Sunday 17 November 2013

Beauty and Radiohead

Hi everyone, how's life? I've had a really encouraging week, and wanted to share a few things with you. First of all, I'm learning how important it is to appreciate the small things that happen. This has been a recurring theme of my time here, but it's still a novelty to me and it's making life a lot more exciting! Not that strange things are happening to me, just that I'm smiling more often because I'm taking time to appreciate the beauty of life. I recommend this to anyone who feels like life is getting hectic...just stop once in a while and look at God's creation or watch a parent interact with their kid or listen in to a conversation between two kids. I know we can't all afford the luxury of sitting around, but the magic of these situations is that they happen while the world is bustling around about them and for just a second, you remember why you're here, or what makes you happy, and that's when the smile comes. This week I was reminded of some of the happiest times in my life when my oldest and dearest friend sent me some hilariously nostalgic pictures.

Sometimes I laugh at myself, because I just know that if my too-cool-for-school-badass-high-school-self could see me now she'd kick my ass for being such a sap. But that's what growing up is, and as I've grown up, my true self has been revealed as this sentimental marshmallow-human hybrid. Don't get me wrong, I'm still badass as ever, I still like rap music and sometimes I drink coffee, but whatever tendency there was in me towards rebellion has pretty much been replaced with a constant longing for Christmas, and an aching in my heart when I realise Celine Dion will never supply a personalised soundtrack to my life.

I've not got much more to say right now, apart from the fact I'm super excited to come home for Christmas and see those of you in Glasgow and tell you all some funny stories! For now, I'll leave you with some more snippets of my life as a Wanderer:

1. There's a real character of a woman who plays guitar at my local church and today in mass I'm almost positive she played Creep by Radiohead during communion.

2. I'm currently sitting in a cafe and across from me there's a guy playing spot the difference in the newspaper with his daughter and they're both getting really into it. These are the things we miss if we're always in a rush.

3. I got called English again this week, and before I could say anything one of the kids I teach was all over it like "she's not English, she's Scottish. Calling her English is like calling us Portuguese!" At this, the person apologised profusely and I just laughed. My work here is done.

4. There's a festival here called Magosto which basically celebrates the existence of chestnuts. To cut a long story short, I explained the game of Conkers to a class of 16 year olds and they were all fascinated and wanted to play!

Thanks again for reading and for the continued love and prayers, I really appreciate it all!

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

Saturday 9 November 2013

Independence and Irn Bru

Hi everyone, apologies for not blogging in a while! My life basically got super hectic in the past 2 weeks and I am only now catching my breath. It’s weird that it’s the busiest time for me so far and yet I find myself missing home more than ever. I always thought the homesickness would come when everything was calm, but I’ve experienced the opposite. I think it has a lot to do with my struggle over the past couple weeks between sitting back and stepping up. 

There’s a certain level of emotional torment that comes with leaving home for the first time, and it’s made even tougher when you throw in a foreign language and a lack of communication with your people at home. The struggle presents itself as a choice that I can’t hide from, can’t delay, and really can’t afford to get wrong. It comes down to this: I can either sit back and let the year happen, without putting in much effort but still getting to live here, or I can step up and be responsible and take a pro-active approach to my time here and try to get the most I can from it. My tendency towards laziness means I really want to do the first one. But instead, every day I try to turn to God and ask for the strength of mind and character that it takes to make the most of life. And every day He blesses me. 

Today someone asked me how I feel about the Independence Referendum stuff and as I was talking I realised how far outside of my normal existence I am right now. Everything down to the stinkin’ UHT milk is different. Then I remembered my constant. The one thing that has gone through everything by my side, at times as a crutch, the only thing stopping me from falling flat on my face and the greatest thing that ever happened to my life. God. Every day I thank Him for giving me parents who taught me how to hold myself and how to have a relationship with God, friends who support me through everything and who can understand me, and a more than comfortable life, I’m living in Spain flipsake! 

It may not be very concise or well written, but I knew I had to blog and all I could think about was how extremely grateful I am for life and its joys! Here’s some more fun stuff:

1. El Corte Ingles has discontinued the "energy drink" Irn Bru. I have not been this disappointed in the human race since Jedward got famous. I am working to resolve this matter.

2. I officially forgot the English translation for a Spanish word today and had to look it up.

3. The Galician Council have decided they're not going to pay an Erasmus Grant to outgoing students after this year. People here are heavy raj.

4. All da teachers in tha house say heyyyy: I'm experiencing teaching for the first time and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I've also been keeping up with "Educating Yorkshire" and this is adding to the experience.

Thank you thank you thank you. And for those of you in Glasgow, I booked my flights home for Christmas so holla holla I can't wait!!!!

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh