La Virgen de la Paloma

One of Madrid's oldest and most celebrated fiestas, the Virgen de la Paloma, begins on August 11th and culminates on the 15th.

The fiesta has taken place since the 18th century in the Plaza de las Vistillas, which itself is an excellent example of old Madrid.Behind the celebration of the Virgen de la Paloma - which translates as the Virgin of the Doves - is the story of Maria Isabel Andrea Tintero, who healed one of the children of Queen Maria Luisa.

To this day, the climax of the fiesta remains the procession of a statue of the Virgin of the Doves, carried by the city council firemen from the Plaza de las Vistillas and through the streets and squares of the surrounding area.

However, the celebrations start much earlier than that, with events beginning four days before. Concerts, dancing and street performances can be found on every corner. The event remains a traditionally Spanish feel, with many of the locals dressing in Madrileño costume. Visitors can observe the men and women of the region dancing the chotis as they wear Chulapo outfits and shawls respectively.

http://www.fiestas-de-madrid.com/

Personal Experience:

Well as usual, I didn’t know any of the background of this holiday before I wrote this blog. I just knew that it was another excuse for dressing up, heavy drinking and dancing in the streets of Spain. This particular fiesta is special to Madrid. At the time, I was still living in Toledo but I knew from the stories I was hearing that I had to take part in at least one night of La Paloma. I finished out my work week and returned to Toledo. The next day I made plans to meet up with one of my colleagues, Luke, that I was quickly becoming friends with. I hopped the late morning bus back to Madrid and took the metro to Luke’s barrio. I met up with a bunch of his friends that I had met some weeks earlier when they came to visit me in Toledo. We went back to Will’s place and relaxed because they were still recovering from the previous night’s festivities.
When night fell, we hit up a small bar for some tapas and drinks then met up with some more of his friends. The streets were already becoming more and more crowded by the minute.

The small group of us went to a nearby ‘chino’ to get our take in beverages for the night as this is one of the few occasions where excessive alcohol consumption is completely ignored by authorities. We roamed the streets of La Latina with our full cups of calimocho as I took in every second of the insanity. We did the cultural part and stopped by one of the churches that held a procession for the religious ceremonies. I love Spain’s deeply rooted religious undertones to all their holidays; they definitely haven’t been overtaken by the novelty business as the US has been.

After I took my fill of touristy pictures, we found a corner to rest on while we drank and socialized. There were people in traditional dress, actors in full-costume, drunken tourists running around and wide-eyed children taking in the spectacle. Around midnight there was an amazing firework display. After our bag of drinkable goodies was gone, the group and I walked back to the main plaza where we hunted down some more beer. We sat in the plaza until early morning with groups on Spaniards drinking, dancing and signing along with hardcore “American pop.” Haha

A few of us staggered our way back to Will’s where we crashed around 6 am. Luke and I went out to this pretty tasty Indian place the next morning and by mid afternoon I was back in Toledo trying to recall the madness that happened in the last 24 hours. Definitely 2 thumbs up for La Virgen de la Paloma.

Working Girl (September)

This blog is going to be a lot shorter than the my usual ‘Working Girl’ blogs for 2 reasons: one, it was an uneventful month with a lot of the same students and two, I’m writing this eight weeks after the fact so I don’t remember much. This started the first month that I worked and lived in Madrid. Therefore, I it was the first month I took on a full-time schedule. September is still considered a summer month here so there aren’t as many teachers or students for that matter.

I had a morning class starting at 10 with only two women (Vivi and Patricia). This was a difficult class because they had totally different personalities. Vivi is very outspoken and controlling where Patricia is very shy and insecure about her Englsih. So it was a battle everyday trying to get Patricia to speak English and not Spanish and then keeping Vivi quiet enough to let Patricia actually try to talk.

It was also the first month I had classes in Tecnicas Runidas, one of my academies business clients. I met with 2 of their executives for private classes in the morning. I enjoyed these classes the most because I get to utilize my business knowledge instead of the repetitious travel, food and body parts vocab that I teach normal students.

I had an afternoon intensive class as well 5 days a week with 6 more students. The class wasn’t anything exciting but over that month I did encounter something I hadn’t encountered in the 4 months I had been at the academy: my first student complaint. He thought that the information I was teaching was irrelevant and that I didn’t utilize class time in a productive enough way. It was a big strike to my ego as I have always been a little insecure about my teaching abilities. I sat down with my bosses a few times to work out any kinks and to see where I could improve my classes. It took me a week to get my confidence level back but overall I took this as a positive stepping stone.

