Christmas Time!

I can't believe how awful I am at blogging. It's already December and so much has been happening. Ok so highlights include
October: Guy Fawkes Fiesta, Sam and Claudi's wedding
November: Leah had a little thanksgiving dinner at her house which was amazing, visited Barcelona with Tiffany and saw Imogen Heap in concert, roasted chestnuts and christmas lights started appearing, youth alpha has been great, began volunteering with the Salvation Army and feeding homeless people on friday nights.
December: Visited Toledo with Tiffany, went on the Navibus which tours the pretty christmas lights in the city, christmas season at church has been busy but great fun, Carlos' birthday.

This year has been really interesting so far and has been a massive time of growth. I'm really enjoying living and working in a foreign country and taking on all the challenges I can. I have a really busy week this week and then I'm off for christmas which will be fantastic.

My targets for 2011:
- Improve Spanish and spend more time with Spanish speakers
- Invest some more time and energy into Mountainview Youth
- Lead worship more
- Read more books as well as the bible

Things you can be praying for:
- Mountainview Youth - we're 4 weeks into our Youth Alpha Course, having a break over Christmas apart from our Youth Ugly Sweater Party which is on Friday.
- My Spanish - totally selfish request but I'd love to find it easier to speak quickly and fluently.
- My work in both Colegio Balder (the school where I volunteer) and in private classes.
- That I stay healthy and happy - there are lots of people who are ill with flu, pneumonia and colds at church...I don't want to be one of them.

So basically I'm very happy and loving my work out here. I'm really looking forward to seeing my lovely family over the christmas period and showing them around my little life out here. Tiffany returned to the United States yesterday which is Madrid's loss of course. I've really enjoyed sharing beautiful moments and fun with her over the past 3 months so I just want to give thanks for her really, she really helped me settle in.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas and New Year. I'll write again in 2011.

Caio caio
Tori x

Oops!

It's been sooo long since I last posted! Ah! Ok so I've been doing lots of crazy things..

Last week was horrible because I was ill and homesick. The weekend was the worst bit (though I led worship which went surprisingly well for my state). This week however, has been fabulous!!!

On Monday I just rested and tried to get better, did some tutoring, made my room look pretty (I'll post pictures in a bit).
Tuesday we had staff meeting and then I did lots of reading etc when I got home and then in the evening was Fusion (our first meeting with not just leaders) which was good. I think we're off to a good start, there were a number of new people and that was without any publicity.
Wednesday I was at school which was lovely because I hung out with a lovely polish teacher. She's a sweetie. Then on Wednesday night I did some cooking :) I made some yummy Gnocchi and spoke to my lovely stupple's on the skypeophone.
Thursday was more teaching and lots of reading and studying and then in the evening I went to play piano at Tamara's which ws simply delightful. Then at like 11.00pm I went to meet Tiffany and we went out to eat and then went for a dance! It was actual mint. Like possibly the best night out I've ever had, just because nothing went wrong, and Tiff is the best company, and it was just so funny! Anyway, so we got back to mine at like 7.00am on Friday morning and got a few (2) hours sleep before waking up for work the next morning.
So then on Friday (today) we had a baby-shower for three of the lovely women at church. We had to play a game where everyone has a peg on them and then if they said the word "baby", the person who heard them could take their peg. This ended in me having everyone's peg. I was a proper trooper. Then I got some work done and we ate my scrummy Gnocchi...winner. Then in the evening (just now) we had our Church Planting Group which was just so interesting. I loved how there was such a diverse group of people just talking about church and God and life. It was great.
So now I'm a bit tired, I've only really slept 2 hours in the last...48 hours? So I'm going to sleep and have a lie-in tomorrow. Long weekend this weekend, we have a puente which means we get monday and tuesday off! Woo! So I'm going to a concert tomorrow, church sunday and I'm going to waste some time in lovely Madrid and get to know the place a little better.

Should be mint.

Sorry for the lack of postage. I will try to be more diligent when it comes to blogging.

Torita x

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