I have some updates regarding our stay in Toronto: We have found a sublet to stay for the month of February and March! We visited a gorgeous apartment on College St., right beside Kensington Market and a few blocks away from China Town. As soon as we got there and saw the location, the light and the size, we thought that it was perfect for us.

The person who lives there has no personal request other than us taking care of her plants. Of course, I happily agreed to water them and was surprised to find that she owns an aloe vera plant. Quickly, childhood and teenage memories started coming back to me and I realized how far I am now from some habits I had in Cuba, one of them being using aloe vera all the time.

I was growing up with a huge aloe vera plant on the balcony. This plant still lives in Havana. Anyone around who needed some of the aloe vera pulp for the stomach or the skin would come over to my house and cut one big leave off. Aloe, also called “sábila” in Spanish, helps to heal any stomach or skin ulcers and it is used for beauty purposes. It also played a big role in my acne treatment. Although I cannot say that it got rid of the problem at least it kept my skin soft and moisturized. I have never disliked the smell and stickiness of it so I would always apply it like a mask directly to my face, before going to sleep.

Now that I know that a small aloe plant can survive indoors in Toronto I will probably consider having one in the future. For the time being, I am content with the temporary place and the temporary aloe plant that will witness our next couple of months.