So, just a few bits and bobs to update you on with my Argentine adventures!

As you’re probably aware, it’s now December, which I must confess, I’m constantly confused about. The ususal run-up to Christmas, for me, is always dark and cold with a lot of Christmas hubbub going on. Christmas cards, lights, decorations, Christmas shopping… Here, it seems to me to be the complete opposite. Most days it’s late twenties, early thirties and there’s not a sign of Christmas in sight! Okay, well that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but there doesnt (yet) seem to be so much hype. There are a few lights dotted around here and there and a coupla baubles in shop windows, but this is all. When I mentioned this to Noly the other day he responded with “well, we’re Argentinians. We’re late to everything”. Which is true! But we’re yet to see if everywhere does all get super Christmassy. I’m suspicious that it won’t. Not to the level that I’m used to but time will tell!

Interesting things that have happened to me recently!

On Thursday 5th December I went to help out at a school event at Ale’s school (one of my Camelot pals). When I arrived there was a hive of activity as kids bustled around, putting up posters to show all their work. In true teacher style, every step Ale took, a child would accost her and ask her a question. She would answer and then another kid would turn up. I swear it took us about 5 mins to cross the courtyard! After a while everyone was ready, and all the kids from the school sat outside, ready for the show. I had to introduce myself, say hello, how old I am and that I’m from England. The girls were then asked what they’d understood. It’s quite funny/weird when I go to these things as the fact that I’m English gives me celebrity like status which is just bizarre. The braver of the kids come up and talk to me and the others are overcome with shyness! Anyways, after introducing myself I was ushered to a seat at the front where I sat and watched as the students did a variety of dances and fashion shows. In a shocking twist, this led to me later being incredibly burnt as I hadn’t known I’d be sat outside for a good hour. Ahh, the joys of being British and burning easily…. After the show had finished I went inside (hurrah!) and listened to the students in Ale’s class explain their work to me. I actually really enjoyed it! It was very sweet. The school also gave me a necklace to thank me for coming which was sweet!

After this had finished Ale & I went on the hunt for some food. Eventually we found a place to eat and Ale treated me to lunch.

The following day after Camelot, it was Cristian’s birthday, so round we went to their house for some pizza and cake. Twas a really nice evening! There were some visitors from Santa Fe (another province) who had been staying with the Matus’ family and twas nice bc I could make conversation a little with the lady who I hadn’t met before, although tbf she was quite a talker so that made it easier! She was asking me if I’d got used to Salta. I think after about 7 months I can say that I am used to it here and accustomed to things, though I think they’ll always be different for me as I’ve lived most of my life in England. I can’t even express how satisfying it is, seeing where I’ve come from and seeing where I am now!

The next day I got up slowly and we had breakfast together at the Matus’ house. Noly was due to be studying all day as (pobrecito) he had four exams over three days in the next week, so Monica and I hatched a plan to go to Libertad (lol, this literally translates to freedom, but “Libertad” is a shopping centre that’s a bit far out of town). This was a really nice day! We chatted all the way over in the car and then continued to do so as we shopped.* As we were having lunch we bumped into one of Noly’s cousins who sat down and chatted with us whilst we were eating. This was also really satisfying as I added into the conversation here and there and Monica was like “can you see? She can talk a lot now! And she understands everything!” (which isn’t quite true haha, but more or less!). This is definite progress because I remember last year or the year before being introduced with “she can’t speak Spanish at all!” which I understand and was quite disheartening but to be fair, I really couldn’t communicate and wasn’t throwing myself in with the Spanish as I am now. At the end of our shopping trip off we went to the cinema! Though, not as you’d expect, to watch a film, but instead to buy some popcorn and eat on the way home. Such a good idea. We were both quite tired after such a long time in Libertad (lol). In the eve had youth and was suddenly struck by such hunger. It was really weird, hadn’t really been hungry during the day so had consequently only eaten cereals for breakfast, a piece of toast with guacamole for lunch, popcorn and then at about 9pm my body suddenly caught up with this and started growling at me. As soon as youth was over Noly and I sped off to get a Chinese, which was truly glorious.

*This was also really weird for me from a December/Christmas point of view. It was the 7th December, prime Christmas shopping time, and the shopping centre was pretty much empty!! So bizarre. I feel like in England the Christmas madness begins in November. Sometimes even the end of October, where you can’t even exhale without bumping into somebody. Weird. Tbf, this could also be down to the economic state of the country as I imagine the shopping centres aren’t the cheapest shops to go to, but still…

Sunday was a good day too! At church the kids Bible school had decided to do a play (Noah and the ark) to celebrate the end of the year. Noly was first cast as a bird but then got upgraded to Noah. He always seems to unwittingly get a starring role! Last year at Easter he was Jesus 😂 the play was really good! All the kids were dressed in lil animal costumes and the leaders of the group’s all had a dance or a song or something!

