This is My Life Now: Claudia

Dear Elena,

Maybe you wonder about the type of person I am, what my hobbies are, and what makes me smile. I suppose that there is a lot about me that you can find in the archives, even though the “about me” page is a bit vague, but this still might not answer all of your questions. This is why Dani and I decided that it would be interesting to let you know what we are up to right now and how we are feeling about life. If you have any specific questions and we can help you get a better picture of who we are, let us know!

I’ll never be Spanish, but Granada is my home: Even though I made it very clear that I am not Spanish nor do I ever expect to be, right now Granada is the place that I call home. My family lives here and I have established myself here in a way that I haven’t elsewhere at the moment. While I have no idea what the future will bring, it is my flat in Granada that I dream of when I go on holiday or have a long day at work and cannot wait to get home and crawl into bed.

This means that I have the places I like to go for when shopping for food, and frequent the same bars over and over again (although I am trying to remedy this by adding in new places every once in awhile). The commodity that I have in Granada is a wonderful feeling and I truly appreciate being able to call this beautiful city home.

I am a workaholic, but probably not like you think: I am aware that I sign up for too many activities and have the tendency to take on too many things. At work I am motivated to do my best (you might call me somewhat of a perfectionist) and try to make the most of my time at my desk. However, my workaholicness comes out most outside of my 9 – 14h job. In addition to working in the mornings, I also ‘work’ afternoons. Work is in quotes because some of this work is paid, but half is not.

Right now, two days a week I work at an English school in the city center, once a week I do volunteer work, and, for the month of March, twice a week I am teaching a new way of creative thinking at a design school. Add to my schedule that I try to play soccer at least once a week, meet up with my family and friends on a regular basis, and create regular content for the blog (I want to share what I know, but sometimes it’s work to find time for you!), and it seems like I’m busy all of the time. This means, I have to make sure to take care of myself and find time to relax in a way that fits me in that moment.

Sometimes I feel alone, but I have some really incredible friends: Even though I’ve talked about how sometimes I feel alone and I’ve confessed to being a bit of a serial friender, I really value friendship and have a handful of friends who make me smile just thinking about them. I consider myself to be extremely lucky as about six months ago I met someone who fits perfectly into this category (and reminds me that being just friends with the opposite sex is not only possible but can be amazing). Our friendship is beautiful, and I am constantly telling him how important he is to me because I am now at a point in my life where I really value this kind of friendship.

No matter how many people are floating around in my day-to-day, there are a select few who I would move mountains for (mostly because I know they would do the same for me), and these people add considerably to my happiness. I don’t necessarily believe that everyone who enters into your world will stay there in the same capacity forever, but being aware of the people who make a difference is a beautiful thing and I believe it is important to let them know how you feel—even if it is not ‘normal’ to tell people you love them as much as I do.

My me time is one of the most valuable things in my life right now: I don’t think Dani and I have talked about this enough on the blog, but we are both doing things to take care of ourselves on a regular basis—and we talk about it frequently too, trying to support and encourage each other to do more. We consider that doing your own thing can top going out all the time or meeting up with everyone just because you feel an obligation to be social (shout out to those of you who are socially awkward).

For me, this looks like waking up early every morning to do some Yoga with Adriene (yes, I do 20 – 30 minutes everyday and no, I don’t consider it exercise—it is my wake-up time and I need it to be me). It also means that I will leave a lunch early if I want to siesta or skip a party because I want to read a book. I am learning how to be aware of what I want to be doing (and who I want to be with), something that greatly helps me care for me.

What about you? Who are you? What do you like? What makes you smile?

Sincerely,
Spain