I hate my alarm clock. It has a very annoying beep (don't they all?) that reminds me of like a hospital. I woke up at 6:50 and took a shower. I washed off all of that sweat and... more sweat from hockey practice (I'll write about that in my next post). I put on my Ann Arbor Rock Band Boot Camp shirt which was one of my favorites, along with cargo pants. My dad took a shower after me and my mom also woke up. I sorted through the big pile of paper, notebooks, etc in my room and put some in my backpack. It was pretty heavy. Then I ate some corn flakes (good stuff, corn flakes-pretty much never get old even after eating them a few days straight) with half a chocolate croissant. It was like 7:20. My mom also brought out some English Breakfast Tea which I slurped down hastily.
Then it was like time to go. It was raining so we decided to walk instead of bike. I brought my Ann Arbor Girls Hockey jacket and an umbrella. We couldn't really wait for my mom because we only had 15 minutes which was the minimal time we needed to walk there. So my dad and I set out, walking at a somewhat-quick pace. I saw another kid and his older brother, wearing light blue headphones. We followed them down this back road to the school. There were lots of cars. It was a gray, bleak morning. I wasn't really worried while walking with my dad. I mean, I didn't know what it would be like, but I wasn't like panicking.
There were tons of high school students waiting outside. I noticed the buses were a dull gray and looked like tour buses; tallish. We got there rather close to 7:55, when it was supposed to start. We just went in the College main building and got in line for the schedule along with lots of other kids. I recognized some kids from the tests and overheard someone speak English. The line was rather slow, and about half way through my mom came in, reminding my dad that he forgot my shot records and all that. Which would have been bad, if not for my mom bringing them. So we just talked about hockey and stuff. My dad noticed a sign about the English National Program (ENP) and he went over to read it. He found out that the hallway going down to the left from the line was like all English classes, or at least in the ENP. So ok.
After waiting for about 45 minutes, it was finally my turn. My dad did the talking, knowing the most French. I was put in Spanish level 2, which was the starting level they said. My class thing was 4G, and then this tall French dude with a black/gray mustache and light orange suit lead all three of us to this other building behind the first one. He spoke French to my dad, who was like the other one who could understand it, and then asked if I did. I said "petite pu" (meaning a little bit) and he laughed and said in English, "Ok we help you." I smiled. I waited with my dad while my mom was talking to some other lady that knew English. The room had tiled floors and I saw some lockers. They were arranged sort of like file cabinets and were square, maybe a foot by a foot or so. There were a bunch of kids in here. I saw two TV screens, one saying the absent professors, the other saying recent news. Both were blank. In the upper right corner were numbers showing the time, rotating around in a virtual circle.
After a few minutes we went in the room, labeled "Vie Scholar" (student life). There was a lady there with short black hair and a white shirt on that had like a zebra. She hastily filed through papers, finding my class, 4G. My schedule (or "time table") was this white sheet, showing the days on the top and the times on the left. There was a gap in the middle for lunch, and the bottom half of macredi (Wednesday) was blank, because I had a half-day then. Some blocks had an A part and a B part. The lady explained that the weeks cycled A and B; this week was A. Today was jeudi (Thurday) and I was supposed to be in gym. Ugh. Gym. And then my next class was history/geography and then a gap for lunch. The lady was really nice, and spent a while helping us with the schedule. She highlighted my classes, gave me my carnot (like a planner that I had to have all the time with me) and papers for my dad to fill out. She spoke pretty good English which helped.
After a while my mom left because she had a French test to take for her French lessons. So my dad and I just talked more as the lady did some work. There were 3 main buildings: L, A and B. The building where I took my tests was L and the one with the student life office was B. The one connecting to A was B. At around 10 was my first class, history/geography, in room L-20. So my dad came with me to find it, and we waited for a while. No one was here. After the bell rang we decided to ask the lady again where to go, since the teacher wasn't there, but then this English dude around my age asked my dad where L-28 was. Then a flood of kids came out from a stairwell and were going in the direction of L-20, so we followed them. They also had a teacher leading them. Apparently we were supposed to line up against the wall, because that was what everyone else did, so I did that too. I said bye to my dad and he left. I was on my own now. Crap.
