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

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

Oppression and TK Maxx

If you know me, you know that Music, TV and Film have played huge roles in my growing up, and truthfully they have taught me a lot. Obviously I have not blindly followed what the media tells me, but I have paid close attention to the way the world works and thinks, and I have made choices for and against these ideologies. I had a particular interest in stories of oppression, which I found in the lyrics of Eminem, Kanye West and Jay-Z, in films like “The Help” and scattered across the pages of my two favourite man-made works, “Les Miserables” and “Harry Potter”. Secretly, I would have moments when I would be annoyed that I had such a cushy life, living in Clarkston, going to an amazing school, having loyal and kind friends, being part of a strong and functional family and knowing an all-powerful God who would forgive me at every turn. I wanted to have “life experience”, wanted to be down in the gutter and work my way up, prove to myself and everyone around me that I didn’t need a leg-up in life, that I could do it all on my own. 

I was an idiot. I realise this now. At the ripe old age of 20, I have been put out of a house. If you want to know details, feel free to ask me but that’s not my point here. Due to miscommunication and, to be perfectly honest, a lack of effort on my part, I finally know what it feels like to live uncomfortably. And yet, I still find myself with some semblance of money in the bank, with good friends who I know will be praying for me, with a family who are a better support system than I deserve, and with a roof over my head. Us poshies don’t have the faintest idea what it’s like to be truly oppressed. We cry when we’re not allowed on the Xbox because we didn’t eat enough of the hot dinner that was made and placed in front of us. We lash out when our parents don’t let us go on the £900 ski trip with the school because they need the money to feed and clothe us, or when they do let us go but we have to buy our own equipment with the pocket money they have given us which, while we’re at it, we never think is enough for a young person to live off. I don’t mean to offend and these are definitely not situations I have witnessed, but what I’m saying is we, living in first world countries, can at times forget to be thankful for everything.

I know this is not a new way of thinking, but I realise now more than ever how good I’ve had it, and how much I failed at times to appreciate that. It’s funny the way that works, recently a friend posted a quote that sums it up: "Character can not be developed in ease and quiet; only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened."

There have been few times in my life that I have realised this and when I think back they have all been times that I have been metaphorically chucked out of the Casa de Cushy Life. The death of my Aunt, Kairos Summer Households 2012 when we talked and prayed with a woman who had been suicidal for several years, and when my boss at TK Maxx said I couldn’t have time off to visit my friends in Dublin. Obviously, these times have varied in gravity, but the same effect came from them as has come from the situation I find myself in now.

Paul wrote in a letter to the Philippians “11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”

I understand him now. My contentment comes from Christ, and only Christ. In that ultimate sacrifice, He showed me that He can overcome anything thrown my way, and this knowledge is what I live by. And this is why I am sitting here smiling. I could write a lot more but I’ll be surprised if you’re all still reading by this point. I hope you’ve found some joy/assurance through what I’ve written.

So today, be thankful for something you’ve taken for granted. Thank God, a parent, a teacher, a friend for giving you something that has improved your life in any way. God is Love, Rev Run. Lol.

Another list:

1. People keep talking to me and being like "you're the Scottish girl teaching at the school?" and I'm like famous basically guys xo.

2. I went on my first adventure ramble (I walked in one direction until I wanted to turn back) and it was amazing, photos will be on FaceyB.

3. For the first time in my life, school is fun. I actually look forward to my classes and the kids are awesome.

4. I made friends!!! One of the classes I help is full of people my age and they seem to have accepted me cos they invited me to a party so wooooo.

5. I am still overwhelmed by God's protection and I have to thank you all again for your thoughts and prayers and general greatness.

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

Hope and Chorizo

This week I heard a Gallego poem by Rosalia De Castro that struck a chord and I wanted to share it:

Adiós rios, adios fontes.                           Good-bye Rivers, Good-bye                                                                                  Fountains.

