12th April 2018
My London experience
My name is Blanca and I am a former student from the E.O.I.
in Fuengirola. Currently I live in London, where I have been for the past 3
years and a half, working on developing a successful career (or at least, keep
trying) and studying a master’s degree.
I still remember the beginnings: they were hard as hell. In
fact, this city is hard as hell. Living as an expatriate is never easy, and
even more if the language and the culture are so different to the one you’ve
been bred into. I arrived here after having suffered an accident: with a
limping leg and 10 days paid at a hotel, at the end of which I’d better had
found a decent accommodation to rent. So I did. Then I started working on my
(obviously) unpaid internship while I tried to get my wound healed. Task that
would have been impossible without my nurse flatmate that after became one of
my best friends. It was very difficult to get a wound re-dressed every day at
the NHS, and Brexit did not even exist.
After my 9 months’ internship, where I did not come back
home even once, I packed and moved back for the summer and to rest. However,
something inside got me a tickling sensation that made me come back once summer
was ended and I needed a change. So I did. That time without wound, but with 2
girls more.
We found a house in the same neighbourhood where I used to
live the first time and shared with another friend of mine who was already
living there and a fifth girl the agency sent us. The result: 5 women sharing 3
rooms and 1 bathroom. This time I did another internship and at its end, I
started doing many different jobs until I took the decision to apply for a
masters. So I did. And they took me. Decision to take=decision taken.
The year I studied my masters I had to commute every single
day, even on the weekends 4 hours every day carrying my laptop, lunchbox and
sometimes even clothes and a vanity kit, but I did it because I had to get this
degree and I had to make the most of it. Then all the assignments, late nights
of study and everything in a different assessment criteria and educational
system. I got graduated last January and all I could think was of how grateful
I was for having had so good teachers who taught me the power of effort. Every
time I failed, I thought it was too much effort to have classes also in the
evenings, meaning more work to do. Uncountable essays I wrote. Every time I
thought about giving up...I remembered why was all this worth. And I still do.
Apart from my family, friends that I left in Spain and other
parts of the world; I bless the E.O.I. every single day of my life because
without all that passion and outstanding praxis standards that my teachers
Marta and Charo put into practice with us; I wouldn’t have had the key to open
the door. I am not only talking about and English proficient level, but about
the mantra of always aiming for excellence. Please, never surrender. We can all
do it.
Blanca Morales Padilla
Grateful E.O.I. student