Yesterday, 1oth December, myself, Ale & Vale (from Camelot) headed to a restaurant called La Casona. They had told me about this restaurant and that it’s very popular with tourists, has regional food and folklore (a type of music). When we arrived, at about 10, Vale mentioned to the waitress that it wasn’t very busy. The waitress was like “ah yes, but that’s because it’s still early, more people will come later”. With my British brain this amused me because 10pm is super late to eat! I’m well used to it by now but it made me smile, thinking about friends and family at home. We ordered some empanadas, guachalocro and later some pudding. I really enjoyed this evening! Whilst we were sitting, two guys from a nearby table got out their guitars and started singing folklore songs very heartily and passionately. It was really cool. Very different from England! They played intermittently for a while and would occasionally stop to eat their own food. In moments where they’d stopped you could sometimes hear some other people heartily singing from a different patio. When we got up to leave and walked through the rest of the restaurant there were two lots of different people belting out songs too. It’s really hard to convey what it was like! So I will put in a video below so you can have some kind of idea.

Well, I think that’s all I have to update you on for now! Ta ra!

It’s funny now, looking back on the start of last week, how calmly it started before the week descended into a bit of chaos 😂 but more on the chaos later.

On Monday Noly and I went to join the youth retreat that had started the night before. They had instigated a no phone rule and a fast from talking. Both of these things were actually really great. No phones = no distractions and no talking = a break for me with trying to speak in Spanish – not something I get very often!

The morning included preaching and ministry time, and a snack here and there! At the end of the morning, Billy, the pastor, got us all to go outside and sit in a circle and talked some more to us about self esteem and loving ourselves so we can also then love other people. We did a few exercises, like writing down three positive qualities of the person sitting to our right (always a nice boost to get compliments 😊) and things like that. Then the last exercise was to complete three sentences at the bottom. All three sentences started with “the world is..” and Billy told us to complete the sentences with something positive, i.e. the world is beautiful etc. Once we’d done that he said, now replace “the world is” with your name and see what you have. One of the boys had written “el mundo es rotondo”, meaning the earth is round, meaning Ema is round…. 😂

After that came lunch which was lush! And then after that came a boys football match, various water balloon activities and volleyball. A water fight soon ensued and I managed to steer clear of it for a long time! Though this didn’t last and actually didn’t work out in my favour as one of the leaders highlighted the fact that no-one had gone for me so then I got absolutely drenched as five girls approached yielding buckets and bottles of water 😂 it was a very joyous afternoon with the girls getting braver and braver with who they were attacking and eventually they even went after the pastor’s, which was a funny sight to see! One of the pastor’s took refuge in their car and I didn’t see them again 😂 despite it being a very hot day, maybe around 34° my shorts still didn’t quite dry off 🙄

After going back to Nolys for a quick shower and change it was time to go to a birthday party for one of Nolys cousins children. Felt v mischievous because I was never allowed gobstoppers as a child (incase I swallowed them whole) and Noly encouraged me to eat one and then text my mum haha (who urged me to proceed with caution haha). Then had to run a coupla errands which turned out to be quite complicated indeed 😂 but eventually worked it out and so afterwards went to the new crepe place with the Nolzster and had a savoury crepe this time, pizza flavoured 😋

The next day, Noly and I got the bus to Oran as we needed to sort out some visa stuff. Oran also happens to be the hottest place you have ever been to, with temperatures at the moment somewhere between 40-48° 😂 getting off the bus there was a wave of heat. Thankfully it was cloudy so it wasn’t at full power but was still baking! We were staying with some of Nolys family in Oran and it was really nice to meet them and chat to them. In the evening we had tacos which was soo yummy and such a good family meal, all sat round the table passing bits and bobs. This was satisfying to see how far I’ve come because I managed to say some bits and bobs in Spanish and in groups it’s still really hard for me. Especially so with new people! But felt comfortable and happy.

I can’t really go into details on here, but the next day we started trying to sort out some visa stuff. Unfortunately it didnt go as smoothly as we had hoped. We made the journey back down to Salta and with a lot of prayer from various different people, it was finally sorted! It was all a bit stressful as we thought I may have to leave the country earlier than planned, so thank God for his hand over everything and thank you to everyone who prayed over it. Speaking of, if you are a pray-er please pray that we’ll find the best way forward for next year – a way that meets my needs and covers me financially. Have been feeling a bit down lately as I’ve had to sacrifice pretty much everything in my life to come out here, so I think it’s important to find a way forward that I’m happy with.

So yes, that was my crazy week last week! So relieved it’s all sorted out and am looking forward to my first Christmas abroad! I can’t get my head round the fact that Christmas is coming, largely due to the fact it’s really hot here and in my mind Christmas is related to cold and dark evenings! Weird.

Around two years ago I made a lettering page on Instagram with the idea of maybe selling some lettering. I did kind of get into it but I think the fact that I knew I’d soon be leaving to go to Argentina held me back a little as I had an end date in mind for when I’d have to stop. Not the lettering, but the idea of selling my lettering. Whether I’d have actually got round to setting up an Etsy page I don’t know, but I didn’t do it whilst I was in England.

