Sophia Ogren-Dehn
After a much too short and restless night of sleep in Miami, our class gathered at five AM to catch our final flight to Havana. Checking in as a large group always seems to take significant extra time, but thankfully the government shutdown didn’t stop us from having plenty of time to catch our flight. We flew from Miami to Havana in no more than an hour, and I was astonished that such a different world existed so close to our border.
After a smooth trip through customs and baggage claim, we exchanged some USDs for CUCs and boarded a bus to the Vedado neighborhood. We were lucky enough to have our entire class placed in home-stays in the same building. We shuffled through the chaos of unloading the bus and connecting with our hosts, and many of us hit the language barrier for the first time of the trip. Two classmates and I were placed in an apartment on the seventh floor of the building (with beautiful Havana views) that was not a family home, but an Airbnb style rental business. We couldn’t have a conversation with our host, but he was welcoming and wanted to be sure we were okay with our rooms.
I took some time to unpack and then felt ready for bed. Unfortunately, it was only 3 PM. We had a short orientation and class meeting in the afternoon and then went to the Hotel Nacional for a wonderful traditional meal. We had an enormous table full of different meats, rice, beans, squash, and vegetables. We ate outside, tiredly and happily, while live peacocks wandered nearby and we anticipated the many adventures to come.