Life Goes On

Life goes on and on. I was asked to join the better basketball group at JAB. So tonight, I played with both groups. The new group is a lot better and the coaches are stricter because they expect more. My teammates are nice and closer to my height, which makes it much more fun.

I went surfing, I caught some waves, and it was on my new board. Lately, the waves have been big so I haven’t been able to surf. So when the waves get smaller, I’ll go surfing avec mon parents.

School is going well. I am making friends, understanding more, and learning to play recess games. For example, rugby, balle américaine, futbol, balle de prison, and other games. I am learning about volcanoes and in math, symmetry. I am reading a book about Achilles, but it is hard to read in French. Lula helps me on Thursdays.

Our next-door neighbor, Chris Dowse, came to visit us. It was fun to show him around. My parents took him to a sidreria and he said that it was the best experience. He then had a craving for rotisserie chicken which he bought in the Halles before he left for London.

Luke turned 14 yesterday. He went with three friends to a trampoline park. Then we all had lunch at the Halles 5 Cantons. After lunch, Chris, Mama, and I walked back to Biarritz which took almost an hour. We stopped for a coffee, but I had a grapefruit spritz.

Life is good, but I still miss Seve.

Almost to Christmas

We are almost to Christmas. I am so excited for another two-week break. I am learning French petit à petit. I joined a basketball team with my friend Nelson. We do drills and play a scrimmage at the end. My coaches are nice. It is great playing on a team and getting some real practice because at school my classmates double dribble and they always call fouls. Except for Nelson, he knows how to play. My practices on Mondays are at Luke’s school gym and on Wednesdays they are on the other side of town.

My teacher, Mr. Zubieta, told me a story today. He said, “Talk as much as you can. It will help you learn quicker. One time I had a student that came from the States. She wouldn’t speak French. So, Maryange, one of the lunch supervisors, told the girl, “If you don’t speak French, you won’t eat lunch.” Maryange is the supervisor that says to somebody who hurt themself, like scraped their knee, she would tell them, “Get up you are fine. Stop being a baby,” or when someone falls because they are pushed she says to person who pushed, “What are you doing? What the hell made you think that that was reasonable? Are you stupid or something?” I think it is super funny.

Monsieur Zubieta is an awesome teacher. He is super funny because when a kid in my class named Solal starts tapping, stomping his feet, or clearly not understanding, in front of everyone in the class, he says, “What are you doing? You are not paying attention. How am I suppose to help you if you don’t pay attention?” He then mimics what Solal does in class with great exaggeration. This would never happen in the States. It isn’t personal or anything. Everyone is used to it. It is more funny even though Solal was embarrassed.

My cousin, Ezra, is here for a month. I am happy that he is here because he is fun and he walks with me to school. It is nice to have a new person in the apartment. We get along well.

I miss my All Saints classmates, especially Seve.

Two Weeks of School

Two weeks of school, and I still miss Seve. I walk to school. It takes about 16 minutes. On Monday, we went to the beach on a class field trip to learn ocean safety! It was a mini junior lifeguards for about two hours. It was fun! We ran around on the sand. My feet sunk in the sand quickly which made it very hard to run, and it was very tiring. I was partnered with a kid, I still don’t know his name, but he is really nice. We practiced using a yellow rescue buoy, and the lifeguard showed us how to use it. My partner swam out into the ocean (but really it was a small cove with little to no waves) and with the rescue buoy I swam after him in the ocean. I strapped it around my partner’s body and pulled him in. He did the same for me. It was really funny because a lot of kids fell in the water because the waves would crash at the shore and with each step it would make them fall. My teacher was sitting on the beach having a coffee with some of the parents that decided to come along. There was one lifeguard helping us out. A lot of the kids already knew him so I guess they have done this before. On Thursday, we did bike safety. There was a little obstacle course. The first obstacle was a wooden plank that you ride across. It was an imitation of going on a sidewalk. After that we rode through curvy cones like you do at soccer practice. Then we went around a cone and there were cones super close together, you had to keep balance and your bike straight without knocking any cones. Then you grab a ball from a cone, drop it at the other cone while riding a bike. There were more swively lines, you go around a tree, and one more cone. Then you have to make the infinity route and then you ride forward and there is a doorway that you have to duck and stop at the perfect time and knock only one of two sticks. I brought my own helmet because Stacey said that the one’s at school may have lice. A police officer set up the obstacle course and watched us while we were biking.