Little did I know that I’d have the chance to do the same kind of thing here. Quite early on in my time here, Billy – the pastor of the church – said to me that I should do some lettering for the new church and that maybe I could sell some too. I clocked this idea but life got super busy and I never got round to doing anything. Until! A few months later I finally did some lettering in Spanish and sent it to him. I meant it more with the idea of maybe blowing some of my lettering up (as I’d forgotten the idea of me selling it) and putting it in the new church but no! The idea of selling it resurfaced and I had a meeting with him to discuss it. And here we are! I left his house with my arms full of new materials to play with..! Needless to say I was very happy. I’m currently trying to master the art of watercolour pencils. (If anyone has any tips on this please do share them 😂) Feeling a little pressured now that it’s not just an abstract idea and we’ve worked out how we can do some of it, but just have to go step by step.

The idea is that any profit I make will partly go to me and partly go to the new church. It’s nice to be able to contribute to the new church as building isn’t particularly my strong suit so it’s nice to be able to do something to help it along 😊

Here are a few of the lettering bits I have done over the last two years. Shameless bit of self promo buut follow my Instagram page if you fancy it @joyfulventures ! Will be putting any new bits of lettering up on there as and when I do them 😊

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve written on a week by week basis of what I’ve been up to. I’ve settled in to a rhythm now of life here so I feel like if I do a weekly commentary on what I’m up to the majority will be the same each week. In this blog I will write the things that ive been up to over the last month that are extras 😝

11/10/19 – my first quincinera! I mentioned this in my last blog post (my wins) but this was a really fun night! It started with a dramatic entrance of the birthday gal. There was a curtain out the front and the dad was on the other side forming a shadow. He started dancing with a baby figure, then a slightly older gal then older and then eventually the birthday girl before entering the room. (I actually felt quite emosh watching 😂😭) and then the birthday girl went round, saying hello to everyone, there was a video montage thing playing, food, intense singing to the birthday girl and then dancing!

22/10/19 – dinner out with two of my work pals 😊 the place we went ended up being the pizzeria where I first properly spoke to Noly about five years ago! Weird.

27/10/2019 – this was my first pool afternoon and eve with the Matus’ 😊 after church we all had lunch and then headed to the Matus’ house and spent the afternoon hanging out in the pool, sunbathing and chatting. Once it got dark we went in and I introduced Cristian, Luci & Sofi to the wonderful game of dobble 😊 always a winner. And then we watched a film 😝

02/11/2019 – went out for a picnic with the Nolzster in San Lorenzo. It looked ominously like it would rain/hail but we lucked out and were safe from the rain! Good thing too, as the car was about ten minutes down the road. When it rains here it tips it down. Which I later experienced as I walked into town to do a food shop. As I was walking it started raining and I was optimistically like, eh, it’ll be fine! (It was forecasted to be a thunderstorm but it had been like that most of the week so I didn’t believe it). Even when inside the supermarket, I could hear the rain over the music I was listening to in my earphones and I was still optimistically thinking, eh it’ll be fine! Left the supermarket. It was not fine 😂 I love thunderstorms and this one did not disappoint! You have never truly heard thunder if you’ve not been in a thunderstorm in Argentina. It sounds like the whole earth is about to crack open. I took cover in the entrance to the shopping centre and waited for the rain to stop. After half an hour Noly took pity on me and came to rescue me! Good thing too since this was the night I was cooking for some work pals! Thankfully they were also a little held up due to the rain so I got back to the apartment before they got there 😂 I cooked and we ate and watched a film (well. Two!) And twas a fun night 😊 turns out though, cooking is not all that conducive to chatting loads but nevermind! Twas fun nonetheless 😊

04/11/19 – met up with another of the work gals for merienda. We planned this about a month ago and finally did it! 🎉

05/11/19 – I had a facial! I was really brave. I saw on Instagram that Paula (from church) needed volunteers to have a facial. Well, sign me up thought me! What a selfless act indeed 😏 meant I had to walk, find the place and go in on my own! Was fun and managed to make some conversation with some of the girls there, even tho I didn’t know them at all 💪

06/11/19 – date night with Noly! Nolz has had exams the last while so we hadn’t done that much together and definitely hadn’t had a date for a while. For various reasons, the date plans we did have had fallen through. But finally we managed to have our date night and went to one of my fave restaurants for the yums 😋

09/11/19 – had a game day with Noly! After a coupla hours of being in the house I was starting to get a bit of cabin fever so we headed out to the new crepe shop in town we’ve been meaning to go to. Oh my. As I was eating quite possibly the sweetest thing I’ve ever had in my life, I could feel the decay forming in my teeth 😂 but quite honestly I think it was worth it. A crepe with Oreos, white and milk chocolate and dulce de leche. It was glorious. I was all for having a crepe each but was glad in the end that Noly said he thought we’d be able to share because one was definitely enough for the both of us 😂 for the rest of the day we just chilled, caught up on some series and had a devotions together since we weren’t sure if it’d be safe to go to youth incase the storm got worse and there was hail.

That’s all for now!

