My Kind of Town

From the moment I boarded the airplane from Havana to Atlanta and I noticed the stark differences between that plane and the last one we took back from Santiago I knew that readjusting to life back in the states wasn’t going to be easy. I nearly lost my mind when I took a bite of the Kind bars the air hostesses were handing out. All that time in Havana, while it did seem to go by extremely slow at first, blew by so quickly. It felt so surreal boarding that plane and looking down on all of Havana from that high up thinking this might be the last time I’ll ever see this place again. I get a feeling that it won’t be too long until I make a trip back to Cuba. Despite having lived there for nearly four months, I think I only really got to know Havana in these last few weeks. The kind of experience I was expecting from the early days of the trip started to make an appearance in my final days in Havana and even then I knew that wasn’t the whole experience, but simply the tip of the iceberg.
Havana and Cuba in general seems to be a two part experience, the first part which will take up a lot of your time is just getting accustomed and gaining a better understanding of the environment around you. The lesson I took away from that was to learn how to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Get used to the waiting for most things, the arguing with botero drivers about what a “fair” price is, the plentiful knock off Cohibas you’ll be offered as a “gift”, the gang of street cats that assert their dominance over the dumpster on 13th and uncomfortably packing into a tiny geometric Russian car in order to make it to class on time. These are only some of the many experiences, while they might not sound like the most pleasant I can’t even begin to describe the amazing experiences I’ve had here in Cuba. Evenings on the Malécon befriending strangers and singing songs late into the madrugada will always be one of my favorite memories. Which I think is part two of the experience, actually living it. Going out and branching as far out of your comfort zone as possible is essential if you really want to get to know Havana.
The Cubans that I’ve met on this journey, from those who are almost like family like my host father Sergio to those who I’ve only spoken to once and have never seen again, have taught me much more than I ever expected to learn. The time i’ve spent amongst actual Cubans has really shifted my perspective and in some ways it feels like Cuba was my personal bildungsroman. To end on a parody of one of Frank Sinatra’s most popular songs, Havana is my kind of razzamatazz and it has all that jazz. Havana is my kind of town and definitely somewhere I’ll be coming back to visit in the near future.