Soccer, etc.

When I come home from school each day, my host mom Lumi asks, “How was school today?”
“Bine,” I say.

“What did you learn?”

In present tense and a limited knowledge of verbs, I reply in Romanian, “Today, I speak vegetable and fruit. Tomatoes, potatoes, grapes.”

My host mom graciously affirms my awkward Romanian, “Foarte bine (very good).”

My language and Peace Corps classes meet in a middle school on the West side of town. During breaks we watch the middle schoolers watching us, sometimes engage them in romglish conversations, and the tallest guy in my group dunks basketballs for their entertainment. Many of the boys play soccer as well.

There is a grass soccer field behind the school and after classes on Friday, several of us started a game. Within ten minutes some highschoolers joined in and soon the field began to fill with kids of all ages. If any of us got the ball, about five ten-year-olds would surround us. The only penalties that were called religiously were hand/arm balls and we got to practice yelling “to the right, to the left” in Romanian. And now, on Monday I’ll have new friends at the middle school to talk romglish with.