So I’ve now been here over 5 months (the longest I’ve ever been in Argentina for!) and time is honestly flying by. To begin with, when I first arrived, time seemed to drag and drag and drag and then eventually the weekend would be here and that would go in a flash and then bam, I was suddenly back to another week. Thankfully, it’s not like that any more since I’m super busy with my 1:1s, constant planning, Camelot and general life things! It’s so busy that I forget to pause and look at where I am now compared to where I was. Therefore, I decided to write down a list of my wins and ways that I have grown since being here, from the big things to the little things.

1. I have friends! (Haa). But genuinely it’s true and this is a big development for me. It means I have to invest in people and try and speak Spanish to people. Because of the level of Spanish I have I sometimes find this difficult because it means I have to be vulnerable with people pretty early on, allowing them to see my sometimes absolutely horrendous Spanish constructions.
2. I managed to make small talk for aaagess in Spanish the other night when I was really tired and had a long day. But I managed it!
3. I’ve been going back to the gym again and they always used to give me these tiny little weights to do exercises with (which in all honesty I enjoy. They’re tiny little pink ones. In all my time at the gym I don’t think I have ever seen anyone else use them. I regard them as my own personal weights), but the other day they upped it a bit and gave me some more big girl weights!! Goodness.
4. This is gonna sound like an odd one, but Noly and I have gotten better at arguing. Not that we argue all the time, we actually don’t argue much, but when we do, instead of being on the defense and defending my point until the bitter end (even when I’ve realised after two seconds I’m wrong) we now actually listen to the other and admit if we’ve done something wrong. An argument we had the other day was funny because part way through the argument we would stop and laugh as one party (I think it was me) had done something silly (ok, definitely me) and very mockable. Also, on this point, Noly said to me the other day “we’re not just a couple. We’re a long distance couple” which is so true. Long distance is so hard but we’ve made it this far. And I’m actually really grateful about the way it’s strengthened us and made us so close.
5. I don’t get nervous any more really for my classes and generally enjoy them 😊
6. I did a grown ups and rang my travel insurance to find out what would happen if I needed to get medial care here 💪
7. I spent my first birthday abroad and had a really lovely day! And arranged to do a few bits and bobs with various people. Plus, I withstood about 10 renditions of being sung happy birthday to 😂
8. I feel generally very settled here. I have days when I’m a bit sad or things are difficult but I don’t feel overwhelmingly out of place. When I first arrived I went through phases when I would cry most days 😂 but thankfully I’m through with that now!
9. I can more or less get by with my Spanish. Definitely not full, faultless sentences and in groups it’s still quite a struggle but if I really need to say something, generally I can. Plus people can notice the improvement and will often say to me “your Spanish is so much better than it was!”
10. Went to my first quincinera, which is kind of like a sweet 16 type party, but for a 15th birthday. Braved dancing to the Latino rhythm, which is compleeetely different to the rhythm I’m used to and next thing I knew it was 4.30 am and was feeling rather awake and not completely exhausted 😂 I also sniffed out the cabsha – was dancing with Noly and saw it over his shoulder and off I went 😂
11. I often reach 10,000 steps each day with all the walking I do here!
12. I find it easier to talk about faith here and have had a few conversations with a few people about my beliefs 😊
13. I’ve grown in confidence. I used to absolutely detest walking into a place on my own (for social events)- I still don’t massively like doing it in some situations but I can do it. I’ve done it for walking into church and also the youth group.
14. Managing to survive with all the planning for 1:1s and classes. The amount of planning teachers have to do, and especially new teachers, is actually mad.
15. Get to see Noly most days and we’re even closer than we were ☺️
16. I’m managing to stick to my budget and saving a little bit where I can.
17. I think I’m beginning to get the bus stance you need to adopt in order to not go flying when the bus driver kindly decides to break very suddenly. In truth, I don’t go on the bus very often so it may just be a recent fluke 😂 we’ll see we’ll see..
18. I regularly sing at church in the band in Spanish 💪
19. I can sometimes make jokes/funny comments in Spanish! Before, it would take me way too long to get to the point (had to keep asking “Como se dice …”, “How do you say…”) and so I’d lose my audience. I actually place a lot of importance on making people laugh so means a lot to me when I can.
20. In church I can actually understand a fair amount of the preaches these days. Massive improvement as Noly used to literally translate them for me (when he hadn’t fallen asleep in the service. Literally, that boy can fall asleep anywhere. One day he’d fallen asleep and I was teasing him afterwards and he was like, mate I wasn’t even sleepy and blamed it on the blue curtains at the front of church, saying blue has a sleepy effect on us blah blah blah. .. anyways). I can also identify words and put them in translate. Sounds like a silly one, but before I wouldn’t have been able to guess the spellings accurately enough for it to come up with something or to seperate two words from each other but I can now 💪
21. I sent my first VoiceNote in Spanish!
22. I did a whole load of sorting with my flights and having to ring my bank to unblock my card (three times) etc.
23. I’m going back home for a month or so with Noly (tho sadly Nolz will be with me for just a week. It’s a shame it’s so little time since he’s barely ever in my world with me but one week is better than nothing) and I get to go to my cousin’s wedding!! With my Nolz which is gonna be so lush as he’s not been to any big family events of mine (other than our sing along sound of music evening hahaha it was even greater than it sounds) and so should meet everyone else on mum’s side that he hasn’t thus far!
24. When I was training on the TESOL course and I would be preparing for a “teaching practice” (to give a lesson) it would literally take me about a week and all my time to plan. Now I can bosh a lesson plan out way quicker. Needs must! I don’t have enough time to faff about for a week 😂
25. The other day I wanted to wear a top which was incredibly crinkly. Unsurprisingly I don’t own an iron here but instead what did I do? Ironed it with my hair straightners 😂 it was harder than it sounds but it worked! Thought it was quite ingenious of me!
26. I did a growed up and invited two work pals round for dinner. Haven’t really done this in England so definitely a new thing for me!
27. I got stuck the other day in a thunderstorm and instead of just saying eh, I’m sure it’ll be fine and walking back in the torrential rain for 20 mins I stayed put. Such a grown up! Noly came and rescued me after a while 😝
28. I’ve learnt to respond to my needs better! Being in a different country is sometimes randomly very hard and tiring, and in these times it’s sometimes better for me to rest and give myself a rest rather than just trying to power through. I’ve always been someone to try and power through but trying to give myself a break sometimes! Even if it means I don’t get as much planning prep done as I was planning to.
29. I’ve instigated a fair few social things 💪
30. I’m surviving and haven’t melted in the heat! (Thus far, we’ll see about December 😂) This English gal is not used to 38°C 😂

