Wow, so much has happened in the last month. Every time I said I was going to update my blog, it seems like something was always happening. But finally, I decided just to make the time before it becomes an entire month. Happy to say that I have been writing down everything that happened everyday, just so I wouldn't forget. And of course some days are more interesting than others.
21st Oct – Well as I said before in my last blog, I started to crochet various designs for my hair. Just getting used to being natural and doing my hair, which I am truly enjoying! As for the crocheting, I went to a yarn store and pretty much bought every color and different size hooks, a little excited I guess!! Lol. To add to that, I have received so many compliments on them from everyone and even received a few requests. How cool is that . . . I know for sure that I am going to make some from my friend Rocio because she was the first to ask. And my other friend, MariPa, said that she would but anything I need because she loves hair accessories! I also found this wonderful all natural store, LUSH, a company based out of London. That have all natural products for you hair, skin, everything. So I bought some really great shampoo and conditioners, loving the natural life.
As far as school is concerned, that only thing I can say is that I understand which is awesome! I am also meeting so many great people in my class that are so willing to help me, which is always a blessing. Reminds me of back home in my Spanish class, there were two wonderful women Sissy Bonini and Tasha Theodosi, who are just awesome people and had no problem helping me and constantly giving my words of encouragement that I could do it (be fluent). ~ Here, there is a guy, Diego, we have our translation class together and he is so awesome and super funny! We both help each other with phrases in English/Spanish that might be new for us. Also he has knowledge of Arabic, which I might be taking next semester. He said if I take it, that he would love to be my tutor, Que Guay o Que Chullo! (Here that means, how cool!!)
22nd – Today my guy friend, Tory from Canada, and I explored Teatinos. Tory had a break before his next class so we just went walking around where I lived. And Teatinos is also where the main university campus is located. As we were walking and talking, I just continue to realize how beautiful Malaga is and the rich history it has. After that I just went to my dorm and chilled before the official welcome party for the residence.
Interjection~ Let me just give you a quick update on my roommates. My roommates are Laura, Carmen, Igra, and Jenny. Laura . . .uhhh I don’t know. She confused me sometimes, I probably said before that when I met her I was a bit skeptical, but my mom just said pray about it and that next day, she offered to help me decorate my room. But now, yeah, she kind irritates me a little. I’ll give you an example, like when I am having a conversation and there is a word I don’t understand, I would just ask for clarification. And here she comes, you know she doesn’t understand, just tell me and I will see if I know it English. And I am like excuse me; I would rather for them to explain so I could understand in Spanish. Its like don’t speak for me!!! I am a big girl and God gave me a mouth to speak for myself. But I am still praying about it because I refuse to have drama with my roommates! Carmen and Igra are pretty tied together, from my point of view. I always see them together, but they are great girls. And are always there when I need help. As far as Jenny, she is wonderful! I can talk to her about anything and she just corrects me as we talk, which is great. Overall, she is a great person, we each lunch and dinner together, which is just great. Another thing I like about her is that she appreciates silence. I don’t always like to talk when I eat, sometimes I like to reflect and think about whatever else I have to do that day. Overall, I have a mixture of personalities for roommates, which keep things interesting sometimes.
Back to the welcome party; I was just talking to some of my friends at the dorm and the staff needed help setting up, so I volunteered. And as I was helping to set up one of the guys, Pablo, was like I have a question and please don’t get offended, I was like okay. He asked me if I would take it offensively if someone called me “negro,” the Spanish word for Black, because he heard that some people would take it as an offense but it’s just a word. My response was that the only way I would take that as an offense is if it was in a negative connotation. And that since I’ve been here no one has called me that, I always get “morena” but maybe because it’s coming from guys. Questions like this make me happy to be here, because this is the first time for a lot of them here to have an experience with an African American and I thank God that I am presenting a positive perspective. I am constantly developing great relationships everyday! As we kept setting up, I could see that one of the workers was having trouble moving the chairs so I started helping him and he was like wow, okay. I just said with teamwork, you could always get things done faster. And as we kept moving the other workers were like, “Michelle, What are you doing? (Que haces?) I simply said, just helping out. (Ayudando)” They were also like wow and then they started to help also. I don’t know it just felt good to help and I guess through that they saw a different side of me. After that I went and made me a flower to go with my dress that night and finished getting dressed.
The event started around 8pm and it was very nice, there were speakers for various faculties from the University and some of the residents. The program was very nice and well put together; I even received a shout out. One of the speakers was saying how there were a few students from different parts of the world, like Mexico, Argentina and Michelle from the US. I was like uh hi; everybody was looking at me and smiling. Let’s just say if I were lighter I would have been red, lol. But it was nice to receive recognition. After it was over, we went outside where the banquet was being held and just had a meet and greet. Really nice, I met a lot of new people that night. After dinner we all went out to a club, Sala Moncloa, and had a great time. Let’s just say I didn’t get home until about 6:45am, jus in time to eat breakfast and got to bed. Thankfully, my teacher had cancelled Friday’s class. But some people weren’t that lucky, some people came back at 6:45am, ate breakfast, took a shower, and went to their 8:30 am class!! WOW, don’t know if I could have did that!
