Friday:
My last day of classes in Seville, I’ll likely never be able to do something like this again so it was hard to say goodbye. To have spent a month dancing with the masters I had the chance to dance with is the stuff of dreams. First it was Manuel, who runs the toughest school in Andalucia, then Angelita, who has more spirit in her late 50′s than I can ever hope to have. The skill and patience of these two I am so grateful for. I had to run home afterwards to place my fan, shoes and practise garb into the box I had prepared to ship to Canada. I staggered with my enormous box to the post office, 11 kilos, wouldn’t have been so bad except for the awkwardness of the box. Back to the apartment to have my last Sevillian shower, meal, and to pack my backpack. I passed off what I didn’t need but didn’t want to waste to my roomate, handed over the keys with a grateful goodbye and I was back to being a homeless backpacker and off to the Almeda de Hercules to meet Teresa. She got lost because she hates maps and made the mistake of asking tourists for directions but we eventually met up and went over to Marianna and Freddie’s place. Lakshmi, Chris and Stephanie were there along with Joaquin, and the 8 of us went off for a dose of the best ice cream in Seville. I had Cinnamon and Ginger to treat the taste buds while I continued to lament not having connected with this amazing group on my first day so that I could have spent more time with them. I know our paths will cross in the future somehow, they must! The time came when I had to put on the pack and head to the train station, many hugs, kisses and promises shared and I was on my way.

A 2.5 hour train ride later and I was in Madrid and my momma was there! She had come with the help of Fernando and Maria Jose, her childhood friend, who had braved the chaos of a city with no public transport, due to the strike, and police searches at Atocha, to make sure no-one was going to blow it up again. Went to the hotel and the two of us went all OCD on our baggage and eventually went to sleep after catching up.

Saturday:
Carrying that stupid box made me very ouchie but I managed to move my arms enough to be able to function. My mom and I took a bus to Madrid (we’re staying in a nearby town called Alcorcon) and went to visit relatives my mom hadn’t seen in 50 years. These are the children of the man who had found the nurse to care for my grandfather when he was sick with TB in his early 20′s, at the beginning of the civil war. Many memories were shared and adjustments made to the family tree my mom brought with her for such a purpose, 6 generations worth of the line San Juan De Santa Cruz. After 6 hours of visiting, not nearly enough, it was time to go. We had patatas bravas for dinner and Franklin made his debut, he’ll be chill Smurf’s companion while my mom is with me. He also likes to eat a lot too so they’ll get along great.

Sunday:
Today we went to visit my mom’s cousin Manolo and his family in Madrid. I can still remember them from ’92 when they came to visit us at our hotel. After catching up and sharing stories for several hours, my mom and I went for bravioli which is patatas with the brava and alioli sauces combined; proper patatas too, I’ve seen them served with French fries which is really lame.

Monday:
Stayed in Alcorcon today. Had my now usual serano ham, manchego cheese, flan and fruit breakfast. We went shopping at the Corte Ingles with Ma Jose where I found some jeans that fit well (my Mavi’s I could pull off without unbuttoning them) a hoodie and a light raincoat for my return to India. We went to chill at Ma Jose’s house with the wifi and I had a gold ice cream that I hadn’t been able to find since Olympos in Turkey. Gold tastes like peanut butter. The bullfights were on TV and it was pretty sad, the poor bull was so weak and it just dragged on, the fights have been particularly horrific this year. Went home, ate, chatted too late again, went to bed.

Tuesday:
Took the bus-train-bus combo to Valdemoro to visit with my grandmothers cousins, Rosario and Nieves. It was kind of neat stopping someone for directions and when they heard the street name we wanted they referred to the area as the Mazaracin homes, Mazaracin was my grandmothers maiden name and the name hasn’t been there for 2 generations but the locals still remember. We went to a cafe to have a nibble to avoid interrupting the aunts from a siesta, they’re both in their mid 80′s. Within minutes, the familiar faces of Pepe and Nieves (the daughter) were spotted and we pub hopped until it was time for Nieves to go back to her shop and for us to go to the aunt’s. These women are so incredible as are the rest of the family they created, everyone so warm and open. As the day progressed, various children and grandchildren dropped by to visit and share stories and I met Sara, who was quite little the last time I was here, and Hector, Angel’s brother who had been at summercamp last time and I had never met. We took photo’s saying ‘crisis’ instead of ‘cheese’ and eventually it was time to go. I made plans with Angel for the following night before Hector took us home in his Golf, first ride in a VW since I left home! It’s always so hard to leave these gatherings and it makes me wish I had a videographic memory so I can keep all the faces and stories in my head forever.

Wednesday:
Went to the post office to send some packages home, charge the phone and get stamps. Chores done, off to Madrid to do the touristy thing and see the city from the top of a double decker bus. We went to the plaza mayor and had gambas a l’ajillo, my first dose since arriving in Spain almost 5 weeks ago. There were several human statues in amazing costumes and for some reason there was a fat guy in a faded spiderman costume hanging around. We went to my mom’s old ‘hood to see where she lived, went to school, went to church and her favorite pastry shop. Also saw where Pepe Iglesias used to have a cafe where his nephew Julio used to hang out playing music while nursing a futball injury. We went on an adventure looking for a jewellery store that sold charro style silver jewellery from Salamanca, nothing near the center had any in stock. We had to walk quite a bit more than we bargained for (uphill!) to get there but we made it and were rewarded by finding what we were looking for. We wandered to a park on our way to get the bus home and went to a park that my mom used to go to and much to her surprise, there was an ancient Egyptian temple she had never seen before. It had been a gift from the Egyptian government a couple years before she moved to Canada and hadn’t been assembled until after she left. Later than expected, we arrived at the hotel and instead of the nap I had hoped for, I had to jump in the shower and get ready to go back to Madrid to meet my cousin. Nights out here start after 11:00 and much to my mother’s amusement, go until after 4:00. We had a ton of fun with a group of 14 at our peak and lots of chatting at the pub and later on, dancing. All but Gonzalo from my previous weekend managed to make it out (apparently he was still recovering from the last time I came :) and there was another Natalia and a girl visiting from Columbia. The girls were a little disappointed though as the ‘scenery’ was quite nice, but having ended up in the trendy rainbow district meant that most of the boys were unavailable. Angel finally couldn’t stay awake anymore and decided his prima ‘has no end!’ and we went to catch cabs home and I made it to my bed at 5:30am. Oops!

Thursday:
This is where the Oops comes in. Had to meet Maria Jose and Fernando at 9:30am. Tired. Went to Segovia which was beautiful, I was excited for the aqueduct, the best preserved one outside of Italy and still functional. Turns out there was a lot more to the town too with it’s cathedral, the alcazar, and a smattering of little hippie shops which left me dreaming of a much larger backpack. We also saw the palace where a nanny accidentally dropped the heir to the throne out the window hundreds of years ago, I plan on googling the details when I have some decent wifi. Once our adventure in Segovia was complete, we went to our host’s chalet in a nearby village and I caught a few winks while Fernando did some tooling around. The summer homes here are way fancier that the city homes because they have the space to go all out, kind of the opposite of back home. We went for lunch and I found that I can never get used to seeing babies in bars filled with smoke. Once the day was done, our hosts dropped us off and the packing commenced. I still have room in the pack which is good because I’d like to try not to have to send another package home before I head back in August.

The End.

PS. I don’t know how to do accents on the iPod touch so there.