{"id":59720,"date":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-students-take-in-hip-hop-hemingway-baseball-during-recent-trip-to-cuba\/"},"modified":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-23T00:00:00","slug":"uri-students-take-in-hip-hop-hemingway-baseball-during-recent-trip-to-cuba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2015\/01\/uri-students-take-in-hip-hop-hemingway-baseball-during-recent-trip-to-cuba\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 students take in hip-hop, Hemingway, baseball during recent trip to Cuba"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 23, 2015 \u2013 The old Chevys were charming, Hemingway\u2019s house was \u201ccool\u201d and the Museum of the Revolution was moving, but it was the pickup baseball game with a bunch of 10-year-olds that Tyler Figgis \u201915 remembers most about his trip to Cuba over winter break.<\/p>\n


\nThey played under palm trees in a small village. A stick sufficed as a bat; scars marked the baseballs. Still, Figgis and his 溏心vlog免费B站 classmates had the experience of a lifetime. <\/p>\n


\n\u201cWe got clobbered,\u201d says Figgis, of Stratford, Conn. \u201cBut the fact that we were in Cuba playing the national sport was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nIt\u2019s impressive enough that Figgis and 19 other 溏心vlog免费B站 students visited the country Jan. 10 through 16 as part of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s J-term offerings, but even more compelling that the journey came a few weeks after the United States restored diplomatic ties with the nation, ending a 65-year-old embargo imposed after Fidel Castro came to power. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was perfect timing,\u201d says 溏心vlog免费B站 political science professor Maureen Moakley, who went on the trip and expects to return in April to talk to Cuban academics about creating a semester abroad program for 溏心vlog免费B站 students. \u201cEveryone was engaged and enthusiastic.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThat\u2019s an understatement. The students spent 10 days touring the island, visiting museums, universities and hospitals; living with families in the countryside; talking with writers and artists; and even rapping with a hip-hop singer. They gobbled down rice and black beans, sweet-tasting tomatoes and salads made with greens plucked from organic farms. <\/p>\n


\nAlong the way, they documented their travels with photos \u2013 lots of them: students marching through corn fields; students by a 1950 aqua-marine Chevy; students standing in front of a mural of the rebel leader Castro; students strolling the streets of Havana, with its cobblestone streets and worn-out shutters.<\/p>\n


\nThey were eager to tell their stories when they got back.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThe Revolution is very much alive in Cuba,\u201d says Figgis. \u201cThey don\u2019t have any commercial advertising \u2013 no ads for Coca-Cola, just billboards of Castro and Che Guevara. Not a lot of capitalism going on down there.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThat\u2019s expected to change \u2013 quickly. U.S. Congressional leaders are already making trips to the island to drum up business, which should translate into money and jobs for Cubans, says Jason Rosenblum \u201915, of Howell, N.J.<\/p>\n


\n \t\u201cWhen I told people I\u2019m from the United States their whole demeanor changed,\u201d he says. \u201cThey got really happy, especially the younger generation. They have even less reason to leave now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Two things stood out for him: Cubans are highly educated, thanks to an excellent public education system; and they\u2019re aware of what\u2019s going on beyond their Communist-run island, just 90 miles from Florida. \u201cThey\u2019re not as isolated as people think,\u201d says Rosenblum, who snapped 1,000 photos. \u201cThey knew about politics and music all over the world.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nHe says Cubans also admire Americans, which he found surprising considering the decades of tension. \u201cThey love Obama,\u201d says Rosenblum. \u201cThey can’t wait to be able to trade with the United States and travel back and forth.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nYet Cubans still have great appreciation for their government, says Mike Gilligan \u201916 of Charlestown, R.I. \u201cBefore the trip, I thought Cubans were tired of their regime.\u201d No way. Gilligan says they have faith in their government.<\/p>\n


\nGianelle Alba \u201915, of Providence, experienced a Cuba far different from the one she learned about in American history books. \u201cI was taught that Cuba was a controlling, violent country. It wasn\u2019t. Cubans are the happiest people I\u2019ve ever met. It was mind blowing.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nThe trip was such a hit Moakley and economics professor Richard McIntyre, who also went, expect to go back next year with a new group of students. Future student travelers take note: spots are expected to fill up fast.<\/p>\n


\n\u201cThis is the beginning of an annual J-term trip for 溏心vlog免费B站,\u201d says Moakley. \u201cVisiting Cuba is a wonderful way to enhance 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s global education initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tPictured above: Scenes from Cuba during a 溏心vlog免费B站 student trip to the country, Jan. 6 through 10, as part of the University\u2019s J-term offerings. Photos by Jason Rosenblum \u201915.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I., Jan. 23, 2015 \u2013 The old Chevys were charming, Hemingway\u2019s house was \u201ccool\u201d and the Museum of the Revolution was moving, but it was the pickup baseball game with a bunch of 10-year-olds that Tyler Figgis \u201915 remembers most about his trip to Cuba over winter break. They played under palm trees […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59724,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}