Where's Kiva?

The last time I was on here, I bid to myself to write more. Not only for my own benefit of practicing writing, sharing my thoughts, becoming a better storyteller, but to also share my personal experience with others, to share my gifts from the globe, minuscule to mind-blowing (getting a little presumptuous here). I let a month go by, and looking back on it, I know for a fact I could've done better. Should have done better. I need to work more on this, and also work on using my YMCA membership. I love this work-life balance I'm getting going here. Clearly I'm good at it. Which reminds me, I forgot to share where I live now. After my recent escapade in Bahrain, which was after working at summer camp in Bemidji, I'm currently playing house in Marco Island, Florida and working at the Naples Botanical Garden. A new step in a relatively similar direction to my original projection of adulthood. I'd say I'm chugging along. Marco Island is an unique location. The i...

It's been a while, I noticed. I tried finding another vehicle, a.k.a. blogging website, for my "travel writings" as my friends call them, but they were too complicated, flashy, whatnot. I just want to write, it makes this much more concrete, real, effective, I suppose. One person even said I should write an autobiography. Yes, Derek, it's flattering but it's not happening until I'm too senile to have the normal amount of constraint to write one. I'm back because I realized I'm coming to an end, at least for a little bit. I'm not foreshadowing my death, my cease of existence, rather the cease of existence of this lucky life I've lived the past x amount of years, where I bounced from vacation to study abroad to international opportunities and so on and so forth. I graduated from college. Big news. Bachelor's in Hispanic Studies. I got the official document in August, just a few weeks before I returned home from working in Bemidji, Minneso...

These weeks have gone by in a blur. I feel as if I’ve only really been in Cuba a week or two, and I’m just getting comfortable; yet October is right around the corner. I think I credit this time lapse to studying abroad in a tropical setting. And while yes, Cuba is a tropical island, it is an island nation—there is a strong sense of identity, not of being yet another Caribbean cruise stop, not of being a former colony, not of being called “communist”. No, Cuba is much more. The Cuban way is to be at least 20 minutes late to everything, but managing to finish on time, probably due to the Cuban speech-rate of 1000 words per minute. Within moments, a speech on the Platt Amendment can turn into a whirlwind of explanations, historical dates and figures, personal anecdotes and peals of laughter. Then there you are, dumbfounded but wanting to smile because—well—Cuba. It also seems to be the Cuban way to have a cure for everything, whether it’s legitimate or highly irrational. So, if you ...