Now that I’ve finally caught up on some much needed sleep, I figured that I would take some time to write about my sister and three of her best friends’ (also known as the sweet sisters) awesome visit to Spain! But first, time for a brief reflection in this Thanksgiving season. I think that being away from home for so long has truly taught me how thankful I am for everything in my life, most especially, my loving family and friends. However at the same token, being in Coruña this Thanksgiving season has taught me how thankful I am for this wonderful opportunity to study abroad in Spain and for my amazing host family and friends here in Coruña.
Back to the sweets. Before they arrived in Coruña on Wednesday, the sweet sisters spent three days in Madrid, taking in all of the glory that Spain’s capital has to offer: a city bus tour, el prado, and even a Real Madrid game (jealous). As soon as they landed in Spain last Sunday, I was so anxious to see them, however Wednesday afternoon quickly rolled around and I was reunited with my sister and her friends. My host dad and I picked them up at the Coruña airport, and as always, the trip got off to a rather hilarious start. After giving the sweets a big hug, we dropped off their luggage in my host dad’s car and sprinted to catch the shuttle that goes to the center of town. The shuttle runs every half hour, but we knew it would be close given the time that their flight landed. In any event, we literally just made and in no time we met up with my host dad who was waiting for us (luggage included) at the hotel. After they checked in and got settled, I took them on a walking tour of Coruña; even though I got a little lost at one point, I was so proud to show off my little gem of a city and at the same time, it was so great to be in Coruña with people from home. Later on that evening, we went for a bite to eat at Abica (my new favorite restaurant in Coruña) since 99% of their ingredients come from good-ol’ Galicia and after that, we went for drinks at a chic bar called Dux.
On Thursday (Thanksgiving) morning, we hopped on a train to Santiago de Compostela. It was so great to show them around this beautiful city with such a rich religious history. We went to mass at the Cathedral (refer to pics from a previous entry), did a little bit of shopping, and had delicious tapas in the old part of town. It was really special to be in Santiago with my sister since one day, we hop to walk the Camino de Santiago! Once we got back to Coruña, we had an incredible Spanish Thanksgiving dinner with my host family. I can’t tell you how great it was for one of my real family members to meet my host family. The dinner was so comfortable and relaxing, it really was second best to being home in Rhode Island having turkey day with my family at home; also a big shout out and thanks to my host brother Iago (who speaks perfect English) for helping me with all the translations! After the dinner, we met up with my friends at our favorite bar, Pato Mareado and went to Grietax, one of my favorite discotecas in town.
Friday afternoon we kind of took it easy, however Friday evening was quite happening thanks to my host mom. The sweets were dying to learn how to make a tortilla, so my host mom invited them over to give a private lesson on how to prepare one. I’ve got to be honest and say that this was one of my favorite experiences in Spain thus far; who would have known that making and eating a tortilla could be such great real-and-host family bonding time! After dinner, I took the sweets to a bar that is currently displaying my host dad’s art and then later on we met up with some of my HC friends at another.
A few hours later (now it’s very early Saturday morning), my host dad and I met up with the sweets to pick them up from the hotel and drop them off at the airport. Upon arriving to the airport, we were greeted with a rather large check-in line and then 10 minutes later, we realized the flight had been delayed. Thinking that it wasn’t too big of a deal, we waited a little bit until we noticed that people were starting to get stressed out, including us since the sweets had to make it in time to Madrid to catch their flight back to the States! Turned out that every other flight from Coruña and neighboring Santiago Airport to Madrid was booked that morning, making it impossible for the sweets to make their other connecting flights back to Boston. After three hours of figuring out a plan, the sweets ended up hopping on a plane to Barcelona, with connection to Zurich, finally leading them to Bean-town. Quite the travel adventure. It was really sad to see them go, but as I look down at the calendar, I’m only left with 25 days before Christmas break! Although I cannot wait to be home, where has this first semester gone?
Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures this weekend, but the sweets did, so I’ll be sure to post them soon!
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