#3. celebrated my cousins bday in Germany

[apricotluvr]

March so far

#1. whenever I work a shift at my part time job . I draw something on a sticky note and put it inside the work/client journal. I saw the one #I made a few months back was still there so I drew some flowers to change it #2. went thrifting w my mum. was rlly tired after work and didn’t actually wanna go but went anyway bc these days I use the car 5 days of #the week and my mum doesn’t rlly get to use it as much so I felt bad #3. celebrated my cousins bday in Germany #4. went to vote for the city elections. my parents didn’t feel like going / voting but I think voting is rlly important so I voted instead #for them. luckily here u can vote for urself + 2 other people if u have their permission & ID. my little brother went w me and actually #helped me vote :-) #5. wearing my mums sweater. as u can see it’s has pearls on the shoulder so I wore my pearl earrings. felt like I looked cute. also went #to see the refugee centre I’ll be working in. met 2 people on my team and some people from other organisations. also walked through the #centre and saw some of the residents #6. flowers in our home #7. heart candle I saw . #8. went for food w my mum and little brother. got some squid rings and it was so good #jrnl

[bibijanca]

MY TIME IN CUBA 🇨🇺

Where do I start.. Cuba, the biggest Island in the Caribbean Sea and a really interesting, unique and overwhelming country, with really nice and kind-hearted people. As I told you in my previous post I’ve been to Cuba in 2013 for the first time, but only for 3 weeks and with my parents and my little brother. This time I came alone and for 2 months (05.12.16 - 02.02.17), I lived in my aunts and her moms house and also traveled through the country. I have an own room in the house, and it really feels like “being home” when I’m there. Living in a cuban household makes you see things from another perspective, cause being in a country as a tourist will never make you experience how it is to really live there. In one word, Cuba is different. Different to every country I’ve been to before. Everything was a new experience for me and just completely different (not in a bad way).

WHAT DID I DO IN CUBA?

I did so many things, here are my “Highlights” and the most important things I did/saw:

HAVANA So my family lives in Havana, therefore I spent a lot of time in the beautiful Cuban capital. We live a bit outside of the city, so I always took the bus to go to the center. I always had something to do in Havana, either meeting friends or my aunt after work, buying stuff or just chilling at the Malecón and listening to music. I spent time in the center too, but mostly in “Vedado”, another part of Havana. Vedado is where you find most of the restaurants, markets, bars and Clubs, so it’s where the “night live” takes place. Me and my aunt loooove dancing! So we went out a lot, mostly to dance salsa (Oh by the way, I took a salsa class in Havana, just to learn the basics. When I come back to Cuba I’m gonna take salsa classes regularly!). We also went to a lot of concerts in the city, or we just spent evenings at home watching Cuban TV ( My favorite TV show: “Bailando en Cuba”). I felt very comfortable “at home”, and I loved spending time with my aunt and my grandma!

‼️If you’re planning to travel to Cuba and want to know what to do in the capital, here comes a list with my favorite spots in Havana:

🍸At night: For good Bars & Clubs go to “Vedado” (part of Havana) - “La Gruta”: Salsa Club, go there on a Wednesday - “La Red”: nice Club, good to dance, different types of music (Reaggeton, Charts, Salsa,..) - “Kingbar”: small bar, good to dance but a little bit more expensive - Good Concert: El Diablo Tun Tun (best show on Thursdays from 5pm - 9pm) - Cheap drinks (in Vedado, Street 23): “Polinesio”, happy hour from 4pm - 8pm

- “Café Cantante”: a Club, good to dance salsa

☀️During the day: - La Habana Vieja (Old Town) - Centre de La Habana: Capitolio, Prado - Malecón: to chill or walk, also good to hang out at night (one of my favorite places in the city to watch the sunset) - Playas del Este: Playa Santa Maria, nice beach close to Havana. You can take a colectivo or a bus - Restaurant: Casa Tacos (in Vedado), also really cheap Cocktails

ARTEMISA I spent a week (December 24th - January 2nd) in the province “Artemisa”, where my aunts family (Grandma, aunts, cousins,..) lives. It was nice living in such a big family, and everyone was so so nice (4 generations live there together). Usually they don’t celebrate Christmas in Cuba, but we had a big family dinner on the rooftop on the 25th, cause the whole family came together on that day. We also spent New Years Eve in Artemisa, same as Christmas: the whole family came together, we had so much fun and an amazing dinner with typical Cuban food.

VIÑALES It’s beautiful, but this time I only made a day trip to Viñales, we went there with the whole family by “bus”. A great day (plus yummy food, very important haha)!

90st BIRTHDAY PARTY My aunts grandma turned 90 in January, so she had a big party in Havana with 150 people. Cubans are the best to party with, even on a 90st bday Party, trust me! There’s almost no one who isn’t laughing, dancing and drinking rum. It was a fun day and evening and I’m happy that I’m part of this family, even though we’re not related (my grandpas wife isn’t my real grandma).

SANTIAGO DE CUBA I spent 5 days in this interesting city in the very south of the island. It was my first time there and I really liked it. I went there with my Grandma and her friend from Panama, we took a bus and it took us 18 hours to get there (from Havana)! We also visited my grandmas friend and his family who were so nice and caring.

WHAT DID I LEARN IN CUBA?

I learned so many things for life! Where do I even start.. When my aunt asked me to buy milk or eggs in my first days in Havana, I automatically said “okay sure, where can I get it?”. A question she couldn’t answer, cause you never know where to get what and when. It was a new challenge for me, even though I have to say that I’m a really adaptable to new or different things and I don’t need much to be happy! It’s just that I always lived in Germany and therefore I’m really used to the western world.

But that’s why I love traveling: Things like this make me realize that I’m really used to certain things, and that I also take a lot of things for granted. Like the ability to buy things in general, always being able to have a warm shower (always having water and the food you want) and the most important thing: being able to travel.

Living in Cuba made me realize how lucky I am to have a German passport, and I felt bad because I have to confess that I always took it for granted. I can just book a flight to anywhere if I have the money, I can be on another continent tomorrow if I wanted to. That’s something I appreciate so much more now that I talked to a lot of Cubans who have never been to another country, cause they’re not able to leave the country that easily.

Anyway, things like this made (and still make) me think a lot. I’m so much happier now that I really appreciate everything more, even though I always appreciated the things I have. But still, we’re so used to having everything in the 1st world and we complain SO much! Being used to everything we have, we forget that we are actually so so lucky. It’s hard to imagine how life would be without all these things. And even if you can imagine, you need to live like this, otherwise you would never really understand.

WHAT DID I LIKE THE MOST?

I loooove Cuba! The happiness and passion of the people, the food, the vibe, the music and of course the dancing. Not only did I get the skin color from my cuban grandfather, but also the love for music and dance. I love dancing, so I felt like I’m in paradise, cause everyone’s just dancing everywhere, it’s amazing! I enjoyed talking to Cubans, it’s so interesting how they feel and what they think about their situation and their lives. I love how they are always trying to make the best out of everything and trying to be happy. That’s what we need to do: being happy and stop complaining!

I learned and did so much more, but that’s it for now 🖖🏾

#cuba