Horizons Student Support Services Study Abroad - Havana, Cuba: Jordyn Tucker

Even though it was gloomy out today, we still enjoyed our first time at a Cuban beach. We went to playa (beach) Santa Maria across from the Tropicoco hotel. Despite the gray the weather still felt perfect. Most of us spent our time swimming in the water, which was extremely warm and salty. We woke up around nine for breakfast and gave gifts to our host mom Esmeralda for Mother’s day. For breakfast we had scrambled eggs with a bunch of different fruits including pineapple, papaya, and mango. The taste of Cuban fruit is so much better than the taste of American fruit for some reason.

Today was also the first time I’ve ever rode in a taxi and it made me nervous especially because I wasn’t sure if it was going the right way. Once we got to the beach, we immediately put all of our bags down to go swim. We stayed in the water for about an hour or so, then went to grab food. We found a little stand right off of the beach where you got a box of rice, cabbage, and a meat for $35.00 CUP, which is $1.50 in CUC or USD. I was so excited that food so great was so cheap. After eating we headed back to the beach where we found a bunch of other students heading back into the water. Eventually I got out of the water and was hanging around the beach before it started to get especially dark. We all knew a big storm was coming, so everyone began to get out of the water to get ready to leave. Far out across the ocean we could all see that it was raining heavily, so Sydney and I quickly took a picture before leaving. We then caught a taxi back, which felt like such a long drive in the rain.

We arrived back at our casas and I quickly jumped into the shower before noticing how sunburned I was. It was worth it. I fell asleep for a couple hours before dinner. Tonight we had dinner “Cuban style” which means you just set all of the plates out across the table and everyone goes around to grab what they want before sitting. Esmeralda and Alexander had dinner with us tonight, which was nice because it has gotten easier to talk with them since we arrived. We all shared jokes when eating before cleaning up.