Mom in Spain

As previously noted, my Mom and Jeff (my mom's friend who also teaches Spanish at Shawnee Mission Northwest) came to visit last week. The weather, while dry, warm, and sunny, decided to switch back into Santiago weather - so Mom and Jeff got the true Santiago experience of cold and rain. (at least now that it is spring it doesn't rain all day, it would rain for about 20 minutes, then have an hour of sun, repeat) They stayed at the Hostal Mexico which is the same hostel that the Kansas group stayed at in the beginning of our semester. I live a very convenient two blocks away, so I was able to meet them every morning before breakfast.

Monday I endured two extremely long morning classes before I met Mom and Jeff for a guided tour of the Cathedral. I was especially excited to go since I had always wanted to go but hadn't been yet. The whole walk from class I was silently begging the weather to cooperate for at least an hour while we were on the roof of the Cathedral. However, we would have no such luck.

Mom and Jeff, at the start of the tour, during the very brief part inside.
When the pamphlet said "tour on the roof" it literally meant the ROOF. Combine the steepness of the roof, with the wind and the rain and you can understand why my Mom was so grateful that she didn't fall and twist her ankle (again).
My mom's face says it all - "Even though this is an experience of a lifetime, get me the hell off this roof" :)
Despite the elements, there were some spectacular views.
For lunch we had donners, which are Turkish sandwiches that I adore. I was very pleased that Mom and Jeff liked them! After we bought umbrellas and did some shopping (my mom scored a grey sweater from Zara) I took them to my afternoon class. Class was a lot of fun, it was my conversation class and my teacher even made them participate by asking them questions and asking them to read parts of our reading about fiestas in Spain out loud. After class, we walked a little around Campus Sur so I could show them what my university looks like. We had a coffee after that at a cafe near where I live. For dinner we went to my favorite tapas bar.

Mom and Jeff with patatas bravas.
We decided after dinner to have a drink, so I took them to Alborque which is one of my favorite bars here in Santiago. Since we ate early (Jeff and Mom still weren't quite on Spain time) the bar was fairly empty. I will say it was the first time I'd ever seen the floor in the bar area. I introduced my mom to crema de orujo which is a liquor that tastes like Bailey's, but a million times better.

Tuesday morning we had breakfast and I made my mom some fresh-squeezed orange juice. We have an electric juicer here at the piso, so it wasn't the laborious ordeal that making orange juice usually is. We had some time to kill before class, so I took them to Carrefour which is the grocery store that I shop at. I showed them all of the European/Spanish things - milk on the shelf, legs of ham, and cans of octopus. After our grocery experience, we embarked on the hike to Campus Norte to my morning literature class.

A view of campus, this is the Auditorium where they have concerts and stuff - it is right next to the dorm where my classes are.
In class we watched a movie called ¿Qué hace una chica como tu en un sitio como este? which was supposed to be symbolic of the tension between the "new Spain" and "old Spain" after Franco died, but they spoke so fast and used so much slang that most of it was lost on me. And, it was really weird. After class we ate at the cafeteria, which in all reality is more like a restaurant on campus because they have waiters that come and take your order then bring you your food. I had my standard sandwich vegetal and croquetas. I was excited for Mom and Jeff to try them, but sadly neither of them liked the deep-fat fried little pieces of heaven. Once we had finished our lunch, Mom and I went to the museo das Peregrinacions which is a museum about the pilgrimage that people take to the Cathedral here in Santiago (because St. James is buried here). It was really cool to see all the pictures, but all of the signs were in Gallego, so I didn't understand a lot of it. After the museum I went to class and my mom and Jeff took a much deserved siesta. We met up after class for chocolate con churros which is a thick hot chocolate with long marker-thick doughnuts that you dip in the chocolate. yum. We walked around a little more in the old zone to do some shopping. I showed my mom this park near the cathedral dedicated to the University of Santiago-
We went to a jewelry store nearby and my mom got a really elegant pair of earrings. Since it was so close, we also went to the university bookstore and scored these really cool t-shirts that have the seal of the University that glow in the dark - at 25% off! We also got a tour of Kate's piso -for comparison - before returning to my piso where I made dinner of pechuga de pollo al limon con patatas al vapor. While that sounds all fancy and complicated, it is really only chicken cooked with lemon and garlic and potatoes. Still, I felt very adult making my own mother dinner in my apartment. My mom met Mila, and they both liked each other very much. I was delighted that they got along so well - but in all honesty, who doesn't love my mom and who couldn't like Mila? - and Mila even noted to my mom that now that she knows her she can feel good about sending me to Brazil! :) That night we planned to go to the jazz club Da do da da but we were all so tired that we called it an early night.

