So, world, it actually happened...after months of planning and deciding, my parents got passports for the first time since their honeymoon, they decided to let Adam and Adina in on the fun and everyone hopped on the plane to Europe! I went to pick them up from the airport on that Friday afternoon, when Spring Break had started, gave them a quick Spain lesson (some history, the fact that people do not say any form of excuse me and will just stand there in front of you looking ridiculous, other useful tidbits) while we were on the metro to the Atocha area where my parents and Adam were staying in this second-floor cute little guesthouse I found randomly (Adina stayed with me since Eliana had already left for Spring Break on Thursday), had them put their stuff down and we went out on the town. (I do not believe in jet-lag! hehe just gotta keep going until it's nighttime in your new place..) I took them to Museo de Jamon for some wine, we went to the huge indoor market called Mercado San Miguel for some tapas, had churros con chocolate, and walked around Sol and Plaza Mayor. That was night 1!
By the time my family arrived my friends had all left for their Spring Break trips, so even though they didn't get to meet everyone (except Amy who travelled with us to France) they did meet my host mom and saw our apartment and a lot of Madrid! We spent Saturday walking around the city, and it was fun taking them to all my favorite places. We went to the Prado, the park, met up with a daughter of my mom's coworker who is also studying in Madrid, and lots more. The city has started to feel smaller and smaller to me (it actually is kind of small), and the nice thing about that is being able to see a LOT in a relatively short amount of time. On Sunday they came over to meet Gloria, and I translated between them for a bit before we headed to catch a bus to Ávila, a small town in the Segovia province about an hour outside the city. I love how the landscape changes within minutes of being on the bus, and the countryside is so beautiful in every direction you can leave the city.
On that bus ride I met Sofia, a woman who immigrated to Ávila from Romania, as there is now a high population of Romanian immigrants in Spain since they recently joined the European Union, making movement between countries relatively easy and more like state-to-state travel. I don't get passport stamps when going from between countries here, because we have a Spanish visa. She told me about her family, how she thinks Madrid is too big and noisy, and about moving to Spain and learning Spanish. She also told me that while her husband and son live in Spain with her now, one of her sons still lives in Romania, as well as most of her family. She chose to live in Ávila because it is calmer than Madrid, and more like her hometown. We spent that afternoon walking around the town, which is very small, climbing the cool thousand-year-old Roman wall, and then headed back to Madrid that night.
Reunited and strollin' down Atocha.
Goofin' on the Roman wall in Ávila.
On Monday, we explored a bit more and then met up with Amy in the afternoon to head to the airport! We got to Paris and met up with Colleen, my friend from Wash U who is studying in Paris, then went to an Italian restaurant where I met a waiter who forgot my food, then gave me this to make up for it (you have to click cause it's not letting me put pictures at the moment, who knows why!):
While I was the translator in Spain, I immediately lost all of those abilities and transferred them to my mom/Adam upon arrival in France. After dinner Colleen took Amy and I to the Eiffel Tower, where we saw the last glittery light-up session of the evening at midnight, which was oh-so sparkly and exciting!! Some French man roller-bladed into Amy and then told her she "wasn't very clever" for standing ON the sidewalk (really he was just mad at himself because he didn't maneuver his 'blades' in time..people can be so ridic), but we just laughed it off and kept enjoying. We spent the night at Colleen's host family's and in the morning Amy and I walked along the Champs-Elysees to meet up with my family, then spent the day walking a ton around the Seine, to Notre Dame, down a street called St. Michel, and all around Montmartre, a cool neighborhood and old artist community and the basilica Sacre Couer at the top of the neighborhood where people come to rub St. Peter's foot. We survived the downpours with Colleen as our tour guide, even having some hilarious times at our pitstop in a Montmartre laundromat for sanctuary.
At night, all of us and Amy (who is now totally part of the fam) went to a Passover seder at my mom's friends, the Benhamous. She met Laurance when they were my age, when my mom was spending the year in Caen. We saw her husband and four children, and went to their Sephardic, orthodox, French seder at their house and were amazed at how different things can be within the same holiday/religion--it was Amy's first seder and I was at times as unfamiliar with it as her--yet there's still always familiar words and tunes. I hadn't seen Laurance and her husband since my Bat Mitzvah, and one of their sons has visited our house in Chicago, and it was cool to have both of our entire families together for the first time. Amy and I spent the night there, and on Wednesday we went to the Musee L'orangerie which had amazing Monet waterlilies pieces done for the space, and then the Louvre, where we met up with Michael Chen (who is studying in Oxford but was on a 6-week break between terms/backpack time through Europe). The Louvre was immense and overwhelming; we didn't stay tooo long but still got a good feel.
We headed to the train station for our next stop, Caen, which is in Normandy. We arrived at the house of my mom's friends/surrogate parents from her time in Caen, Claude and Michele Bazin, with its beautiful viney walls, fireplace, pictures of their four children and many grandchildren, and two of the nicest, smartest, most family-oriented people who live inside it. Their house felt magical, as we sat and talked, looked at their pictures, listened to the fire, and ate delicious food. It was interesting how in France the salad comes after a main course, and then before dessert, there was cheese. One of my favorite moments of the whole trip was when Claude told us (translated from French) "A meal without cheese is like a kiss without a moustache". Although Michele now has Parkinsons, she was still able to communicate slowly and show us many pictures from their many trips, their children's weddings, etc. She told us how they met as young doctors working at a hospital in Paris and got married the next year, even humming a song that has lyrics about knowing love when they found it..so precious. They took us to the American soldiers' landing beaches from WWII, which they say they like showing to their visitors, and the American cemetery and memorial. Because Michele no longer drives, my dad drove a stick shift for the first time in 25+ years, which was very entertaining.
I couldn't believe my mom was my exact age when she would go over to their house for dinner, play piano with their musical children and walk around with Michele when she put the kids to bed. It was hard to watch them standing on the platform as we pulled away, but it is wonderful that we all got to go and see them. We took the train back into Paris, and parted ways as Amy and I headed to the airport for our next stop: Germany.
You captured the sights, sounds, context, history, and emotions with astonishing acumen and accuracy. GRACIAS, MERCI, THANK YOU, je t'adore.
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