family reunion

It feels great when someone travels halfway across the world with the (partial) purpose of coming to see you. This past weekend, my aunts, Tricia and Debbie, stopped in Madrid midway through their two-week Eurotrip. They've been looking forward to this for about as long as I have, seeing that they bought their plane tickets the same day I found out I was accepted into the program. 

I met them at the train station, and right away it was great to see part of my life back in America. It's not that I've felt homesick and wanted to return to previous comforts, but it was fantastic that I was able to enjoy pieces of my California life thousands of miles and an ocean away here in Spain. 

One of the best parts of having visitors is that it allows me to do all of the touristy Madrid banalities that I should see on my own anyway but probably never would if I didn't have a reason. For one, we went to the Museo Reina Sofia, the lesser-known of two main art museums in Madrid (the other being the Prado). I absolutely loved it, and was able to see Picasso's most macabre work, Guernica. It's a famous painting I've seen reproduced many times, but seeing the enormous, original version right there in front of me was chilling. There was also an exhibit of these enormous map tapestries made by women in Afghanistan and Pakistan that I loved (if you know me, you know I love geography). I ended up buying the poster. 

It was great just to be able to converse with my aunts, while being able to show them the sites in my stories or introduce them to the actual people I talk about. They unfortunately learned that Spanish food is not the most appetizing cuisine, but we did enjoy a meal riquísimo at a Cuban restaurant with some delicious mojitos. Also, my friends Amanda and Kimiko helped me to prepare a Spanish meal that the five of us all ate together. Afterwards, we tried to go get an Irish Coffee in honor of Tricia's mother, my grandma, but the Irish pub was out of coffee. 

A glass of Bailey's sufficed.