█ ♥ █ Mom's visit to BCN █ ♥ █

My mom is currently visiting me in Barcelona! She flew from Montreal to Zurich to Barcelona a week ago Saturday and she is here until the 14th of April. On her flight over here she got bumped to business class for her flight from Montreal to Zurich because of overbooking, so she was able to enjoy all the perks of business class for the longest portion of her trip over here! :)
The day she arrived I took her to meet my host parents where I acted as a translator as my mom doesnt speak Spanish and my host partners dont speak English - awesome. But after 4 months of living in Spain and speaking Spanish the majority of the time, it wasnt too hard to do and my mom was impressed with my ability to translate and the level of improvement in my Spanish. :) After meeting my host partners we headed over to her hotel, which is conveniently located 3 blocks away from my apartment. It's a really nice hotel for only 3 stars. For her first night in BCN my mom and I went to get Tapas for dinner at one of my favourite Tapas restaurants on Passeig de Graciá, and enjoyed a pitcher of Sangria and yummmmmy Tapas. We went for an "early" dinner (by Spanish standards) at 8pm, normally dinner is eaten at 9 or 10pm.

Over the past couple of days Ive taken my mom around Barcelona showing her all the major sites. We've been to Parc Güell, Las Ramblas, Barri Gótico, Barceloneta (the beaches), Sant Pau Hospital (also where my campus is located), Sagrada Familia, the magic fountain etc etc. Last wednesday I took her to see a Flamenco Show near Las Ramblas which she enjoyed a lot.

We've eaten a ton of different food while being here:
- Spanish
- Catalan
- Mexican
- Indian
- Italian
- Seafood
.... the list goes on. Not to mention all the wine/sangria/margaritas that have accompanied all of those meals. :)

Last Thursday my mom and I had dinner with my host mom and host dad, where my host mom made this rice, pork and peaches (yes, peaches like the fruit) dish, which was really good. Once again I acted as the translator, which went relatively smoothly and there werent too many things "lost in translation" :)

We even went to a British pub (twice) to watch 2 Barça games. The first game was for the Champions League and was against Arsenal which Barça won 4-1, then Saturday night we watched Barça vs Real Madrid (biggest rivalry in Spain - sooo exciting) where Barça kicked RM's ass and won 2-0. :) So she's been able to experience the craziness of Spanish futbol and my new obsession with Barça. :)
We visited the Torres Winery in Vilafranca (2 hours outside of Barcelona) to go on a tour and sample the wine. We learned all about the various wines they grow there, and able to see the entire production process. There was even this wind tunnel thing they took us through where you are able to smell the various aromas of the seasons while they play a video, it was very cool to see. At the end we sampled a Chardonnay (which isnt my mom and i's favourite, but free wine is free wine lol).
My mom was able to come to my day trip with API to Costa Brava on Saturday, and she will be attending a Spanish Cooking workshop with me on Tuesday night as well! :) She has 3 days left here in Barcelona, and the time has gone really quick! We've been able to do a ton of different things, and I feel like she's gotten a great sense of the city and culture here in not only Barcelona but overall in Spain.

She mentioned to me today that Barcelona is definitely one of her Top 5 Favourite Cities in the World. :) yay more love for BCN.