The First Days of School

                On Sunday night, as I was getting ready for bed, I started thinking about school the next day. I had no idea what to expect. I realized that I was going to be expected to wake myself up, get everything I needed ready, and walk to school all by myself. I wasn’t really scared, more excited, but still the thought of walking the street of a city that I had only been in for 3 days made me a little nervous. Not to mention the fact that if I did get lost, I’d have to get directions in Spanish. I wanted to leave earlier than I needed to just to be sure that I got there on time, and so I set out my outfit, packed my backpack, and got ready for school. I went to sleep and the next morning I woke up at 7, had breakfast, got ready, and left for school. I was pretty confident about where I was going for the first couple blocks, but then I started to second guess myself. I was seeing things that I hadn’t seen before and that made me think that I wasn’t going the right direction. The street that I walk on splits at one point and I was sure I had gone the wrong way. I turned around and went back to the split only to realize that I had been going the right way and turn back around. I finally got to school at about 8:35. When I walked with my host mother, Rut, we got there in 20 minutes. I went inside, up the stairs to the second floor and looked around at my new school. It is tiny. It takes up about half of the second floor of an average sized building. There is one “big room”, that doesn’t really seem so big when all 71 of us are in it, 4 slightly smaller than average classrooms, 3 offices that are the same size as the classrooms, and one double-classroom. We each have our own “taquilla” (locker, more like a cubby). That first morning, we had an assembly and heard about the different classes that are being offered. Then we made our final course selection. That afternoon we took 2 placement tests, one math, and one Spanish with written and oral parts.

This morning at school we went over lots of rules and expectations and fears and lots of other things that were on our minds, and this afternoon we had went on a scavenger hunt. It was lots of fun!

Let me tell you about a normal school day. In the morning, we will have two classes. Then what we call “descanso”. It’s from 10:45 to 11:20 and it’s a break where we can go to nearby cafés and get a coffee or a coke or something small to eat, or just take a break. Then we have 2 more classes. After those two classes, at 2, we have lunch. We walk three or so blocks to the local Monastery School and eat in their cafeteria. We all have a dinning card. At 3:30 the school re-opens and we have two more classes. Except on Fridays when we are done before lunch.

I meant to post this on Tuesday night but, I never got around to it. But here it is. Stay tuned for more about classes and my first free weekend!