Penley ’25, recounts a fun day of language learning games and activities.
This morning was our first day of school, which started at 10:00am. I woke up at 7:00am so I could go for a run beforehand. After doing so I came back to my house to get ready for school and have my typical breakfast of hot chocolate and mini muffins, which I enjoyed with my roommate Leila. Leila and I then began our walk to school, with a quick pit stop to the market right next to our apartment for a coffee, something I can’t go without. We started school with a fun game that introduced us to other students that are also part of our program. We were given a piece of paper that had different statements on it like, “Tienes más de dos mascotas” and we had to find someone who that was true for. The goal of the game was to fill in every box and meet some new kids, which I tried my best to do, yet I couldn’t find someone who “va a clase en bicicleta”. Once done with the first activity we had a thirty minute break. I spent my time playing basketball with some kids in my group: Luka, Vivian, Walker, Izzy, Maisy and Gabriel, plus a couple kids our age that go to the school. I love basketball, so this was most definitely one of my favorite parts of the day. Following the game we all went back to class for about an hour and a half more, then we had lunch with our host families.
After lunch we all had free time, which I spent doing my favorite with Leila, buying sunglasses. I bought a pair of sports sunglasses, which despite already being my second pair I have gotten on the trip, were much needed given that our evening activity including beach games. The beach games began at 6:00pm and consisted of limbo, musical towels, a beach trinket competition, a hole digging competition, making a sentence out of “como” written five times, and freeze tag. In the end the winners were Emily in 1st place, Leila 2nd, Maisy 3rd, Elena 4th and Vivian 5th. Although I sadly did not win, I still got some delicious gelato. While eating gelato the group all took turns reading excerpts of our journals. Once we concluded our activities we all went home to have dinner with our families. Leila and I ate grilled chicken and vegetables for dinner. Afterwards we prepared for tomorrow and got ready for bed.