Well, that’s all for now! Much love to you all at home 💜

As the title eludes to, ya gal Nadz has been cracking on with some adulting recently. And quite spectacularly too, I might add, with little to no tantrums thrown when things have invariably gone wrong for me as they seem to do.

1. I persevered with plane ticket troubles. You may be thinking “oh, but she’s said about this before!”, Well, you would be right, but I’m talking about another occasion. (I honestly don’t know why these things always happen to me.) So, last month I faffed about booking my plane ticket from BA – London. Yesterday and today I’ve faffed around booking my plane from Salta to BA. First hiccup, was that when I entered my details, it said my date of birth was wrong. I even checked my passport just in case I’ve been getting it wrong all these years (!) but no, surprisingly, I was right. Anyways, after such a poor start I think this attempt was always going to be doomed. After 2 hours of no success I was feeling thoroughly grumpy and must admit to a little tantrum, but no tears were shed! Very unlike me. Noly tried (and failed) to book for me, and so it continued. Today however, after many calls to my dad, my bank and the airline, finally managed to book it. Hurrah!

2. I’ve been eating a lot of salad recently!! And strangely, I’ve been enjoying it. I always think this is the height of adulthood when you enjoy salad. I think it’s because it’s so hot here now (39° hahaha help) that I just want light food.

3. In June I sorted out my voting status so that I could have a proxy vote due to being abroad. This seemed to get lost in the mail a few times but was eventually sorted out and I received a confirmation email and document telling me I’m all registered and set up. But then, lo and behold, a few days ago I receive another email from them telling me I’m not set up to vote. 🙄 Well, I emailed them back, very politely, with the document they themselves had sent me to show it should already be sorted. And dobbed Eryl in for good measure. (She had confirmed to me that my proxy vote was in place).

Side point: I hear we might be having a general election in December. If anyone wants to fill me in on what on earth is going on in England in a very easy to understand, concise way, that would be fab 😂 I never really understood what was going on whilst I was at home let alone now I’m out here away from it all 😂 (also who should I vote for in the case of a general election hahaha)

4. With this super hot weather I seem to be getting a lot of headaches. One would think that may be due to not drinking enough but I really think I am! I’m literally guzzling water every 5 seconds. Anyways, just now instead of just enduring my headache like I always do, I took some paracetamol! Woah. Since I never used to be able to take tablets and have only learnt to do it within the last one/two years it never occurs to me to take them 😎

5. My shoes match my outfit today!! Usually life is too short to faff around with matching shoes but today I am just bossing at life 💪

Well, that’s definitely enough adulting for now! I shall leave you with a picture of me and the Nolzster.

Wow, haven’t done a blog post in a while! Life here is literally flying by and the last three weeks have been quite a blur and haze of activity, though now I can’t quite think what I’ve been up to! However, some things of interest that I can think of..

– Went to my first quincinera! Here, for girls, the birthday that you celebrate is your 15th birthday and it’s a pretty big deal. Typically the girl is in a big poofy princess dress and makes a big entrance. The birthday gal then goes round and greets everyone and there are video photo montages and songs. Infact the singer went over and sang, very intensely I might add, to her, being down in his knee infront of her. I was quite grateful at this point that my 24th birthday here didn’t involve that 😂 food came along and before I knew it it was about 12.30. I was literally just thinking that it was winding down when Noly leaned over to me and said “you do know this is only just beginning right?”. Photos ensued and then suddenly the tables were cleared and it was time to dance. First the waltz. The tradition is for the birthday gal to do the waltz with all the guys. And then the DJ put some bangers on and twas time for everyone to dance. Goodness me, Argentinian rhythm is uber difficult for me 😂 it’s all in the hips and quite honestly I’m convinced I don’t have any 😂 one particular highlight whilst dancing with Noly was that we were dancing and then suddenly over his shoulder I spotted some cabsha (my favourite cake) and was off. A cabsha break quickly followed 😂 a little while later we looked at the time, I was thinking it was maybe 2, 2.30 (it hadn’t felt like long since I’d last looked at the clock and it was 1.30) but it was actually 4.30 😱 so we took our leave and I got back to Marta’s at 5am.

