This past summer my dad and I traveled to our home country, Portugal. It has been something we have wanted to do for years and we were finally about to do it. Sitting on the plane looking out the window as we were taking off from Boston, to me it just felt like we were on a plane heading anywhere but Portugal. It wasn’t until five hours later when we the pilot announced that we were about to land on a little island named Ponta Delgada to get onto our second plane. It was then when it finally hit me that my dream of seeing my family again has finally come true. Eventually, we landed in Ponta Delgada and I couldn’t tell who was more excited, me or my dad. When we got off the plane it was not like any other time I’ve gotten off a plane, this time they had stairs set up and we just walked right off the plane onto the pavement. Once we started walking away my dad said to me “Vanessa turn around really quick” and once I turned around I never really realized how big an airplane actually was until then. Being on the pavement twenty feet away from an airplane that carries a quarter of the town I live in was astonishing.

Eventually, after another three or four hours we landed in the capital of the most beautiful country in the world, Lisbon. From there, a friend of ours who my dad grew up with, Mario, who lives closer to the airport than our family picked us up and the smile on my dad’s face when he saw his friend Mario is probably a smile I can never forget because it was so genuine and a smile I hadn’t seen on his face for a long time. After spending two days in Lisbon, we finally packed up the car and set out for a two-hour drive to Olhão to finally see all of our family! It had been able twelve years since I had seen them all so I was really excited to see them all again and this time remember them.

As we were in Olhaõ before heading to the house we have there, my dad pulled down a tight narrow street and he pulled over in front of a set of big, bright green doors and my dad told me that was where he was born and grew up. I thought it was pretty cool to see the house my dad grew up in because it looked absolutely nothing like the houses we see here. A few minutes later and the time had finally come where for the first time in twelve years I was going to see my family. Instead of going to our house my dad surprised me by bringing me to my uncles home first and there was everyone! There was my aunt, uncle, grandfather, and all of my cousins. After walking into the door, I felt the smile on my face grow from ear to ear, this was one of the happiest days of my life and one I don’t think I can ever forget. I also got to meet for the first time my younger cousins Alexander and Leonor. That night we had a big dinner with everybody and I got to order my favorite Portuguese dish, grilled sardines with tomato and cucumber salad and boiled potatoes. That night seeing everyone I love and enjoying Portuguese food was the most incredible night I’ve ever had. Everyday, my cousins, my aunt, and I did something new. We went to Sagres, Lagos, Algarve, Faro, Sintra where we saw the Palace of Pena, we saw so many beautiful castles, and we also saw the Belem Tower where I saw a cop car which also happened to be one of my favorite BMW models. One day we even spent the day in Spain. We went over and spent the day walking around and enjoying the beautiful 100-degree sun. Towards the end of the two and a half weeks we spent in Portugal, my dad and I spent two nights on an island off the coast of Ohlaõ called Farol, and there we have a beautiful island house right on the beach which is where we stayed.

During this entire trip, one of my favorite parts was not having any service anywhere. I didn’t use my phone for just about the whole trip and being disconnected from today’s technology for a while was more fun than actually having that technology there every day. Speaking a different language for two and a half weeks is really what made that trip seem so real. At home, I speak more English than I do Portuguese because my younger sisters don’t know the language and sometimes it’s just simpler to explain stuff in English, but being in Portugal and only speaking my favorite language with everyone I know and with just anyone I would talk to really made me feel a part of the culture that I am from. Even the way my family acted towards each other it was amazing to see how that is where I get my attitude from, my sarcasm, and even my sense of humor to laugh at anything I see or hear. Traveling to Portugal taught me so much about myself and my family that I never knew before and it made me even more proud to be from the culture that I am from than I ever was before. Spending time in the country I am from with all the amazing food, sights to see, the blue sky, and the beautiful warm beach waters.

In more simpler words, from all the people I heard every day speaking a language I wish I heard more when I’m home to spending every single day doing something really fun with my family and then ending every night as a whole enjoying amazingly delicious dinners surrounded but everyone I love laughing, oh and I can’t forget to mention the different types of exquisite wine that I was able to enjoy at all the family dinners while having the most memorable nights any 18-year-old could have is an experience that I am very grateful to have experienced and I can’t wait to go back again.