All in all, September was just another month at the academy. It was pretty under-emphasized in the grand scheme of things as my new life in Madrid stole the show.

La Vida de Una Madrilena

After 2 months of contemplating it, I finally decided that my time would be better spent living in Madrid. Toledo has my heart forever, but the 3 hours traveling and the extra expenses swayed me towards moving. My lease on my apartment in Toledo ended in August so I started looking for apartments in Madrid in my spare time. It wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be. Friends told me about some great websites to search:

http://www.idealista.com/
http://www.loquo.com/
http://www.fotocasa.com/

I found a lot of great places; however, with my limited free time, it was almost impossible for me to look at any apartments. Another teacher, Craig and I were looking to room together. So he was able to look at a few places but we never found anything we thought was decent enough. So it was coming up on the last week of August and I hadn’t found anything yet. Needless to say I was stressing. Well as fate would have it, I spent the weekend in Madrid with some friends that came to visit from Ohio. We went out with some teachers from ALA and I was telling a few of them about my predicament of finding a place. Then Christelle, one of the teachers, told me that she was going home to Canada for September, and if I needed, I could stay at her place. She had a small studio apartment in the Centro just 10 minutes walking from work. She said that I could pay her half the rent and could spend the rest of the month searching for something in October. I couldn’t believe how perfectly timing worked out. So later that week, I began moving things from Toledo to Madrid. It was official; I was leaving the City of My Dreams and starting another new chapter in my life as a Madrilena!

Well, my first night ended being a very interesting start to my new life in Madrid. One of the ALA teachers, Melissa was leaving to move to Granada. So after I dropped off the last of my suitcases, I met up with the group of ladies for some ‘quick’ goodbye drinks. 6 hours later as I’m stumbling back to my new apartment in a hurry to change clothes for a movie I was going to see with some other friends, I knew that I was in for a wild ride.

It was an amazing month. I got to sleep in and not worry about being late for class because I missed the bus or there were metro delays. During siesta I was able to go ‘home’ and take an actual siesta... wonderful! I had free time to run errands and not worry about when I could do the grocery shopping or laundry. Most importantly, when one of my friends asked if I wanted to go out for a quick drink or something, I could actually say yes instead of my common reply “Gee, I wish I could but I have to catch the last bus to Toledo now!” Without a doubt, this past month has definitely been less stressful and I was able to enjoy working in Madrid and actually discover all that it has to offer.

October came quickly. My birthday was at the end of September and I still hadn’t decided which apartment I wanted. Going back to the same websites, I looked at a place in Plaza de Castilla. The room was massive with its own sitting area and mini-fridge. However, my roommate was an older French woman. But I knew I wouldn’t find a room and accommodations like this. The other room was about a 3 minute walk from my work. I would share an apartment with 3 other people. It was definitely smaller but all the roommates we around my age. In the end I chose the second apartment. At this time in my life, I want to be around people my own age and to be able to come and go as I want not worrying if I am a bother to my other roommate. As far as I can tell, it was the right decision. I’m still working out the kinks with all the roommates but that’ll be in another blog! :)

I still haven’t discovered a third of what Madrid has to offer in the 2 ½ months I have been here already. I miss Toledo everyday but I know that Madrid is where I need to be right now. It’s been a wild ride and I can’t see what is in store for me down the line!

PICTURES COMING SOON!

The Joys of Friendship

I must say that throughout my 20-some years, I have been blessed with the best friends anyone could ask for. When I look back at my months here, I think about everyone I left back in the US. Sometimes I think I’m crazy for leaving home but then I realize how supportive everyone was of my decision to come here.

