Maria

Hello! I am Maria, from Romania. I am staying at my friend Jenny’s house. Jenny lives in Felsted, in England. I am an exchange student and I am staying at Jenny’s house for 6 months, then she is going to come to my house and stay with me and with my family for 6 months.

It is great fun and the perfect way to learn English. I should say it is also a brilliant way to make new friends. I have been here for the last two months and I already feel like I am part of the family. I help with everything. Sometimes I do shopping with Jenny’s mum, Rachel. Jenny and I make breakfast every morning. I do my chores and try my best not to make a mess.

We play sports together, too. I learned how to play cricket. Jenny’s favourite sport is football. She can kick the ball really hard. She scored two goals at school yesterday. I'm not good at football but I love cycling. Jenny and I put on our helmets and then we get on our bikes and ride for hours. I learn a lot of new things every day. This week we have been talking about our traditional games. I have learnt about a game called conkers.

I was really surprised when I found out they were actually like big chestnuts. It is a very interesting game. You find a big conker, make a hole and then thread a piece of string through the hole. Then you try to hit your opponent’s conker and try to break it. It is not as easy as it sounds. I tried many times but Jenny is still the winner. This afternoon I am going to teach her our traditional game called the rope. It is a game full of fun. It can take place between two teams or two rivals, outside or in a room.

Each person has a rope that is 2 metres long. The first step is to tie a minimum of five knots in your rope within two minutes. Then the ropes are exchanged. The rivals must un-tie all the knots. The first person to untie all the knots in the rope wins the game. I hope I can win this time!