Day 46
This was Cali’s first day of the 8th grade.
When Cali was 7 she wrote a little blog when we lived in Guatemala. It always
started with, “Today, I had lots and lots of fun,” and ended with , “P.S. I love you all.” Here’s one she wrote here in Costa Rica.
Cali’s Frog Blog: Today is Friday and I finished my first week in a Costa Rican
school. I had a short week, only three days. Here are the most interesting things that happened.
On my first day of school, I had to get a uniform shirt. They only had a small and a large, I’m a medium. Since I couldn’t get into the small shirt, I ended up in the large. Let just say I didn’t get hot.
My introduction to the class was funny and not correct. I’m going to school here to improve my Spanish. I’ve gone to Spanish schools for years in Guatemala, so I do speak it.
The principal introduced me like this, “This is Cali. She is going to be here for two months. She is here to practice her English, and only speaks a little bit of Spanish. She speaks French.” The only part that was accurate was that I do speak French and I’ll be here for two months. But I also speak Spanish and don’t need to practice my English.
So all the kids didn’t think I understood anything they were saying.
They were saying to each other,
“Talk to her!”
“No I don’t want to her.”
“She speaks French that’s so cool. Say something in French to her.”
“But I don’t know any French.”
A girl walked to me and said, “Merci!” and then they all just laughed.
Then one girl asked if I spoke any Spanish and I answered her in Spanish. She said, “Ohhhh.” Then she announced to the class, “She speaks Spanish!”
In Biology we studied sex ed, on my first day. I should probably learn sex ed in
English before I learn it in other languages, otherwise it could get confusing. They were talking about how after puberty you start experimenting. After that, I stopped listening.
The students are allowed to be really loud. The girls scream frequently about anything and it makes me jump. They think it’s funny that I get startled. Only one teacher says don’t talk so loud. You can go on your phone all the time, sing to music you are listening to, you don’t even have to write down the notes if you don’t want to.
There is a group of girl who love Anime. I told my first friend that I went to Japan and that I was Japanese and German. It made her so happy and they were asking me if there is Anime everywhere. I said, no. Then she said, “Oh, in that case.” I still sit with the Otakus (people who watch Anime).
Me and the Otakus eat our lunch with the cows, iguanas, and cats. We were sitting there on the bench and my friend has an ant phobia. She saw some and screamed. It freaked out all the cows and they ran away.
Yesterday I was eating my leftover rice for lunch. They said, “why are you eating rice by itself, it’s almost like you are Japanese.” I said, I am part Japanese. They didn’t believe me. Then they said, “You’re serious!” I told them I’ve been to Japan and they couldn’t believe it.
After my first day of school my mom surprised me with monkey poop, which I’ve been wanting. It was great.
We celebrated my first week of school with Tsunami Sushi and going to see
Antman at the theater.
