OVEREXTENDED FAMILY
Certain things are only really possible to do when you’re young. Sleeping on the ground in a tent. Staying awake until midnight on New Year’s Eve. And seeking out long-lost family in a foreign country and then showing up at their doorstep completely unannounced. In the early spring of 2005, I was about halfway through my year as an English teacher in rural Hungary. For months I’d been traveling around Eastern Europe nearly every weekend but decided to set my sights further afield: the Azores, the volcanic archipelago in the middle of the Atlantic. My grandfather was born on one of the islands, Terceira, and I’d grown up hearing about how special it was. But he hadn’t been back in decades and we’d lost communication with our relatives there. Fueled by youthful…