Well, to prove how fantastic they are, I actually had a few friends come visit me over the past few months. When I first came to Spain, my friend Stephanie sent me a lovely message saying how much she wanted to visit me. She and I studied together in Toledo, Spain back in the beginning of 2008. Throughout the rest of college and the following year, we stayed in contact and always reminisced about our fantastic time in Spain. So when she told me that she was planning a visit, I was overly excited about reliving my college days with her in Toledo. Without hesitation, I told Steph that she could spend as much time staying at my place (one of the many perks of having friends living abroad: no hotel expenses). She and her friend Audrey arrived the middle of August. I had class at the time her flight arrived so Dani went to the airport to meet them. Steph and Dani were also friends from our time abroad in Toledo; they planned the trip to coincide with another one of Dani’s friends, Emily that was arriving the same day to Spain for a visit. The group of them met me at my work and we all went to lunch with some of my ALA teachers. Then Steph, Audrey, Emily and Dani went back to my apartment in Toledo while I finished up my night classes. When I got back home, we all went out for some quick drinks and tapas. The girls were exhausted as was I, so we called it an early night. The next day Dani and Em returned to Dani’s village and I gave Steph and Audrey free reign of my place while I was at work. I have to say, that week was one of the best weeks I’ve had in Spain. Everyday when I got back, the girls had dinner already for me. They had both been in Spain before so they weren’t in real tourist mode, more of a simple, relax and enjoy the Spanish culture mode. The 3 of us went to the Perelada on Friday and reaped havoc as the only natural blondes there.

It was a blast. The next night, we decided to party it up in Madrid with some of the ALA teachers. Steph was recovering from one nasty resaca (hangover) so she stayed in the hostel we got for the night. Audrey and I ventured out to some bars with my friends and all in all had a fantastic time. We went back to Toledo the next afternoon and the girls finished out their trip within the next few days. I enjoyed having them immensely mostly because it gave me a taste of American that I had started to miss.

A few months later, I had another visitor… one of my best guy friends, Matt. He moved to Baltimore from Chicago the year before so it had been awhile since we both spent more than an hour together. His trip was a bit more taxing but I enjoyed every second of it. Unfortunately, when he booked his flight, I didn’t know what my class schedule would be the following month. As chance would have it, I had class when his flight arrived in Madrid. But we discussed it (immensely) and he decided to try his luck on the metro by himself. He made it to my work safe and sound and ready for the adventure to begin. We spent the following week exploring Madrid every free second I had. Of course, I couldn’t take a week off of class so I would get up early, go to class, come home, take Matt around, go back to class, go out with Matt, get a few hours of sleep and repeat the following day. By that Thursday, I was utterly exhausted. In Spain, I am accustomed to my daily siesta which was not remotely when one has a friend in town. He was a great sport though even considering my crankiness by the end of the week. During my breaks between classes we did the typical tourist things. I took him to the Prado, the Reina Sophia, Gran Via, el Retiro and other sites. We usually ate lunch at typical Spanish restaurants and most dinners I cooked at my place to save us some money. We went out Friday night with Nikki, one of the ALA teachers and met these really interesting Spaniards at one of the bars. Matt couldn’t get enough of the Spanish culture: everything from the concept of botellons, to the open prostitution on Gran Via, to the Chinos that “sell beer and Kit-Kats to booty-dancing Spaniards” as he put it. Haha! Saturday we spent a few hours in Toledo so I could show him where I lived for so long. I love sharing these places with my friends and hopefully get them to understand why I love my life here. Sunday we did his souvenir shopping and whatnot. He left Monday afternoon. By the time Monday came, we were already discussing his next trip to Europe. Next time, we agreed to meet up in another different country that would be an adventure for both of us. Can’t wait…

Another great thing about living abroad is the surprising amount of old friends that are also living or visiting abroad for some time. One of my good friends, Brian, is stationed in Naples, Italy with the Navy. So I’m planning a trip to visit him and vice-versa. Plus, we’ll most likely meet up in other random places to travel. Then about a month back a girl that I went to high school with contacted me on facebook saying that she was coming with some friends to visit Madrid and if I could offer any advice. I was more than happy to help and even offered to show them around when they got into town. So need less to say, I have had my hands full with friends’ requests to come visit. It’s been less than a year so I am really excited to see what the future holds. Remember all are welcome :) Hasta Pronto!

Birthday Celebrations

Well with the month of September flying by so quickly, I didn’t even realize that my birthday was the next week. It’s kind of a pain having a birthday at the end of the month here in Spain because no one really has any money left to throw a big shindig. Therefore, I decided to have a pretty low-key night. In Spain, it’s tradition that the birthday person buys the drinks when everyone goes out. Well, not being made of money and knowing how much my friends can put away, I decided just to have a few friends over to my place and buy some beer and calimocho stuff. Simple, easy and affordable.

