Blue Room

I'm rather loving my new blue room and the awesome people I'm living with...
Sunday we had a very productive meeting about Youth Alpha which is due to start in a few weeks. It's all sounding very exciting!
Yesterday (monday) I did some shopping and sorted my room out a bit more...I still need a mirror in there. At the moment I'm doing my make-up using either the microwave which is unusually shiny or the back of my ipod, not ideal. And the only full length mirror I have use of is in the lift on the way downstairs, by which time it's already too late to make adjustments.
So anyway, yesterday I was studying and that was nice. I had lunch with my flatmates and we watched some lamo Spanish TV and moaned about the pope. Lol. And then after I did my tutoring I wandered around the shops for a bit :) I found a nice dress for Claudi's wedding! Woop.
Today I'm doing some admin for church and then going to my church plant tonight (we've called it Fusión by the way, should be sweet)
And tomorrow there's a general strike so I'm unsure of how I'll get to school. Maybe I should go on strike too...
That's all really,
Love x

New Beginnings...

Ok so my nervousness and fear was totally uncalled for. I'm settling in beautifully, just unpacking all my stuff. I've only been here about an hour and a half and I've already had 2 cups of tea made for me :) What a beautiful thought.

The family I'm staying with are lovely. My room looks a bit of a mess at the moment cause I'm just deciding where to put everything. I need to invest in a few things...like a mirror.

Anyway, I'm going to continue making my room look pretty. Here's a picture of the view from my window... Love Tori x

Tomorrow...

Ahh! I'm moving into my awesome new flat tomorrow. I'm bloomin scared and excited all at once. I'm looking forward to the challenge, but so scared...especially about the language thing.

It's gonna be awesome.

This week has been manic. I was teaching lots which was great. My boys are doing well :) The kids at school are lovely. Today I helped Riekje, Cathy and Jeanetta sort out the stuff for Garage Sale next week...

I've just packed my room up again into a bag and a few other smaller bags...it's odd how I have accumulated stuff over this past month.

I love this song at the moment by Gungor called "Beautiful Things"...thanks to Zac for that one.
"You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of the dust. You make beautiful things, you make beautiful things out of us."

Go spotify it.

Alrighty, I'm off to bed. Love xxx

Flan, Paella, Chick Flicks etc.

I had the loveliest of weekends.

Started off by meeting Tiffany on Saturday morning and going to look at this flat...I realised when we got there that I didn't have the actual flat number and level, just the address. So, we had to do a bit of detective work which was actually really successful, we found out all about the landlord and the flat just from all the lovely old neighbours. Then we actually found out where it was and it turns out it's perfect.

So then Tiff and I walked a very very long way. We got very tired and hungry and chatted a lot. So we bought lots of pasta, bread and Flan. What a winner. There was a lady who stole a bag and ran out of the shop and the assistante was shouting to catch her! Very exciting...Anyway, we bought our food and went to cook it at some friend's house. We realised we didn't have much time before the Pow Wow so we ended up boiling water but then just eating toast and flan. So much flan. It was nice :D

So we went to the Paella Pow Wow. The weather was great and we raised around 2500 euros. Awesome. Me and some of the young guys were put in charge of the music which was fun :) We put on a few CHOONS.

Church was good on Sunday. Tamara and Dan led some beautiful worship and then I went with Martin to do the youth meeting which was great fun. And then I went to the Porter's house for lunch. They had offered me a room in their AMAZING house. It's totally awesome and has a pool, a piano, a trampoline...awesome times. But I think the flat is the more practical option as well as being more of a challenge (for the spanish) and fits in better with why I'm here...to serve the Spanish community.

Then Sunday afternoon I had the house to myself so I just relaxed, skyped some of my favourite people ever who haven't yet managed to replace me :) And I watched St Trinians. And then to top it off, I was looking through the cupboards and Tiffany had left me some of the uncooked pasta we had bought, so I had that for dinner.

A lovely weekend in my opinion.

Today it's my lovely brother's birthday! Happy Birthday Jubsy! I had a nice chat with him this morning. And this evening I have tutoring.
Then tomorrow is staff meeting and then Richard, Tamara and I will be going to the International Newcomers morning where we will publicise Mountainview Church. Nice.

Ok, fin de cuenta :)

x

Some Photos...

Ok so I thought I'd put up some pictures for you to see! This is the view from my window...you can see the mountains in the background.
This is my cute little desk in my room. Displaying lovely pictures, some leaving and welcome cards, the worship rota and my weekly schedule :)
This is THE BEST poster in the english room at school. It's called "How To Greet People In English" and they all have awesome names...like Jerry and Horatio and Sally Tyson...clearly all typical english names.
This is Jordan (4) and Me when I first got here.
Here is a pretty view of the city from Pozuelo (where I tutor)...you can't really see the city but the sky was nice on this day. I love this walk, it's mostly uphill but really beautiful.

I've really been enjoying teaching these past few days. One of the boys I tutor got a sticker in his maths book! I was so proud. And the kids, and teachers at school are all really sweet.

Paella Pow Wow tomorrow. And I'm going to look at a flat...exciting times! Got a postcard from my lovely God-mother :D What a winner.

Love Tori x

Church, School and Walking

Exciting times everyone!

I've been doing lots again...it's weird, everytime I sit down to do a blog I've forgotten everything I've done! Madness. So on Monday I did lots of reading which was really good and productivo. I went to do my tutoring in the evening. It may sound weird but I actually love the walk to and from tutoring...it's really long and up a hill on the way but it's really powerful and exciting to be walking through all these Madrid neighbourhoods. And there are often beautiful beautiful sunsets. Or stars. Oh I love stars. It's just so breath-taking out here. And the mountains, I love the mountains.

