Well guys, I’ve reached the dizzying heights of 26! Depending how close you are to 26, this either sounds completely ancient or like I’m a complete spring chicken still. For me, it’s the oldest I’ve ever been so feels pretty old to me but there we are.
I thought I’d fill you in a little on my third birthday abroad! All of them have been rather different in one way or another – the first was pre-covid times but my Spanish was really lacking so was still feeling somewhat out of place here. The second was in covid times and the third I shall talk you through now.
It started pretty early since I was on band practise! Meaning I need to get to the church early for us to set up and practise. Nolz encouraged me to have the Sunday off band but tbh, I really love singing and have had problems with my throat in the last few months so I really wanted to! So anyways, had church and in fact, it was nice because Billy, the pastor, felt like sharing a story in English. He said he felt like God had said for him to share it in English and there would be an English speaker there for the first time and it would serve as a welcome for them. He asked if that person wanted to go to the front and read the story. Well, all eyes were on me, but I wasn’t there for the first time! And I knew for a fact an old friend from Camelot was in the congregation for the second time, so was pretty sure it wasn’t for me to go up and speak. And, lo and behold, there was a woman from America in the congregation who went up to speak! It was really nice for me, having about 2 minutes of the service in my native language! Something I could inherently understand without straining or trying.
Then later, they did the incredibly embarrassing custom of calling you up to the front if it had been your birthday in the last week. I was obviously called but knew for a fact someone else in the youth group had had a birthday that week so I thought if I was going down I’d bring him down with me. So I dobbed him in and he was called to the front too mwahaha. Turns out there are now a few birthdays at the same time of the year so HURRAH!
Anyways, it was really lovely because Billy called up the American lady again and got her to pray for me in English which was just really lovely. I can’t even express how nice that was, a nice lil boost for me 😊 I had been planning on befriending her but alas, I think she was just visiting for the week as I haven’t seen her since..
After church we had a little zoom with my rents before going out to lunch. Nolys fam clearly know me well as they ordered for me what I usually order in this place (nice beef steak 👌) and we set about eating.
Once we’d stuffed ourselves sufficiently, it was time to go back to the house for round two of feliz cumple and cake 😋
Then afters, Nolz had arranged a birthday zoom with some friends and fam which was really lovely 😊 and then after that, pootled back to my flat to watch a film with ma Nolz 😊
All in all it was a really lovely day, though occasions are always a little bittersweet for me as I miss my family and my home with all our customs and traditions and things we do for birthdays. But it was lovely nonetheless and now I’m supposedly one year older and wiser..?! I suppose we’ll see about that!
Nadia's Adventures 