The ELI Weekly
Volume 161, Issue 5 – September 28, 2026
Out and About: “Cienfuegos is the city I like the most”
by Raul Perez de Prado
There is a charming city that has captivated its people and travelers from all over the world with its beauty and peaceful atmosphere. Visitors are attracted to its elegant blend of French style and warm Caribbean spirit. At the heart of El Prado Boulevard stands a statue of the legendary Cuban singer Benny Moré, with the words “Cienfuegos is the City I Like the Most,” a line from his famous song that pays tribute to his hometown.
Cienfuegos was established in 1819 on the southern coast of Cuba. Although it was part of Spanish territory, many of its early settlers came from France, particularly Bordeaux and French colonies such as Louisiana. As a commercial port surrounded by fertile agricultural lands, the city prospered through the production of sugar, tobacco, coffee, and other crops. By the 1860s, Cienfuegos had become one of Cuba’s wealthiest and most important cities, largely thanks to the nineteenth-century sugar boom.
Situated on Cuba’s largest natural bay, Cienfuegos opens directly onto the sea. Its coastal setting, grid-based urban layout, regular streets, and well-planned public spaces give the city its distinctive character. These features helped earn its historic center UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2005.
Known as the “Pearl of the South of Cuba,” Cienfuegos is full of magical places. A walk along El Malecón, the city’s waterfront promenade, offers beautiful views of the bay and its clear blue waters. Meanwhile, El Prado Boulevard embraces visitors with its leafy trees and elegant colonial-style houses. Its classical facades and columns create an atmosphere of nineteenth-century France. At the heart of the city, José Martí Park is surrounded by architectural landmarks, including the Government Palace, the Tomás Terry Theater, the Ferrer Palace, and Immaculate Conception Cathedral. Together, these buildings reflect the city’s rich architectural heritage and elegance.
If you prefer nature, Cienfuegos offers El Nicho, a hidden paradise of cascading waterfalls, natural pools, emerald-green swimming holes, and jungle trails, located about an hour from the center of the city. Across the city, around ten beaches provide the perfect setting to swim, relax, and enjoy the warm tropical climate and the friendly hospitality of the local people.
More than just a beautiful coastal city, Cienfuegos is a unique blend of history, architecture, and natural beauty. Its charm lies in the harmony between its historic streets, stunning bay, and peaceful atmosphere. As Benny Moré famously sang, ‘Cienfuegos es la ciudad que más me gusta a mi.’ (Cienfuegos is the city I like the most)
No CIP Weekend Activity – Study for Midterms!
There is no scheduled ELI activity this weekend since many classes will be holding Midterm Exams next week. Use the weekend to study. Good luck on your exams!
Here are some tips to help you do well on the exams and to improve your English overall.
- Review the activities in the book that your instructor assigned.
- Do activities in the chapter that your instructor did not assign.
- Find activities online. For example, if you Google “English verb tense practice,” you will get lots of results.
- Practice whatever you’re studying, but do it out loud. You can practice using pronouns in sentences, reading the newspaper and finding them there, listening for them when people talk, and writing texts to friends using them.
- Get plenty of sleep and eat well!
CIP Weekday Activities
| **No Coffee Talk on Monday! | Coffee Talk is cancelled on Monday because it is an Instructor Work Day. We’ll see you there next week! |
| Tuesday, September 29th – Volleyball – 6:30-9:00pm | Play volleyball and hang out at Lexington Crossing Apartments Phase 2 Volleyball Courts with us! No experience necessary! You can also watch, socialize or play other games if you don’t want to play volleyball. The ELI is usually in the volleyball court in the back of the complex next to the basketball court. Make sure to go to phase 2 of the complex! Take bus 35. Address: 3700 SW 27th St, Gainesville, FL 32608 |
| Thursday, October 1st – Gator Salsa – 6:00-9:00pm | Take Salsa and Bachata classes for free at Depot Village with ELI friends! Beginner and advanced learners welcome. Finish the evening with a fun open dance and explore this really cool new location! Take bus 1 or 5 Address: 404 SE 2nd St, Gainesville, FL 32601 |
CIP Photo of the Week: Depot Park during the full moon
Other CIP Activities
Conversation Partners
Want to meet with a fluent English speaker and make a new friend? Sign up for a CP! If you choose to sign up, you must meet with your partner for one hour a week. It can take up to two weeks to get a partner from when you sign up. Please sign up here!
