Update.... // rewind!

Update on adventures...
Six months in Cuba and Brazil cant be easily summed up in 1 diary entry...
Briefly then... I was in La Habana until the beginning of June. In that time my rents and Firas came to visit (not at the same time, that wouldve been way too crazy) which was great, got properly spoilt, went on a road trip with the folks and Jenny, my awesome Canadian friend... with Firas went diving, to a communist mayday march, drank many mojitos and chilled out in Habana and Viñales... introduced them all to my daily life in Habana, but it was sometimes complicated to juggle their touristic desires with my mixed feelings towards parts of the tourism industry there.
It was also six months of goodbyes, first to the germans i made friends with in the first semester (including Corinna my roommate and the Patri, the fellow xmas exploiters). Then i had to say 2 very tough goodbyes to Jenny (Canadian who shared my non-stop whilwind social lifestyle in La Habana) and Guillermo (roommate after Corinna, awesome Spanish med student). It was hard to get used to the gaping holes they left, but it made me closer to my Habanero friends, mainly those of Capoeira which id by this time become totally obsessed with.
The leaving party was with all the Capo pps... on the weekend we went to my favourite beach then on the night before i left we did a roda in a friends house, in which i had to play against every1, almost 1.5 hours of non-stop capoeiragem! Then a big veggie cook up and a jamming session untill the early hours of the morning when i realised i had about 2 hours to get home, pack, shower and say goodbye to my familia! That was the worst part of my trip so far, like pulling off a limb without anesthetic (well the rum still in my body worked a little bit). It had been just over 9 months of “peaks and troughs” as me and Guille used to say frequently, but mostly memorable peaks... who can complain really about a “study year” that involved way more sitting on the beach, drinking rum with a wkd bunch of friends, stalking one of the most beautiful and atmospheric cities of the world, playing capoeira, riding in maquinas, croweded guaguas or camiones, learning the ins and outs but never fully understanding the communist-capitalist hybrid, going to endless ridiculously cheap or free gigs, dance shows, theatre, art exhibitions.... and cinema festivals. It wasnt a realistic lifestyle, but it was “de pinga asere”!

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