Yesterday I went to Balder to talk through my schedule. I'll be working with year 5 and 6 on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. I met Reyes, who is the lovely head of English. She's an absolute sweetheart. Then I came back and did some work for church and some more reading. Dan and Tamara were preparing for Sunday's worship so I butted in and sang with them :) Nice.

Then Dan drove Tamara and Me into the city and we went to a "reunion" for a new church plant that is starting in 2 weeks. It's so exciting. It's all in Spanish so I have to concerntrate hard but I was amazed at how we've all been brought together to Madrid to serve God. We're all foreigners really: 2 germans, 1 american, 1 french, 1 ecuadorian, 1 uruguay and 2 english :D but we're all excited to start this new spanish congregation. We need to think of a name and sort out who's going to do what (worship, teaching etc.) Anyway, I'm excited and came away from the meeting completely buzzing. And it was really late and the stars were out on my walk home.

What a winner.

Today I was at Balder (the school) in the morning, met my classes. They are all very cute. Except one of the year 6's said that I looked 34...and refused to believe that I am infact 18. Sad times. I'm looking forward to working there this year, should help with my spanish too. I have tutoring in Pozuelo tonight...lovely walk except it's Sooooo hot today. I may die half way up the hill.

On Saturday is the annual charity Paella Pow Wow (cooking contest and fun day type thing) so everyone's busy preparing for that. Except me because I'm blogging. Haha.

Sorry this is so long. Just quickly, I'm going to view a flat on Saturday and a room in a house on Sunday. Please will you all ask God which one I should live in? Cause I'm unsure at the moment. I'm hoping he'll make it really clear when I see them both.

Fin de cuenta :)

Pray for:
- No rain on saturday
- Clear guidance with regards to accomodation
- The new church plant.

Vlog 1

For those of you who dislike reading...

Hello everyone!

I've just had a super-fun weekend (if not rather tiring). On Friday I went to Tamara's for dinner with Tiffany (who's american and lovely) and Claudia (who I think is originally from Ecuador) and it was lovely lovely times. We spent most of the evening drinking Tinto de Verano and speaking Spanish which was really fun.
And we did some singing and dancing at some point too..."Life could be a dream (sh-boom)"
Nice.

On Saturday I went straight from Tamara's to meet a young guy at the station as he is new to town. We went to this youth event that was organized by another church where we played Waterballoon Volleyball which was funny. I didn't actually play cause I was filling the balloons but it was good to watch. Haha. And I met some of the lovely Mountainview Youth girls :) They like playing with my hair = I like them.

Then I stayed at Rob and Chris's and we watched Chick Flicks and cuddled their cute dog. Sunday morning was church which was really good. I sat with the young girls I met on Saturday which was sweet. We then had a band practice which was really good fun.

Umm...And I took the kids for a swim. Sweeeet. It's been a really good weekend. I need to work though now and I'm tireddddd *whine*

I'm going to be tutoring later...I also need to go shopping, get some supplies at some point.

In other news, my nails are getting very long. I think it's the sun :)

Love x

Busy bee

Hey ho!

Things are going well. I've been so busy I've hardly had the pazazz to catch up on the old blog. So this one may be a wee bit long. I had a good chat with Richard about my schedule, turns out Ima be bussyyyy.

There's talk about starting up a youth band (should be sweet), going to be doing a lot of worship and practicing. Also I'll be helping lead the youth, and possibly some preaching. But in the meantime, I have lots of studying to get on with, some bible stuff, some reading. I've also been going through song lists suggesting new songs for the coming term. Wicked.

Yesterday and the day before I met Alvaro (11) and Dani (13) the two boys who I'll be tutoring. They are both very sweet and I helped Alvaro with his biology and covering his books for the new term. Cute. They live in Pozuelo which I think is a lovely little pueblo. And they had Jelly Beans :D

The church planting meeting was cool. Very exciting stuff. There's a few young guys living in the centre of Madrid who will be starting up a Spanish speaking small group in October which I'm going to join. SWEET. It's all exciting.
Oh and I booked my flight to Porto with Alexandra for the 16th-18th of October. That should be awesome not only because we'll be leading worship in Portugal but also because I can hablar espanol with Alexandra.

This morning I was shown around Balder school and introduced to the staff. I will be starting work with them next Wednesday which will be a great opportunity as I will be in a spanish environment and hanging out with youngens (my fave).

I think that's all for now. I'm having so much fun. It's lovely and sunny! I miss my Mum, Julez and the Stupples muuuuuchos. So if you see them, give them a hug.

Love love love x

Arrival

Hello everyone!

I arrived safely yesterday afternoon after a 2 hour delay of my flight. Thankfully I got my bag back and found Richard and the kids with no problemo :)

I've settled nicely into the attic room at the Wallace's and had a lovely evening yesterday chatting to the 3 younger children. They all seem to remember a scary amount of information about me from last year such as which pokemon cards I had...

Today I'm going to talk through my itinerary and such with Richard, this afternoon I'll meet the boys I will be tutoring. And I think there is some meeting at the Wallace's tonight about church planting...

That's all for now, when I get the hang of this blogging lark I'll try to upload a video.

Love Tori x

Final Days

Life changing times are upon us. I'm scared and excited as I only have 1 day left in England.

Exodus 23 v 20
"See I am sending an angel ahead of you to guard you along the way and bring you to the place I have prepared"

Yes! Speak to you all when I arrive on Tuesday afternoon :)