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Published: October 5th 2009
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I hadn't seen my Uncle Joe since I was eight years old, so Dan was a bit worried that when we arrived at JFK that I wouldn't be able to recognise him. I didn't think about this previously and had absolutely no doubts about picking him out straight away!! I managed to put Dan's mind at rest by telling him to look out for someone who looks a bit like my dad!! Strange then that in the end Uncle Joe spotted Dan before me because he was staring at him across the hall!! He would have missed me completely because I had my heavy Gucci glasses on and he didn't recognise me at all!!!
We picked up our backpacks and Uncle Joe asked where the rest of our stuff was, laughing I told him that was it and he looked at me oddly!
We drove away into the night, it was really peaceful as it was about 1am. And before we knew it we were near Joe's house in Linden. Off we went to the store and we were faced with rows and rows of fridges, something we hadn't seen since China, and frankly we were a bit
fazed out!! Confused by all the choice on offer we tried to find some water and some Sprite and we left happy with that, but again Joe looked at us like weirdos acting as if we had never seen this stuff before, we just had to explain it had been a long time since we had been able to actually choose what we wanted instead of picking up what we could afford out of the few items on offer!!
First thing we saw on entering the apartment ( which was on a very American film set looking street!)was loads of photos of the family, including a portrait of my mum when she was about 13 that I'd never seen before and one of me that Dan has been tormenting me about ever since!
After this Dan asked the obligatory, 'Can I see your frigde?', 'Sure' come the reply along with a strange sideways glance to me!! You see Dan and I do have a bit of a weird preoccupation with fridges!!This may have something to do with the fact that Dan has broken the last two freezers we've had by defrosting them with a hammer!!We are completely in
love with American fridges and would love a massive one of our own ( I know its weird), but they are so cool and so much better than the tiny things we have at home.
We dumped our stuff and introduced ourselves to the three cats, one of which belongs to my Auntie Marylou. Joe was looking after this cat for two months while she was visiting the Azores. The cat is a nutter. We were convinced it was suicidal, it kept attacking the other two, knowing he would get a good hiding and jumping off the fridge and getting himself into odd places(including under our duvet), last I heard he managed to find a way to get into the fridge!!!One of the others had an obsession with sleeping in the bath and so we had to sneak past her to use the loo or she'd get grumpy!!
Being Portuguese you get food shoved at you constantly and people really do worry when you don't eat, it was very surreal to fly all those hours, meet my uncle and be sitting in his apartment stuffing our faces at 3am with Alcata(which is the most amazing wine and
spice soaked slow cooked meat) and then the best flan I've ever had. Being the sweetie that he is he had also bought cheese from the Azores and Portuguese rolls for us to try and was amazed that we couldn't get them in Eastbourne!!!
We soon moved on to watching videos of The Azores and in particular the festivals in August ( where my Aunt was) which included the famous or infamous (depending on whether you agree with it or not) bull fighting and running of the bulls. Pretty tough stuff!! I've got mixed views, my Portguese family love it (my grandfather was a bull fighter)and see nothing wrong at all, but my dad is Spanish, grew up very near a bullring and hates it, he thinks its very cruel and actually protested against it when he was a teenager. Well loads of people seemed to be getting hurt and very drunk and having a good time. I also know that there is a video circulating of an animal rights activist who got attacked by a bull whilst on the Islands.
Communication was a bit of a problem, I was surprised to hear Uncle Joes New
Jersey drawl almost wipe out his Azores accent and he couldn't understand a word Dan said! At one point he gave up and leaned over the table at me and said, 'What the hell is he talking about? I just can't understand him, you , you're fine but him, oh my God!!'Apparently they thought we sounded like we we were completely different places!!
It was really nice that Uncle Joe went out of his way to tell me all about the Islands and all the stuff he used to get up to with my mum and his other sisters(including them stealing his wages when he was 12). I know loads of stories from my dad's visits there with mum and of course they were married there, but it was interesting to hear how tough they all had it and how different growing up had been for them than my dad (growing up in a big city in Spain)and of course my brother and sisters and I in England. As mum died when we were so young we never heard these stories from her and it was great to hear them from her little brother!!
This was
one of the best parts of the trip , being able to totally relax and feel right at home, being able to leave your valuables in your room and not having to carry your passport and money pouch was so liberating after all those months of moving on guard all of the time.
Every night we stayed up into the early hours (seeing the sun come up at times)chatting, smoking(oh dear) drinking espresso with Sambuca(try it it's a revelation!) and stuffing our faces with great homecooked food. We also got to try a traditional Azores liquer made from passion fruit which was 30years old and to die for!!Joe wouldn't let us go out the house without food and even made us lunch packs to take into the city so save us money, it really was brilliant being back with family again and it made me even more excited about seeing everyone at home.
It was really weird walking down the street and seeing all the Portuguese faces and then it would change to Polish and then Hispanic, for such a long time we had been in countries where there was mainly one ethnic group and then you get
this assault on the senses.
We also visited Uncle joes work where even though they had been told we were from England Dan was accused of being Australian and wierd being asked, say this or say that and then squeals of delight when you did!!He runs this massive bowling alley, I mean huge and bowling is massive in the States, always busy, everyone seems to be in a league and my family are pretty hot at it!!I don't share that ability!!What was very Sopranos was upon leaving late one night seeing all the young guys stumbling out of the stripclub in the same building( and cuddling their booze stepping right into their massive cars,Bada Bing!!!
What was great was that this new apartment Joe had moved to was ten minutes from the train station and that the train only took 20mins to get to New York Penn on Manhattan, so much better than staying in some cruddy hotel!!
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