Sebastian Lamas

“When I was in sixth grade, I went to compete in England as part of a British-English Olympics competition, because back in Mexico the top schools with a better English program would be sent there, and to boost that Mexico is a smart country. We are, we just don’t have that many resources. So, while I was there, a volcano blew up. Our whole flight got delayed around two weeks. Schools were starting back up, and we were staying on a college campus. Since the college campus couldn’t take us any more since the students were coming back, we spent two weeks rotating between camps, churches, motels and buses. We kept rotating until finally all the ashes from the volcano cleared the sky and we could actually fly again, which actually took quite a while.

They would do this test called the Topple test to see how good your English comprehension, reading and grammar is. I was the only sixth grader out of the whole trip, because my English was good enough, or better than most other junior high kids, so I was able to go. It was a three hour exam about listening, writing and reading. It was boring.

When I was an eighth grader, I was sent to Canada as a foreign exchange student for about a month and a half. I went to British-Columbia Victoria. It’s a very wonderful place. A very pretty place. I recommend that if you’re going to go over there to live. You’ll mainly find older people there. There’s not many youth there. Something I realized in Canada is that they like to smoke a lot. You cannot pass the road without seeing a cigar or blunt. Overall, people are very nice. What everyone says about Canadians being nice, that is true. I felt at home. I did not want to come back. I wanted to stay there, but, oh well.

I lived with a family during that time so that we could learn about their culture. I had a brother. His name was Jacob. And I had a mother, which I just called her Mrs. Curry. I had a very nice time. They didn’t care exactly what time you got home. I came back one time at two o’clock in the morning, because I had to go to a school party they had. I walked all the way from school to home, which is about roughly a mile and a half, in pitch black, just a couple of lights. I went in, the door was open, and the mom was at a computer and said, ‘Oh hey, good evening. How was your party?’ She didn’t question why I was so late, or if I had done anything. By the way, I didn’t do anything. I’d like to go back there. That was my Canadian trip.

The France trip, well, that’s an interesting story too. I went there when I was a freshman. I went there to practice my French and study. I went there for roughly one month, and I had been practicing French for about six to seven months, so I went there knowing close to nothing. It was kind of a difficult time communicating with the mom, the father and their two daughters. But I didn’t go alone. I took a friend of my mine. He is from Peru. His name is Leo. We both knew almost nothing.

We communicated with the parents mainly through hand gestures the first couple of weeks, and during my first week there, I got to go to this school. There were people from England, people from Germany, some from South America, some from India. It was a very nice international school. We got to learn about cultures with everybody. Some people were rude, I’ll give them that. Although, you weren’t really allowed to fight, or you’d be sent back .You just kind of take it. It’s not as safe as Canada. The city I went to, La Torche, is in the south. I had a very nice time there, because I made friends.

The parents were actually actors for the theater. The father was normally the main actor, and the mom was the stage director. I had to actually go to their job one time, and I had a lot of fun. It was awkward when they brought their co-workers to speak to us, and we tried comprehending and understanding, but they speak so fast. It’s like if I was speaking English to somebody from Japan.  Overall, we had a very fun time. It was a good experience. I could tell you stories from Mexico, stories from South America. I could tell you a lot of stories.”