1st January 2024 (yearly reflection)

As usual, it is time for my yearly reflection but this one is a little late for a couple of reasons. First, my aunty has been in town so I’ve been making the most of her last week here in Valencia and spending time with her. The second reason is that this reflection has been strangely hard to write and it’s kind of scared me a little. 

I have always been a reader and I love writing yet I’ve started and rewritten this reflection several times and nothing seems to work. So I started thinking about what I had done last year and realized that I had only read one book and that was at the start of the year. I also hadn’t written anything last year. Two of the things I like to do the most and I hadn’t done them at all. So I thought about what else I had done to figure out why this was so hard. 

I moved to Spain this year to start a new English teaching job which was great. I’ve been working at a vocational school which is a nice challenge and has given me a lot of new experiences with teaching older students. I’ve been looking at all the wonderful architecture and art around the place which has been really inspiring (the City of Arts and Sciences is a personal highlight and I highly recommend going there if you come to Valencia.) I’ve been sampling new foods and getting used to the culture (the only paella that is real paella is the chicken and rabbit paella from Valencia and all other paella is just rice risotto - My students.) Fallas was incredible and I’m really looking forward to it again (like 50 or so, fifteen meters high, wooden sculpture things that are all burned down in a single night.) I found out when my contract got renewed that it would start at the beginning of the next school year so I spent the Summer unemployed and burning through my savings from Japan. This was a real shock to me as I was under the impression that my monthly stipend would continue but unfortunately it did not, so I had to figure out a way to support myself which was mostly my credit card, savings and a week long job at the university I got through a teacher at school (absolute lifesaver!) I think this is where it starts to break down a bit. 

I was under a lot of pressure to manage my spending and survive on very little per week. I didn’t go outside during the day a lot so I didn’t spend any money on things like water or snacks (also it was unbelievably humid and gross so I just sat in front of my fan all day.) Everyday I was trying to think of ways to earn money or limit my spending and it took an overwhelming amount of mental space to where I didn’t want to do anything like writing or reading. I started streaming on Twitch ( twitch.tv/rexamillionaire ) to pass the time and potentially make a little money from and as of writing this reflection we have 375 followers which is pretty cool. 

During Summer I also had to renew my visa which was an incredible test of my patience and fully stretched the boundaries of what I knew about bureaucracy (which is insane because I lived in Japan for three years.) Every two weeks for four months, I had to go to the registry office and submit a different piece of paper when they could’ve just told me everything to bring in from the first visit. I had to book a new appointment every time and then pay my payment for the visa to the bank and then take a stamped piece of paper to the office again after the first one was not accepted. At least in Japan everything was clear from the get go. I felt sucker punched every time I went into the office with a new document. However, I did get to go to Barcelona towards the end of summer to pick up my friend Rachel and we had fun seeing the sights (the Sagrada Familia was super impressive but it was quite weird seeing a very religious place being used as a tourist trap) before heading back to Valencia. 

I started getting paid again a month after I started back at school which was honestly just in the nick of time because I was about to run out of everything. School was just as fun as before with the same familiar teachers there and since I had been there for the previous academic year there were a lot of students that wanted to say hi which was lovely. They made me feel welcome after a not so stellar Summer. 

My aunty arrived in Valencia towards the middle of November and I can’t say just how much I appreciated having family here. It was just such a shot of excitement and freshness that reminded me of how wonderful this place can be. Plus she was really hyped about Christmas which helped out Rachel because I’m not a super Christmas person (like I’ll do it but I’m more in it for the food and family aspect rather than the “magic of Christmas” part.) So for the last month and a half we’ve been hanging out, visiting places, enjoying churros, seeing the sights and overall just having a really nice time. She left this morning (1st Jan 2024) to head over to England and I can sincerely say that she profoundly helped me out whether she knows it or not. 

This brings us to the “theme” of the reflection which I think this year is “struggle”. Last year was the first time in a long time that I have had to be so concerned with money (like not since my uni days nearly a decade ago) because of how uncertain everything has been. The amount I’m getting paid per month and the fact that I don’t get paid over Summer is really taking it out of me. It worries me even more that I’ll have to do it again and I’ve got a couple of trips planned for this year but I’m still not sure how I’m going to pull it all together at the moment. I feel like I will have a solution at some point but for the moment I haven’t found it yet and the uncertainty is weighing on me more than I would like to admit. 

I feel like this is a good moment to talk about my plans for this year. It’s what I started this whole reflection with so I would like to read and write more. I’m hoping to add more of my work to my website ( https://www.rexolotlcreates.com/ ) over the coming year so feel free to check in every now and then to see if I’ve actually been doing it. Monetary problems were a big thing in my reflection this year (said almost everyone) so here’s to sussing that out and I know that it’s not an easy fix (I sent a tweet to Elon but he never replied) but hopefully I’ll find a solution before next Summer (maybe I could sell a kidney or something.)

This reflection kind of feels a bit ranty but I just want to say that I have had a fabulous time here in Spain and even if it hasn’t panned out like I had imagined it would, it has still been a great learning experience. 

Hopefully 2024 treats everyone well. 

Happy New Year and look after each other