Where do I even start???
I have been here for 48 hours and I already feel like I have a total life set up here - a cute place with awesome people to live with, really hilarious friends from around Europe, yummy food, etc. I am absolutely in nirvana here. ;) For real. If I had flew here to move here, I would feel like I had made the best choice in the world. Never have I been surrounded by such chill, happy, funny, linguistic and cultural mix of people. Some people were speaking Italian, some were speaking Portuguese, one girl and I were speaking Spanish. It is just my absolute version of bliss!!
Yesterday night we went over to a friend´s house for Christmas dinner. We packed into the car (in the backseat, squished between two Brazilian twins wasn´t exactly the worst way to start off the night - haha), which was super weird once I realized I would be driven in a car with the steering wheel on the right side of the car!! Bah!! ;)
I do this weird thing when I am abroad where I have "I cannot believe this is happening. My life is so cool." moments and take a mental photo of them. I did it when I was in Brazil with B, when I was in Malaga with L and last night when I was in that car here in Dublin. They are moments when I feel like I must be in a movie, because it´s just too ridiculously cool to be real life. To be my real life.
And things only got better as the night went on!
I was a little nervous about going to this dinner with their friends, as I didn´t know anybody (heck, I barely knew the people who were taking me there!), and I am generally not the type of person to enjoy social gatherings. I usually feel out of place, bored and, at a certain point, plain annoyed. I am very shy in bigger gatherings and generally come off as a bit bitchy and awkward because of it. But last night? Last night was different. Last night was awesome.
It was right after I told people flat out honestly about my life in Portland last year (something I am not keen on doing with people whom I barely know), that they all began to like me. You know that phrase that goes something like, "Be yourself - those who like you will like you all the more for it." Welp, turns out it might just be onto something. Within no time I was having hilarious conversations with bunches of people and loving every single second of it. That´s right - LOVING it. WHEN have I EVER loved a social gathering with people (especially people I do not know!!?!). Like, never?
At one point Lucia (the girl from Spain) said to me, "It is too bad you are only going to be here for a few days, ´cause we would really have fun together!!" I giggled. Sebastian nodded his head in agreement to Lucia, "Yeah, Chelsea is REALLY cool!!"
^_^
Um, I am pretty sure that is the first time anybody I just met has ever said anything like that.
YAY!!!
I am cool!
I wanted this trip to be a huge jumping off point for me. One of those life changing moments that would draw a definitive line in the sand of "before" and "after." I am two days into this trip and I can tell you, it´s working. ;)
The dinner was really yummy, the company was really awesome and I even managed to drink three beers (a first in my life... no joke)...
Which might explain why I thought I could try speaking Portuguese for the first time in two years????? Hahaha... oh man.
I pride myself on being so great at Romance Languages, but when it comes down to it, I feel like I´ve been thrown into the deep end of an enormous pool... with a pair of really adorable water-wings... and it´s a sink or swim kind of situation. I am beyond certain that in this moment I sank pretty badly, but apparently just attempting to speak it won me adorability points (thank God)... and, in all fairness, I understood 95% of what he was saying. :)
Sometimes, it´s not about how well you can speak a language, but rather how well you can attempt to understand it and how hard you try. I am realizing this more and more as I meet people from other countries who are speaking English to me. It is far from perfect sometimes, but I understand absolutely all of it and to me, who cares about the rest!? Maybe it is the same way when I am speaking a language with an awful accent and messing everything up... but if I can be understood... WIN!!
After Secret Santa presents and more conversation and dessert, it was time to head home (by this point it was almost 3 am and a few of us were pretty darned exhausted - especially since I have not gone to bed before 4 am in the past three days)...
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