Around the Bloc

Desperate to escape South Texas Stephanie Elizondo Griest dreamed of becoming a foreign correspondent. So she headed to Russia looking for some excitement—commencing what would become a four-year twelve-nation Communist bloc tour that shattered her preconceived notions of the “Evil Empire.” . In Around the Bloc Griest relates her experiences as a volunteer at a children’s shelter in Moscow a propaganda polisher at the office of the Chinese Communist Party’s English-language mouthpiece in Beijing and a belly dancer among the rumba queens of Havana. She falls in love with an ex-soldier who narrowly avoided radiation cleanup duties at Chernobyl hangs out with Cuban hip-hop artists and comes to difficult realizations about the meaning of democracy. . is the absorbing story of a young journalist driven by a desire to witness the effects of Communism. Along the way she learns the Russian mathematical equation for buying dinner-party vodka (one bottle per guest plus an extra) stumbles upon Beijing’s underground gay scene marches with 100000 mothers demanding Elián González’s return to Cuba and gains a new appreciation for the Mexican culture she left behind.