Hola y Feliz Pascua a todos!
After a beautiful Semana Santa, (no relation to Santa Claus. It means Holy Week, which is Spring Break) I finally have a minute to catch up on my work with some Spanish friends in the Universidad Complutense’s Maria Zambrano Library. I’m not quite sure why, but I have totally been missing spending hours upon hours pouring over books in the library. So sitting here working is strangely making me feel just as happy as when I was strolling down El Parque del Buen Retiro a couple of days ago with my parents.
My parents came to visit me.
My PARENTS came to visit ME.
Well, perhaps it is not something too out of the ordinary, in fact, I told all my friends they were coming in a very natural way. But then I picked them up at their hotel and I felt like I was in the movie Freaky Friday or something where I switched roles wth my parents. My mom and dad have always picked me up if I stayed out late and needed a ride home, taught me how to discover the world, and helped me when I needed guidance. Yet, this week, for the very first time in my life, my parents totally trusted me to see things in a city that was new to them, introduce them to some wonderful people I met here, and even buy a metro card because I spoke a language foreign to them.
We did many things together but among the most memorable were the traditional religious procession through the streets of Madrid, tapas, wandering through the Parque del Buen Retiro with my host mom and dad and then having a delicious fish dinner (the fish came from a fish nursery in Pechón. Incredible.), and singing and dancing to Spanish, Irish, Italian, and American songs in a family friend’s backyard on Easter Sunday.
It was absolutely wonderful and although it was hard to leave them, I am happy and grateful for having been able to spend a few days with them and share the experience that is certainly one of the most precious I have ever had.
Finally, some pictures my family and I took during Semana Santa of my beloved Madrid.
Cheers,
Sofía
Sofia Wiener
<p><span style="color: rgb(29, 29, 29); font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal; background-color: rgb(237, 237, 237);">Sofia--perhaps Sofía is more fitting in this case--is a third year Philosophy and Spanish Literature student at Fordham University. Some of her interests include photography, translating, singing, learning foreign languages, and cats--specifically red chubby ones. As the daughter of a Milanese mother, and New Yorker father, with a passion for Latin America, Sofia often finds herself lost in translation sipping on her favorite drink--yerba mate. She wants to spend her semester abroad in Madrid, Spain with her eyes wide open to live the experience to the full allowing you to take a step into her life. ¡Ven a ver!</span></p>