Day 21

Under the Andes: Back to School Edition

I started school today. A lot happened. Let me tell you about it. I woke up this morning at 5 to 7 (ugh...), brushed my teeth etc. and put on my uniform. We left the house at 7:30 and arrived at school at 7:40. At 7:50, after Maggie and I stood around looking out of place while everyone else greeted each other for ten minutes, the beginning-of-the-year school assembly began. Maggie and I stood idly by a column while everyone else lined up. Maggie eventually asked a girl who looked her age if that was the eighth grade line. It was. So I was by myself until a woman came up to me and asked me what grade I was in and placed me in a line. The assembly lasted 10 minutes and consisted of several speeches I understood none of, flag raising, turning one direction to another, and a prayer in which I made a lame attempt to bless myself. The words they said were all Gibberish to me. What's more, I realized I was the only person I could see with a backpack on. Everyone else didn't have one. At the end of the assembly, the line of boys I was standing behind introduced themselves to me, but I don't remember any of their names. They asked me the usual questions: Where are you from? Do you play any sports? How long will you be here for? I answered. The United States. No. Three months. I followed them to the classroom (one of the few things I did know was that I would have the entire day with the same people), where, it turns out, everyone else had already put their things. I took one of the few empty seats in the front corner by the door. The class walls were almost bare, unlike US classroom walls, which are filled with motivational posters and projects done by classes and just random collections of things. There were only three things hanging from the walls of the room: a poster on the back wall which I never turned around and read, a hand-drawn poster on the left wall which said something along the lines of "Eleventh grade: community work is no work at all if we do it together". And there was a crucifix. Front and center above the blackboard. There are 35 students in my section, and over the course of the day, I'm sure I was introduced to more than half of them, but I don't remember a single name. First and second period I had math. When the teacher wrote her name on the board, I couldn't really read her last name; it looked somewhere in between a Z and a G and a 6 (this last one is not very likely, but, hey, I don't really know, maybe Argentines have names that start with 6s). She told us that her class meets Mondays and Tuesdays first and second period. She also told us we would need a folder, a scientific calculator, and a textbook (which is bought at a store here, like other school supplies). She reviewed from last year algebraic expressions, real and counting numbers, and functions. So, much easier stuff than at home. At one point during the hour a teacher or administrator person came in and took attendance (I forgot to mention that everyone in the class stands up when an adult enters the room until she says we can sit down, as if we were in the military). This was when most of the class realized there was a new kid. I never heard a bell between first and second period. Maybe there isn't one. Anyway. She also told us our schedule (which as I said, we all do together). Here it is:

Monday:

1,2: Math

3,4: Language

5,6,7: Philosophy

Tuesday:

0 (at 7:15 a.m.!): Language

1,2: Math

3,4: History

5,6: Culture and Communication

No seventh period

Wednesday:

1,2: Economics

3: English (Yes! I know this subject!)

4,5: Religion

6,7: Technology and Communication

Thursday:

1,2: English

3,4: History

5,6: Economics

7: Philosophy

Friday:

1,2: Technology and Communication

3,4: Statistics

5,6: Culture and Communication

7: Language

This was dictated, so I'm not sure I heard it all right (especially the two different classes on Communication? I'm pretty sure that's not right), but for Monday at least, that's what my schedule is. Anyway. Second period ended and students got up and walked out the classroom leaving their things, so I followed suit. I followed them into the courtyard where the assembly had taken place. A group of girls came up to me and asked me questions about where I was from, etc. Then they took me to the snack bar, but I had forgotten my money, so I didn't buy anything. I stood next to the door with the other girls who didn't buy anything. After that, I was introduced to more people whose names I don't remember and answered the same questions they asked me before. That was my 15-minute break. My next two periods were language (Spanish, unfortunately. I would have much preferred English). This was in the same room as math, but with a different teacher. She didn't write as much on the board, so I didn't understand as much. But she did write a whole array of literary terms. She told us what we would need for her class, but I didn't understand. There was a lot I didn't understand. I did understand the homework. A reflection on a poem she dictated (and I copied from the girl behind me. Thank you!) of at least five lines and a newspaper clipping about the earthquake. I wrote the reflection in a mixture of English and Spanish and then translated the English into Spanish so it was all in Spanish. But we don't get the newspaper. And none of us know how to. So that was a problem. I couldn't do my homework. Well, the bell eventually dinged and we all left the classroom. This time a different group of girls met up with me and I tagged along with them, doing basically the same routine as last time. My third class for the last three periods was philosophy. The activity we did the first day was a reading activity done in groups. When she said this, one of the girls called out my name to say we should be in the same group. The teacher glared at me. I wasn't in her group, though. Somehow it was decided that I would be in the group of boys next to them. I was fine that. I didn't know anyone, anyway. So one of my group members read aloud what the teacher had given us. I didn't understand a word. If I had read it I would have been much better. But I didn't say that, of course. I felt bad, because I just sat there while my group members answered all the questions. I don't think there was any homework or any school supplies other than a folder. I guess I'll find out on Thursday. After school ended at 12:20 (early the first day), some of the boys in my class invited me to go do something (I'm not sure what). I'd already told them where I lived and it turned out some of them live near us. They invited me to do something that involved a type of car, and they said they would come by my house at 6:30. I said I would like to go. But they didn't think I understood, so they brought over someone to translate. She told me the same thing (except she said 6) and I accepted again in English. They all said goodbye to me and I did back. My translator walked with me to the door to the school and explained that she had been exchange student in London. I met Maggie walking to the door. Mom and Dad were waiting outside. We walked to the car. I didn't ever want to come back. The students were very friendly and interested in me. The teachers, though, seemed somewhere between indifferent and disliking me. I missed so much of what happened that first day. I know I missed what supplies I had to bring and homework I had to do. I don't even remember what I did that afternoon, I was too nervous. I was nervous about schoolwork and the prospect of going I-don't-know-where for I-don't-know-how-long with people who I'd only met today and whose names I still don't know. Well, they didn't show. Six o'clock. No one came. Six thirty. No one came. Seven o'clock. Still no one. I was a little relieved, actually. I don't really know them. Maybe later we can, but I was in a daze all day from not knowing what was going on. I'm exhausted and starving. And at this point in my post, I'm not even going in chronological order. Well, anyway, Dad left to pick up Maggie (I'm not sure from where, actually) at six. He was going to come back and drop her off, and then we were going to go get school supplies. I had my list all ready (what little of it I had anyway). But he didn't come back. Not at seven. Not at eight. I was beginning to think that our house was in some parallel dimension or something and no one could enter. We called, but Dad didn't answer. Eventually, a little after nine, two-and-a-half hours after he was supposed to come back and after all the stores had closed, they got home. It turns out they were shopping for school supplies. Maggie's only, not mine. Because Dad didn't take my list with him when he left, so I have to go to school tomorrow without the things my teachers asked me to bring. I stayed up way too late blogging and reading. Today was not a good day. And tomorrow, I am going to be even more tired and hungry than today. I don't want to go back to school. Ever.

Sigh. And now I know what it's like to be the new kid.