My bags are packed; full to the brim of tank tops, flip-flops, sunscreen, and dancing shoes. I am ready. It has only been a few months since my last international adventure and while this semester has been a blast including a 21st birthday and plenty of adventures around Boston, I am ready for something new and exciting. The bug is pulling at my backpack straps and seducing me with its thoughts of new people, warm weather, a chance to immerse myself in a new music and culture, and a new challenge to learn about myself.
For those who don't know, I am doing a Dialogue of Civilizations (a faculty-led summer semester abroad) in Trinidad. The trip is an Afro-Caribbean Music Research Project in which we will learn about ethno-musicology, Trinidadian culture, African influences on Caribbean music, and how it all comes together. The end result is a research project in which we will put together findings from our own fieldwork, interviews, and research.
As the early morning flight to Port-of-Spain creeps closer, I am thinking back to past travels, mostly on Cuba as it feels so similar to the feeling I had over a year ago when I was about to embark on that journey with a different group of people. After spending a weekend with the majority of those amazing people, I am excited to experience this group and how our dynamics will be and what our interactions will be like. I have hope that it will be great and that we all become really close. So far, I feel like everyone is really cool and that we will have a lot of fun in the next 5 weeks.
I also look back upon how much my Cuban experience changed my life in so many ways. It changed who I am, how I see myself, how I see others, and the world. I know this trip will also have an effect on me and I am curious to see how.
But since I can't see into the future I guess I will just step aboard that flight at 5:30 am Wednesday morning, step off into the 95 degree/ 95% humidity sauna, and let it all happen.
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