Eva - A Mile in My Shoes

This shows are a pair of high heels, they are in a good condition, look almost unwarranted, the material is shiny leather. I like the fact that they have two colors, green and purple and on the top they have two straps like the letter T, I guess for stability. I guess the person who is wearing these shoes is someone who likes color in her life and wanted to be well dressed all day long. These shoes belong to Eva and this is her story. In order to be in the best frame of mind to tell you my story, I've been looking up for the international highlights of that lapse of time. 1998 it was the year of many natural disorders and also human conflicts, Hurricane Meach, the tsunami, Papua Guinea, the Afghanistan earthquake, the Jansekyan floods, the start of Kosovo war, the Guinea Abyss war, only to mention a few. I was 31, still living with my parents in Madrid, by then I had managed to land in a permanent job. Unemployment in Spain is one of their biggest problems and most of my life, this is the way it has been. I was always had to worry about the money, couldn't really do what I wanted because I was somehow dependent on my parents. I hadn't had a serious relationship either and that made me feel very anxious about my future. I felt my life was kind of directionless. For my best friend, I had medical and she was planning to migrate to Republic of Ireland and without being fully aware of it, I planted the seed of taking the same step. I'm also curious what's out there in the world. Maybe there's something that really surprised me, maybe there's something for me there. It was going to be a way of knowing myself better, to see how resourceful I could be and also was going to improve my language skills in English. My friend's friend had flown to Ireland at the beginning of the year and by then she had a Spanish boyfriend who assured me that I could easily get a job within a week or a fortnight that much. Well, then the plan was to stay in Dublin from May to December, so I made up my mind and my preparations. I had some little savings and at the end of the day it was only for a few months, so no danger. At that point the adventure began. I arrived in Dublin on the 15th of May 1998. I briefly looked up for an admin job which was the kind of employment I had had in Spain before, but I realized I had to improve my language skills first. So I decided to try in the hospitality business and certainly I was working a week after my arrival in the country. I was a floor assistant at Calmore Cafe at Incent Stephens Green Shopping Centre, just by Crafton Street, one of the most popular and visited commercial streets of Dublin, the heart of the town. It was in two floors, very big, like a football pitch. My job consisted mainly in cleaning and clearing all the rubbish, leftovers and plates. I had to bring all the trays. I worked so hard that when I woke up in the mornings, my hands were stiff, I couldn't really close it, but yeah, it was fun, it was fun. It was a very well-paid job because of that reason most weeks someone was leaving. And of course that was reason for a party, nearly every week we had a party to say goodbye to someone. I live in Shankill, a small village 12 miles south from the city. Living and commuting from that area of the suburbs gave me one of the marvels of my trip. Every day I had to go to work, I used a kind of light train that Dubliners called the Dart. Most of its way from Shankill to Dublin, at Versa Versa, was overgrown in the open. You only had to go through two tunnels, one at the entrance of the outskirts of the city and the other one in a hilly area a couple of stops from where I had to get on and off the train. The marvel was that on every way back, after being on my feet for such long hours non-stop, and at the end of that last tunnel, after having been in the womb of the soil, being rocketed in the absolute protection that allowed me to unwind completely, you were delivered to the most magnificent view you could ever imagine, Kailani Bay. You had passed from a blackout to a flood of light, an explosion of color as you were delivered to the bay through the cliff and I eagerly peeked through the window that the usually tranquil waters of the Azur Sea on one side and in the other every possible kind of shape and size of flowers in all colors of the rainbow. I had never seen such variety, every time was a shock for your senses, I used to feel like drunk by the sensation. To be around nature or the ground or plants, I really felt like all the tiredness evaporated. I've never been a very religious person but in such places it's what I feel nearer God. It was the prize for all my hard work of the day and more and I always anticipated excitedly the moment of pleasure, glory and plenitude. Another reason that contributed to that high vibration that I was permanently experimenting was that I felt valued at my work like I've never been before. I am a physically slow person compared to most people but in there my boss and colleagues didn't consider me so and I was extremely appreciated. I was comfortable in my skin for the first time of my adult life. I felt I was capable, I felt I was deserving. Of course this doesn't mean that I didn't miss my family and friends. Remember that in 1998 in those days WhatsApp FaceTime didn't exist but I sent and received a flu and stream of correspondence and I called home every week. First to answer always was my dad who made sure I was fine and I didn't need a hand with money or anything else. And I'm 100% sure that afterwards he always went to our balcony to cry because he was such a dear, softie in this respect. His little girl had grown up but somehow it was hard for him to fully accept it. Finally December arrived and I came back home for Christmas. On my flight back I was thinking what meals I would like to have and do you know what? Those were exactly the ones that my parents have prepared for me. After the separation we spent several weeks in this honeymoon mood that I remember today with nostalgia as this has been such a difficult year. 2020, the year my mom passed away, the year I wake up with my boyfriend of nearly 3 years, the year I was bullied at work and on a bigger scale 2020, the year of the isolation, the year of the masks, the year of so many learnings, the year to remind us to reflect about what's important in our lives. I can say that I'm a person with a lot of hope that life still has a lot in the pocket for me, a lot of surprises, a lot of experiences that really can wait for my life. I'm a professional daydreamer procrastinator. Well, I think I'm not alone in this department, hello! This podcast is part of the GLA ESOL+ Arts Project, a collaboration between City Lit and Graduate Education College, Empathy Museum, Old Face and storyteller Ariane Hadjilias. The project explores how ESOL+ and the arts can work together to promote English language learning in the UK capital. The music in this podcast was Baby Birch Heartbeat by Daniel Birch, illustrated novel by Chad Crouch, read by PC3 and UK Eye by Cocorembo. It also included sounds from Inspector J, Hasselblad 223-34455 and Arnau Coutancier.