A New Home

Before Nicaragua and Cuba, I knew I was never really immersed in culture. Although I live in New York, which is considered a well-known "melting pot", I knew I was missing something. During the summer of 2015, I discovered the missing ingredients when I was abroad in Cuba and Nicaragua. Although the program had the intended lesson of 'Art and Social Change', it was so much more than that; I was living in culture, history, art, and in a new environment with new friends and family, that is my host families. I was speaking the language and learning the history that made the people who they are today. Truly, the program opened my eyes because although it is acknowledged that there is a whole world beyond where the individual lives, thinking about it is drastically different than living in it. With this program, I was given a new set of lenses, as I came back, not only with lasting memories but with a new look at things from different cultural perspectives.