My friend Dave came in on Friday from Talavera for my birthday weekend which was a lot of fun. It had been the first time he’d been back to Madrid since he studied here some months back. So Friday, we walked around downtown and hit up a bar that was in the basement of a hostel he had stayed in awhile back. At first the idea didn’t seem that fantastic, but it turned out to be a crazy, fun night. Plus, I loved watching how excited he got seeing everything again. It’s those emotions I miss the most; it’s so hard to explain but I love watching people when they have these moments of “Damn, I can’t believe I’m actually here! I can’t believe that I followed through with it!” Madrid and well Spain in general lost its zeal some months ago. Not that I don’t love it; but now it’s just… home, not that distant magical place it once was.



Anyways, Saturday was crazy hectic. It was the night of my “party” so I had a lot of cleaning and prep to do. Plus, I was in the middle of apartment searching because the girl, who I was renting the apartment from, was returning to Spain that weekend. On top of it, the girl was not happy that I was having people over to the apartment for my birthday… so it caused a lot of unnecessary drama that I didn’t need. But whatever. I spent the afternoon running errands and making my final piso decision. Late-afternoon, Dave and I stopped in at this going away party/ rummage sale for one of the ALA teacher that was moving back to the States. It was simple and a good way to socialize with some of the teachers outside of work. We couldn’t stay long because we were meeting Dani and Xandra for my birthday dinner. I hadn’t seen either of them in a long time, so I was really excited about it. I was told to pick the restaurant so I found this cute little Mexican place a few blocks away.

However, Dani and Xandra failed to tell me that neither of them likes Mexican food. Well, that dinner ended up being a big disappointment haha. But it was a nice gesture from them to let me get what I wanted while they suffered through it in silence.

With little time to spare, we returned to my apartment to get set for my birthday get-together. I didn’t have as big of a turnout as I had expected. People that I was sure would come, didn’t. And people that I didn’t think would come, did. In the end though, I couldn’t have asked for a better crowd.
Dani and Xandra left a little early to catch the last metro to their part of town. Nikki, a new teacher at ALA, came and I soon realized that she and I were going to become really close friends… which we did in the weeks that followed. My friend Emilio came and also Tisha and Devin, other teachers from ALA made an appearance. Dave stayed that night too and we all had an AMAZING time. We sat around and talked and joked about anything and everything. Then when all the booze was almost finished, he hit up Malasana (local street with lots of great bars). I don’t remember much about the bars but from what I’m told, I had a great time. When things closed down, he headed back to my place for a few more drinks before we passed out for the night.

Overall, it was the least pizazzed birthday I’ve had in a while but there’s nothing really special about turning 23, I guess. The people definitely made the birthday and I couldn’t have been happier! Thanks everyone :)

Working Girl (August)

It’s the first official day of September. Just killing time until our staff meeting in a few hours to get our new schedules for this coming month. August was an amazingly productive month for working. This was the first month at the academy that I tried working morning classes which turned out to be extremely hectic. However, I loved the craziness of it all. My long breaks for siesta were a bit tedious. The academy closes down from 2:30 to 4:30 every day. So during that time, I had to stroll around the streets of Madrid with nowhere to go. Some of the time I packed a lunch, brought a book and sat in a nearby rose garden; other times I would just sit in an empty classroom and lesson plan; and then the best times were when some of the other teachers and I would go out to lunch and have a few beers. This month not only gave me a long class schedule but also the opportunity to grow closer to my fellow teachers.

Well let’s continue about my work. I was given 2 elementary group classes: one from 10-12pm and the other from 5-7pm. My afternoon class was the continuation of my class in July. I was supposed to have three students returning: Rosa 1, Rosa 2 and Elu. However, one of the Rosa’s never came most likely due to her job. But the other 2 were the highlight of my day. Rosa is an older woman who basically has a lot of free time and money to try different things. She has travelled the world, knows how to speak four languages, dances flamenco, and other add-ons to a huge list. Elu is studying to be a doctor, which causes him to have erratic schedules and little time to do his homework. He arrives late to class frequently because he travels straight from work to the academy. I’ll say one thing for my students, they have motivation. But the thing that made this class so unique is the way all of our personalities clicked. After 2 months, I feel so incredibly close to both of them. I was apartment hunting in Madrid and Rosa spent hours on-line looking for available rooms. Elu constantly brought me drinks and food to share with him during our breaks. They always invite me out for drinks and dinner. We tell stories about our lives, tell jokes about the other’s cultures; yet I am able to teach them everything I can about English.

