At School!

Hello! Everything here is awesome!

On vendredi (Friday) I had my first day of school!! It was so exciting. When I arrived I was greeted by the Headmaster, Monsieur Perre. He is a very nice man. We have already been invited by Monsieur Perre to go and have 'aperitifs' with his family at his home! He then introduced me to my new class.

When I first walked in I knew it was going to be a fun group. I was happy to see that two of my friends from our street in the village were also in my class. The boys were all very sporty and friendly. I made 5 new friends and met many others. My school friends' names are Elly (he is a boy), Tom, Chibbo, Geoffrey,Dylan and Teddy.

My first lesson was French. My teacher was very nice and caring. I've heard that the teachers here can be very stern and strict! Some of my teachers are also like that.

After lessons we went to lunch. The whole school ran around the centre court yard that they have in the school. The school has no ovals that we were allowed to play on so we just ran around kicking tennis balls on the concrete pavement.

I eat at school with my friends, but no-one brings a lunch box. The way the cafeteria works was new to me! There is a lot of jostling going on to get in line. When you get inside and you are under the watchful eye of teachers, things are slightly more civilised. You collect your lunch on a tray, with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs and bread, a sponge cake with custard and a piece of fruit. I was starving. There is no morning or afternoon tea at school. We take our trays into a huge room with a lot of tables and chairs and choose where we sit and with whom. Once we have finished eating, the teacher excuses us and we go and play.

When lunch finished there was claustrophobic jostle of people trying to get back into the school buildings through one of two doors. My friends and I could not move at all. There was so much jostling that we were almost crushed by the big kids. The whole school was in the courtyard! The school has 1000 students.

My friends asked me if I preferred to read French or write French. I said I preferred to write French - since I can't read French. We lined up in the queue for writing French. We entered a big room where people were studying. We had barely sat down before a teacher came in and asked something in French and the next thing every-one shot up their hands. Elly and me were picked. We stood up and trekked across the school and into a recreation room. We then played ping pong and table soccer for an hour! It was great fun!

The day finished with geography and history. My teacher is a very old lady who was very nice.

As the day came to an end I had a huge headache from people asking me many questions. My personal space was totally invaded! But I am happy to say that my first day of school was a huge success.

Dad came to pick me up from school whilst Mum was at her French class. Dad and I continued on to soccer training with Serge and Raphael. We arrived at soccer to a healthy six laps of the field. We were definitely pooped by the time we finished. We all played a game of soccer against some boys who were fourteen years old. A couple of our goals were hilarious flukes. I played as a defender and saved lots of goals. We finished up with a gruelling warm down of four laps of the oval. This morning I woke up with a very sore body!

Au Revoir!