The first class was hell. I sat next to this tall guy who spoke some English and who didn't really pay full attention to the lesson. The teacher had blondish hair past the shoulders and looked sort of nice. She read off a list on names for attendance and I wasn't called. She didn't even ask me if I was in the right class. Basically, she ignored me the whole hour. I had to write down my name, my parent's jobs, date of birth, nationality and like interests outside of school. I asked the guy next to me a few questions, but was sort of shy. The teacher just rattled on in French, sometimes writing on the board, which helped. She'd ask questions and pretty much everyone else knew what they were doing. No one seemed to be as lost as I was. I sort of got that we were going to learn about the European Union, some continents and countries and the Kings. I was handed a few sheets and people read out loud. Boy, the French sure like to talk fast. It was hard to follow. But I was doing ok I guess. Luckily the teacher didn't call on me or anything. I really would not feel like saying "je ne comphrend pas" to like everything they said, and then wasting the other kid's valuable class time while the teacher had to make a fool out of me. I almost felt bad for myself.
Halfway through the class Joey came in and sat at the back. At the end of class, he asked if I had been getting by with my French. I just said with a sort-of smile, "Er sort of... heh" He helped me find my next class, even though I wasn't
that hopeless. I asked him if we had homework, and he said we had to like revise the sheet with the Kings on it. There was NO way I could have figured that out. Geez. I was so clueless. Hopeless. Stupid. Sucky. Whatever. And then he said there was a test on it next week. Well. I might as well not even try. Seriously. My grade for that will be like negative 41. Sigh.
My next class was an English one. Thank the Superior Dooder Lord! Anyway.
This one wasn't even half bad. My favorite class by far so far! The teacher had an older look to her face but wasn't really stern. Dirty blondish hair past the shoulders a bit and wearing a necklace. Her name was like Mrs. Wainwright. She gave us a sheet saying how we should try our hardest every time, not copy, turn in homework on time; no exceptions, etc. I was really liking this class. And the funny thing was, the kids I saw in the history-geography class that spoke like perfect French, some of them were in this class and they spoke really good English. Huh.
My name was also not called on the list in that class either. But I wrote mine on the back, along with like 5 other kids who didn't get their names called. Then most of us got handed out
Twelfth Night, but I didn't get one because they didn't have enough. Mrs. Wainwright explained what we were going to do this year. We were starting off with autobiographies, then later doing
Twelfth Night, lots of reading, reading books like
I Am the Cheese (I had actually read that one last year) and writing an essay, doing some poetry (but of course) and writing up a speech or something on
Animal Farm. Sounded like fun. A lot of work, but I get to speak and write English. What a luxury! That class went by fast of course. They were about 55 minutes each and I had 15 minutes to get to each class I think. Joey was also in that class. It occurred to me then, that Joey was probably a popular kid. He had high-fived someone in the hallway and was quite self-confident. Not all popular kids are like... ugh, but still.
We weren't sure if I had signed up for math in English or history-geography, and my next class was math in English. And it was in the same room as the writing class, so I just stayed to ask. I didn't really like that atmosphere though. The teacher was somewhat... eh. It seemed as though I didn't sign up for her class, so she told me to go to the ENP secretary to call the people to tell us what I signed up for. So I went in and asked. The person was really nice. She confirmed that I had not signed up for math in English, so I could go home for lunch. I think I had about an hour for lunch, which was cool. Yay. So I walked out of the L- building, thinking, "this sucks." Because I pretty much hated this school so far.
It was still raining. There were some high schoolers outside for their break and I passed them. I ran a little bit, because I so badly wanted to get out that frickin' place. Zach was awake, and had slept in as he hadn't been called to the school yet. Lucky. I had enchiladas for lunch, which my mom had made the day before. They were actually quite good. I was hungry. Then I got on the computer (as you know, if you read my earlier post) and tried to just relax.
