Good and Bad at School - Jonah, Dylan, Caleb and Julia

Jonah

 
Today lunch was super, super, super, super, super, super, super yummy. There was a drink and I think it's lemon juice. And there was boiled eggs and some hot soup and I think there was 2 cut-up carrots in the soup. And we go to eat lunch at 8:10. And sometimes we have rice and beans.

I don't like it because sometimes there's a line and sometimes I'm really far. Sometimes in the line we go to wash our hands with soap and sometimes for our moms to pick us up. We play with some stuff but I don't really play. I just sit there against the wall because there's nothing to play and I don't know what to play. But sometimes I play with toys that are like dominoes and sometimes we play tag, but it's where you stand around in a circle and holding hands and if the person's coming through you put your hands up to let them through. And sometimes when we're in class I see people jump roping.

I like school. When I get home from school, I get to play on the iPad. And sometimes when we go to school I get to play on the iPad while we're going. 

Dylan

School is a lot different than last year because I know a lot more Spanish, so I can talk better to other people in my class. And since I know a lot more Spanish it's more fun to go to school. I can actually do a lot more of what the other kids are doing, like talking and understanding, not just like copying notes from a book into my notebook. 

My favorite subject is P.E. One time we played kickball. But like nobody plays kickball in Costa Rica because everybody plays soccer. But kickball is one of my favorite sports. So it took like 10 or 15 minutes for them to figure out how to play, and they were just kicking like 2 feet. And when I kicked the ball it went over the pitcher's head. So P.E. is really fun. And English class is easy because, well, it's English.

Caleb

School is definitely a lot better than last year, but it's still boring and hard. I can talk to a lot of people, but I still can't understand my teacher very well (she's probably the worst person to not understand), because she talks really fast. When I have school with my main teacher, I have never done anything besides take tests and copy notes into my notebook, including during last year. 

Today at school, my teacher wasn't there, so a different teacher taught my class. We played a game instead of copying notes. There was a rope about 4 feet off the ground and the class was divided into two teams; each team needed to get across to the other side without touching the rope, but they had to go above it. That was fun, and after that we had music, which I like a lot. That was my whole day today, but the school days aren't usually so fun.

On Thursday mornings I have Catholic religion class, but I always read during the whole class. On Mondays, Tuesdays and sometimes Wednesdays, I have English class, and the teacher usually needs my help :). Besides those I have an art class, music class, industrial arts class and all of the classes with my main teacher--Spanish, science, math and social studies. Math is really easy. Usually, the problems are so easy that I can do them without hardly thinking. Then I can finish them almost immediately after the teacher finishes writing the problems on the chalkboard.

The girls haven't stopped bugging me about who I like, and they're getting worse. By now, some boys are asking me about it and even some girls from other classes. One time, two girls from the other sixth grade class came up to me, and at the same time, they both asked if the other was cute or ugly. Julia helped me think of things that I can say when someone asks me those kinds of things without hurting anyone's feelings or being doomed to teasing until we go back to Utah. If I'm asked if someone is pretty or ugly, I can tell them that "true beauty is on the inside." If I'm asked who I think is the cutest, I can say that "everyone is pretty." If I'm asked who my girlfriend is, I can say that "I don't date until I'm 16." If I'm asked who I like, I can say that "I like my siblings and parents."

One day, the kids in my class were playing spin the bottle. The first time, the boy and girl had to give each other kisses on the cheeks, but the second time they got the same person, they had to give them a kiss on the lips. I decided not to play that game.

Sometimes, my teacher writes on the board, tomorrow we don't have school or tomorrow we get out at 10:00 or things like that. I just go along with it, even though I don't know why. I tried out for the futbol (soccer) team and made it. This Monday is the first game. I don't really know much about it, just that I'm on a soccer team that plays against other schools. I don't have a schedule, I don't know when the season ends, I don't know if it's a tournament or we just play a set amount of games and I don't know where the games are.

Overall, school this year is better than last year, and it's more fun, but I'd still rather stay home.

Julia

I think overall school is better than it was last year. My Spanish is better so I can talk to people easier and understand my teachers a little better. My mom said to write about what I like and don't like, and when I think about it I can't think of anything that I like. 

It's basically boring all day. I sit through classes and don't do anything, and in between classes I don't do anything either, unless I sit by someone or they sit by me and we start talking, but that doesn't happen very often. Lots of times I end up having to walk home cuz I'll find out that school gets out early that day for who knows why. School gets out early on average once a week probably. The only reason I go to school is because our parents bribed us. If we go to school every day we're supposed to until we leave then when we get back to Utah we can have a party with our friends.