battling a beast

Hi everyone!

Yesterday I faced one of the toughest, roughest, stickiest, ickiest, and scary things the world has ever known.

I went to school.
(insert dramatic music here)

To tell you the truth, it wasn't as hard as I thought. After a few classes, I was understanding the layout of the school. (My school = The Beverley Grammar School)

So, here goes a description of my day......


First, I get there, and wait in the reception office. (the head of year 8 said he was going to meet me at 8:45 there, and introduce me to my form teacher.) I waited, and waited. We had gotten there ten minutes early though, so I understood.

Eventually, the teacher came and got me, and took me to my form room. (you see, every student belongs to a form. sort of like harry potter houses, only more of them. the students in each form have all their classes together, save a small few, such as maths, and ITC(computer lab.)) The form teacher was very nice, and it turns out that an american boy that is a member of my church was also in my form! how handy!

So, first, you take attendance in your form, and then have some free time. After that, we went to science. There, we watched a movie, and the teacher gave us candy. Quite a difficult class, huh?

Next, we went to maths. The only reason we DIDN'T watch a movie was because the teacher's DVD player wasn't working. So, instead we just played a couple different math-ish games.

During maths, the teacher asked if everyone in the class knew what maths class they were going into next year. All the students responded that they knew. Except one. (three guesses who it was.) Me. She gestured me out the door. She took me into another classroom with another teacher, and they discussed what to do regarding my lack of maths placement. At this point, I didn't really care what I did, because I was bored of watching a movie. They suggested two options:

a) Just place me in a middle class and see how I do
or
b) Give me a math test to assess what level I should be in.

They decided on the latter.

I was not terribly thrilled about this decision, but I wanted some form of work to do.
They decided to bring me over in fourth period, normally geography, and have me take the test then.

So, continuing with my adventures......

Next, we had break, which, in short, is a ten or twenty minute (I can't recall which) break period, during which you can either relax in a classroom, get food from the cantine or from home, or relax outside. I decided to hang out with most of the kids in my form, and just relax in a classroom. Not the most thrilling thing, but I didn't mind, because I was attempting to get to know the other kids in my form. (oh yeah, the kids in your form, your head teacher, and your form teacher all stay the same until you graduate.)

So, we went to history, and watched another movie.

Then, we went to lunch, which you can eat either in the cantine, or outside on the school grounds. I chose to eat outside, because of the nice weather.

Then, while the other kids went to geography, I was escorted to the maths room, to take my test. (bum bum bum!!)

I was given a fair-sized test, and a pen to do it with. It took all of fourth period to complete, but it wasn't really too hard.

So, afterwards, some kids from my form came and brought me to the ITC room, which is, basically, a computer lab. It was then that I noticed I didn't have a school login. Uh-oh.

So, me and another student went to the computer tech room. On the first visit, no one was there, but after trying again, the tech guy was in there.

When I asked for a login, he grinned, and said, "On the last day?" I grinned, and nodded. He moved to his computer, and then asked, "When did you start?" When I replied that today was my first day, he grinned even bigger and started to chuckle. When I realized how ridiculous my request was, I began to laugh as well. He gave me a login, and I was able to have some time on the computer in the ITC room.

During that class, one of the maths teachers that had discussed how to place me came in and talked to my teacher. Afterwards, he took me outside of the classroom, and said that he had "marked"(graded) my test, and didn't want to leave me uninformed all of the holiday. He said that I had done "brilliant" on it, and that they had two top classes, and I was to be in one of them.

Maybe this math test wasn't so bad after all.

After being asked what the guy had needed, I told them about what he had said. (they knew about how I had had to take a maths test.)

ITC was the last class of the day, and afterwards I went home.

What a day, huh?

just another post

I have a feeling that posting too often may make it less exciting when I DO post.
Probably true.
Nonetheless, it works, and gives me a way to communicate to the world.

So....

We are now living in Anlaby House, in apartment twelve. It is on the very top floor, so you get a great view at the HUGE backyard.(also-they call a backyard a garden in England) It's quite nice. Mom has decided to write down all the 'lingo' that we learn here. As I remember, so far we've collected:

Chips are fries
crispies are chips
bobbies are policemen
nappies are diapers
a mobile is a cell phone
football is soccer(fairly obvious)
dinner is lunch
tea is dinner
pudding is dessert
a chewy is a piece of gum
the loo is the bathroom
sweets is candy
jacket potatoes are baked potatoes
and cheers means goodbye.

Quite a bit, huh? And we've only been here six days!
With many more to come.
But for now, cheers!

zebras unite

as we were driving to a diner the other day, I came across a strange sign.

I'm talking, very, very, strange.

it was a

"humped zebra crossing" sign.

I have NO CLUE what it means.

kinda wierd, huh?

anyone know what it means?

survival

well, I've officially survived about two days in England.
Not that it was too hard, but it was something I needed to survive.

Our first flight was on Saturday, from Indianapolis to Newark, New Jersey, and then the second one was from Newark to Manchester, in England, arriving on Sunday.
The flights weren't too bad, despite the fact that we had a THREE HOUR layover.

We got in at six forty-five.
the flight was at TEN.

so, we waited for quite a while.

I didn't sleep on those flights. AT ALL.
I slept in the car on the drive to our apartment.

So, I am fairly tired, but I've recovered from my jet-lag.

Yesterday, (monday) we went to Beverley, the town that we will be going to school in. Sammy toured her school, Beverley High, but I don't tour mine (The Beverley Grammar School) on Friday. NO SCHOOL UNTIL FRIDAY! yay!
so.... Sammy's at school today, for the first time.

But, I'm surviving. Easily.

Hey look, another post! (its a miracle!!!!!!(or at least close to one))

Hiya!
well, it turns out that I AM moving to England.
Should be fun.
Seems simple enough.
But every time we say,
"Only one more week!"
Something comes up.
Oh, well. It will all work out EVENTUALLY.
(Criss cross your fingers, your toes, your shoelaces, and whatever else for me)

Wow its been long

Man, I haven't posted on here in over a year. Oh, well. Always time to break the streak, huh?

Well, our family may be moving to....

ENGLAND!

How cool would that be?

It'd definetely motivate me to post here more often.

death at my house

Its so sad. Its horrible.
All my work. GONE!
You won't believe this.
Recently, our family computers hard drive crashed.
died.
was murdered.
committed suicide.
whatever you want to say.
I lost everything.
EVERYTHING!
every last one thing that I had designed mercilessly destroyed!
its pitiful, I know.
You're probably thinking right now, Jeez, what a nerd.
You're right.