First day of school! First day of school! No, really.... welcome to public school. For the rest of you, the last time you were excited for the first day of school was probably before you turned eight. For me, this was a really big deal. I've been in school for about a month now (procrastination at its finest here) so it's interesting to reflect on my emotions then and now.
They stood me in front of a room of strangers and basically introduced me as that American girl who will be stumbling along in your classroom for this coming year. In Italian schools, your class is your class. These are the students that you stay with for the five years of school without changing rooms or classmates for different courses - the teachers rotate while the students are always together. This creates a really strong bond between the kids that makes it awkward to be "the new one." They were oh so very welcoming but it's strange to develop friendships while everyone else has been growing up together for a while.
School is like listening to static on the radio - it's incomprehensible white noise to me. Luckily, the girl next to me has been nice enough to let me copy literally everything she does. Welcome to the land of complete dependence! My most challenging class is Spanish - apparently it's impossible to learn anything while thinking in English, listening in Italian and writing in Spanish. Whatever, my teachers are all great and very understanding of how challenging this can be for me. I didn't even need WebMD to tell me what my latest problem is - senioritis version 2.0. It was hard enough not to procrastinate in those last months of Miranda Academy but now, in my great new city with so much to do, when these academics are actually irrelevant for my future, it's such a challenge to focus every day. Additionally, it's extremely frustrating to go from an intelligent contributor to the silent student... I am quieter than ever!
Reasons I'm a Princess due to Miranda Academy: I hate walking to the bus stop (note: I take the city bus, not the school bus. Those don't exist here) because it's getting cold. I hate getting dressed EVERY DAY...who decided that sweatpants aren't part of dress code? I hate that if I want a snack during school, I have to pay for it. I hate that I can't say, "Hey Kar, give me twenty more minutes and I swear I'll get out of bed."
Reasons I'm Loving Public School: I'm the star student in English class... I'm getting my first perfect score! I'm learning how to text/eat/doodle without being noticed. I know how late I can be without actually being "late" to class. I know the differences between the cool teachers and the ones nobody likes. I met someone new every day. I don't know about the school drama in the last years so I can be friends with everyone.
One thing that I was not prepared for were the "manifestations." The students are actually really passionate and informed about their politics and often protest in the school. My friend has explained to me that this is because the government gives lots of money to the military but not enough to education... this infuriates the students and they "occupy" the school to express it. For example - when a teacher is absent, there is no substitute and we can't afford to have toilet paper in all the bathrooms (yep, that's real life).
Remembering how I felt those first days compared to now is odd. I feel more apart of the class - I'm sitting on their laps, eating their food, holding their lighters, etc. like everyone else. They have welcomed me with open arms. It's getting easier to make new friends because now I can speak with the people who cannot understand English. I can do things on my own and make my classmates laugh. These are friends. It's strange, though, to say that because there is still so much we don't know about each other... for example, I just explained today that I was homeschooled in America. I can't really take my life seriously because I feel like I'm living "Mean Girls" as the new, ex-homeschooler from a different country who is clearly different from everyone else but adapting well. No worries - I don't plan on throwing any classmates in front of a bus.
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