Yo tengo veinticinco años. This phrase has never been so depressing. This morning in Spanish class (yes that's right, Spanish class) we had to introduce ourselves to one another with our name and our age with the challenge of 'let's find out whose the oldest in the class' -- almost making the prospect seem like an exciting idea.

I get it. 25 is not old but amongst a bunch of dieciochos and diecinueves it feels bloody ancient.

(And in case you were wondering - yes, I absolutely was the eldest in the class.)

My husband and I are both studying at Snow College in this tiny little farm town called Ephraim and because of the way the English school system works and my birthday being in August -- I haven't been to school since I was fifteen years old and that was ten years ago!!! I feel super out of my league but can I be honest.. I am a little bit loving it. With all the adult things I've had to this last year and a half - get married, leave my parents, attempting financial independence, run a household - it's actually quite refreshing to feel like a bit of a kid.

I tried further education in the past and it never really worked out for me. I enrolled in the Southampton uni music bachelors then quit. I auditioned for the royal, the royal northern and trinity all to no avail.. but there's something different about it this time. Something electric. I truly feel like I am in the right place and I'm doing what I'm meant to do. I'm a music major but the states require that you take some generals as well - so I've taken this opportunity to learn Spanish - this way I will be able to better communicate with my in-laws and well, learning a language and a new culture can really broaden you as a person.
Other than Spanish and human development classes all of my other classes are music based and as a vocal major I'm getting to sing every day and I love it and can already feel tiny improvements in my voice. I've even been accepted into opera workshop. This excites me the most.

Being 25 at college, you can feel like your miles apart from the rest socially, but work wise - I don't think it could be better. You feel more together and serious about everything and I actually care about my grades.I am so excited to be studying what I love and feel more motivated than I ever have done before. I think this could really be it this time:)
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Music is probably my favourite thing in this life. Granted, it's close up there with nature but for me I think music just about pips it to the post. I really enjoy making playlists and making them non-genre specific so just for fun here's what I've been listening to for the last few weeks over the move and a shameless picture of my face and a cup of tea on our pretty, pretty window seat cushions.

Campfire (Acoustic Version) - Satellite Stories - Pine Trails (Deluxe Version)
Round and Round - Satellite Stories
Never Now - Satellite Stories (Bonus Track)
Gorgeous Behavior - Marching Band
Dead Air - CHVRCHES
Stuck - The Aces
Electric Love - BORNS
Walking on the Moon - The Police
Limón y Sal - Julieta Venegas
Lento - Julieta Venegas
Barcelona - Ed Sheeran
Leave Me Alone - Michael Jackson
Englishman in New York - Sting
New Man - Ed Sheeran
The Trap - Satellite Stories
Polarized - Satllite Stories
I Can Talk - Two Door Cinema Club
La Isla Bonite - Madonna
Bem, Bem, Maria - Gypsy Kings
Decisiónes - Rubén Blades
​I'll Be Seeing You - Billie Holiday
Blue Moon - Billie Holiday
On Green Dolphin Street - Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Losers - The Weeknd Feat. Labrinth

Some old. Some new.

Enjoy ✌️

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Moving into our new place has straight up been an amazing experience so far. I have no other way to put it. We absolutely love having our own place and the place that we have happens to be perfect. We are renting but have a lovely little relationship with our Land Lady and so it really does feel like we've moved into our own first home. We'll be studying in this area for at least two years so know it's at least a permanent move for the immediate future.
We're in the middle of the countryside behind some Utah'n mountains and the town we are living in is super small. It actually reminds me of my home town in England. It has a row of small vintage looking independent shops, a town library, a city hall and everywhere looks like it would make the perfect setting for the kind of novels my mum reads. (My mum almost only strictly reads sweet stories set in quaint towns any time before 1950) Basically I love it here. The house we're living in is perfect, super traditional, very spacious and about fifty years old making it super vintage. It's super quirky and in my brother-in-laws words; any hipster would die to live in a place like this.

So we moved in two weekends ago and have since been finding ourselves making up our own little projects. Juan has been sorting out the tv/switch/projector set-up with cables and wires and various wireless devices that I admittedly don't know that much about. I took it upon myself to sort through our closet room. Before this we decided to put up rails and make wood shelves, which Juan Carlos and I stained darker to match the doors of the place (fancyyyyyyy aye?!). Juan Carlos has surprised the crud out of me with how handy he is at fixing things and putting things up. We decided to make a massive tv stand, to fit our garage sale bargain, $50, Monstrously big old-school tv and paint it white and then to match also decided to get a couple of crates, paint them white, turn them upside down and walllahh... bedside tables.

