I have had 5 official school days, so I guess that counts as I have made it through one week of school as a primero bachillerta of sciences at IES Mayorazgo in Spain.
Each day has improved immensly from the day before. I now know how to get to my classes, sort of, some I am still figuring out..but it is not that difficult. I know my schedule, and how to follow it. I have almost all of my textbooks (still waiting on Math and French). And I have a super helpful group of kids always willing to let me copy their notes if I get behind, or explain to me the assignment if I didn´t catch what it was, or share a book if I don´t have mine. These kids have definitly helped me make it through my first days of school, and I cannot thank them enough.
So, it turns out that my Math, biology, and chemistry classes are literally exactly what I learned last year or freshman year in the case of biology. Because I already know the material, each day is just relearning the material that I forgot the logistics of over the summer, but with spanish terms. In these classes, the terms are all from latin routes, so I can usually guess what they mean when they are written. My math teacher is really great, she is super nice and understanding. I don´t think she knows yet that I already learned this stuff, but thats alright. My Biology teacher (who is also my "science in the contemporary world" teacher) is the opposite. He is the classic science teacher, gray hair, skinny with that mustache and overall look that screams that he teaches science. He does all of his notes verbally so it is hard to follow, but as long as I can read the handwriting of the kid next to me I survive. In my other science class with him, which I have only had twice, he has given handouts. Each time I completed it he told me to keep mine, and collected the rest of the classes. I don´t think that this teacher really expects much out of me. But I know his oppinion will change because the concepts he teaches are really very simple, I just need to get past the spanish part. Lastly, my chemistry teacher is also really great. He, also, doesnt expect much out of me, but in a different way. He is actually pretty good at english so if he sees I really don´t understand something he will translate to english for me. He does it a lot, sometimes even if I do understand, and it gets alittle annoying, becuase I just want to be like "Yes. I understood in SPANISH!". He thinks that I don´t understand anything at all in spanish, but I guess that isnt really a bad problem.
All the other classes really aren´t that hard either. My hardest classes are definitly Philosophy and Lengua. The actual context and themes of these classes aren´t that difficult, it´s just the fact that I have to read and write a lot in spanish that makes it difficult. My lengua teacher is clearly preoccupied with the rest of my class and doesn´t really have much time to really remember that I don´t understand, but I don´t mind. It is one class with a challenge. I also really enjoy literature classes, so I like what we are going to learn about, it will just be tough. We read this poem the other day in class, I literally understood none of it until I got home and translated the whole thing with my dictionary (my spanish-english dictionary is my best friend at school). Philosophy is also really interesting, but my teacher is sort of crazy. He is really easy to understand, and as long as I do the homework I can follow what he says really well. So, that class is tough but its manageable.
English. Oh that class is great. I have only had one class, but it was hilarious. The teacher learned her spanish in Ireland, so when she speaks it is an irish accent and a spanish accent combined (extremely entertaining). She had me go up to the board, draw the US and point to CT. She also asked me tons of questions about the US and had me answer them. The kids at my school arent very good at english, so they didn´t really understand what I was saying, so sometimes she had me write my answer on the board. It was interesting, and I can´t wait for another class.
French. enough said. But it also really isnt that hard. Today, we learned the french alphabet. So, as you can tell this isnt a really high end french class.
I also have a couple other random classes like study hall (ACE here), proyecto, and maybe a couple others I forgot about. I also have PE here twice a week. So far we havnt had to bring clothes, so its been a study hall, but I was listening to the teacher the other day while she was talking with some of the students, and although it was in spanish I understood that they were discussing the units that we will cover. One including Salsa. interesting.
So in summary, I am catching the drift that this school doesn´t have very high standards of acheivement, and the fact that I don´t understand spanish very well has made the teachers drop my standards of achievement even lower. I have high standards for myself and in the US my teachers and family had high standards for me too. I used to get tired of those high standards and I used to wish that people expected less from me, because I though it would be easier. But, with these low standards there is no challenge. People automatically assume that I won´t understand if they talk in spanish, so they immediatly result to trying to tell me in English. Or, they immediatly assume that I don´t get what the teacher is teaching me and they look at me and ask and when I show them my work and its correct they are astonished. It is frustrating being treated as a little kid all the time, I want them to know that, honestly, I act a lot more intelligent in english and I swear I am more social. It´s just the language is so tough. But, I am learning and just this morning I was talking with the other exchange student at my school (who understands really well, but cant speak it very well, the opposite of me, so we are quite the pair, however I never see her because she is the grade above me), one of the kids she has been taking classes with spoke to her and I understood all of it. It made me so proud. Also, I have been holding through multiple full conversations. I still get stuck on words here or there or conjugating verbs correctly. But it has only been about 3 weeks since I have left home. I have improved a lot and I definitly feel more confident. Life is good.
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