"How the hell I got myself into this mess?" I mumble while sobbing, sitting on the floor of this beautiful bathroom made of cream marble with a tub that looks like a small pool actually. Despite the luxurious surroundings, the floor is as cold as any other bathroom but I barely feel it while trying to persuade my brain that going mad is a bad idea right now when I need all my inventiveness to get out of this situation. "How is this even possible? It can't be true... If I could just turn back the clock three months..."
Three months ago I was at home, in Spain, looking for a job, playing with my baby nephew and trying to ignore my grandma and her dramatic persona... Just like any family, you know. And then, it happened... I was walking through the beach promenade enjoying the warm weather when I bumped into an old classmate from my high school... I hadn't seen her for years. We hugged and started talking about our lives leaning our arms on the railing while looking at the sea... the truth is that I didn't have anything interesting to tell her: I had finished my studies at the university, I'd had a long relationship that ended awfully, it was difficult to find a job... However, Martha got a grant to go abroad for her last year of college and she chose Australia.
"Wow! Haven't you found a closer country?" I asked surprised, most of our classmates went to Europe since it was an affordable destination.
"I was so scared at first, to be honest, it's not easy to travel to the other side of the world where you don't know anybody but Melbourne is a beautiful city, people are really friendly and there's a small Spanish community ready to help you if you need it."
"That's nice. And what do you do for a living?"
"I opened a Spanish restaurant... it happens that Aussies go crazy for 'tapas' and 'churros,' I mean the real ones, not those recipes you find on the internet with eggs and butter..."
"Eggs? In a 'churros' recipe? Aa far as I know the recipe includes flour, water, a pinch of salt and some sugar to sprinkle on them... And no dairy products... it's one of the few Spanish desserts available for lactose intolerants."
"Actually, they make French 'choux' pastry, you know, the one used to bake profiteroles and eclairs, they tell them those are Spanish 'churros' and Aussies believe it... at least, till I arrived and showed them the real stuff. They love 'tortilla' and fries with hot and garlic sauces, roasted lamb 'Castilian style' and tuna fish with tomato... they eat everything and always ask for more. I'm expanding the business right now with a new dining room, that's why I'm here on holidays because I have some free days to visit my family. Wait... why don't you come back with me?"
"What? I'm not a chef."
"I know but I remember that, every time you held a birthday party, your mum baked those wonderful and delicious cakes following your grandma's recipe book. Do you keep it"?
"Of course I do, it's one of the treasures of my family."
"You can show those recipes to my kitchen staff then. You won't cook but you can welcome customers since you speak good English and schedule all the waiters' shifts while I could remain in the office with the paperwork... that's what I studied at the university after all: business management. I hate dealing with the public..."
"Well, that's a big decision... Australia is really far away..."
"Oh come on... What's your future here? We'll hire a lawyer and he'll be in charge of obtaining a work permit and all the legal stuff. We'll have a great time together and, if you don't like it, you can come back home with a new experience."
Actually Martha was right, there was nothing keeping me in Spain except for my family that raised a holy hell, of course, but they soon realized that it was a wonderful opportunity for me and thanks to new technologies and social media we could keep in touch every day. I landed in Melbourne just a few weeks later after taking several exhausting flights carrying two big suitcases and thrilled. The city was beautiful to my eyes, very welcoming, and the variable weather didn't bother me since it was similar to my hometown... although it was a shock to me the idea of spending Christmas on the beach or being winter in July and August. I fell in love with the cosmopolitan atmosphere, with the parks and gardens and the kind and easy-going people: I didn't suffer any culture shock because Martha, who insisted on sharing her apartment with me till I got used to the new city, lived in an area with a huge community of Hispanic population not far from the historic centre where her restaurant was. Everything was perfect, too easy... I should've known that it wouldn't last.
