Anastasia, in Cossé-le-Vivien
“I communicate with other students through a translation app”
Based in Cossé-le-Vivien (Mayenne) since June, Veronika is now employed in a slaughterhouse. Hard work – “Not everyone can do it”, she says, while admitting to having cried all the first week – but she is holding on. Daria made her comeback in large section and Anastasia in 4th. A brand new pair of Converse on her feet, she tells us about her first days.
“THE COLLEGE IS JUST ACROSS from our home. On the first day of school, I was very stressed, I even got lost in the hallways! In class, I do not understand anything, for the moment. I try to keep myself busy, I copy what my neighbor writes… I’m not allowed to use my mobile phone in class, but sometimes I hide a bit to send messages. From time to time, I am given sheets written in Ukrainian: math exercises, or else a text and questions. For example, I was given a short extract from The Wild Call [un roman de Jack London].
In mathematics, I find it difficult to follow; the other students have already started to learn square roots and the Pythagorean theorem, which I would like someone to explain to me because I don’t understand it. Mom told me she would help me. I am enrolled in parallel at the college in kyiv, but as I finish at 5 p.m. and there is an hour difference with Ukraine, I cannot attend classes.
I communicate with other students through a translation application. From the first day, I joined a small group of girls: they explain to me where to go, what to do. They don’t ask me questions about my story. Anyway, I don’t want to tell it. I am still in contact with my friend Emma, in Ukraine. This morning she sent me a video of herself sitting in our classroom. I said to myself: that’s good, the school is still there, it’s whole.
School is great for Daria! She already made a lot of friends, she keeps falling in love [elle rigole]. She has started to learn the alphabet, she can roughly write her name. After school, we stay at home. I draw, I play a video game or I watch anime on my computer. We may have a dog. The same as the movie The Mask [un jack russell] – Chloé Hecketsweiler (performer: Tatiana Weimer)
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