts of food places at my disposal at any hour of the day. It was hard to adjust to feeling hungry for the majority of the day. Usually my two roommates Desiree and Sarah and I have a snack between lunch and dinner which is a beer and ice cream because it fills up our stomachs and is cheap. We also spend tons of time walking. We walk everywhere, or ride the bus somewhere then walk everywhere around there. Plus we live on the 14th floor or so and I HATE the elevator because it is the slowest creepiest jankyiest thing I have ever been in, So i usually walk up 14 flights of stairs 4-5 times a day. Besides the lack and variation of food, everything else in Cuba is very rich. It is rich in rum, music, art, and conversations. We make new friends every time we walk down the street. People stare here; we are these huge spectacles. It gets a bit repetitive. I am hoping to improve my dancing here because the Cubans are phenomenal dancers. My roommate and I went to Casa de la Musica, a very well known music club where live music plays every night, and there were a bunch of university students there. They were incredible dancers, and the guys just push you around the floor and spin you and its just really fun. I still need to figure out the style of dance though, the women here are great dancers as well and the way a cuban man and woman move together across a dance floor is seamless and so fun to watch. I'm off to go get a snack, but honestly I see now, more than ever, why Americans are ridiculously obese.