It end up arriving the day. As a kid the next day was something too far to think of. And so, a month fast forward didn’t even exist. But still time moved slowly but steady, and the first day of “instituto” arrived. Instituto refers to a group of grades from seventh to twelve. The school I was going to study for six years was big, urban and dense. The first day of class, the rooms smelled like cleaning soap. This smell would remind me what is to be nervous. After the welcoming of the students ended, we went straight to do the first class. In Spain, all the kids are organized in four big groups. These groups take the same classes at the same time. This dynamic has positive and negative sides. The good part is that all the people in the class gets to know each other and the bad part is that you cannot decide your schedule.
I’ll be honest, after a month of being there I already wanted to go back to elementary school. The teachers were bad. But not a bad like they expelled from the class for rising your hand to ask a question, bad as they didn’t care what they were doing. They would just give repetitive exercises to do after learning all the theory. Not interest at all in the student, you were just number, a score. After, two trimesters I just didn’t care anymore. I would copy everything that they would give me, memorize it, turn it back, and recopy it in the exam. After a week I would remember nothing from that test. Now I see that that was one of the worst things that it could happen to me, since it just made me not wanting to study. I did want to make a change in my education though, and so when my mother told me that we could go to study during three months to United States I said yes. My brother wasn’t so sure. He was in sixth grade, in a different school than me, and it was better. He ended up saying yes, because if you think about it, three months is not that much time, and it was not like we were going to lose anything there in Spain.
Seventh months passed, and even though I knew that going to United States was real, it did seem something too far to think of. But it end up arriving the day of us going. The flight was long, but sleeping in the plane made it easier. When you are more than ten hours in a plane the noise of the engine start dissipating. When we arrived the jet lag wasn’t that bad. The first impression United States made me was that it was green. Seeing so many trees impressed me. Eugene seemed a very extended city. After two days the school started. There I could choose my subjects, which was very appealing. I enjoyed math, because it was easier for me to understand. When I think of that, what most impacted me was cross-country. It was new sport for me, but it really made an impact. Training every day, very hard, by the forest, it was very nice. I started liking the smell of wet ground and the feel of the wind while running. I also enjoyed a lot the taste of the hamburgers.
In the school I got a hard time understanding most of the classes. I remember that during the first month I wasn’t able to follow. But after that everything was very smooth. Being here made me realize how learning english was a important thing. Remember enjoying the art class, it was very calm.
Three months passed and it felt like three days. When I got back to Spain I tried to keep studying the way I enjoyed it. Which I feel like is the way to learn.