First Day of School

First day of school was a success. When I walked into the house yesterday, A was laying on the couch looking very exhausted. With a lot of physical exercise and probably a lot of brain processing after a very relaxing summer, she went to bed last night without being asked which NEVER happens.

A is one of those kids that doesn’t immediately tell you everything you want to know about her day. You’ve got to wait for bits and pieces over a five hour time span and you need to know the right questions to ask. The first thing I asked her was were the girls nicer than she expected or meaner than she expected. She was very nervous about this so she had a very relieved look on her face and said, “Waaay nicer than I expected”. She said at one point in the classroom she was sitting at her desk and there was a wall of girls surrounding her. When she was being introduced to another girl, she asked A, “Are you from America?” When A responded yes, the girl said, “I love you!” They couldn’t believe she walked to school. So see, teenagers are universally lazy!

Some differences:

She doesn’t have the same schedule each day. For example, she had French on Thursday but she won’t have it again until next Tuesday. The different rotation of classes will keep her on her toes and she has a planner to help her.

She has to take two languages. She chose French and Latin. She has already had one year of French but quickly realized she was behind the other girls since they have all had two years and her St. Louis French teacher moved at a snail’s pace. She wanted to take Spanish but she would have been two years behind so we talked her into Latin, which was starting fresh.

They got a kick out of A’s “here” response when attendance was being taken. They just say “yes”.

When she walked in she was directed to go to the hall to get her picture taken. After standing puzzled in what we call the hall, she was directed to what we would call the auditorium.

I told her she needs to just relax and enjoy the differences. It’s going to be an interesting year.