School is decently easy. Everything seems like fourth grade work. I thought it would be a lot harder since I am in fifth grade. It is hard, as everyone knows, because I don’t speak French. We haven’t had English class because it is not something big at my school. The past few weeks have been fun, but I still miss Seve!

First Day of School

By Charlie.

The first day of school was hard. I didn't know what was going on. All I knew was that the kid in front of me spoke English. The boys in my class knew I was new and from California and they let me play with them. We had an hour of recess and two hours for lunch recess. We had a thirty-minute recess and also a 15-minute one at the end of the day. I didn’t understand what the teacher was saying but at least he spoke a good amount of English. When the day was over and I saw my parents I ran over to them and gave them a big hug. I was tired. I fell right into bed and fell asleep. Can you believe I just spent a whole day in 5th grade in a French-speaking school? I can’t. And I have to go back tomorrow. Even though it was super tiring it was actually super fun. I met the kid in front of me who spoke English and his name is Basile. Between Basile and Evie, I had two people who could speak English. Even though there were four recesses, I still miss Seve.

My Summer

Written by Charlie.

These were the fun parts of my summer.

In France, we were in a place called Capbreton for a month. When we first got there, we played Couillon (a Belgian card game). We played at cafes or restaurants my parents had wine, and we had Orangina. Luke got his first phone during the first few days, and he can’t turn it off. We got bikes and biked around to restaurants for dinner, all the time. The food was always really good. We saw friends who visited. We stayed in a castle like a scene in the movies. It had horses, and there was a fox under a tree when we first arrived. Luke and I stayed in the castle, and my parents were in the guard house. Their room was the size of my Carmel house kitchen and living room. We had breakfast even though it wasn’t good and the music was so “castlely” that it made me cringe. Another day we went to Chartres, a town south of Paris. At night, they have a light show on the cathedral. It showed how they built it, the night sky with galaxies, and cool oceany colors from head to toe on the cathedral.

In Spain, we swam in La Concha with the Nelsons. We ate pintxos and walked around all day. My favorite pastry here is like a lemon cream filled donut with sugar on top.

In Belgium, we hung out with the Mignons. One day, we lit up a wasp nest, and Oscar would have the gasoline ready and spray it on the wasp nest while saying, “Haduken!” It was funny yet very dangerous. So I stayed far away. When we looked later, it was a burnt hole in the ground with wasps flying around. We swam in their pool and played Marco Polo. It was a blast! We had tarte du riz. It is one of my favorite tarts. We picked blueberries with our old nanny, Lisa. There were tons of blueberries and we picked a lot. We didn’t fill the whole bag, but we had enough for a dessert for 12 people. There is no poison oak or ticks so we could just walk around the forest. The only thing we had to be careful of was stinging nettle. Right before we left, we got a whole pie. Half tarte du riz and half blueberry. I liked the blueberry because the blueberries were very fresh. For lunch, we went to a Friterie. I just got a big thing of fries with mayonnaise which was so good.

We went to the Netherlands for a day trip. I got a North Face jacket, and I use it to this day. We went to a place for lunch called I Love Burrito, and the salsa burned my mouth so bad that I chugged my soda. We had a little of their spiciest salsa which is made with the Carolina Reaper. I tried some, but it was super spicy but flavorful.

In Germany, we went to a restaurant where Luke and I had schnitzel. It was very good.

In the Italian part of Switzerland, we hiked up and over a waterfall and then swam in the water hole. I went under the waterfall. The water was super duper cold. Like so cold that I was shivering with goosebumps. You can only stay in for an hour max. I was in there for an hour and a half. I had the best gelato ever. I tried almost all of my favorite flavors! We went to a place that had a pool table, and I tried Organics by Redbull. It tasted like Orangina which is a French drink that is a sparkling orange drink. After, we went to a restaurant called Riva, and I had Frito Misto. It is now one of my favorite foods. It is practically a ton of fried fish, prawns, and zucchini. The zucchini was like fries but better.

I have read 11 books. It is almost 12.