23rd – Continuation from that morning; I woke up around 1pm or so, just in time for lunch. Had lunch and then decided to wash my hair because it smelled just like smoke. So I did a protein treatment (eggs, mayonnaise, and olive oil) on my hair and left it for like 30 minutes or until it got hard. Then washed and conditioned my hair and did a shea butter treatment on my hair. (If you know me, just from reading that you should be really proud of me : D ) During that day I was chatting back and forth with my friends Carmen, trying to figure out our plans for the night. We decided to go to a bar, El Pimpi, with some friends. It was so funny, we started out with just 5 of us and as the night went on people would walk by that they knew and it just continued to grow.
That night we ended with about 20 people from 5. After that we went to Morrisey’s, an Irish pub, and just talked, it was great! My Spanish friends taught us new phrases and vice versa. One for giving a toast was, “Para ti, Para mi, Para lo que paso entre nosotros.” It means, “For you, For me, For what might happen between us” It’s just a funny toast that friends do. After that my friend Rocio was kind enough to give us ride home so we wouldn’t have to take a taxi. (Recap: Carmen and Rocio are the two girls that I met who took me to IKEA) Really awesome people, happy I met them!
24th – So yeah, I am addicted to my local Teteria’s (Tea Shop) gofres con helado y caramelo (Waffle with ice cream and caramel syrup) mmmm good! My friends Yara and I just went there eat and end up talking for like an hour or two. Actually, the day before my guy friend, that I had kind of started dating came back from his 10-day business trip and we were supposed to see each other today. But he texted later on that night and told me had caught a terrible cold (which was seriously spreading around Spain), which changed my plans for the night, but we said that we would just get together later on in the week. I was a little disappointed because I really wanted to see him. But hey life happens.
I received an email from my director back home saying that he chose the people that would be coming next semester, so I am excited since I will be their unofficial tour guide when they get here. And one of the actually read my blog and said that I was an inspiration and that it made her want to do a blog when she go here. How awesome is that, it put a smile on my face!
26th – My classmate Charlene, from Canada, decided that we would study together for our history class. One thing I do not like about staying at the dorm is that you cannot have outside visitors, which really sucks especially when I live right by the university and my friends want to come and chill between classes. But it’s okay, you live and you learn. So we decided to go to the campus library and when we entered it was so quiet you could here a pin drop. There were people there but no one was talking; I was almost to talk. The library is really different from the GSU library, a GSU we at least have quiet floors not the whole library. But I asked the receptionist where in the library we could talk, and she outside or in the faculty libraries. So we just went to our faculties’ library and even there I was shushed when I was whispering. So pretty much, it is hard to do group study unless you go off campus.
27th - MY 6 MONTH NATURAL ANNIVERSARY! My hair has now been completely natural, without chemicals, for 6 months! Yay me!
After my first semester I moved out of the dorm into my new apartment and a week later I went to Marrakesh, Morocco for 4 days and spent 2 nights in the desert. let me say it was the best trip that I had ever taken. It is the most beautiful place and out of this world views! So for the past few months I have been consumed with school, working at elementary school and traveling every 2 weeks. This has been highly blessed year for me. Just like my hair, I have grown so much; as a young woman and most importantly with my relationship in Christ. In March, I set a goal for myself and at the end of May I achieved it! I read the entire BIBLE in 90 days and during those 90 days I gave up drinking alcohol (simply by choice, not that I drink a lot anyways). You know it's funny what type of people drop out your life when you stop doing certain things, I was constantly surrounded by peer pressure or criticized, but you shouldn't have to explain yourself all the time and I didn't! The last week of May I completed the Camino de Santiago, which is worldwide famous walk to see the body of the Apostle St. James and that must be done for religious or spiritual purposes. I completed the The English Way, which was 80 miles (119 km) in 5 days. I did the walk BY MYSELF and it was an enduring and rough 5 days but I met great people along the way, although most of the time I was by myself, I had a lot of time to reflect and read the word. At the end of the walk I had finished the BIBLE, from Genesis to Revelations. I texted my mother to let her know of my accomplishment; she said "congratulations baby girl, I am so proud of you - Now do it again and take your time" All I did was laugh and say this is why I love you!
To me this year has not been only about school and grades, it has been a package deal. Living, working, going to school in a foreign country and being apart of the culture has been this year for me. Making life love relationships, meeting people from all over the world, traveling all over Europe and going to Africa! - But most importantly, Just like my hair so much, so have I as a person! I couldn't have asked for a better year - Life is what you make of it!
and talked all night! And we finished the night off at White, which is a club that we frequent a lot. There we met up with more people and finished the night off right, just having fun!
