Cursive Isn't Dead... It's Just in Belgium!

Friday, September 9th, 2011

So, second day of school, second super long post for whomever is taking the time out of their day to read my blog... :) Luckily, my second day of school was much better than my first. I didn't have as weird of a schedule, and I kinda got the hang of things, even though French is as hard as ever. I seriously cannot wait to start French classes (I know, I never thought that I would want any extra schooling either...) and improve my French more. Where I'm at right now, with a few hands movements and if people speak slowly enough, I'm good. But if they use too many weird words or speak like they noramally do, I'm lost... Anyhow, back to the class by class recap. And don't worry, I'm not going to do this forever, just maybe for like the first week when everything is still so new!

1st Class: My first class of the day was history. I was actually glad to have this class, because other than gym and my mistake of going to chemistry class, it was the only other time that I was going to have a class with kids in my actual grade! I sat at a desk by myelf, figuring that was the smartest idea, and this really nice girl named Margoux ended up sitting next to me (sure, it was one of the only empty spots in the room, but STILL, there were a few more left..) I talked to her in my broken French and English before class really started, and she explained to me that she was in the same class (6C), and in the same track (art, for those of you that are forgetful...), so bascially we would be having almost every class together. She also took a look at my crazy schedule, and come to find out that the study period that was written on my schedule was actually when every other 6th year was in art, so I was happy to give up lunch with the little kids and just kinda put it on my schedule, because no one really cares and it was easier than trying to explain it to my non-English speaking counselor.  She also told me that everyone else has English for the next period, and I had orginally been put down for study and I don't have anything to study, so I decided to change that study period too. Other than the helpful hopeful friend, I actually was kinda excited by history class. I understood enough, and where we are starting in history is basically where Mrs. Ellis Sumner stopped going into super detail, so history here is just like a continuation of classes I took back home, but in a European's perspective!

2nd Class: So unless you have a horrible memory, you know that for this class I had English. Now, I think there was a bit of a mix up as far as scheduling goes, because there was two classrooms worth of students and 2 teachers, but only one classroom to go in. I didn't really understand exactly what was going on, but i just stayed with Margoux and a group of her friends that  iwas kind of talking to and they stayed outside of the class. But then, the teahcer came out and starting one by one pulling in more students into the classroom, and then she said she would take one more and Margoux went in... I was semi panicking because I didn't want to lose one of the first people that had really talked to me for more than a few seconds. Also, the whole time that she was pulling extra kids in almost all of the guys in the classroom were yelling my name and telling me to come into their class... Even though the teachers were trying to split the two classes evenly and Margoux had been the cut off, I asked the teacher if I could just go in to stay with the people I semi-knew, and she didn't mind. And obviously, even though I didn't really know any of the guys other than the one that had helped me out in Chemistry the previous day, the word was getting around that I who I was and that I was an American because suddenly everybody wanted to be my best friend... And in the hallways, random people were saying hi to me. Through this, I also learned that my school must not be a very big school for all of the older kids to have heard about me, as well as knowing that in our school there were two Australians and one other American. In Anglais, I was once again used as some what of a teacher, and since they were studying 9/11, the teacher asked me about my memories of the day. Now, when that happened I was pretty darn little, and I hardly even remember it at all. But I didn't want to seem like the horrible American who doesn't even care about her own country, so I kinda used my small memory of that day and stories of other people's memories to make up exactly what it was that happened that day for me...

3rd Class: For this class, I had French with the 2nd Year students. So basically, I was a 16 year old learning French with 11 year olds. Makes me feel so smart... And I was also sad, because everyone else in my class stayed in English for a double period, and I had to leave to go to French. But the class didn't end up being half bad. It was with the same really nice teacher as yesterday, and the little kids were really cute. When the teacher explained to them in French who I was, they all got really excited. I knew they were all talking about me at the beginning too, but they were all talking too fast and at the same time, but then when one boy blurted out in English, "She's beautiful!", I really wished that I could unerstand what exactly it was that they were saying. For this period, the teacher said that I could just listen because they were finishing up a lesson that they had started the previous day. And, well, to be honest I didn't exactly pay attention the ENTIRE time, because the brain can only handle so many half translations of things...

4th Class: For this class, I had math. And this time I actually went... I met up again with the girl that I had met earlier, so that was nice to know someone in the class. And havimg math was actually extremely nice! The French and English terms are almost exactly the same for everything, and you can't really change a math fromula into another language. So I understood everything!!!! :) Especially since we were learning very basic math... How to solve y=mx+b with coordinates. Even though I did that in like 6th grade, I really didn't mind because it made sense! Yay for math, the universal language.

5th/6th Class: Once again, I had a double period for lunch. I could seriously get used to having two hour lunches... Luckily, both Margoux, this one girl who's name I cannot remember, and this guy Ali (short for an even weirder name that I would never remember...) all had their 5th class as a study period too. So at least this time, I wasn't sitting by myself looking like a loser... Since we had two hours for lunch, we decided that we would go off campus and just chill outside on a suprisingly decent day for Belgium. It's so cool how schools here are just so chill... I mean, kids can just go off campus whenever they want, they can do almost anything they want when they don't have class, and, well, at least in my cause you can semi change your own schedule around and the teachers don't even care! It's great. Also, I was very happy because for lunch I was able to go to a friterie instead of buy a sandwich in the 15 minute break between second and third class like I had yesterday. The sandwich WAS delicious, but I just have a feeling that I will soon grow bored of havign a sandwich everyday and I am not quite prepared to brave hot lunches and learn how to buy them... Also during lunch, I was introduced to some more people. I'm pretty excited, because I feel like I am actually making friends!

7th/8th/9th Class: Yep, that's right. I had a triple period, back-to-back-to-back class of art. And boy, was I glad to have art. Even though I don't really know any words in French regarding artistic things yet other than draw, it's pretty hard to mess up a sketch or a drawing. However, I was a bit disappointed when I learned that we were going to be drawing boats, at least for today. I mean, I really didn't want to draw boats at all. Luckily, we had a full three hours to do a couple of quick sketches which I expect to be later be turned into the whole you choose your favorite and draw kind of thing. And maybe we were supposed to do a little bit more work than we actually did, but no one else really wanted to draw a stupid boat, and besides, we were havign way too much fun talking! There was a group of about 6 of us all "working" (at least when the teachers walked by...) together. They were all talking to me, asking me about my life back home, asking me about why I came here and where I lived and what I had done so far, etc. It was so much fun, talking partially in French (the spoke to me in French, if I didn;t understand then they spoke English, and I spoke French for the words I knew...), and connecting with some people other than Rotary kids. Now, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love to death all of my rotary friends, but it was really nice to make some friends all my own at school too. They even invited me to hang out with them for what is now this Friday after our art class goes on a field trip all day to some museum (Yay, no school pour moi en vendredi!) I am sooo glad that I took art as my option :))))

Oh, and to make sense of the blog title, everybody here either writes in cursive or some sort of half cursive. Along with everything being in French, it is sometimes hard to read becuase people get lazy or a cursive letter here is just a bit off,  but I'm working through it. And I am also enjoying brushing up on my own cursive! Because, seriously, other than 1st and 2nd when I had cursive Wednedays (je pense...) I haven't ever used cursive. And since I feel like it is a dying art/from of writing, it's nice to practice it! And now, pour moi, SLEEP! Bon nuit!