July 2015 – School Blog

María Rubio (derecha) y Ana Rubio (Izquierda), alumnas de Year 13 y 11, Caxton College.

¿Cuándo os decidisteis tu hermana Ana y tú por el triatlón?
Nos decidimos por el triatlón hace unos cinco años cuando dejamos de hacer gimnasia rítmica, pero queríamos seguir haciendo deporte al acabar las clases. La escuela de Tripuçol estaba empezando así que probamos y nos encantó.

¿De qué manera te ayuda el colegio a la hora de compaginar deporte con estudios?
El colegio me ayuda con el hecho de poder sacar periodos del horario escolar en los que puedo dedicar tiempo al estudio. Además, ahora que somos más mayores entrenamos tarde, a las ocho, por lo que puedo sacar casi tres horas diarias de estudio al día.
¡Es cuestión de aprovechar cada rato al máximo y no perder el tiempo!

¿Qué beneficios tiene el entrenar con tu hermana?
Entrenar en familia está muy bien. Ana y yo nos ayudamos siempre en todo. Hay días en los que nos hartamos un poco la una de la otra al estar tanto tiempo juntas, pero es parte de la relación de hermanas. Nos llevamos muy bien a pesar de todo. Aparte, con el tiempo hemos hecho de Tripuçol una gran familia. Quedamos no solo para entrenar, si no también para hacer otras actividades como cenar e ir de vacaciones, por lo que hacemos todos mucha piña.

¿Qué te ha aportado, personal y profesionalmente, el echo de practicar este deporte?
Gracias a este deporte tan sacrificado he aprendido a valorar el esfuerzo que hay que hacer para conseguir todo lo que te propones en la vida, ya sea en ámbitos deportivos o académicos. Me he dado cuenta de lo gratificante que es ver como al poner todo tu empeño en algo, acabas siendo recompensado.

¿Cómo te organizas los fines de semana?
Los fines de semana intento estudiar y entrenar y también salir con mis amigas. Sin duda son una parte muy importante en mi vida así que los viernes y sábados por la tarde los dedico más al tiempo libre.

En el futuro; ¿Continuarás practicando triatlón?
Aún no sé que va a pasar en un futuro. Sé que quiero continuar haciendo triatlón pero lo primero son los estudios. Todo depende del futuro académico. Cuando sepa mis planes me organizaré para buscar mis ratos de triatlón.

Anna Perminova, Year 13 student, Caxton College

Hello, everyone.

I want to tell you about my experience of living quite a long time with a host family abroad. I should mention that before I had no idea how to speak in Spanish, and how I was going to survive in this country without even knowing the bases of the language! Luckily, my parents found for me an amazing host family (who didn’t understand English by the way).

It all started on a lovely Sunday, when my mum told me that I should move to a new family (here I got a kind of a heart attack) to learn Spanish language and culture from the inside. Well, that was quite the obvious choice after receiving my Spanish term grade. But then, I got to thinking about it a little bit more. I liked my independence quite a lot. I didn’t want anyone, especially complete strangers, to get into my personal space. I get used to dance like mad to Miley Cyrus songs and watch Russian TV programs at full volume. Moreover, remember, my knowledge of Spanish was little less than nothing. So my first reaction was just – GOD, NO.

However, my opinion wasn’t a priority and soon enough I found myself in a completely unfamiliar world with strange people who I didn’t understand. And the game started. I was even thinking about making up an allergy to those 4 dogs that they had. The culture, traditions, way of life were completely different from my own. Later, when I started to recognize Spanish speech, I understood that my host parents weren’t arguing – they were just discussing the menu for dinner. Wow. Imagine how that sounded to me before…

Sounds scary, right? Not at all. Living with a host family means getting very familiar with each other and spending time in each other’s personal space. You can’t stay apathetic if they try to care about you and surround you with love. That was exactly my situation. I tried to hold the distance between us at first. However, as time passed, I started to know them well and got the ability to talk with them, have fun and feel myself as a part of their family. My host mother still tells me that I have two mothers now – Russian and Spanish. Isn’t that cool?

Even though I got quite comfortable after a couple of weeks, I still had some mistrust towards them. It probably was a part of the Russian mentality. However, the day came when I got ill. Honestly, I never thought that someone except my parents or close friends would care about me that much. From that day on, I really felt that I was a member of the family. I would joke at dinner, spend hours just sitting and talking to my host parents, and watch TV and play games with the dogs. I have never felt so welcomed and comfortable in a situation before.

If you are as lucky as I was to have stumbled upon a warm, welcoming, and fun host family with adult children around my own age, you’ll find that it is very easy to fall into a routine. My host sister was quite a lot older than me; we had nearly 5 years between us. I was ashamed to talk with her because I thought that my Spanish was too bad for having a conversation. So I spent nearly a month, missing out on the opportunity to practice. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes or saying something goofy. ¡Abre la boca!

Despite all the initial shyness and cultural differences, I fell in love with my host parents. I bawled my eyes out when the time came to say goodbye. We both literally couldn’t let each other go.

They’re my second family now! How lucky am I?

Anna Perminova
Year 13

School Blog

Reflexiones, consejos y emociones que a diario nos asaltan en este trabajo que supone dirigir un centro docente / Thoughts, advice and emotions that occur to us as we work every day to achieve academic excellence at our school.

Month: July 2015

Entrevista a María Rubio, triatleta del club Tripuçol y alumna de Caxton College.

Anna Perminova´s Host Family Experience. Caxton College Boarding Student.

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