Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Colegio

My high school is supposedly the "nice" school in town where the wealthy people send their children. I´m not sure if they are getting the best education for their money, but at least their students enjoy the school. Class "starts" at 7:10 a.m. and that just means that most of us are in the classroom. We have four classes each day, but they change every day. Most of the classes are 90 minutes long. This is my schedule:

Monday: Physics, English, Math, Bioanatomy
Tuesday: Math, Physics, Chemistry, Accounting
Wednesday: Technical Drawing, English, Literature, Chrisitan Formation
Thursday: English, Chemistry, History & Geography, Math
Friday: Literature (45 min.), Bioanatomy (45 min.), Investigation, English, Physical Culture (like P.E.)

My first week I started on Tuesday, and we did barely anything. Wednesday was a day of "sports," where each class had a "Madrina," and there was a competition between them. My cousin, Caroya, was the one for her class, and she was dressed up. I don´t know what it was judging, but our "Madrina," Sole, got second place. We stood outside and watched cheerleaders, a police dog jumping over 4 feet high hurdles and hopping around on two feet carrying a flag of Ecuador in it´s mouth, and a presentation of the best sports players from each class. Some other classes started playing fútbol and tennis, and our class just watched and talked to each other. We did no work that day either...AND we didn´t even have school Thursday and Friday.

We wear uniforms. Monday we wear a beige shirt, blue tie, blue blazer, blue dress pants, blue socks, black dress shoes. Tuesday through Thursday males wear jeans, blue socks, black tennis shoes, Santa María jacket, and Santa María polo; females wear Santa María skirt, blue socks, black shoes, Santa María jacket, and Santa María polo. Friday we wear Santa María gym shorts (with built in underwear might I add), Santa María gym pants, Santa María t-shirt, and Santa María jacket.

The man in charge of discipline is called "Teacher Juanchila" (all the teachers are called "teacher" here). He checks our fingernails, electronics, hair, attire, and grades. He is an odd man who uses only a wrist-grab handshake. Today was funny because Lara, another exchange student, and I saw him halfway-hiding behind a corner of the wall, extending his cell phone about 2 feet from his body. It looked like he was taking a picture, but I think he was texting. When he noticed that we saw him he ducked completely behind the corner.

I already mentioned this but every day we get 2 recesses! The first is for 20 minutes and the second is for 15 minutes. During this time, we´re free to go outside, mingle, or buy a snack from the food bar. They sell sandwhiches, burgers, a plate of food (rice and a meat usually), drinks, and candy. Also, at the end of the day, we have 10 minutes where the teacher advisor for our class tells us info that we need to know (like announcements, news, etc.).

Sometimes the teacher doesn´t show up, then we have a "free hour" where we do anything we want, with the exception of leaving the campus. Sometimes we play basketball, walk around, or just sit, talk, and listen to music when this happens. I think I asked maybe four different people what was going on the first time this happened because I could´t believe it. Now it´s just old hat. This morning we had technical drawing so we went to the computer lab. When we got there, we found out that the "AutoCAD" program wasn´t yet installed, so we just spent the hour surfing the web (I spent my time looking up information Bob Dylan and the US Open). That was great. Oh, and our teacher didn´t show up today for Christian formation.

We get homework every once in a while. We´ve had to do some research and answer questions. With the assignments I just jot down the answer in my notebook, but I´ve noticed that the other students put more work into it. They type their work, color the pages, add pictures, and sometimes put it in a plastic folder! This is surprising to me, but maybe it accounts for the lack of work we do in class.

Two weeks ago our class spent the majority of the classes preparing for the English Fesitval last week. They practiced dancing to a mix of songs: the first cut was the rap song Low, Hot N Cold by Kate Perry, and Mambo Number 5. That was a little too much so they ended up just using Low and Mambo Number 5. This is them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5wELVt2b4vg. Keep in mind that took up precious class time. I was gone last week at a Rotary camp, Tuesday to Sunday, so I missed the performance. I hear we didn´t do any work either because of the English Festival. Hooray.

3 comments:

  1. wow. it sounds like you're learning lots.

    ha. built-in underwear.

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  2. HAHAHAHAHAH! I just watched the video...oh how I wished you would have been up there dancing. I can't believe they teach that in school! Do they realize what the message is in that song? Either way, that video made my day.

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  3. Hahahaha! I'm with Diana. That video was AWESOME!!! Good thing you worked so hard in US high school to be accepted into Ecuadorian Colegio! Free hour sounds fun. Has the spelling bee happened yet?

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