This past weekend, my mom visited me in Madrid! It was her first time in Spain, and she loved la vida madrileña! She does not speak Spanish so I enjoyed communicating for her with restaurant servers and shopkeepers. I introduced her to some of my local food and drink favorites like jamón ibérico, tortillas, croquetas and tinto de verano. Since my mom loves art, we visited the Prado museum after a little shopping in Salamanca and walking through Retiro.

At dinner after her first full day in Madrid, she told me that my godmother Sally would be flying down from London the next day. I have not seen Sally in five years, so I was really excited to spend some time with her. Like my mom, Sally also loves art so we visited the Reina Sofía to see the Guernica and the Picasso and Dalí collections. Because I have spent some time exploring the Paseo del Arte in Madrid, I was able to direct my mom and Sally to an excellent place for lunch after exploring the museum.

Throughout our visit at the art museum, I had been in contact with my host mom, Eva, about meeting up with my mom and Sally. After finishing up lunch, my mom, Sally and I headed to the La Latina neighborhood to meet Eva and her two daughters, Alejandra and Carmen. We walked together through the neighborhood and Eva invited everyone to have some tea back at home. My mom and host mom were both a little nervous to meet the other because neither knows how to speak the other’s language. Fortunately, my host sister Alejandra is learning English, so between the two of us, we translated what everyone was saying into English and Spanish.

It was an incredible opportunity to introduce my mom and godmother to Madrid and what my life is like here, but it was just as an incredible for my host mom to meet some members of my family.