3
A Thousand Sleepless Nights
Posted by Miz B
on
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
"Well this sucks."
-Private, (on the Arctic)
Madagascar
That was certainly not what I was expecting from a first day at school. As some of you now know, there was a mess-up with my visa yesterday (apparently, somewhere along the line, someone decided 'student' meant 'church minister'). Yes, I evidently entered the country on a religious visa. Why none of the many, highly trained airline personal I showed that visa to didn't wonder if I looked a bit young for the position, I will never know. Anyway, it sounds like my fantastic travel agent and the local Rotary worked together to handle it, although this is one of the those "I'll calm down when I'm actually holding the damn thing" situations. And I don't know when we're going to go get it validated. Judging by the line last time, this is a takes-all-day kind of thing, and I don't have all-days anymore. That's right, school started.
I don't want to sound depressed, but if there is any sort of god listening who happens to owe me a solid for some reason, I would sure appreciate that being the worst day I'm gonna have here. I don't think it will be (there are always worse possibilities), but it would be cool if it was. I don't think it would have been so bad if I wasn't me. Don't play dumb, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not a normal student. I've never done anything study-related where I wasn't at least very good, if not one of the best in my group. It's a skill. It's what I'm good at. But here, not so much. I know that grades are completely unimportant here. My family, both here and at home, don't care. My college application won't have these scores attached to it. It's possible no one in the States will even hear my scores, unless I tell them. But I'LL know, and they're not going to be pretty. I can barely understand what the other kids say to me, and a good chunk of them speak at least functional English. None of the teachers do, except the French teacher, and he speaks German and a couple other languages too.
Everyone was very nice to me. The other kids even helped me submit some of the classwork. But after 4 classes, I stopped even trying to take notes and just started writing down words I didn't recognize to look up later. I don't think they can kick me out if I don't submit homework, at least not for a while. I'm slightly ashamed to admit than when Petrona picked me up, I broke down crying in her car. I couldn't even explain what was wrong. She says her daughter Karina was in the same situation (Karina's been in Japan for a while, I don't know how long, but longer than me). She says if Karina gets sick of trying to understand her teachers, she works on translating a book in Japanese or something. No one expects me to even do the work yet. I don't know why I'm attending right now if I'm not supposed to learn anything. Well, that's wrong.I'm here to learn Spanish. But one of the requirements for Rotary is that I try hard in school! What do I do? Is trying hard to understand more important than turning in really awful work and not knowing what I'm doing for longer? I really wish the handbook covered this junk...
It's even worse because no one even told the teachers I was coming, let alone what to do with me. And I know, I know! In a month I'll be functionally fluent, in 5 I'll be well on my way to being fully fluent. However, right now, it sucks. I've never felt so stupid in my whole life. I don't like it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash my underwear in the bathroom sink. I'm going out with the other exchange students and the local Roteracts. I don't know where or why, because I don't know how to ask. I could get used to this NOT being the norm.
-Private, (on the Arctic)
Madagascar
That was certainly not what I was expecting from a first day at school. As some of you now know, there was a mess-up with my visa yesterday (apparently, somewhere along the line, someone decided 'student' meant 'church minister'). Yes, I evidently entered the country on a religious visa. Why none of the many, highly trained airline personal I showed that visa to didn't wonder if I looked a bit young for the position, I will never know. Anyway, it sounds like my fantastic travel agent and the local Rotary worked together to handle it, although this is one of the those "I'll calm down when I'm actually holding the damn thing" situations. And I don't know when we're going to go get it validated. Judging by the line last time, this is a takes-all-day kind of thing, and I don't have all-days anymore. That's right, school started.
I don't want to sound depressed, but if there is any sort of god listening who happens to owe me a solid for some reason, I would sure appreciate that being the worst day I'm gonna have here. I don't think it will be (there are always worse possibilities), but it would be cool if it was. I don't think it would have been so bad if I wasn't me. Don't play dumb, you know what I'm talking about. I'm not a normal student. I've never done anything study-related where I wasn't at least very good, if not one of the best in my group. It's a skill. It's what I'm good at. But here, not so much. I know that grades are completely unimportant here. My family, both here and at home, don't care. My college application won't have these scores attached to it. It's possible no one in the States will even hear my scores, unless I tell them. But I'LL know, and they're not going to be pretty. I can barely understand what the other kids say to me, and a good chunk of them speak at least functional English. None of the teachers do, except the French teacher, and he speaks German and a couple other languages too.
Everyone was very nice to me. The other kids even helped me submit some of the classwork. But after 4 classes, I stopped even trying to take notes and just started writing down words I didn't recognize to look up later. I don't think they can kick me out if I don't submit homework, at least not for a while. I'm slightly ashamed to admit than when Petrona picked me up, I broke down crying in her car. I couldn't even explain what was wrong. She says her daughter Karina was in the same situation (Karina's been in Japan for a while, I don't know how long, but longer than me). She says if Karina gets sick of trying to understand her teachers, she works on translating a book in Japanese or something. No one expects me to even do the work yet. I don't know why I'm attending right now if I'm not supposed to learn anything. Well, that's wrong.I'm here to learn Spanish. But one of the requirements for Rotary is that I try hard in school! What do I do? Is trying hard to understand more important than turning in really awful work and not knowing what I'm doing for longer? I really wish the handbook covered this junk...
It's even worse because no one even told the teachers I was coming, let alone what to do with me. And I know, I know! In a month I'll be functionally fluent, in 5 I'll be well on my way to being fully fluent. However, right now, it sucks. I've never felt so stupid in my whole life. I don't like it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go wash my underwear in the bathroom sink. I'm going out with the other exchange students and the local Roteracts. I don't know where or why, because I don't know how to ask. I could get used to this NOT being the norm.
