Today was not only my first day of school, but also my first weekly Rotary meeting. Both went absolutely wonderfully, and I look forward to attending both of them for the next ten months!
I took the city bus to class in the morning- it was incredibly easey since there was a mass of other students all heading in the same direction. As we waited outside the gate I was able to strike up conversation with a few other students, a littly bit haltingly, but altogether friendly. My Rotary counselor is also the prof du sport, or PE teacher, at my lycee (high school) and he met me outside in order to help me become a little more aquainted with the school. He introduced me to my professeur principale, who is similare to a homeroom teacher and is also my English teacher, and to two girls in my class. They were kind enough to take me under their wing for the day, which, pleasently enough, ended by noon,
The intervening time was spent with my classe (who I will have most of my classes with for the rest of the year) in our professeur principale's room. She told us our electives and then wrote the schedule on the board for us to copy down. To be honest, it was a lot to take in (everything from the lined paper to the handwriting is just a little bit unfamiliar), and it didn't help that the teacher was so pleased to have a native speaker in her English class that she singled me out rather frequently, invariably drawing the classe's attention to me whenever I was attempting to decipher some cryptic new piece of information. However, I was bolstered by the help of my classmates sitting next to me, and I look forward to getting to know even more of my new classmates tomorrow.
I am in the equivalent of junior year here, and though I'm a good two years older than my classmates I don't think it should make too much of a difference, since I'm playing catch-up on a lot of skills they take for granted (like being about to talk). I'm in the literature (L) track, as opposed to the Science, Math, or Economic/Social Studies tracks. What that means is that since I didn't choose math as an elective (because I didn't choose any of my electives) I actually don't have a math class this year. I'm sure I'll enjoy that for now, but we'll see how college level math goes next year once I'm out of practice! On the other hand, I do have a science class, once a week, and French, Spanish, History/Geography, and Government/Social Studies. I also am in no less than three English classes. I'm not entirely sure how that happened, but I think that in addition to the mandatory English class and the mandatory Foreign Literature: English class I was given supplementary English instead of another elective. At least those are three classes I won't have to worry too much about!
As for a description of the school itself, it is actually built in two distinct parts, seperated by a city street. The most visible part is the old building which house the girl's school about a century and a half ago. While the interior is renovated, the exterior makes quite an imposing impression on a girl used to schools built well into the 20th century. Just across the street are a colection of modern buildings which contain classrooms, the gymnasium, the caffeteria, etc. There is quite a bit of open courtyard space in between the buildings, which is pleasent as can be right now, but I'm hoping won't be regreted too much by winter.
On the whole, I'm really pleased by the school, and I think that I can look forward to the coming challenge!
As for my first Rotary meeting, I really enjoy being with such genial host Rotarians. Of course, there was pleanty of business at the meeting which had little to do with me, but it was offset completely by the different Rotary members who spent the evening good naturedly teasing me in between the club affairs.
It's late enough to sign off, but thankfully I don't have to be in class tomorrow until 11:00- and Wednesday afternoons are entirely free. Though that good new may be offset slightly by the time Saturday morning rolls around... and I have a class at 10:00!
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