The warmth of family

Jonathan:
After wrapping up our visit to Patagonia and seeing Molly and Andy off, Megan and I had exactly 2.5 days to enjoy our privacy in Buenos Aires before my mom & dad arrived for a visit of their own. Knowing that my parents would be spending the better part of the month with us in Buenos Aires, and thinking it would be nice to have a space of our own, Megan and I had made arrangements to rent an apartment during our brief visit to the city back in November. Since the place was big enough for four, we ended up moving in the day before Molly and Andy left, and all of us enjoyed a nice quiet celebration of our final hours together in our new apartment.

It's hard to describe what it feels like to have a space of your own again after spending the better part of a year sleeping in hotel rooms and spending every minute in what is essentially someone else's space. Suddenly we had our own private niche in the middle of this howling city where we could quietly do whatever we wanted. We had a kitchen that was just sitting there waiting to be used; a fridge that we could fill to the brim with whatever we wanted (including what ended up being an alarming quantity of beer); a closet where we could unload our backpacks and leave anything we wanted out in the open... It was amazing!

We spent the weekend before my parents arrived basking in the warm glow of privacy that neither of us had expected would feel so good. We spent new year´s eve at home together, quietly sipping wine and watching the city's fireworks from our terrace.

The apartment itself turned out to be a hip and spacious brick loft located in a very nice neighborhood in central Buenos Aires called Palermo. By the time my parents joined us, we were still reveling in the luxury of our plush new surroundings. We spent our first several days together exploring the vast expanse of gorgeous parks that surrounded us in upper Palermo, and just enjoying some time together in our nice air-conditioned home. We didn't get out much at all, and it was hard to keep Megan and me out of the kitchen - every meal was an opportunity to break out one of our favorites from home, and share some good home-cooked food with the folks.

The following Monday we all made our way downtown to start yet another round of Spanish classes. My parents have always been interested in learning the language, and since there's nothing quite like learning it on location, we thought it would be a fun way to spend part of our time together. That whole first week, we all plugged away together - spending our mornings studying hard at school, and our afternoons and evenings huddled around the table doing homework together.

Feeling thoroughly fried after just five days of intense studies, we all decided it would be better to spend the rest of my parents time exploring Buenos Aires, the area around the city, and having a little fun. After spending a few free days checking out the city, and catching an authentic Tango show in the theater district, we headed out on an overnight bus north to the province of Misiones to take in the magnificent Iguazú Falls - one of the largest series of waterfalls in the world. We spent 2 full days exploring the vast network of walkways that wind in and out of the 300-some falls, providing humbling up-close experiences of the falls' sheer force, and some absolutely breathtaking panoramas.

Upon returning to the city, we headed out on a day trip across the Rio Plata to pay a brief visit to Uruguay, and the beautiful cobbled town of Colonia. We enjoyed a very pleasant day exploring its shady flowered streets, and playing on the sandy beaches of the riverbank. Our final few days together with my parents were spent exploring still more of the richly varied parts of Buenos Aires, and enjoying each other's laughter and company over card games at home.

After bidding my parents farewell, and seeing them off in a cab on their way to the airport, Megan and I solemnly walked back into what turned out to feel like a very quiet and cold apartment. The same place that just two weeks before had felt so exciting and filled with potential, now seemed sterile and empty. We've spent the better part of this last year surrounded by new faces, strange places, and the only thing familiar or constant we've had has been each other. In all of the excitement of spending the past 6 weeks with family, it hadn't really occurred to either of us just how wonderful and different it had been to be with people we love. It was such a blessing to spend that time surrounded by the warmth of our family in the midst of a journey so far from home.

That night we couldn't help but break down crying as we thought about how fortunate we feel to have our family, our wonderful friends, and what a tremendous joy it will be to come home.