FIRST DAY

I have to be in bed by 9:30 so I can get up for school tomorrow at 6:30, but as usual I'm doing stuff I'm not supposed to do. So I remember saying 3 months ago or something that my first day at my new school would be posted on this blog, and I can't believe I'm still writing it.

So. I got asked by people in my class (and texted by you guys) a lot today. Everyone was like, 'how'd you find your first day'? Well, to tell you the truth, I honestly don't know myself. For some reason today seems like a bizarre, surreal day. I actually wrote a post last night but it's still labelled as 'draft', may post it sometime. So today my mum drove me to school on account of all the books I had to carry. Unfortunately we got lost somewhere near the school(we've been to the school 7 times but still need a GPS). But it was okay, I arrived really early. Wandered around a bit, then kind of texted (thanks, Claudine) to make it seem like I wasn't doing absolutely nothing. Because it was kind of daunting. Everyone was in their own little group, and I looked a bit silly standing there. After about 15 minutes, I got asked by these two nice, nice girls if I wanted to join them, so obviously I was like 'yeah sure'. It was literally a group of about 8 Asians (I actually counted because they were, like, ALL Asians, who'd adopted 4 new girls, 3 of which were Asian and one wasn't. Awkward.). It was kind of weird. But nevertheless, the Asian group was ok. I kind of preferred them to the group that my 'buddy' from orientation day sits with. The non-Asian new girl in the Asian group is actually in all of my classes I had today, and she really really reminds me of, well, a certain freak Russian girl who used to go to old school. She even has the same accent, and she seems really smart because she was going on and on about Abolitionism in English or something, and complaining how Legal Studies clashed with Math Extension (even though she was already doing English Extension). Some girl showed me to my homeroom and I met my homeroom (again) and the other 2 yr 11 girls there, who were both nice. The homeroom seems way more 'close' than my old homeroom. I mean, people bake things and bring them in all the time apparently, and the teacher jokes around and stuff. This year 8 girl brought in chocolate cookies for everyone which was cute. And everyone knows each other really well, there's only like 12 people. Then went down to collect my textbook (yeah, I ordered only one textbook from the school and it was 'Othello' because I didn't know which edition I was meant to get). Got given my lock. It's a combination lock and the most complicated thing ever to figure out. The instructions were like, 'twist past 0 three times till you get to whatever number, then turn counter clockwise past zero till you get to whatever number, then twist to the right again until you reach this number'. It took me like 5 tries till it finally opened, but I can now say that I work that stupid lock like a pro. You know how I said the lockers are small? Well they fit everything, because they are the same width as my old school's. Just shorter, and just the right height to fit your books in. Now that I remember, there was extra space above the place where you put your books in my locker last year that I didn't need. Oh, and since the school has a 'middle school' for year 6 and 7, that technically means that i did not see any new girls in year 7 at all. Otherwise it would've been better if there were more new girls who were asking for directions. And the year 7s come to high school in like term 4 of each year apparently, so even the year 8's know their way around. There's about 19 new girls from 8-11, which makes me feel a bit better I guess.

So I had a bunch of stuff like house assembly and then assembly and homeroom and blah blah blah. Only had 3 lessons. Modern History, Legal Studies and English Extension. I really like my teachers. They are awesome and you can tell that they are really good at what they teach. My Legal Studies teacher is really funny and has an English accent from when he worked as a lawyer in England. We read 'Hello!' magazine and talked about some crime case involving cannibals. It was really cool, until he set us homework that looked a bit more like legal studies should. Like, summarisation of the constitution and stuff. And my Modern History teacher sounds like she's really into what she talks about. I'm actually almost excited for our individual project research task, she talks about it like it's something really exciting. And I am excited to learn about the 'Rise and Fall of the Romanov dynasty' or whatever the unit is called this term. Had a substitute for English Extension and even she was awesome. My house dean is, like, really really cool. Nothing compared to the (crap) one I used to have. She gave me a tour of the school when I couldn't find my homeroom/locker and tried to explain all the room numbers and everything to me and she's really nice and fun. The girls are all nice too, though I'm not sure about friends. I mean, as I've said to some of you, I kind of randomly go between the yr 11 girl in my homeroom, the Asian group and the new girls. The 7 new girls (about 3 of which I interact with) are ok but not really my type of people, except for the other girl who got a scholarship. She's part of the Asian group I was sitting in (because she's Fillipino) and she's really nice. Except, she told everyone she got a scholarship, and this random (Asian) girl in Legal Studies asked me why I moved, and I was like 'because I couldn't do half the subjects I wanted to at my old school' and she was like, 'I heard you got a scholarship' and I was thinking, oh awkward. Until later when I realised she probably confused me with the other girl who told everyone she got a scholarship, because she probably can't tell us apart or something. I mean, not even my house dean knows (I think, otherwise she wouldn't have asked me why I changed schools) so I doubt random girl knew. She so did mistake me for the other girl. I doubt I'll be that good friends with anyone (I mean, a lot of people have been at the school since Kindi) but people are nice enough so I won't be a total loner.

Cool stuff about my new school and not-so-cool stuff:
-They are way stricter with uniform. You can't go out of the school with only a jumper on, it's either wear your blazer or no blazer at all or cover the jumper up with a blazer
-Kindergarten to year 10 have to wear a cream ribbon in their hair. Like, have to. Haha poor them, I have enough trouble with a hairband let alone having to tie ribbons. Luckily for some reason the rule isn't enforced for seniors.
-Community service is compulsory. 20 hours a year (or is it semester?) for year 11.
-You don't have to stand up for the teacher when they come in!
-You can go into a classroom without a teacher. All the doors are open.
-The classrooms are plain ugly
-You can listen to iPods and use your phone during recess/lunch/study periods.
-I don't like having to catch the train to Central and then catching the bus. It takes me 1 hour 15 minutes to get home. I guess it's only about 20 minutes later than at my old school. But still.
-School finishes at 3pm tomorrow! Bludge day, I have a year group meeting, French, English, History and pastoral care. And then I have a free study period so I might be able to leave school at like 1:20 when pastoral care ends. Don't know, I'll have to ask.
-I love how organised everything is. This teacher personally came to me and asked me about 'All My Own Work', and then she was like, 'It's fine all I need is you student number from the school certificate and then you can take the quiz online this weekend'. Which is awesome. Because I'm expecting you have to read through tonnes of crap but obviously I would prefer the easy way out searching for answers on Google from the comfort of my own home. Kind of ironic, cheating on a plagiarism quiz. Oh well.
-I don't like the fact that you can't come late to school if you have a study period, you can only go home early. They have a nice combined yr 11/12 common room and courtyard, and library, which are pretty much the only places you can go to for studying.
-The school is good at sport. Like, amazing at sport. The amount of newspaper articles stuck to the walls about people from the school winning nationals and trophies for sport are insane.
-Because 3 people are doing Music 2, I heard it'll be combined with Music 1. Boo.
-7 lessons per day, each lesson only 45 minutes approximately! I didn't get bored at all today, my lessons were all pretty good with great teachers. 45 minutes per lesson sure takes the boredom out of school I reckon.

So that's it. I don't expect this blog will be updated as frequently as it has been, because I don't want to procrastinate anymore (I'm really really tired right now and I don't have homework. At least I think my history homework was due Monday...)