Someone rang my houses bell.

I didnt have any idea who could be, maybe my

brother? No, why he could rang the bell when he had the keys? The postman? When I
opened the door, I was surprised to see my neighbor Pablo. He was an old, kind man
who lived near us in a fancy-decorated house with his husband Jaume. The first thing I
got in mind was he wanted to talk with my mom about, I dont know, neighborhood
issues.
Hello Pablo, Im sorry but mom is working.I told him.
Hi Estel, how are you? It wasnt your mother who I was looking for.
Maybe here I should specify that what I said was in Catalan, my native language. The
response I got was in English. Why the heck was he talking to me in English? He had
lived in the U.S for a lot of time, but he spoke a perfect Catalan. Well, he was getting
old, so maybe he was starting to mix languages.
Excuse me? I answer him again, in Catalan.
No, if you speak me in Catalan I dont understand you! (He smiled) Your mother
phoned me last day and we talked about your English course in High School. So, I think
that you will have to call me Paul now.
I bet whatever you want that my face turned white when I heard the words English
and High School. To be honest, they were the only words I barely understood from
what he told me. I got the marks the previous day and they were great. Except from
English. I failed it. So, I started putting two and two together.
Next day I headed to his particular house. It was yellow and decorated with souvenirs
from all around the world: a big photograph from his native land, Cuba; a statue from a
Chinese warrior He showed me his most recent souvenir from his last trip to
Moscow: a big coffee mug with a USSR flag and a portrait of Stalin in it.
His husband Jaume now retired, but he had been a chef from an important restaurant
from the area for a lot of years. He would always receive me to his house with
something to eat. They were a one of the first couples who married legally in Spain,
around 2005, and they were famous in our neighborhood for their hospitality and
kindness.
The lessons with Paul were not the same as high school. We would sit in a table and talk
about the latest news, about the weather after that, he would see my assignments.
Come on Estel! Irregular verbs? That is so easy my dear! Ok, now we are gonna sing a
song to remember them.
What I liked from Paul was his positivity. He would always motivate me to do the most
boring homework and to study the most difficult things. Learning by using songs was a
trick that he used in frequency. When I started to get confidence, he started to teach me
things in advance.
But Paul, we are not doing this in class.

It is nice to learn new things in life. You will see its not difficult!

In fact, it was. At high school I became to be the one who would sit at first row at
English, just in front of the teacher. Just like at Pauls house. I was getting a fame of
good student, and you know how kids are by the age of 13. Nevertheless, when they
saw I started to get good marks, people would sit next to me to ask me for help and do
homework together.

My family was proud of my work; now, the grades were all good and teachers would
tell them how happy they were. By the age of 16, my brother moved to Brussels to join
a Commercial Flight academy. Honestly, it was hard just seeing him two times during
the year. We loved to do Skype talks and explain us our days and routine.

So, mom told me youre doing great with Pauls, no?

Yes brother! Im an English nerd now!

If I talked you in English, would you understand me?

With this we started a cool tradition that we keep doing now. We could spend hours
talking, and he corrected me every time I did a mistake. He would also check my essays
too, making suggestions and corrections. We had a good relationship with my eldest
brother, but I wanted him to be back at home as soon as possible.. He has always been
there when I needed help. After he finished his studies, he became officially a
commercial pilot with outstanding marks. He quickly found a job in Ireland, where he is
currently living.
During my last year of high school, I was proposing new challenges to myself: Paul
proposed me to take the Cambridges First Certificate, and also I was combining my
studies with my rowing training. I know maybe it sound weird, but doing rowing for 7
years has helped me to be better at English too. Every year, teams from Great Britain
come to my hometown to train in our lake. That gave me the chance to speak and proof
my English with them, and to be the personal assistant of my coach Carles when he
needed to talk with them.

It was thanks to rowing that I had the change to set off one of my greatest adventures:
one day, I received a mail from someone called Mike, the head coach from Sacramento
State. It was a long e-mail with a lot of information, but at the first moment I knew what
it was talking about. He wanted to Skype with me in order to talk about my future. I
called everyone to tell them what was going on, nervous as hell. Next afternoon the
Skype call was great: Coach Connors was so nice and surprised with my English. We
sent each other e-mails, which helped me to get confidence in writing. Also, I had to
study for the SAT and the TOEFL, who was a hard thing to do, but I got a good marks
and in at the first attempt! I think it could not be possible without Pauls help, who
followed my progress and cheer me when I felt down and desmotivated.
His tips are also helping during my classes at Sacramento State. In fact, here I am,
learning something new from my teachers and peers. I cannot be more grateful with
people who are helping me to do my best. It is hard facing differing things (courses,
culture, language). As Paul once told me, it is always nice to learn new things in life.