– One of my 1:1 students decided to give me a payrise the other day!! Which was really sweet and actually a bit of an answer to prayer as I need to move out next year and don’t have much money to spare for accomodation so every little helps. If you are a pray-er, please be praying over my finances ! And also that we’ll find the right place for me to live in terms of location and finances.

– Had a spontaneous girls night with Luci, Vale & Sofi the other day! The boys from church were having an asado and so we decided we’d go to Luci’s, cook some dinner and watch a film. Love a good girls night 😊

– I managed to sprain my already sprained ankle again 🙄 in fact, I’ve had a few not very fun days recently with hurting my ankle and my laptop not working (thankfully my 1:1 fixed it for me but it was out of action for a few days and I need it for my work) and various other bits and bobs that happened or went wrong 🙄 but yeah so now I’m back to square 1 with my ankle. I have to try and wiggle it around a little bit each day and I’ve lost the progress I’d made with it but never mind!

Well that’s all I have time for for now so ta ra!

So, as of the 3rd October, I’m officially 24! First birthday I’ve ever had in a different country than England. And what a busy birthday it was!

Noly arrived in the morning and whisked me away! We went up the San Bernado hill to have breakfast in the new cafe there that overlooks the city. It was really nice, would recommend it! Thought it might be super expensive but actually it was alright. Whilst in the cafe I opened a few bits and bobs. Some of my family had given me presents to bring with me to open on my birthday and at Christmas so I’d have something from them. One of the presents from my mum appeared to be a pair of knickers, which I opened on full display for all to see in the middle of the cafe… haha.

After hanging around a bit at the top of the mountain we went and had lunch out with some of Nolys family. Twas really nice to be able to celebrate with them too 😊 and Cristian and Luci had hatched a plan that the next day we would have an asado (a big fat bbq, that’s the literal translation 😉) to celebrate as well, which was a really nice thought 😊

I then went and skyped my parents and sister for a bit before I had to say ta ra and head to Camelot for a 1:1. My student had brought me cabsha! My favourite cake!! Hurrah! And insisted that I didn’t share it with him so y’know, who am I to refuse such a command? After our class it was time to celebrate my birthday with the camelot girls during our tea break. This was my first in person happy birthday rendition of the day.

It was then time to go and teach my Thursday class so I headed downstairs to the office and then was commanded by another student from another of my classes to go into their room for a second (“Nadia! Come!”) and there started the next round of happy birthdays 😂 went into my actual class who then proceeded to sing me happy birthday. The second they were finished the door barged open and three of the students I have on Fridays from a different class swanned in, also singing me happy birthday 😂

After Camelot I headed to Sofi’s house from church as she was having a birthday bash with some friends and family as it was her birthday too. There was so much pizza 😋 and so much cake for pudding! I brought my cabsha and shared some of that because it was pretty big for just me and Marta to make our way through 😂 was cute, everyone sang happy birthday to both me and Sofi when the happy birthday renditions started again and I also blew out a candle 😝 was super proud of myself this eve because I made loads of small talk, mainly on my own, with two of the girls at the party who I didn’t know that well. Was doubly impressed because I managed to do this after getting only about 2/3 hours sleep the night before as I just couldn’t sleep!

The next day was a normal day until the evening when it was time to have the birthday asado. This was, obviously, glorious and a really nice evening 😊 it also included being sung happy birthday to about five times in various different languages, Spanish, English, Swedish.. 😂

On Sunday at church I was also sung happy birthday to. At church they always get you out the front and sing happy birthday to you. With the size of the church there’s usually a birthday most weeks 😂 was very pleased it had also been Sofi’d birthday so she was out the front with me too!

The last of the birthday celebrations happened last night. Some of the Camelot gals went out for dinner and cocktails, perf end to my birthday celebrations 😊🍹

Part of the joy of learning a language, in my opinion, is definitely when you make funny language mistakes. I shall write some of mine now for your amusement. Also, full disclaimer, there may well be Spanish spelling mistakes in this blog post. I think I’ve written it all well, I checked most of them with Noly, but there might be some.

– One time I was talking to Luci and we were talking about dreams. I meant to say, tuve una fase (I had a phase) but instead said tuve un faso (I had a joint) 😂 not quite what I meant..

