blessing blurbs 3
I had hoped to make my "blessing blurbs" a more consistent blog topic. Just because the blog posts didn't happen doesn't mean the blessings stopped. I just had a lot of content to share this time about traveling and such, and a lot of times I integrated the blurbs into other posts. As you've noticed, the past week has been pretty emotional for me. Honestly, this whole summer has been emotional, which is foreign to me (no pun intended). With it being such a short trip and with Mom and Abby's visit in the middle, I felt like I only had about a week or two of *stability* between either side of transition. I don't regret a second of the travel, and the only thing I would have certainly done differently about the summer is stay longer, but my plans before and after my time in Spain just didn't allow it.
1. Running into Jessie and Alba. I shared about this in yesterday's post, but it was worthy of another mention here. I met Jessie and Alba last year in Camarma; Jessie taught at ECA and Alba was/is her roommate. Alba is Spanish and Jessie is from Chicago. I really enjoyed their company, and through them, Pilar and I met Vicki too. I ran into Jessie the first week I was in Madrid, but she left the next day for the Camino de Santiago, and I didn't expect to see her in Spain again. Without Jessie as the mediator, I never would have reached out to Alba. But, on Tuesday, I got to see them both at our church picnic in the park! We chatted a bit about their Camino (Alba surprised Jessie for a week of it), plans for the rest of the summer, and what's been going on since last spring. Knowing people in Spain is the best part and the part that I wouldn't trade for anything.
2. My gym. It sounds ridiculous, but having a consistent gym was a lifesaver for so many reasons. It was literally a one-minute walk from my house. I only paid for class 3 days a week which left me always looking forward to the next workout. Also ridiculous, I learned a ton of Spanish there. No one was particularly chatty, but I learned a lot of verbs and vocab for workouts. And ultimately, having the gym was a way to imitate life at home and feel like a resident rather than an outsider. Friday morning was my last workout, so I said goodbye to the coaches and thanked them for a great summer.
3. I took the bus on my last day of work. I had never taken the bus to work because it's slower than walking, and I still have to walk for 10 minutes from the bus stops. Anyways, while I was waiting, an older woman came up to me and asked if I'd seen bus 73 go past yet. I told her I hadn't. Then, a few minutes later, bus 73 came. She stood up but then sat back down. I was like, "Are you getting on the 73? This is it." Basically I thought she was loopy haha. Then she explained that no, she was just waiting for a friend to get off and wanted to make sure she didn't miss her. We chatted for a bit. It wasn't anything too deep, but it put a smile on my face to start the day.
4. Work friends. I can hardly call them friends, haha, as we hung out maybe twice apart from work, but I could not have been much luckier with my coworkers. I wish that I would have and that they would have reached out maybe just a bit more, but really they were so nice. In an intimidating environment, I at least was surrounded by people who were supportive, patient, and welcoming. On Thursday, I went to eat after work at a Mexican place with Dolores, Noemi, and Vero who are about my age and work in the front office. They invited me for an end of internship celebration, remembering that I'd said I'd like to go there. On my last day on Friday, a couple of women in the office invited me to go have a quick coffee break with them. This was the kind of thing I'd been wanting all summer- I know I could have initiated it too. We all wished we would have done it more frequently or sooner, at least.
5. My apartment. At the start, I did not enjoy my apartment. I never felt unsafe there or uncomfortable, and it totally exceeded my expectations of Airbnb and the particular place's pictures. But I didn't like being alone. I still do not savor my alone time like I would at home, but that's because I'm alone nearly all the time. However, my apartment and my neighborhood have been *mine,* and that's so important to me. I loved having a place to come back to and feel comfortable, and I enjoyed making it mine in temporary and subtle ways, like hanging pictures and organizing my things. Even though it wasn't exactly the same as signing a full blown lease on an apartment, it will still be my first place where I lived on my own!