Angela, Elu and Rosa

My only wish for this month was that I could have connected to my morning class like I did with my afternoon class. They just didn’t have to personalities that my other class had. I tried to make the same jokes and do the same activities, but the charisma just wasn’t there. In this class I had 2 return students that had already taken a group class with another teacher. The other students were new to ALA which posed some serious problems. My 2 returning students had already learned the basics of English (present, past and progressive tenses; grammar rules; sentence structure; etc) On the other hand, the other students had not practiced in years or retained no knowledge of English in general. So this was a task to catch the beginners up to where they needed to be without boring the returning students. Needless to say, I managed to get all the students the information they needed to know to continue to the next level but it was not the most memorable of classes.

My private lessons were very interesting this month. I felt connected to many of them and was sad to see them go. I especially enjoyed my time with a younger student Alicia. She had just graduated colegio (high school) and was preparing for a college entrance exam in English so she could study in the US if she wanted. I saw a lot of myself in her when I was 18 (even with the culture difference). I could tell she was slightly awkward with people her own age and could better express herself to older adults. She had a strong exuberance for learning and living life to the fullest but didn’t know how to do it or where to even start. She yearned to be taken seriously and be seen as an adult. Yes, I definitely saw myself at her age. So I planned that class with care and took time to talk with her about other things besides grammar and pronunciation which she thoroughly enjoyed.

Another student also stands out in my mind as I write this. Vanesa, a young lawyer from one of the large companies (Tecnicas) our academy works with. She was one of my special alumnos because she is one of the few students to receive lessons during siesta time. I didn’t mind having class in August during this time because I had nothing but time during siesta. I was still living in Toledo; I had no where else to go. So for 2 hours/ 3 times a week, I gave Vanesa lessons. I think the reason why I connected to her so much is because she reminded me a lot of my Aunt Colleen (one of the biggest role models in my life). She just turned 30, is well-educated, motivated, extremely independent and self-sufficient. She just received at huge promotion and needed to have a higher level of English because of her new dealings with international clients. She works hard and takes pride in everything she accomplished. She just bought her own home: a much more difficult task in Spain than in the US, especially during the current economic crisis. She is proud of everything she has accomplished (particularly for a woman in Spain) and yet retains such admirable modesty. I enjoy teaching her not only because of her accomplishments but her incredible stature and sense of humor. I can tell that she is a complete professional from 9 to 5 but knows how to get a little crazy when she can. Many of the past classes we have spent simply discussing and debating current issues like women’s rights, abortion, religion, government, economy, and culture. Even after August classes ended and I moved to Madrid, I didn’t hesitate a moment to continue giving her lessons this month.

Well all in all that was what my schedule (and basically my life) consisted of in August. I taught Manu, one of students I gave lessons to in Toledo. But with my crazy academy schedule, I only had time on weekends. So in the end, I only saw him 3 times in the course of the month. Time flew by, probably the quickest and busiest months since my time here.

Benefits of Having a Double Life

Less than a year ago I set out to regain a bit of my heritage. As I wrote before, my father and his family immigrated to the United States from the United Kingdom in the early 80’s. A few years later I was born and for the most part, lived a seemingly normal American life. I always thought is was ‘cool’ that my dad was English but never really gave much thought on how it would affect me. That changed in 2005 when I had the opportunity to travel to London. At first, I just wanted to explore some of Europe and get out of the U.S. But after talking with my father, I realized that I could meet apart of my family that I never really knew existed. This trip came at a great time because my father was in the middle of reconnecting to his family as well. He was able to contact a distant cousin, Eleanor that was living in Birmingham, England near my father’s Aunt Margaret. I never heard much about my father’s life before America and was excited to be apart of something that was obviously important to him. So during my trip, I hopped on a train and met up with Eleanor and later my great-Aunt Margaret. I knew my father wished he could have been there. It was really amazing to hear stories about his childhood and see places that he used to visit as a young boy.