Wednesday we took a day trip to A Coruña. We took the train and were there in about an hour. Again, the weather wasn't our friend. It was even colder and windier, so we decided to go to the aquarium Finisterrae. It is called casa de los peces (home of the fish) and it was so cute! (note: I had been there before, but this time I was alert enough to enjoy it)

Seahorses!
Most importantly, do not take pictures of the fish because the flash stuns them. My mom kind of forgot this a few times, despite the very adorable signs -
We managed to get outside in the glimpse of clear sky and take a picture by the sea.
After the aquarium we had lunch, and since it was too cold/windy to walk on the beach we walked to the Corte Ingles instead. Once we had gotten our fill of shopping we decided to head back. At the train station my mom got a little confused and asked for a ticket to "Segovia, no, Salamanca, no...Santiago!". What made that all the more funny, besides my mom forgetting where I live, was that the train goes to all of those places so the poor man that sold the tickets was really confused. Once we got back to Santiago and rested a little bit, my mom and I did another round of the Santiago stores buying birthday presents for my sister. On the street we ran into Gabriel and his girlfriend and I introduced them to my mom. I totally forgot his girlfriend's name, which made for an awkward moment, oops. We reunited with Jeff for dinner at the cerverceria, my favorite one in the new zone. I tried to get my mom to order a Lambic - which is a Belgian beer that is so fruity that you can't tell it is beer - but she said that she could taste the beer so oh well, strike 2 on food I thought my mom would like. I made up for it big time after dinner when we met Kate for chocolate rocks at the Cafe Rock. I think I've talked about them in a previous post, but they are hot chocolates spiked with Frangelica. They are amazing, and my mom thought so as well. We had a really good chat with Kate who had gotten home the day before from France where she visited our friend Anna at her home in La Rochelle. They kind of had an ordeal getting back to Santiago because it snowed in Northern Spain that night so the 15 hour bus ride turned into 18.

The next day, Thursday, we had another breakfast together then walked around the city one last time before we went to Madrid. Our first stop was the tourism office where my mom and Jeff picked up some information on the city. Then, in typical Spanish style, we stopped at the cafe casino for a mid-morning coffee. I had always wanted to go into this cafe because it looked really neat on the inside, and I was even more impressed experiencing it firsthand.

Cafe Casino
My mom, looking very European.
When we were leaving we saw Kate walking to class (sucker!). Before lunch we took Mila's advice and went to one of the Chinese stores and bought a cheap suitcase so my mom could take a good portion of my crap home. This truly was an amazing idea, I now feel confident that I can take all of my stuff home now. While we were packing at my apartment, Jeff and my roommate Manuel's friend Daniel bonded because Daniel was wearing a shirt from Grand Forks, North Dakota which just happens to be where Jeff is from. Daniel had no idea where Grand Rapids really is, he just bought it because it was in English (a common thing here in Europe). For lunch we went back to the Latino Bar and then went to the bakery Pan Pan and got some amazing palmeras. We leisurely walked back to the piso and met Kate a short while later before we went to the airport to catch our plane to Madrid.

All in all, it was a very fast week but it was so incredible to see my mom again. I was so excited to show her what my days here in Spain are like. I at times I was so excited to see her that I feared I talked her into a coma :) She gave me a hug from everyone she could think of, and I remembered just exactly why no matter how much I will travel no place will ever seem like home without her.