Take Me to Havana

After studying Spanish since middle school, I’d always wanted to live in a Spanish speaking country. My favorite Spanish teacher was Ms. Martin. Ms. Martin and I would let me steal her class break to ask her about her home country of Cuba, her childhood summers spent in the countryside, and the things she missed about it. I fell in love with her place of birth through these conversations and knew that I would find a way to visit one day. I finally had the opportunity to visit during undergrad. In 2018, I spent the fall semester of the junior year of college in Havana, Cuba. It was nothing like I could have imagined.

My Time in a World Without Internet

Before I studied abroad in Cuba, I had a typical online presence for an American college student in my age range. I was active on several social media sites. I would mindlessly scroll through instagram, look at different accounts, and curate my own. I made sure to snapchat my best friends at different colleges everyday to keep in touch. I recorded every night out on my story. I would go to twitter for a good laugh. I’d use Google or Apple Maps to navigate around. Uber and Lyft got all my leftover money. This was normal to me. I didn’t realize how much of my life revolved around my wifi connection.

I had been told before my arrival that it would be difficult to access the Internet, but I didn’t truly understand what that reality would look like. Living in Cuba, my idea of internet access was completely dismantled. I was very used to being able to access the internet wherever I was. Now, I had to walk two miles each way to a wifi hotspot, purchase a wifi card, scratch off a 20 digit code, and enter it into my phone without error, just to get 30 minutes of connection. Not to mention it was hot and humid, and I had to stay outside in that wifi hotspot to stay connected. Very soon, my desire to be online went very down.

At first, I would make the voyage a few times a week out of FOMO (fear of missing out). I was curious what my friends and family were doing without me, if Beyonce or Nicki Minaj had dropped any new music, and wanted to update my instagram with new pictures. Maybe I missed home, or maybe I was addicted. Likely the latter. After a week or two, it felt way less worth it to make the voyage just to log on. Eventually, I would only walk the 2 miles roundtrip in the Cuban heat to get online once a week to talk to close family and friends so they knew I was okay, outside of internet research for school.

I had to learn to do so many things without the internet. I traveled most places on foot, and had to learn to navigate by memory or push myself to ask strangers and neighbors. Soon, these strangers and neighbors became friends that I’d pass regularly on my way to campus, dinner, or downtown. I had to find new ways to entertain myself. I picked up dominos, which is a popular pastime. I made friends with locals and sipped on rum while watching folks pass by. Most shockingly, I would spend some time alone doing really nothing. I found myself being able to spend time in my room or sitting on the roof, just existing.

Time in the Classroom

Being in the classroom at the University of Havana was a unique academic experience. In all of my classes of about 35 students, I was one of at most five non-Cuban students. Every single class was taught in Spanish. One thing to note- the Spanish vocabulary you learn in school is very different from the vocabulary used in college level classes on economics, culture, or history. There were no laptops or ipads, and definitely no slides. It was just a professor and a chalkboard, and me with a pen and a notebook. Adjusting to this style of learning was difficult in the beginning. The biggest hurdle was language- having to sit in hours of classes taught solely in Spanish required a level of active listening that isn’t needed in mt native language. That alone was exhausting. Adding on trying to take notes was a different level. After two weeks, that became easier. Having to handwrite notes and be okay with being bored in class sometimes, without the internet to help bring my focus back, was also difficult. Eventually I managed, but I will admit I embarked on a large amount of doodling that semester to compensate.

The Friends I Made Along the Way

The sense of community I gained in person replaced the online community I had online. I made so many friends from school or just from meeting people out and about. I never checked my phone when in conversation with friends or at dinner because there was simply nothing to check. I lived more in the moment, making memories with new people, than I ever had before.

Conclusion

My time in Havana offered me a new perspective on life. I discovered a reality without constantly needing the internet to have connections. The experience gave me an appreciation for slower, simpler moments, like sitting on a rooftop and watching the city, or turning strangers into friends I still talk to today. Academically, I learned the value of focus and listening and made peace with moments of boredom. My semester in Havana wasn't just about improving my Spanish or seeing a new place. It ended up leading me to greater self discovery, independence, and a new way of understanding the world around me.