At 1:40 I decided to go back. My next class, technologie, started sort of between 1:40-2:30 0r something. I didn't really see any other kids walking towards the school, so I worried if I was really late or really early. But I went anyway. I walked pretty fast, getting there in about 15 minutes. Still lots of cars. I went inside the building with the student life office and waited around. Technologie was in B-02 or B-03. See, that was my I hated this so much, because I didn't even know where to go or what classes I had. Ugh. And I hated going to one and that being the wrong one, and the teacher like yelling at me. The nice lady with short black hair wasn't in the office, but two other ladies were, laughing rather loudly. I asked one of them if they spoke English and they said "a little bit". So I asked them where my tech class would be. The lady called the other one to come over, and she rather abruptly took me out of the office to follow her. She was rather rough, firmly grabbing on to my right wrist and walking fast. I was like, "Um yeah I'm not really going anywhere... you don't need to hold it that tight..." The tech room was just to the right. We asked these two women if I was in the right place and they said yeah. A bunch of other kids starting coming in then and I sat down.
There were some posters around, one of sailboats and stuff. The teacher seemed nice, with white-ish frizzy hair. She didn't know any English though. I sat down in the column closest to the door and in the 2nd row. No one sat next to me. Of course not- why would they? Heaven forbid anyone sit next to the weird, new American girl that was so hopeless. Sigh.
Technologie was quite an interesting class. At least that day was. A girl in the column next to me helped translate what the teacher was asking me, because there were some issues relating to if I was in the right class. Boy, do I get that a lot. The girl (Clare, I learned) told the teacher I didn't speak French and was new. We had to spend like 10 minutes figuring out if I was in the right class, which I hated. I didn't dare look at the other students, knowing they'd just give me intimidating, blank and/or non-helpful looks. I hated this. I was so non-inconspicuous. When the teacher asked my name, I told her and she had to write it up on the board. She left it there for the entire class.
The class itself wasn't that bad. I had to fill out more stuff about my name, date of birth, parent's jobs, etc. And the teacher just talked the whole hour. This one girl came in sort of late and could speak English so the teacher put her next to me. She was from New Guinea and was pretty nice I guess. She seemed somewhat hesitant to talk/sit next to me, and I didn't blame her. Well actually I do. Because I mean seriously, these people didn't even know me, how could they think I was weird already?? Not fair. I asked her some stuff, like what the heck the teacher was saying once in a while. I could catch a few words, but there was like no way I could make out what she told me. We had to introduce each other, which sucked. I just said her name dumbly and where she came from, not with anything like, "and this is... and she lives in..." but whatever. I didn't fail I guess. We highlighted the vacations, and there were a lot of 'em. Yay... and then at the end she showed us drawings former students did with the word "technologie" on them and some theme. At the end I asked if we had any homework, and she said yeah we had to make one of those drawings. Geez. I was so clueless. It was as if the classes were in, like, a different language! Oh wait.
After that was finally my last class. Spanish. But I had to learn it in French. How lovely. At first I thought the room was in the L-building, but then it was in A. Ugh. So I went to the ENP secretary person again and asked which class I should go to, since again there were two. UGH. She didn't know, and just told me to go to one. So I went to the A building and tried to find A-15 or A-22. The hallways were dark. And there was no one there. But there was only like 5 minutes till class. What was with that? I hoped to god I wasn't late. I hate being late. I found A-15 with a teacher writing in it. I went in and asked if she spoke English. She did not. So I showed her my schedule and tried to communicate to her like, "Am I in your class??" She told me I was I think, 'cause I was 4G, but then told me to like wait outside or something. I barely understood her French. But I got that I had to wait outside. So I did. Then around when the bell rung, she went out of the class room and locked the door. What the crap?! So I figured, oh uh I guess I don't go to that class then. So I went back downstairs to see if I was in A-22. I found A-21 with a line of kids near it. But I was A-22. So I decided to just go back up, since also there were kids going up. And then they lined up near A-22. Joey came towards me and said, "Hey you're in like half my classes!" I was like, "Oh yeah cool," he said, "it's crazy," with a smile and went to the back of the line.
