l'école

My head might explode, (the only thing left would be: exploser, v. To explode) but otherwise the first real day of school went well. Most of the friends I made Friday are in my class, amazingly.  However, the administration has changed its mind and is going to reorganize the 54 5th level Education students into two classes instead of three tomorrow. I hope it doesn’t change too much.

Today we had 6 classes, psychology first. I think it will be an interesting class if I can get past the big new words.  I am super duper glad that I did a teensy bit of a human development course before I left, so stages and some terms were more familiar(Thank you, Mom!). The course is also going to include Piaget and general human development. The teacher seems very helpful and asked several times if I had questions or needed something explained. English class was baby easy, as Mr. Bowker would put it. The teacher told me that he would like me to give a presentation in English for the class---so much for my laboriously-created powerpoint in French! The hardest part of math class was the French. In general, the level of academics seems easy, but once again, the language issue will be a challenge.

Thanks to a lot of help from some new friends, I was able to obtain lunch and find the bathroom without too much damage. Here you can buy a ticket during the break at 10 pm and order what you want for lunch so that it will be cheaper. I think you can also leave the school and go to one of the little restaurants thereabouts. I think I’ll start with figuring out the ticket business.

The school in general is very different. Only 500 students, so first impressions count. The brick building is rather patched and well-loved, and the hallways are a lot narrower. Like most buildings and homes I’ve seen here, tile floors and walls reign supreme. Promethean or white boards don’t exist, and I didn’t see a computer all day. There are a few lockers, but most people don’t have one, so bags get carried around all day.

The students and their habits are also different. In general, everyone dresses better. The high heels resound through the halls, and there are no sweatshirts to be seen. Emo or street styles are nonexistant. In class, everyone writes in pen all the time. My papers are a mess, with scribbles everywhere, but they write like typewriters. A lot of students write on graph paper rather than lined paper. Despite all these differences, similarities persist: kids talk in class and teachers threaten to move them to the front, the teacher drops the chalk and everyone stares at the chalk as the oblivious teacher somehow manages to miss stepping on it as she paces the room, and you raise your hand for rolecall. Such is life.