a rather boring week

a more classic update post

The top piece of advice that other people give to English teachers abroad is that: going to another country doesn’t and shouldn’t be a fix to your problems. I was acutely aware of this issue before I came to Spain, and worried that I wasn’t ready. Were there things I wasn’t willing to face?

Surprisingly, this Substack has actually proven to be a good tracker of my experience in a much more analytical way. There were a couple of rules and restrictions I had when it came to writing this Substack. One of which was that I didn’t want it to be aspirational, and another was that I wanted it to feel like I could have written it in my home country or state. Additionally, I noticed that each entry gives me a record of patterns. But what patterns? It gives me a look into what I feel motivated to write about, and how I feel on a week-to-week basis. There are many things I can write about every week, but it surprises me as to what actually ends up published versus what gets left in drafts. I know when I read this a year from now, I will be trying to figure out what “vibe” or atmosphere I tried to capture from that week

This catalogue of patterns allows me to identify how I interact with my environments and the things around me. Also, to see whether things are happening because of my personality or my new environment. This has given me a lot of confidence to make certain decisions because if I identify a known pattern, I can predict the relative outcome.

So what do I have to say this week? Unfortunately, not much. This week was rather unremarkable.

For one, it rained all week. So the mood was quite down, and everybody was praying that the weekend would be here already. I walk to school every day, and it has been a Russian roulette. One morning, I came into first period soaked head to toe, and others I narrowly missed a torrential rainstorm on my way back home. Don’t get me wrong, I love the sound of rain and the peace, but it has been like this for the past two weeks.

Second, it was cold, and if you wanted to do anything fun, you had to dodge the rain and the cold. So yea I have been in my apartment for most of the week.

Third, I continued to practice the piano during my lunch break, but there have been no breakthroughs. Only the constant restarting happens when I play the wrong key. The same frustrations I carried on from my childhood, hence why I hated practicing.

So yes, all of these sound rather dreary (pun intended), but I would have had this type of week anywhere in the world. In between classes, I did jot down in my journals ideas and things I want to write about, but the ones I scribbled in are going to take much longer to write. So when Sunday rolled around, and it was time for me to publish something, I began to blank out. So, funnily, my rambling landed on writing something meta: why I have nothing to write about.

That’s all I really have to say for now, I am hoping for less rain next week and it to be a bit warmer.

Fingers crossed,

Lisa

3 out of 4 cats