– Thankfully after being here for a while my Spanish has kicked in, but to begin with in situations where I really needed Spanish, my mind would go completely bank. A while ago when I was in the supermarket someone had forgotten to put their eggs onto the counter to buy them and I was trying to say something to get their attention and found myself saying ‘ellos!’, which means ‘they!’ 😂 Another time I tried to respond to someone who said ‘have a good day!’ and said ‘por que!’ which means ‘why?’ 😂

– A few years ago when I was here I was at the dinner table with Nolz, his parents and Cristian. They were talking about one of my gap yar pals who’s now married. I was trying to say ‘shes married’ but wasn’t sure on the words so instead tried to use mime, saying “ella” and proceeded to stick my ring finger in Javier’s face. There was a moment’s shocked silence as it seemed like I’d randomly flipped the bird in his face for no apparent reason before I realised, in horror, what it looked like and basically melted to the floor.. 😂 if only I’d had the words…

-There was one day in August where (to be fair I was pretty tired) I would be speaking in Spanish and then I would suddenly say an English word. This doesn’t usually happen to me! I was saying ‘yo voy a el instituto los mondays’ (I go to the institute on Mondays). I think this was happening coz I was just tired and my brain had given up. Didn’t just happen once though happened quite a few times..!

– There’s a song in Spanish that goes “nada es dificil para Dios, todo es posible por quien qué cree” (nothing is difficult for God, everything is possible for those who believe) but I sometimes find myself singing it the wrong way round singing “todo es dificil para Dios, nada es posible..” (everything is difficult for God, nothing is possible), which is quite an unfortunate mistake to make!! (I do this with an English song too which goes “blow through the caverns of my soul” but often find myself singing tavern.. 😂)

– The other day I was trying to say “future”, (futuro), which is a fairly easy word to say but for some reason I just couldn’t get my mouth round it and said frutero (fruit seller)!

-My most recent mistake has been when I wanted to ask Noly how his neck was as it had been hurting. Instead of saying ‘how’s your neck?’ (como esta tu cuello?), I said ‘como esta tu cola?’. Cola is bum or tail…

– Marta was talking to me about knots a while ago (in relation to scarves). The Spanish word for knots is ‘nudos’. At this point my brain was like, hang on Nadz, you know a word that’s similar to that! Say it, say it and out I blurt ‘desnudo’, before remembering that means naked 😂

– It seems that I am completely incapable of saying “hinchado” which means swollen. I always say enchilada which is a hot spicy chili thing from Mexico. Either that or I say my own option of the word 😂 but I am literally incapable. Someone says it and then I repeat it as “henchadi” or something like that. Then they repeat it again and again I say the wrong one 😂

– I always get the fear when I try to say “qué gracioso” (how funny) as I get confused between gracioso and gaseosa. Gaseosa being fizzy drinks. Definitely don’t want to say “qué gaseosa” 😂

I’m sure there will be more to come of Nadz vs Spanish but that’s it for now. To end, here’s a picture of yours truly drinking some maté for the first time since I got here! Technically it was terere which is infinitely nicer in my opinion 😋

Well, what a ridiculous time of it I’ve been having lately. There seems to be something about me. Nothing particularly noteworthy or interesting happens for a while and then BAM a whole load of things happen in quick succession. This is what I get for thinking I don’t particularly have anything to write in a blog post about my last couple of weeks 😂

To start, I will explain the part of the title that says “banana trees”. 🍌 On Saturday 21st September, not only was it my mum’s birthday (happy birthday mumma bear!) but it was also the day of spring here and also students day. As such, the youth group had decided that we would have a jungle party. This would involve dressing up and also a talent show. I was racking my brains on what me and Noly could go as (he has always wanted to go to a costume party with me and for us to be in a couple-y outfit) so felt we really had to out-do ourselves. Didn’t want to go in all my leopard print bits and bobs because figured a lot of people would be animals, so wanted to be a little bit creative. After much brainstorming in the Gloverlings WhatsApp chat, my brother suggested we go as trees since I have experience with this (in my year 6 Christmas play I was a tree. What can I say, acting is clearly a talent of mine (hahaha not I hate it)) and there we go! The idea started to form. I would be a banana tree and Noly would be the banana. Hehe.

Thankfully, growing up in my family also leads to talent shows. Lol, that sounds really big headed as though I’m saying my family is just outrageously talented 😂 what I mean is that I had something in the back of my mind that we could do! I will try and upload the video here but I’m not sure if wordpress let’s you. It’s hard to explain our act but basically it was kinda like percussion 😂 the video is only half of our act but you get the kinda idea.

Well anyways, the evening was super fun!! There were tigers, pandas, leopards, a giraffe, an explorer, a wolf and an elephant. Plus a banana and a banana tree as formerly mentioned 😝 for the talent show there was a coupla dances, Noly and mines act and then a sketch, which was hilarious. My favourite of the night. After the talent show we all had to take part in a catwalk kinda situation. Horrendous. The kind of thing I absolutely hate with a passion 😂 but wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be thankfully!

