So last week 2 girls in my school got back from America. They did some kind of exchange program that lasted 5 weeks. They are both in a few of my classes. It's really funny because I hear them talking to other kids about what America is like. Most of the things they say, I just think, hmm I didn't know that was special. Like dollar stores and drive throughs at starbucks. Other things I laugh at and think, yep that's America for ya. Like our super ginormous serving sizes. And a few things I wish I could argue about.
I also brought my yearbook from last year to school and gave it to my kiwi friend. She kept it for a few days. During the week, people came up to me and said they saw my yearbook and asked me about it. Everybody expected the cheerleading team to be like the movies, but it's quite the opposite. They went crazy about our football field saying it's a giant stadium and they were very amused at the fact that people dress up and actually go to all the football games. Overall, everybody was way impressed and thought my school looks way cooler than Hutt High. Which is true. There's no school spirit here, competition between schools is not as epic as it is back home. Students don't attend any sporting events and no one really cares how the school teams are doing. I saw the Hutt High yearbook from last year also. It was very boring. It was black and white except for a few really random colored pages and there were'nt any individual pictures. It was everybody in their form classes. And of course I couldn't even make out who was who because the pictures were so small and blurry. Even though Hutt High is probably one of the best schools in the Wellington area, it feels like they have nothing compared to my school back home. They use chalkboards here and overhead projectors are thier "modern" technology. Very few classes have them. Also, we have to pay for all our school books and uniform and everything is ridiculously expensive.
Every couple weeks or so we have assemblies. Our year goes into the assembly hall and we all sit with our form class. Then the deans walk in and we all stand silently. If you talk, you get a detention. Then when all the deans are on the stage, we sit and they just stand there and stare at us, straight-faced. It's a very formal process, I see why there is no school spirit. Then they introduce the principal and we stand again and clap. The principal goes up on stage and starts lecturing us from a written speech. It's never very motivating. One time, it was a cold, rainy day and I was wearing a black zip-up (same color as the school one) and the dean took it from me. I went to get it after school and she said next time she'll keep it the whole term.
But anyways, school is alright. Math is hard now. We're doing calculus and of course, I've never done anything like it but my classmates have for a few years now. I also wrote a big history internal last week. Which went well I think, even though the teacher even said it doesn't matter for us international students.
Today I stayed home from school, sick. It was a very productive day. I watched the Little Mermaid I and II (although I would not recommend the 2nd one, it was quite a disappointment), did some laundry, and attempted my math homework. I think I'm going to go back tomorrow, even though I can barely talk.