i want a mix tape
Everyone got to go home at 12:30. Everyone got to go home at 12:30, and I got to stay after school for a ridiculously long orientation type thing for the freshmen and new students such as moi about the clubs and service oppertunities, and the athletics. Now, who needs to know about the athletics oppertunities less then I do? But the upside of this silly function was that classes were over at 12:30, meaning that each class was a total of about 20 minutes, most of which were spent sitting ourselves in alphabetical order and writing our parents' names on index cards. So the learning day went by really quickly, especially considering there was no learning involved. Not bad for a first day.
Homeroom (to be had twice a month): I am late for my first class of the new year. Well, who wasn't expecting that? I salute the flag for the first time since the first grade. Class=very pointless. Girls in class=very blonde; all wearing the same little tank top and little skirt and sequined shoulder bag. This worries me, but thankfully, it doesn't last outside of homeroom.
Phys Ed: about ten different first period phys. ed classes congregate in the upper gym in a large, talking mass. One of ten gym teachers announces that for Friday and Monday girls and boys will be seperating in order to assign lockers. By Tuesday, we should be coming prepared in our athletic clothing. Girl next to me explains that this mean something baggy. Well, she used another word, but we need not repeat it here. We have the next fifteen minutes of the period to chill among ourselves.
Physics: There are about ten people in this class, and the other four girls besides me are seniors. This is the class I suspect I will have most trouble with, especially since all the tests will be made up completely of problems to solve by manipulating equations and so on. No multiple choices for me. No choices at all. The teacher admits that he is just killing time by talking, and reminds me a little of Elisheva's father. Then the PA system announces: "Can Jenny Swesher please come to the Attendence office?" They are talking about me. Girl informs me that people are usually called to the attendence office if they are troublemakers. I am off to a good start. I go, but they just give me my locker lock (my second one in a day). Stupid locker still won't open.
AP Phychology: Hot. As in, heat. As in, why did I wear a sweater today? As in, the walk to the fourth floor will physically kill me this year, and I make it twice a day. Class seems promising, teacher a bit intimidating. In-class essay-test on summer reading Tuesday. Still very hot.
English: Teacher awesome. Typical english teacher (like in the movies); geeky clothing, geeky hair, good sense of humor, not afraid to curse for the sake of literature. Like Mrs. Shachnovitz, can't remember anything, so has us write name tags. I think a bad memory is like, a requirement for english teachers. We'll be spending the year immersing ourselves in British history, British culture and British literature. The British like it depressing. I like the British. I am excited. Test Monday. Masks due Friday. (???)
Theatre Arts: Big class, half of whom I suspect don't want to be there. Teacher very funny. Not as in, haha funny, but weird funny...very weird. We spend the twenty minutes hanging posters around the room and taking inventory of books for his other classes on his command. Room looks very spiffy afterwards.
U.S. History 2: We will be meeting vets from every imaginable war, so long as they are still alive, and engaging in thoughtful debate over how soon the Chinese will be taking over the world in numbers, and how shall we prepare for this? Participation is a must. I want to switch to AP U.S. History with a passion that burns. (And pays off, as it turns out)...
Algebra 2 & Trig: Finally, I see a familiar face! It is the Russian sister of the Russian girl I know, so I point and yell at her: "I know you!" Our seats are next to eachother, so we talk and compare schedules. Teacher very young and blonde. I don't like her. (I don't have anything against blonde people, really I don't)
Spanish 3: I am surrounded by freshmen. Seriously, every last one of them is a freshman. And not only am I the only junior, but I am the only one who is not a freshman. All freshmen. Are you getting what I am saying?? they are all freshmen. The teacher is not a freshman. She is very strange, and talks with a funny accent (not Spanish), and seems jittery, or maybe even blind. It's probably just nerves, but she did not make a good impression on the freshmen. The freshmen really hated her.
So then all the normal people went home, and instead of eating lunch with the freshmen, I waited in the guidance office for an hour to ask to be switched to AP history. I did not see the guidance counselor because of the fifty other people waiting in line to switch their classes. So after I listened to all the different ways I could excel in the multitude of athletic oppertunities, I went back to the guidance office and....squee of joy!....I got AP U.S. History!!!!! I don't even know why that was so important to me, but it was, so I'm really happy it worked out. My guidance counselor said I was lucky because usually it doesn't work out, and that they don't usually allow this, but since I'm new I got all these lucky breaks.
And those are a few of my first impressions in a nutshell. There's lots of things I left out, but everything's still subject to change. We'll see. Oh, and there's a male equivalent of Chana in two of my classes! He's insufferable, and his name is Jed.