The Taste of Spain

Sometimes when I go on vacation I like to take a particular bodywash to make me remember that place. It's not something I thought up on my own I read somewhere about the keen sense of smell people generally have and how if you associate one scent with a particular place then any time you smell that scent later on it can bring back all the memories associated with that place.

For Spain, my scent was "Sweet Pea" by bath and body works.
For Costa Rica me scent was this tangerina/maderine scent also by bath and body works.

and it's totally true... any time I smell these it brings me right back to either of those places.

Well, yesterday I woke up not feeling 100%. I had a slightly sore throat. Then I woke up this morning with a bit of a cough. Yuck.

While in the kitchen at work one of the ladies I work with offered me a glass of hot tea and said it should help soothe the sore throat a little, so I took the offer and made some tea. I don't like milk in my tea nor sugar and that didn't have any lemon, so I'm drinking it straight (I'm generally not too into hot tea anyway). After getting back to my desk, I took a sip of the tea and out of no where I had this vivid recollection of sitting in this little apartment in Spain with my pseudo-roommate eating breakfast at this little breakfast nook and I couldn't figure out why. Then I remember that I drank tea EVERY morning I stayed in Carmen's home in Spain. She insisted that us girls eat breakfast and tea was the only beverage she had that I could get down.

Carmen was my study-abroad mother who took her job very seriously. Her apartment was immaculate. She washed my clothes (and hung them on the clothes line in the apartment courtyard for everyone else to see), kept my room cleaned (even if I thought I was doing a good job on my own) and even packed me lunches when I wouldn't be able to make it back to her apartment for whatever reason. She was adorable and had the cutest grandson that stayed with her sometimes. We would watch "beauty and the beast" together in spanish. memories.

If sweet pea is my smell, tea is my taste