We have made a lot of late night trips to Wal-Mart, which thankfully is about a 45 second drive away-- to grab various screws, that specific kind of screwdriver, something for the bathroom, something for the kitchen, something for that blank area in the living room... It's amazing how much you actually need for a home!! You really don't think about it when you've never lived completely independently before. We have also been very blessed with people giving us things they've been getting rid of. A friend from church was so generous, we practically got our whole kitchen kitted out from her parents old one. And it fits the vintage green painted cabinets like a beaut'. And on Sunday we met a lovely elderly couple that were getting rid of this SUPER comfortable purple sofa which they have kindly given to us for free.

We still have a lot to do and find and work on but it's just fun to have these little projects.. at this very moment Juan Carlos is putting up a towel rack and toilet roll holder in our upstairs bathroom.
We feel like such adults?!!?! When did this happen?!

It's like we've been playing at being grown ups for the last week and a half and I know things aren't always this dandy when you're living independently and doing some of the more sucky things you have to do as an independent adult, but so far we love it. I also keep forgetting that I don't have to somehow fit everything into one tiny bedroom anymore. The realization fully hit me late one night last week when I was unpacking boxes of just STUFF and whilst wondering where to put some of the things, I looked over at the sideboard/chest of drawers my mother-in-law so awesomely bought for us and realized I can use that to store things in; I can actually keep things like books, writing pads and pencils in the lounge if I want too! It feel so odd. And with a kitchen and two bathrooms I'm spoilt for choice on where to keep the cleaning products... I'm overwhelmed with choice and loving it. I know to anyone slightly normal this doesn't sound particularly exciting or even sounds like bragging and I'm also aware it sounds terribly, terribly home-wifey doesn't it?! And I can tell you I NEVER EVER pictured myself as the sort to get excited about something so domestic but to someone that went from living in a room at their parents house for 23 years to then straight away get married and live in one room with another person and that person's stuff for another year and a half at their in-laws, this is incredibly, incredibly exciting and I'm super okay admitting it. And there's not one moment I'm not entirely grateful that we found this place and are in a position to be able to live here.
Current Mood: Grateful; Playing at being grown ups and loving it. 😋

💋💋💋

The other day I was reading through some of my old posts and realised that there have been quite a few holes and open ends. So in my attempt at filling them, here goes... 

So Juan Carlos and I got married in April 2016. In May 2016 I applied for immigration. In September 2016 I was made a permanent resident. 
Last August I got a job as a special needs assistant at a local school, I worked with one student in specific and created a great relationship with him and his family and became best friends with his other aide. It made a year of being away from home a lot easier to deal with.
Juan Carlos went through a period of struggling to find work and earlier this year also got a job at the same school and in the same department as me. We worked with each other for a couple months and it was super fun. 

This whole time we've been living with Juan's parents in their house in Riverton, Utah, this was up until last week. 
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Also at the beginning of this year I was repeatedly getting sick and unwell and as a result of this I was unable to take part in all the music projects that I had written about around January/February time. 

Life changed for us in March when we went to visit a man called Ted at a place called Snow College. This small meeting with Ted, set up by Juan's friend Sam, ended up being the meeting that would change our lives. From this we have received scholarship to study at Snow - Juan and I will both be studying music - him more commercial composition and me classical voice and we have moved to a tiny town called Ephraim. We have found a beautiful little home to rent and have found ourselves working alongside each other again, this time at a local call centre - in order to pay the bills of student life. What an adventure. We officially moved in last weekend and officially start college this week. SCARRRYYYYYY

A very important bridge that I haven't yet mentioned is that Juan and I got to go to England for six weeks. In this time I got to meet my sister's new baby and spend time with my family and friends. Honestly, although it was beautiful it was incredibly stressful as there were so many people to see and keep happy. We did get to go to Cornwall for a week with my parents and visit the beach from 'About Time' and took a weekend with Juan's parents (who also visited for a week) and went to Paris. Most importantly something happened that I will never forget. My Father arranged for a surprise bus wedding party. It was amazing. My actual wedding was thrown together in five weeks and only my immediate family and best friend could make it and all the things that happened was to keep other people happy.
Even since I was a kid my idea of a perfect wedding was for all the guests to jump on a bus and go to McDonald's -- it just seemed like a super simple, fun way to get it all done and with no standing around. Anyway beginning of this year my Dad started to work for the local bus company and made this dream come true to my ultimate surprise. I though we were just waiting for a bus and all of a sudden this open top bus with all these familiar faces cheering my name appear and my would-have-been-bridesmaids were all there dressed in lemon yellow - the original colour I've always wanted. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. There was actually an article about it.. 
http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/NEWS/15447840.Bride_39_s_wedding_dream_was_a_Yellow_Bus_ride_and_a_meal_at_McDonald_39_s___and_it_came_true/

Anyway we returned beginning of July, it was hard to leave family but it did give me some closure on the situation as I had a chance to pack up my old room and felt like I actually got to say goodbye. It was however nice to come back with a fresh start to life on our minds. We went house and job hunting all ready for college and well here we are.. It's been quite a journey and I know it's only really still just beginning.