Returning students, you will not automatically be paired again if you had a CP last semester. Please make sure to sign up again for the Fall semester if you did not request a Fall partner in your end of term evaluation from last semester.
Please email Aurora at conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu for any issues, questions or concerns or visit her in the CIP Office during office hours.
CIP Passport
Don’t forget to get your CIP Passport hole punched from the activity leaders AT the event (not after).
We don’t hole punch passports after the event. Redeem your completed passport for a small gift, a photo for the ELI Instagram, and your name published in the ELI weekly!
Need a new CIP Passport? Stop by the CIP Office!
Find the Pineapple! The CIP Pineapple will be hidden in the ELI Main Office this semester! It will be in a new place every Tuesday morning. Stop by and find it for hole punches. The first person to find the pineapple each week will be featured on the CIP board!
Notes from the Office
Instructor Workday: Monday, September 28th is an ELI Instructor Workday. There are no ELI classes. The ELI main office will be open from 9:00am-3:00pm.
People Out: Christine and Daryl will be out of the office September 28th
New Students: B Term is about to begin, and you will see new students coming to the main office, in the hallways, in your classes, and at activities. Please welcome and help new students as they begin to settle at UF and in Gainesville.
Course Evaluations: Soon we will be doing midterm course evaluations. This is your opportunity to provide feedback for your classes. Please go to this link https://bit.ly/4048gmH to review the evaluations so that you know how to fill them out when they are distributed in class. Your teachers and Language Assistants will use this information to plan the class for the rest of the semester.
Birthdays!
Students
None this week
Faculty/Staff
None this week
Manners & Culture
Q: What do I call Coca-Cola when I order it at a restaurant?
A: When the server asks for your drink order, you can say, “I’ll have a Coke.”
In some parts of Florida, the server might ask, “What kind (of Coke)?” They are asking this question because in the southern US, the word “Coke” can be the general word for the sweet fizzy drink. In other areas of the US, the general term for the drink is called “pop,” “soda,” or “soft drink.”
If the server asks, “What kind of Coke,” you can answer, “Just a regular Coke,” if you want Coca-Cola. Otherwise, fill in with the specific name of your drink if you want some other type: “I’d like a Sprite.” or “A Pepsi, please.”
Grammar
Q: Do I use ‘themself’ or ‘themselves’ in the sentence? “A person who sees themself/themselves as a leader is called a role model.”
A: A reflexive pronoun is a pronoun that reinforces the subject of a sentence or clause. Reflexive pronouns are recognized by the ending (-self or -selves) as in myself, yourself and yourselves, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves.
Traditionally, only the pronoun ‘you’ had both singular and plural reflexive forms: yourself and yourselves.
However, nowadays, that’s not quite true. As singular they becomes more widely used, the reflexive pronoun themself is also being used.
We can think about the usage of themself in terms of formality:
- A person who sees themself as a leader… (informal)
- A person who sees herself as a leader… (formal)
- A person who sees himself as a leader…(formal)
Note from the Editor: Calling all student authors!
I need all of you, students, LAs, instructors, staff, and administrators, to help me write the Weekly! Write a paragraph about your experiences this semester. You could write about an ELI activity, a Gainesville event, a fabulous local restaurant, or tell us about a place or event in your country that we should visit. Send me grammar questions for me to put in the Weekly. Send me manners and culture questions for me to put in the Weekly. Come by my office if you’d like to chat about topics or get help writing.
Send your paragraphs and/or questions to Christine Voigt (christinevoigt@ufl.edu) Use the subject heading: ELI Weekly.