I think I made my first friend(s)

I held in my hand a green rectangle as I sat on my bed. Click click...scroll... music, artists... past the Beatles, Coldplay, Eric Clapton, Herbie Hancock, Jimi Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Louis Armstrong... ah, yes, here it is. Click. Click. The familiar sound of Miles Davis's addicting trumpet playing filled my ears and I sat back, already becoming inspired and thrilled. Playing trumpet is one of the most blissful and simple joys, at least to me. So much fun. Ah.

I listened to a few songs until I heard the sound of the door buzzer. I turned off Melvin, putting him on my bedside table, and got up. A few minutes later, the door opened and a tall woman with longish blonde hair and two boys came into our apartment. The woman (Helen) was born in Manchester, England, and had a distinct British accent. The two kids, one around 13 (Joey) and the other just turned 6 (Nathan), also had slight accents. They were coming to our apartment to have brunch with us and help us with the school supplies list. They had been living here for a while now, and Joey had gone to the College, the school I was going to.

My mom had set out croissants, pain aux chocolate (chocolate croissants), a fruit basket, bowls, silverware, plates, bread and condiments. We sat down at the table, and then Helen went into the kitchen to help my mom with stuff. It was pretty quiet after that. Joey did ask if either of us played guitar. I replied, "Yeah I play some electric," and he said he played acoustic. We continued eating for a bit. Then Joey was like, "Why is it so quiet?" And I couldn't help smiling, remembering "awkward silences" with my friends. It's making me smile even now remembering it. Ha! And then Oren would be like, "Awkward silence" and we'd all like laugh/yell. Goosd times. So anyway.

Then after a while I managed to ask, "So, what kind of music do you guys like?" Nathan (who reminded me slightly of Becca's brother Nathan) said something like, "we don't listen to music," or like, "just whatever," Because of their accents and way of talking, I could only hear what they were saying half the time and just had to guess. Joey said something to, but I couldn't really understand what he said.

"You know, there's one thing I really don't understand about my brother," Nathan said mostly to me after a while. I stopped chewing my ceral (goosd ol' corn flakes) and smiled somewhat, as if to say "go on," He did, saying, "He always wears a lot of polka-dots," and turned to look at his brother. "His jacket is polka-dotted, his pants-" then Joey cut in, making a point that he was not in fact wearing polka-dots; it was called "checkered". So then Nathan continued, "Fine, checkered."

Then Joey argued back, saying "Oh, give me a break- so I get this jacket, right, and so I see these shoes (his shoes were also checkered) and they match, right? And then I had this checkered belt from England, and my grandma gives me this checkered hat, which I don't have with me," He was indeed wearing a lot of checkered items. Then Nathan started again.

"All you need though is a checkered shirt then. And checkered underwear. Well, boxers. Boxer shorts-" but then it apparently got too awkward then for Joey because he put his left hand over Nathan's mouth, but Nathan kept talking. It created quite an amusing affect.

So after brunch we talked about the school and went through our school supplies list. They were a great help, because they like translated it and gave us advice and stuff. I've got some "news" about the school:

• So my first day of school (besides the tests) is on Wednesday, Sept. 2. It's a half day, so it gets out at like 11:30. Wednesdays are always half days I think.
• The whole schedule is 7:55-5:30PM, Sept. 2- to like July 2nd.
• Lunch is from like 11:30-1:50, and I can go home for it. The food there is somewhat bad, but better than in America.
• I have two recesses, both 15 minutes, in the morning and afternoon.
• The math program is behind the one back in the states, so like it will be pretty easy for me. But I also might be behind in high school...
  

So yeah. Then we went to the Hyper Champion (big store) and bought some school supplies. They had like 5 rows of school supplies, but some of it was almost all gone. We got more note books, colored pencils, binders and I went over to this other store afterward and got a nice planner. They were really nice people. Joey would run around, telling us what stuff to get and recommending things. I might even have a class with Joey. We said bye in the store, and my mom mentioned that we could like get together again sometime. Then it occured to me that, I had a friend. Well, a few friends really. I just made friends. Wow. That feels so awesome. It's like, I'm not... alone, there's someone else here going through the same stuff. It feels so much better to have a friend now. Cool. Cool!

So I have 3 more days till the tests. I practiced my trumpet today, which was awesome, but then I came back and it was like I completely forgot about school. Now school doesn't seem so bad. It did when I was school shopping. I can just imagine the classes- the teacher says something about something, and I see everyone else do stuff but I'm left clueless. I fear school. But I'm trying to not to. I really don't want to kill myself this year. That will be like my main goal. I'll just try my best and all that, but not worry about it so much. Or even at all. It's not worth it. It never is.

But the advantage of this is, when I come back things will seem so dang easy. I mean, I get to use English. I can walk into a donut store and say "Uh... two jelly-filled, and three chocolate" or whatever, as opposed to saying like, "Je voudrais..what jelly-filled is in French. I mean, seriously. And then in school, pretty much all of the directions and stuff will be in ENGLISH and I can just so easily talk and ask questions! I can't wait! That will be awesome. And of course, I'll get to see my friends again. Which is the best part about coming back.