Adiós, ríos; adios, fontes;                     Good-bye rivers, good-bye fountains;
adios, regatos pequenos;                      Good-bye, little rills;
adios, vista dos meus ollos:                  Good-bye, sight of my eyes:
non sei cando nos veremos...                Don’t know when we’ll see each other

¡Adios groria! ¡Adios contento!               again...
¡Deixo a casa onde nacín,                     Good-bye, heaven! Good-bye,
deixo a aldea que conozo                      happiness!
por un mundo que non vin!                    I leave the house of my birth,
Deixo amigos por estraños,                   I leave the hamlet that I know
deixo a veiga polo mar,                        For a world I haven’t seen!
deixo, en fin, canto ben quero…             I leave friends for strangers,
voume soio, sin arrimo…                       I leave the lowland for the sea,
¡Miña terra, ¡adios!, ¡adios!                   I leave, in short, what I well love…
¡Adios tamén, queridiña!…                    I part alone without a friend…
¡Adios por sempre quizais!…                 Good-bye land of mine, good-bye!
Dígoche este adios chorando                 Farewell to you too, little darling…!
desde a beiriña do mar.                        Farewell forever perhaps…!
Non me olvides, queridiña...                 I send you this farewell crying

¡Miña casiña!,¡meu lar!                         From the precious coastline.                                                                       Don’t forget me, little darling...

                                                          My dear house! My home!

My point is that this leaving home business is tricky. It has more unexpected twists and turns than a good season of Grey's Anatomy. As I experienced some of this turbulence recently, I turned to self pity (and whisky, but not like an alcoholic, I just had a dram cos I missed home...just to be clear). Then, yet again, God intervened. I saw this video and got thinking about those less fortunate than myself, specifically the millions of people who are forced to leave their homes, everything and everyone they know, because of something that they did not choose. war, famine, epidemic, poverty, abuse, abandonment...sadly, the list goes on. 

This is why it is so important to me to live in hope. Because, even when I am lucky enough to be living a comfortable and happy life, I have brothers and sisters who are not, and it is my duty to live in hope for them. Hope is not an easy thing to see. It can be blurred, even to those of us with 20/20 vision. This blurring generally occurs when and where hope is needed most, and that's no coincidence. This is why it is so important that we see it clearly for each other. I'm sure you have all had a friend come to you worrying about a situation and seeing no way out, and I'm sure at times you were able to see a way out where they couldn't. We live in hope, not only for ourselves, but for one another. Life is not a 1-Player game.

This may seem super deep for an Erasmus Student's blog, but one of the biggest benefits of my time here in Spain has been having the time to actually think about these things. I am growing as a person because I have nothing and no one to hide behind, and I am at a stage where I have to choose a life of hope. It's not a one time thing, but rather a daily choice.

Here is another list of things that happened this week:

1. The father of the family I'm staying with calls everyone in government a "chorizo" and as we watched the news the other night, he hit out with one of the best lines I've heard so far. "There is not enough bread in this country for the amount of chorizos."

2. I have a flat! I will be moving in next friday and I'm reeeeeally looking forward to living on my own and having more adventures! side note: it's right next to an amazing beach and I know we're entering winter, but visitors are always welcome!

3. I met a girl who lives in East Kilbride, which is 10/15 minutes from where I live at home! She's doing the same thing as me in the same region and we're hoping to meet up soon. It's a small world after all.

4. It's 9th October and it was 27 degrees today. life is tough...

Thank you all again for reading and praying for me and everything else you've done.

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

Skeeters and Soundies

What's up yo? What is happening? What is the 411?? First, I must apologise to everyone who cares that I haven't yet been directly in contact, I am still in the process of getting the internet and so I only have small windows of time online right now. This is going to change in the next week or so, and hopefully that will mean I can skype etc. :) Also, due to a complaint from an unnamed source (it came in the mail and was written in letters cut out from a magazine) I have rejigged the settings on the blog, thus making it more reader friendly. So you're welcome...you being whoever was bored enough to click on here.

Ok, on to the exciting stuff...I started work, and I know it's early days, but I really see the merit in this line of work. I'm the English Language Assistant in a high school, and in my first 2 days I have: explained the referendum situation to a class of students my age, used a bit of improv to run a class of 12 year olds whose teacher had a doctor appointment which I wasn't given a heads up about, and tapped into the far reaches of my memory to help (or mislead) a maths class. The students are all really interested in me and they apply themselves to learning English in a way that puts us to shame when compared to the huge amount of English speakers who see no need for anything but one language.

I am learning a whole lot about the job, the language and myself. For example, I discovered that mosquitoes must really like the smell of my blood. I have 23 bites and counting. This is not cool. What is cool is that I now recognise landmarks and can navigate around the area with some ease.

Since I've made lists a thing on this blog, here's some more things that are things:

1. I love the rain here. I don't know what our problem is but the rain in Scotland is just annoying. Here though, it laaaashes rain, like the drops are huge and it hammers down and I've taken to standing under a shelter outside when it rains, just to marvel at it. I can't quite explain the affect it has, but all I know is that every time it rains like that, I'm reminded of God's power.

