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.