Doing all the subjects I wanted to!

My orientation today wasn't actually that bad, it was alright. Definitely not as awkward as I thought it'd be. There's 7 new girls next year in year 11! I'm not alone! And this other girl got a full scholarship too, so there's less pressure on me. I met my buddy but she had to go to the school mass because she was a singer in the choir. She's really nice, but I don't think we'll be that good friends because you can just tell she's one of those types of people that are so good at everything and a bit too nice. She's like some sort of captain next year, she's so outgoing and friendly (even to my mum) and she's super smart too, I can just tell. She's doing extension Maths and extension English next year and physics and chemistry too. But as I said, she's nice so homeroom with her won't be too bad. Anyways, because she had to go to the mass, this other girl from my future homeroom showed me around the school. She's super nice too, and really easy to talk to but unfortunately she's leaving next year to go to her sister's school or something. My homeroom next year will be tiny. There's around 10 people in it. The homeroom teacher I can tell is slightly strict but she tried to be nice. My house dean is so nice, nowhere near as annoying as um you know who. I'm still annoyed about the lockers, they're smaller and they are combination locks. I guess it solves the locker key problem. There's 7 lessons per day which is a lot. Except for Thursdays when school ends at 3. The school is HUGE. Everyone says it's like Hogwarts and apparently there's lots of doors that people don't open and there's random stairways too.

I went to one class with my year group, which was French. The teacher was alright but a bit strict. She gave the class a huge lecture and made them sit in silence for 20 minutes after they talked (not even that loudly) during this French youtube video she showed us. Jeez if she came to our school she would have a heart attack at the amount of noise we make. She reminds me a lot of the year 8 French teacher we had. You can tell that she's a good teacher though, and everyone does so much work. They're a bit more advanced in French than I am, but a girl offered her French books for me to keep so I can have a look at the stuff they've done. All I can say is that it is DEFINITELY not a bludgey school, everyone actually does work. Now I'm scared that I'm a bit behind in all my subjects. Oh and there's a resident school cat! It's like a Russian blue that likes staring at people from its spot outside the music building.

I'm in a kind of good mood because I got all my subject choices, every single one of them! So happy about that. I got asked at least 10 times today about the subjects I'm doing next year. I'm doing:

-English extension
-English Advanced
-Religion 1 unit
-French continuers
-Legal Studies
-Music 2 (everyone was like, 'really? Music 2 is so hard' I really don't get that, surely English Extension is harder? There's 3 people in my Music 2 class next year, but they're still running the class separately from Music 1 which is good)
-Modern History
-General Maths (I changed to general, I can't handle advanced. Unfortunately out of all the new girls I'm the only one doing general).
-And I have a free study period

So yeah, I'll be able to do all the subjects I wanted to do which is good. I got a free USB with the school crest on it but I'm still trying to work out how many GB it is. I got my booklist as well, and thankfully the books look slightly cheaper, but I still want to buy them online. I think my new school is less advanced at English. Maybe that teacher who said "You know we get better English results than them' wasn't joking after all, so hopefully English will be the one subject I'm not behind in. Hmmm I think I will be sticking with Extension English, because the texts seem much easier at my new school so I think English will be easier. For Advanced it's 'Othello' and 'The Kite Runner' (which is not a classic, so surely easier than 'Tess of the d'Ubervilles'?) and for Extension it's 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (Which is a classic but surely a classic is easier than Shakespeare's 'The Taming of the Shrew) and also the film 'Thelma and Louise' which ahem is only $18 so I might buy that from the school. And a 1991 film would probably be easier than 'My Fair Lady' from the 60's. So looks like I might continue with Extension English after all. 4 days to go!

Pearl waterfall, Nine Villages Valley, Sichuan (China)