There have been endless interactions that have made me laugh or that made me feel proud, happy, or excited. Other things certainly made me feel sad, homesick, alone, or nervous. I wish there was a way to remember every detail and every feeling, because I just can't document them all here nor keep them all in memory. Truthfully these things, the smiles and the "buenos días"-es, got me through.
1. Running into Jessie and Alba. I shared about this in yesterday's post, but it was worthy of another mention here. I met Jessie and Alba last year in Camarma; Jessie taught at ECA and Alba was/is her roommate. Alba is Spanish and Jessie is from Chicago. I really enjoyed their company, and through them, Pilar and I met Vicki too. I ran into Jessie the first week I was in Madrid, but she left the next day for the Camino de Santiago, and I didn't expect to see her in Spain again. Without Jessie as the mediator, I never would have reached out to Alba. But, on Tuesday, I got to see them both at our church picnic in the park! We chatted a bit about their Camino (Alba surprised Jessie for a week of it), plans for the rest of the summer, and what's been going on since last spring. Knowing people in Spain is the best part and the part that I wouldn't trade for anything.
2. My gym. It sounds ridiculous, but having a consistent gym was a lifesaver for so many reasons. It was literally a one-minute walk from my house. I only paid for class 3 days a week which left me always looking forward to the next workout. Also ridiculous, I learned a ton of Spanish there. No one was particularly chatty, but I learned a lot of verbs and vocab for workouts. And ultimately, having the gym was a way to imitate life at home and feel like a resident rather than an outsider. Friday morning was my last workout, so I said goodbye to the coaches and thanked them for a great summer.
3. I took the bus on my last day of work. I had never taken the bus to work because it's slower than walking, and I still have to walk for 10 minutes from the bus stops. Anyways, while I was waiting, an older woman came up to me and asked if I'd seen bus 73 go past yet. I told her I hadn't. Then, a few minutes later, bus 73 came. She stood up but then sat back down. I was like, "Are you getting on the 73? This is it." Basically I thought she was loopy haha. Then she explained that no, she was just waiting for a friend to get off and wanted to make sure she didn't miss her. We chatted for a bit. It wasn't anything too deep, but it put a smile on my face to start the day.
4. Work friends. I can hardly call them friends, haha, as we hung out maybe twice apart from work, but I could not have been much luckier with my coworkers. I wish that I would have and that they would have reached out maybe just a bit more, but really they were so nice. In an intimidating environment, I at least was surrounded by people who were supportive, patient, and welcoming. On Thursday, I went to eat after work at a Mexican place with Dolores, Noemi, and Vero who are about my age and work in the front office. They invited me for an end of internship celebration, remembering that I'd said I'd like to go there. On my last day on Friday, a couple of women in the office invited me to go have a quick coffee break with them. This was the kind of thing I'd been wanting all summer- I know I could have initiated it too. We all wished we would have done it more frequently or sooner, at least.
5. My apartment. At the start, I did not enjoy my apartment. I never felt unsafe there or uncomfortable, and it totally exceeded my expectations of Airbnb and the particular place's pictures. But I didn't like being alone. I still do not savor my alone time like I would at home, but that's because I'm alone nearly all the time. However, my apartment and my neighborhood have been *mine,* and that's so important to me. I loved having a place to come back to and feel comfortable, and I enjoyed making it mine in temporary and subtle ways, like hanging pictures and organizing my things. Even though it wasn't exactly the same as signing a full blown lease on an apartment, it will still be my first place where I lived on my own!
There have been endless interactions that have made me laugh or that made me feel proud, happy, or excited. Other things certainly made me feel sad, homesick, alone, or nervous. I wish there was a way to remember every detail and every feeling, because I just can't document them all here nor keep them all in memory. Truthfully these things, the smiles and the "buenos días"-es, got me through.
No dejes de pasar por Barcelona. Tenemos la mejor escuela con los mejores cursos de español barcelona: https://expanish.com/es/escuela-barcelona/cursos-espanol/
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