Day 2
Fabulous old cars in Central Havana today.
Architectural beauties, some restored, some not so much. Colonial, Art Deco,
This where the old car taxis pick up fares for a fun ride. Hopefully by the end of the trip, we will take a ride for 1 hour.. Lunch in an Italian place with music to entertain. On tho Varadero, we stopped and everyone was dancing and drinking Pina coladas. You don’t see these rest stops along I -5.
Bus to Varadero, a beach town on the Straits of Florida. Went swimming in a mad rainstorm. Bonnie and I have a suite with lots of room. When the tourists start coming from he US., I hope this area does not turn into another Hawaii. Love to you all. more later.

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Arrived in Panama after a red eye flight from. San Francisco and left my new camera on the plane.
They told me it would be in lost and found. Well let’s hope it’s there . Meanwhile I am back to taking photos with my iPad. I hope an honest person finds it and turns it in.
On my way to Havana now. I will try to keep calm and carry on, as they say.

Later – checked in at Hotel Presidente. The hotel needs refurbishing but the people are lovely and helpful.
The bus ride from the airport was interesting, driving by houses formerly palatial residences, now apartments with many people living there. The old cars are everywhere. I even saw a red Packard convertible taxi.
The pic I’m sending is of the special stadium where the Rolling Stones played. Dinner was sumptuous and we were serenaded by a group who played songs from the country.

More tomorrow. It’s fabulous here. The architecture is beautiful. We will take a walking tour of old Havana tomorrow. It’s raining.

N

School is out for summer. My classes were great.The students were creative, curious and interested. They created small collections of original textiles.

Memorial Day Andre and I went to the Presidio to visit grandparents and great grandparents graves. It was a first visit for Andre.

Tonight, I am on my way to Cuba with the CCSF Study Abroad program. I will post as often as I can. I have heard that internet connections are not ideal. Music, architecture, old 50’s cars,fashion, a step back in time.

Weather Report: Its freezing here. I am definitely not used to cold weather. No more snow or rain though for the rest of the week.

We are using two programs, Spoonflower and Pic Monkey to alter photographs and scans of anything; nature, collages or artwork we have made with watercolors, pens, pencils, etc. For instance, I have used various images such as a plate of tomatoes, a marble mosaic, a picture of the fabric from the pants I was wearing, and photo of roses in the snow. Then we put the work from the desktop into one of those programs to alter the photos. This is similar to Photoshop but not as complicated. I hope tomorrow I will be able to show you a before and after of what the process looks like. I am still working on at least 15 different images. Then after you get an image you like you can order the fabric yardage through Spoonflower that you have designed. There is also a company in San Francisco that digitally prints fabric for artists.
The two pictures are “Sunset after the Storm” and Samples of the Teachers Work

It’s been snowing and raining all day. Very cold too.
There are six people in my class for learning digital designing of fabric. I was working my brain so hard (improves the memory I hear) that I forgot to take any photos. So much for that idea.