Mis anfitriones, Tia Toni y Tio Tony, se sentando en un banco mosaico de Gaudi a Parc Guell .
A few weeks ago I jetted over to Spain to see my lovely family in Barcelona. It was the best weekend I have had yet! My family were simply the BEST hosts in the world. They took me all over the city, treated me to everything (except for one nectarine which I managed to sneakily purchase), and are simply fabulous beautiful people through and through. All this and I hadn't even had contact with them for eight years!!! Well, I know that won't happen again. (Plus, it gave me such confidence to be able to speak Spanish with them - although Catalan kept cropping up and throwing me off entirely. I actually started to dream in Spanish when I was there. And I had trouble switching back to English when I returned... que curioso, no?)
It was a whirlwind of a weekend but perfect in every way. I arrived at the airport to a beautiful peach dusk and the refreshing embrace of warm rich air. Unsure if my memory would stand up to the test, I apprehensively stepped into the arrivals gate but family can not be concealed. Right on cue we caught each others glances and the two faces that beamed back at me were my mom's cousin Toni and her husband Tony (aka "The Toni(y)s"). All insecurities about visiting with distant relatives evaporated with their smiles and long tight hugs - family is family, no matter how distant. It had been a while since I had felt that sense of belonging and when you have it, you never want to let it go.
La cena: (clockwise from far left: Nuria, Tony, Toni, Gervasio, Me)At one point, over lunch at a schnazzy Italian restaurant, my cousins Monica, Laura, Olga and I tried to figure out exactly what the family tree looks like that connects us. Basically, it's huge. What it gets down to is our great grandmothers on our mother's sides were sisters, so we share the same great great grandparents, the Ortegas. But, hey, cousins are cousins, right?! Somos primos y este es el ultimo facto.
Well, if you are interested (which I guess if your not you probably stopped reading by now), the events of the trip consisted of: eating delicious homecooked food (Tortilla Espanola...mmm), singing to the wonders of George Michael and A-Ha on PlayStation SingStar, and visting all of the city's sites in one jam packed day - Gaudi Park, La Sagrada Familia, Las Ramblas, La Bocaria y El Hospital de San Pablo. (And on that note, just so everyone knows, when it's my time to go to the big party in the sky I want to be at San Pablo. This is my wish. And I also want to be cremated on a large floral pier to a string quartet playing "Dust in the Wind" and then my ashes divided into six parts and spread across various inconvenient locations. Remember that.)
El hospital de San Pablo, Barcelona.
1 comment:
That is so cool that you can speak Spanish with them - I am quite jealous! So Barcelona is your favorite of the cities in Spain?? I can't wait until I get good at Spanish and then we can converse in Spanish together and Drew can speak Portugese and Dust can speak Italian and we will all understand each other...because they are like the same language.
Post a Comment