School!
Well, my first two days of school are behind me now and I’m feeling pretty good about my new school, new classes, and new friends. I wasn’t nervous at all going to school on Wednesday but there was a feeling of uncertainty because I didn’t really know what to expect and I’ve never started at a new school before. We got to school about an hour before school started so that I could get my books and school ID, but when I went to the office to get them they told me that they couldn’t help me until I got my timetable in form class. So then we (me, Lana, & Sam) just went down to one of the courtyards where I was introduced to about 40 people and only remembered about 3 names. Cairns High has block scheduling so on Wednesdays I only have 3 of my classes and they are the easiest ones that I have–tourism, marine studies (boating), and photography. Then in the afternoon every Wednesday I have two study periods right in a row. School starts at 8:45 so when the morning bell ran I followed a few of the 11th graders that I had just met into the gym for the Grade 11 welcome speech. I found Craig (the international student coordinator) and he introduced me to Ben. (the boy from Maine who I had been emailing back-and-forth with for a couple of months) After about 10 minutes of “being in year 11 means added responsibility” and “if you don’t take school seriously we can kick you out” and “have a great year!” we went to our form classes. (Form class = homeroom) There I met Illy, the girl from NYC, and also a few other kids but spent most of my time talking w/ Ben and Illy about the differences between USA and Australia. Ben gave me several tips such as if the kids ask me stupid questions such as “are the parties in America like they are in the movies?” and “do you carry around a gun at school?” to tell them what they want to hear and they will be very impressed… haha. I actually made a kid seriously think that all American students keep guns in their backpocket.
But anyways… everyone seems to be very nice and I had kids come and talk to me in all of my classes so making friends has been really easy. It’s so weird having a 40 minute break each day for “morning tea” and then having a 45 minute break for lunch just 1 hour later. The day goes by so fast because the class periods are only 35 minutes long–even though we usually have a double lesson, meaning we have the same class two periods in a row. The school is so big and my classes are scattered all over the places. There are about 7 large buildings which all contain classrooms and I have at least one class in most of them so I am definately getting my excersize. My only big complaint is the heat. Most of the rooms are airconditioned, but the ones that aren’t are terrible and our uniforms start sticking to us after a few minutes of sitting in them. On Wednesday during “morning tea” Ben came and found me and told me that him and his friends wanted me to come sit with them so I did and they are all really cool. Lana is friends with several of them too, even though they are mostly 11th graders. It was really nice of him though because now I have a large group of kids to sit with at morning tea and lunch each day and they all seem to like me pretty well. A 12th grader named Shaynee (also one of Lana’s friends) invited me to come sit with all of the seniors in the memorial (the seniors-only spot) and she introduced me to all of her friends there and they all seem really nice too. I got “special permission” to be in the memorial, even though I’m not a senior, since I’m the same age or older than most of them. Lana tells me that I should “feel special”… haha. The whole thing just made me laugh because it sounds like such a typical highschool thing even though I’m on the other side of the world.
I had a hard time remembering everyone’s names the first day, but today it got a little easier. I just hope people aren’t getting sick of me asking them their names 5 times a day. I started writing them down in my planner and that helped a lot. I just feel bad when someone waves at me or comes up and says hi, and I remember meeting them but I don’t remember their name… so learning them all is one of my top priorities right now. All in all, school went really well both days and I like it a lot and I’m fitting in pretty well so far. (In case you didn’t already know this, grade 11 and 12s don’t go to school on Thursdays so that’s why I only had 2 days of school this week.)
Yesterday after Lana got home from school (and I had been doing nothing all day) we went to Yorkey’s beach with Gordon and then we drove over to Trinity Beach. The water is SO warm and walking on the beach with my feet in the water is so relaxing. Lana and I went down to the beach again today but instead of walking, we climbed out on some huge rocks that went out pretty far and then sat there and talked. It’s great how close we are getting and our personalities are really compatible. I don’t think I could have been given a better host family because mine is great. I get along really well with the two older sisters, Kita and Lisa, too because they have been around a lot. Lisa is even moving back in next month.
Tomorrow the whole family plus Andrew (Lisa’s boyfriend), Mark, and Nick (Mark’s friend) are going to a placed called Josephine Falls. I was told that it’s a lot like Crystal Cascades except for bigger… so I bet it will be really beautiful. When we get back I’m going “out” for the evening with Mark and several of his friends, and I think Lana and Sam might come along too.
This is an incrediably long post so I think I’ll wrap it up for now. I have a ton of pictures and I will try to get a bunch of them up this weekend for your viewing pleasure. I hope everyone’s doing good and I think about you all a lot. Thanks for reading and have a great day! <3 Jess
