Santa Maria, Cuba

There are few feelings I love more than being by the sea. Somehow, it manages to be calming and exhilarating at the same time -- an escape from the whirlwind of life as well as a means of grounding. For Christmas this year, I was fortunate enough to spend a week in Cuba -- my first time in Central America -- with my boyfriend's family. After a semester of constant activity, nowhere could have been more perfect.

Throughout my six years of living in Vietnam, I'd had much experience with the ocean, but I had never yet been to a beach anywhere outside Southeast Asia (with the exception of a single day in Florida, at age 7). I'd never seen water of the colour it was in Cuba before -- a beautiful, shining turquoise that I didn't even know existed naturally. It was so warm, clean, clear, and very peaceful. I went into the water every day, bobbing along in the waves. The greatness of my surroundings was astounding.

Much of our days were spent resting, reading, and eating under the sun, with occasional walks to the nearby market. Although some days were very windy and cloudy, the rain never lasted long. On one such day, when it was deemed too dangerous to venture too far into the water, we took a long walk along the shore, passing a nudist beach, large chunks of dead coral, and a small fish gasping for air on the sand (which hopefully survived after being thrown back into the water).

The feeling of the waves lapping at my feet was so pleasant, and kept all of the heat at bay. Looking at the ocean, I had no doubt why Poseidon, God of the Seas, had been deemed the creator of horses by the Ancient Greeks. The rush of waves appeared very much like a charging herd.

At the very end of the beach, on a large rock in the ocean, we found the home of the pelicans. There were dozens perched on the rock, as well as several diving for fish nearby.

I'd never seen pelicans before this trip, and certainly never this close up. Back on our beach, when swimming, some had already flown quite near me, their wingtips occasionally brushing the rearing waves. Some had even swum with me, just a few feet away. At their home on the rock, however, I was able to see them dive -- a sharp and elegant plummet. In the water, we could also see glimpses of the long, silver fish that were the pelicans' prey.

The beach in Santa Maria, which faces north, unfortunately did not offer a view of the sunset over water, but the colours were still visible even from our room.

By the beach, with a clearer view of the sky, the sunset looked like a beautiful watercolour painting.

The sunrise, which I got up at 6AM to seek out, yielded an interesting transition scene, in which the moon and stars were clearly visible, but so was the growing strip of sunlight on the horizon.

It was an amazing seven days of relaxation, but I also got to experience and see many news things, the highlight of which was scuba-diving for the first time. Overall, it was a perfect note to end 2015 on.