I walked in with the rest of the class, finding a seat in the middle row towards the front. The teacher was sort of short, with, again, blondish hair. This was my last class! W00t! And what a.. fun... day it had been. No one sat next to me in this class. Well, until the teacher switched the seats around a little. I was again not on the list, and we again had to fill out a piece of paper with our name, date of birth, etc. The one nice girl, Clare, again translated to the teacher that I did not speak French. Sigh. The teacher pretty much just talked the whole hour, and we did write in our planner-things a little. The girl next to me sort of told me what the teacher was saying a little, saying I needed a notebook and folder for Spanish. Ok. She also was talking to this girl in front of her. The girl was wearing a shirt that said "I only date Brits". Um yeah sure. But what really like.. freaked me out was that the girl she was talking to was like fluent in French, but then she started talking English and she was like... perfect. No accent really. Woah.
At the end of the class we had to get our text books at the library. Still raining. The library was to the right up a path. As I walked up the path, I walked behind Clare and her friend. Then as I went in, Clare turned around and said, "Hey if you need any help with like the supplies or something, feel free to ask," I was so taken aback. This was like, an overdose of niceness. Way overdose. I just said, "Oh uh I think I know the technologie homework and stuff," She then said, as we climbed up the steps, "Ok but if you need anything don't hesitate to ask me," I said thanks a lot and she said no problem. Wow.
The librarian said some stuff in French that I sort of caught. Again, no one sat next to me (we sat at these tables with 3-4 chairs) until this other group of kids came in and this older guy sat down next to me. I had to get like 10 text books. At this time it had started really pouring. Then it thundered really loud and the girls screamed. I looked over at Joey and we started laughing. It was actually quite funny. Anyway. We all hurried to write our names and stuff in them and I didn't even really get the directions. Luckily Joey wrote down what I was supposed to do, so I'll have to do that later. Then we had to like rush outside, me carrying 5 textbooks in my right hand and opening an umbrella with my left hand. It was really pouring. These American kids walked past me, one of them asking if they could borrow my umbrella. I was just like, "No...." and kept walking. There were a lot of puddles. I wasn't even sure if I could go home. I saw Clare and people go to the A-building, but I didn't know if they were like going inside to get out of the rain. I really, really, really just wanted to frickin' get home to my frickin' home like right now, but I didn't want to get in trouble. When I am in problems like this, I talk out loud to myself. I say stuff like, "Ok well those people are going there, but like... I just want to go home. You know what? Just screw me missing a class. I don't give a crap. I want to GET. HOME." I talk in a sort of whisper, and no one was close enough to hear me.
I decided to just go home. And I had made the right choice, because I saw Joey outside waiting. I waved and muttered, "see ya," which he returned. Then I started one of the best, and maybe worst, walks I ever had.
No one was near me and it was raining. It was raining hard. My shoes were soaked, having breathing holes. My right arm really hurt from carrying the textbooks so I switched to my left. At the crosswalk near the school I started singing. The first song that came to mind was "Singing in the Rain". No one could hear me and I didn't even care. Then I sang Ruler Of Everything, parts of Rain by the Beatles, Spring and a Storm by Tally Hall and Bicycle Race. I was sort of happy. I was sort of soaked. I was sort of frizzled by my new school and lack of friends. I was sort of really really worried about tomorrow. I was sort of really dreading and hating this school. I was sort of really really missing my friends. I was sort of really really wanting to get home. I was sort of really really wanting to go to Slauson. I was sort of sad. I was sort of happy.
Weird stuff, eh?
When I got home I put down my backpack and drank hot chocolate, talking to my mom about school. Zach was reading Harry Potter. Then I blogged. No one's on chat or anything. They won't be on for about an hour.
In a way that school day sucked. But I had an excuse. I mean, it
was my first day ever in a foreign school. I hated it, but then looking back it's not too bad.
Time seriously goes by fast. And although my experience in technologie was rather embarassing, it passed. It's over now. And it might be in my memory, and the other kids' memories, but hey- like that one French dude said, "Life is good,"