2. I went back and bought all the Irn Bru they had. I planned on keeping it for special occasions/particularly bad bouts of homesickness, but to be honest I'm just working through them. It's like tasting Scotland when you can't be there. Magic.

3. I took a grown up step and bought myself a proper watch. It's full on analogue and everything.

4. Thanks to years of Sentry dramas, impromptu games, and a burning desire to make a joke at every turn, I have almost mastered the art of making things up on the spot. This comes in very handy when you have no idea what you're doing.

5. I am going to be attending Zumba classes. God help me.

Thank you all a million times over for your prayers and support, I really feel it through God's protection and overwhelming love.

Oh and if there's anything specific you want to hear about, drop me a note and I'll tell all or put it in the next blog! Cheers for reading!

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

Am I living The Blind Side???

Hola! It's finally happening folks...I'm finally able to have a basic conversation without my only response being "Sí" or "Claro"!!!

Much of the credit for this is due to the fact that yesterday I moved in with a family who have a 10 year old girl and a 13 year old boy, and they are awesome! I feel a lot like a lumbering introvert who sure, scores low on tests but has an extremely heightened sense of protective instincts, and with the help of an energetic and compassionate mother figure and a young extroverted counterpart, I'm finding my niche in a world that has all but written me off. Yes. I am Big Mike. Now obviously there are some differences between my life and that of Big Mike (where he's a prodigy of a left tackle, I am only left-handed), but the fact remains, I am finding myself more drawn to that classic storyline of a protagonist leaving behind everything they know and stepping into the unknown with no option but to trust. This leads me to my actual point: I am learning to trust God more than I have ever trusted anything in my life. It took an uprooting of my life and a situation where I couldn't possibly have had success alone, but it's happening and I am super excited for the next step. 

I am also fulfilling all of the year abroad stereotypes of making up traditions from your homeland, finding yourself, and ensuring that word gets around in Spain that Scotland is NOT a region of England. These people are amazing though, and I am starting to really understand the thinkers of history who have insisted that if everyone travelled, there would be more peace, both individually and corporately.

In conclusion, I totes heart Spain, God is still incredible, and here are some awesome things that have happened on my travels:

1. I found Irn Bru in El Corte Ingles, A Coruña. This in itself has ensured that I could go home tomorrow and still see my time as well-used.

2. Almost equally awesome, I was on a bus in an extremely rural part of Galicia, and we drove past a bus stop. I believe it was divine intervention that caused me to glance down at the wall of the bus stop, where I saw etched in English the lyrics to this song. Yes, the grafitti in the back arse of nowhere in Spain said "who wants to live FOREVER?" Twas just incredible.

3. The young girl whose family I'm living with is quickly becoming my best friend, and I don't care that she's 10.

4. For the first time in 20 years, I have my own room. Wow, maybe I am Big Mike...


Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes you are all continuing to send my way.

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

And so it begins...

Hola amigos, welcome to my blog! #bloggergalxo

I feel like an outdated hipster, but I have to admit that with the amount of people I want to keep up to date with my adventures, this is the best way of doing it. I'll try to post regularly and concisely...can't make any guarantees though.

So day 1 went really well! I visited a town called Malpica, which is beautiful and it made me super excited for the year ahead when I'll get to visit many more places like it.

However, what I've been blown away by ever since I got in my dad's car on Friday morning at 5am with my mum's laptop in my bag (she gave me it), is how incredibly blessed I am to have such incredible support back home and all over the world. I have to thank everyone who has said a prayer for me, I have felt them more than ever in the past couple days. For someone who doesn't have a place to live or a friend in the city, I am calm in the knowledge that "God works for the good of those who love him." (Rom 8:28). I can't thank you all enough for the prayers, they are continually bearing fruit.

That's all I'll say for now, I'll leave you with a list of things I have learnt so far:

1. The name Eilidh is not an easy name to have in Spain.

2. When you're alone, music can be a refuge of sorts. I've been listening to copious amounts of Casting Crowns and Foy Vance...can't quite face Dougie Maclean in this fragile state though.

3. I'm determined to be witty in 2 languages by this time next year.

4. God always goes beyond what I expect.

Thanks for reading, I promise next time will be more interesting! I'll throw in a witty anecdote or something. lol. (sidenote: I find myself saying lol more frequently these days. I can't tell if it's cool or not. #dilemma.)

Dios te bendiga,

Eilidh

ps. the name of this blog is a play on the title of a Mumford & Sons song. While their wanderer was hopeless, I am hopeful because there is too much love, beauty and joy in this world for anyone to be truly hopeless. I also love this quote.