Finding Family While Studying Abroad in 阿利坎特, 西班牙

申请时 在阿利坎特留学, I considered the possibility of finding out where exactly my family came from. I did not have any expectations on who I was going to meet there or if I was going to find any family at all. I knew about some relatives in the north of 西班牙. 

I moved to 阿利坎特 without any knowledge of where else I could have family, until one day when I received a call. Some people from my maternal family have a family group chat where we try to communicate daily. I never send messages or respond to any -- until one day I decided to. I greeted everyone from one of our excursions from 阿利坎特, 西班牙. And I received a call that evening. 她的名字叫热那娃. She told me she was my cousin. I was surprised and happy to receive her call. I had a lot of questions for her, and I wondered how I did not know about her.



She asked me where I was, and when I told her, she said she was there, too. I was not sure if it was crazy coincidence or fate. But after doing some research, we figured out we were just a five-minute walk away from each other. It was so amazing that I had actually found family -- and so close in proximity to me. We agreed to stay in contact, and two weeks after that we met, she cooked food for me. It felt like home and was also my favorite type of rice. 我们聊了好几个小时. She reconnected with my mother again, and she was as thankful to have met me as I was to meet her. We met one last time before I returned to the U.S., promising each other more visits and more dinners. 

After multiple family members found out I was 宝博体育 在西班牙, they reached out to offer me a place to stay and also offered their time for anything I needed. 我在奥维耶多有家人, 马德里和阿利坎特, and I'm so happy to have found this out while I was there. I was able to visit and/or meet with three out of the four. I now have four more homes -- and wonderful new family connections -- that I can use as an excuse to come back to 西班牙.

Thania Inoa de Jesus is a CEA 校友大使 who studied abroad in 阿利坎特, 西班牙, during the Fall 2019 semester. She is currently a student at Albright College.