Afters, there were prizes for best costume/makeup, most participation in the evening and best talent. Noly and I won the best costume category! My prize was a maté set which I was buzzing about!! When I showed Marta she roared with laughter as she knows I’m not a fan of maté. However! I was buzzing because whilst I don’t like maté, I like terere, which is maté but instead of having it with scorching hot water, you have it with juice or Fanta or whatever you fancy. As we’re now in spring it’s the perfect time for terere. The only thing I need now is a maté bag so that I can take it with me to places 😝 it’s my birthday coming up next week everybody.. just saying 😉

Was happy with my maté set because for one, it’s pretty and had flowers on it so that’s always a winner for me. Then number 2, because I wouldn’t have bought a set myself as I don’t mega love maté, but now I have one, I can have terere and be proper Argentinian 🤙

The second thing to update you on, is that for the first time in my life, I twisted my ankle. It was such a ridiculous thing right! It was on Monday 23rd September, which was Marta’s birthday and also mine and Noly’s four years anniversary (🎉). We were all at Goly’s house for lunch (Marta’s sisters) which is literally just around the corner from Camelot. At 3 I had a 1:1 class, so from about 2.45 I started getting a bit twitchy, knowing I’d need to leave soon. At 2.50 I was about to start leaving when everyone was like, no! Stay for us to sing and cut the cake and then you can go! This took a few minutes and then at 2.57 I took my leave and started speed walking to the institute. I started texting my 1:1 just to say I was on my way and might be two minutes late when suddenly my left foot plunged into a random hole that was in the pavement and my ankle twisted.

This was completely ridiculous, because Camelot was literally about ten metres away! I could see it but there was no way I’d be able to put weight on my foot straight away, nor hop so I had to call Noly to literally drop me a 5 sec drive across the road. Noly came to my rescue and dropped me at the entrance. I proceeded to hop into the class, much to the horror of those gathered in reception. I then spent the first 10 minutes of my 1:1 assuring my student that my foot wasn’t about to drop off and I was absolutely fine to teach the lesson.

At the end of the lesson I conceeded and sought out some ice as I had been trying to assess if my ankle was swollen. I thought it wasn’t but when I inspected it against the other it was massively swollen 😂 after a bit I thought I’d be okay to hobble back to Marta’s, just this time without being on my phone 😂

That evening Noly and I went to the cinema to celebrate our anniversary and then grabbed some food 😝 in the shopping centre which I usually massively dislike because it isn’t the most scenic of places 😂 but didn’t really mind this time.

The next day the next drama happened. I was trying to book my flights home for January (I’m coming home for a month y’all! Who wants to see me? 😝). As you can probably tell, my card got blocked. Usually, this is pretty easy to solve. Just ring ya bank, bish bash bosh, they’ll sort it. Well. I couldn’t ring my bank because I can’t make international calls on my phone. Nor could anyone else I asked and my sister, who tried to ring them for me, couldn’t speak on my behalf. Brother suggested adding some credit onto my Skype. Tried to do that but obviously wouldn’t work as my card was blocked so my brother added credit onto my Skype. The afternoon proceeded like this 😂 two calls later, various pages crashing, prices rising, Nadz crying and my bank card not working a whole load of times, I eventually managed to buy my plane tickets. Hurrah!!!

Three hours later, the plot thickens. I check my bank account and guess what happened? I had two pending transactions. The payment was trying to go through twice. Help! At 11.30 pm here (so 3.30 am in England) I got up my Skype and called my bank again. They couldn’t do anything because it was the middle of the night in England so I called Norwegian (the airline) who said it should be fine but I’d need to call the bank in the morning. In the morning I called the bank and then called Norwegian again and finally managed to sort it out. Oosht!! All this was somewhat stressful. It was also hard because it was getting late at home, my siblings weren’t picking up, parents were on holiday and therefore weren’t on phones, friend was in the shower etc. Various people tuned in for a bit to help me before needing to go to bed. Thankfully, my brother is a late night owl and thus was around to help me for ages. But yes, finally!! I sorted it. There was also a time pressure on it because Noly’s coming to England with me for about a week so that he can actually be with my friends and family and be in my world for at least a little amount of time, so I was trying to book a seat next to him on the plane.

Well anyways, those are my most recent ridiculous circumstances!

Three other things that have happened lately:

-Nolys 22nd birthday! Nolz and I first went out for breakfast and then we had a big birthday meal at the Matus’ house 😊 the next day I took Nolz out for sushi too as that’s his favourite. It is definitely not mine but I tolerated it 😂

– finally went back to the gym. Haven’t been for ages because I was poorly for a while, then didn’t get round to it and then I twisted my ankle. I told my trainer person I couldn’t do anything with my legs because of my ankle. He later forgot this and it gave me great joy when he said the next exercise was the plank, to be like, ah no, I’m sorry I don’t think I can, my ankle ya know? Before giving him a big innocent smile hahaha.

– sometimes children here just seem to find me hilarious. I think maybe it’s because I look foreign? I have no idea. Yesterday when eating in the shopping centre with Noly there was a little boy behind Noly who kept turning around to look at me and just burst into laughter whenever I made eye contact with him. This became even more so when I started making faces at him 😂 this isn’t the first time this has happened although it was the most exaggerated time 😂