Well a few years passed, I studied in Spain and later finished college. However, I always had kept this thought in the back of my mind how much I would love to become more connected to my family’s past. I became enamored with England’s history, its culture and of course my distant relatives. So when I was looking into moving back to Spain to teach, I had a thought about my heritage and seeing if I could use it to help me. Remember that it is very difficult for Americans to work legally in Europe (more specifically the European Union). Especially during these hard economic times, the EU prefers to employee people from countries within the EU. A sort of ‘protect your own kind’ of mentality. So my thought was to see if I could become a British citizen because I was a child of a British citizen. Sure enough after a few Google searches, I found my answer: a way to become a citizen of the United Kingdom through family lineage.

http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en
Necessary Paperwork:
Born after 1 January 1983 outside the UK
If you were born after 1 January 1983 outside the UK you must provide:
· your full foreign birth certificate and
· a photocopy of your current photo ID (foreign passport or residence card and driving licence) and
· your mother’s full UK birth certificate or registration/naturalisation document or
· your father’s birth certificate or registration/naturalisation document and marriage certificate and
· a marriage declaration completed by your parents and
· divorce documents (if applicable)
· and the passport used to enter your country of residence (if applicable)

All the required forms for whichever category one would fall under can be found here-
http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/passports/passport-forms
The biggest strain through all this was of course financial as I stated in my previous blogs. All in all, I spent around $500 in getting everything I needed and receiving my passport. But after a few months of living in Spain, I can tell you that it was worth EVERY penny.

Concerns:
My mother while helping me get my paperwork together, asked a seemingly simple yet vital question: ‘Will becoming a British citizen affect your American citizenship?’ At first I just laughed and shrugged but then realized that I didn’t know. Back to Google I went and luckily found my answer:

“Under present legislation the United Kingdom and the United States both recognise dual nationality, and, if you acquire UK citizenship, this does not affect your right to hold a US Passport.”

I also had to research different embassies for when I travel abroad. Having dual citizenship, I can go to either an American embassy or a British embassy for assistance which is very helpful. So matter what nationality you are, know where your country’s embassy is located in every country you travel to.

UK embassies and consulates in the US:
http://ukinusa.fco.gov.uk/en/our-offices-in-the-us/other-locationsin-us/
American Citizen Support in Spain:
http://madrid.usembassy.gov/cons/services.html
British Citizen Support in Spain:
http://ukinspain.fco.gov.uk/en/our-offices-in-spain/madrid-embassy/

Some of the benefits I have encountered with an EU passport:

The most important came when getting my work papers in order. In Spain you need a special card (DNI) that says you can work legally in the country.
If you are American, these are extremely difficult to get. First, you need to have a job that agrees to sponsor you for a work visa. You then have to return to your home country and wait for your visa from the local consulate. After you have your visa you can return to Spain and make an appointment for your DNI. From what I’ve heard from other teachers, this can take 4-7 months to get an appointment depending on what time of year you make it. If when you go to the appointment, you don’t have everything necessary, you leave and have to make another appointment for a later date. This is why so many employers do not hire Americans, let alone Americans that are currently living in America. During all this time, you can work but it’s technically illegal. Your employer pays you cash under the table and you have to be careful never to tell any government agency where you are working until you have your DNI.

For me, I simply called in to make the appointment, told them I was British and gave them my passport number and contact info. I received my appointment for early the next month. Went in, gave them my passport and other necessary paperwork, received my DNI and walked out within a half hour. I can’t tell you how many dirty looks I got from the other American teachers at the academy. Ha-ha.

My British passport also helped me easily get a Spanish social security number. This can be a bit simpler for Americans but usually more eyebrows are raised. Sometimes for Americans, your DNI is required depending on the SS agent you get appointed, and they’ll usually ask questions about your employment which you cannot say if you don’t have your DNI yet. For European Union citizens, all you need is your passport usually. I walked in, filled out the form, gave the agent my passport and walked out in 10 minutes with my new social security number. But again, I feel I was lucky with getting a very nice SS agent who called me ‘guapa’ as I left his desk.
There are a few extra perks from being an EU citizen like special rates through banks and discounts when traveling in Europe. But the biggest help without a doubt was with my work papers here in Spain.

I do feel a little guilt from receiving so much benefit from something I know little about. I’m hoping that through my time living in Europe, I can learn more about my own ancestry and really make England apart of my soul rather than just information on paper. So to end, I want to dedicate this blog to my father Timothy for which none of this would have been possible. Thanks Dad for helping me through the process and encouraging my decision to go forward with this. Also a shout out to my mother Cheryl who helped me track down a lot of the legal paperwork for my British passport! Thanks Mom for putting up with my shenanigans and supporting me through this journey. Both of you have been incredible and a vital part to my success in living abroad.