a dream with a cuban touch

So I was meeting up with Rita, probably around her school and we decided to go shopping. We go into this shopping center/mall place and I go up to a window and comment on how much I like this one bag. Rita says she'll ask how much it is and goes in. I look at it a little longer and saw the tag and it said something like $5675. So I go in to stop her and I already hear the guy at the counter saying "well that depends it could go anywhere from 25 - 5 (25 hundred to 5 thousand)".. so I turn around and start talking to Rita while looking as some bags in the glassy store and I turn back around a second later and she's gone. I felt a little foolish for talking to someone that wasn't even there and then I take the few steps forward to where Rita was and realize the tiny bag store had another entrance/exit.

I step out and Rita is waiting for me outside around the corner of the store where we first saw that $5000 bag. We continued on and went into this huge second-hand part of the shopping center. Rita and I were here for awhile and it was mostly because of me. We were poking around in the clothes and books, and all the really friendly middle aged to elderly people who were working there .. were really friendly and offering help.

I started to find things I remembered from Cuba, books that looked interesting but I didn't buy because my spanish was too weak or I just didn't want to invest and carry it back home. At some point Rita went to the back where their was a cafe, sorta like how barnes and noble have starbucks tucked in there. So I kept on searching and she sat and waited there. I felt really bad at some point cause I know how I can get and I can dig around for a long time if I'm allowed.

I must have kept on doing this thing where I was holding one or two things, and I would put it down to pick up another, and when I would go to pick up my previous things I would accidently pick up something new/different because I wouldn't have what I thought I originally had (if that makes sense). 

So I keep finding stuff that makes me think I've seen it in Havana, and versions of books in spanish that I've never seen (like harry potter). And then I run into my old Spanish professor, Martha, and she's one of the friendly older people working the shop. (Its really great, cause I love her) I see an old copy of Alice, a real flimsy paper copy thats in a horizontal rectangle shape, from 1866. I take it. I see a copy of a movie I "supposedly" saw in Cuba, called Rojar, "to paint red/make red", with the guy from motorcycle diares/science of sleep/gael garcia bernal starring in it. I pick that up. (rojar is not a real word)

I go to show Rita my finds in the cafe area, and I see her sitting at a table. I don't know if she's feeling impatient or not, but I feel bad for making her wait so long so I see the look of annoyance on her face. I'm at the cafe counter talking to the girl behind it and she says shes not sure she can ring me up. And the guy a little farther away says he can ring it up and comes. And of course he has trouble ringing it up. And the total is $34. And I say for two used things?? And the girl was like c'mon, you can ring her for lower (like he just typed in a general code for book and dvd and that was the price I got). He didn't change it, I got really offended. Feeling really ripped off. I start ranting, did you know thats like 2 months pay in Cuba?? And they're both like really? 

I say, For the average person in cuba they make like $16 dollars avg a month, they can't even buy themselves one beer sometimes. Then I go on to say Thats why so many people want to get into tourist industry cause thats where all the extra money is.

I ended up walking away but I knew I wanted to say that it was basically 10cents to go to a movie, 40cents to go to a nice concert.. 

I woke up feeling very angry and odd-like torn between two worlds, seeing things from cuba.. 

(beer is around 80cents to a dollar each [not at a bar, hotel, etc], so if your salary each month is 325$ equivalent to 13 dollars, you really cant go on and buy yourself a beer whenever you want. But thats only some of the population, there's plenty of people who live comfortably and extravagantly by the cuban standard of living)