2 Cool 4 Colegio

I thought I'd give you a little more detail on my school and daily school routine, so Tuesday I took my camera to school to do a little bit of documenting. To give some more information: my school goes from 7-1 except some days it's a bit different for random reasons. I am in twelve classes: P.E., English, Chemistry, Physics, Religion, Math, Biology, Writing, Business, Civics, Literature and Research. If that sounds like a lot, I can confirm that it feels like a lot. Our class of 32 people stays in the same room and the teachers come to us.

My alarm goes off at 5:55. I stay in bed until 6:10. I need to mentally psych myself up for the moment I exit the covers. I put on my uniform and pull my socks all the way up, fix my hair and put on a little makeup. I grab my bag, which I packed last night for the classes I'll have today (Math, English, Bio, and Writing). Breakfast is tea, bread, and a boiled egg. At 6:50 my host dad drops me and my host mom off.

I go to the school yard and mingle with some other students until the 7am formation. Formation is when every class lines up according to gender and height. Theres a prayer and a short speech. Usually the inspector, who is in charge of discipline, tells us about 40 times the proper way to line up and that we need to stop talking and get our hands out of our pockets. Then we are dismissed, class by class, to go upstairs to our respective rooms.

Our first class is math. This teacher is one hell of a mumbler and he doesn't write anything on the board, so I never know what's going on. But today there's a weird vibe in the air. Apparently my classmates have an issue with his teaching style and that message made its way to him. He's giving us a lecture. It's awkward. Yesterday one of my friends had asked me what awkward means so I think I'll take this opportunity to explain. Our note-passing conversation is as follows:

Me: Remember yesterday how you asked me what "awkward" means? This conversation and the way the room feels is "awkward."

Her: What the teacher is saying or because we're passing notes?

Me: Neither...just the general feeling.

Her: Oh, because we're passing notes?

I don't respond. Supposedly there isn't a perfect Spanish translation for awkward and she doesn't really need to know anyway.

Also in math we are handed back this quiz:

Como se dice valedictorian.

Next class is English. I am so good at English. I actually don't have to do any work. I sit there and draw and listen to music and try to work my way through National Geographic in Spanish. Today the other students have an assignment where they're give summaries of 4 books: To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Frankenstein and The Hobbit. They then have to write a short statement on how they think the story ends. Apparently my class likes to get creative because everyone keeps coming to me on how to translate their story about how Tom Robinson marries a movie star and makes the best chocolates in all of Paris.

After English is Biology. The teacher announces that we'll be watching a video and I get pretty excited until said video starts. You know in movies when they watch a video in class how it's just some footage of amoebas and someone talking really slowly? This is that video. I want to film it but can' figure out how to do so discreetly.

In the middle of Bio comes recess. During this time we can go to the school bar and buy food. There are two sides: one sells packaged snacks, and the other sells cooked food. The cooked food is actually really, really good. I'm sure since hundreds of kids now want food at the same moment, there's an orderly system of purchasing, like maybe a line...

Or not.

Recess is 30 minutes. We usually mill around and talk. Everyone shares all food, including ice cream cones and lollipops. Today, because I have my camera, we take some pictures. Naturally my friends start going up to guys I don't know and telling them that I want a picture.

 

Some of my friends and I.

At the end of recess we get to do the whole formation business all over again. After we finish the video during our second half of Bio, we get to have the rest of the class free. Ecuadorians seem to love pictures, so they get my camera out again. Everyone seems to have a preplanned pose/face that they do. On the other hand there's me, who often tries to look bad in pictures because that's sure better than looking bad when you're trying to look good.

Our writing class is called Messages. Today a group of students is presenting about the meaning of the word message. The teacher is mad because she's pretty sure everything in their powerpoint was copied and pasted. They show us a short video that I honestly can't remember much about besides the fact that it didn't connect that well to the definition of message.

School lets out at one and we hang around outside for a bit, talking and buying more food. Then a couple of friends and I set out for home. When I arrive at the house, lunch will be waiting. There are two things for certain: there will be soup, and there will be rice.