And so concludes the first day of summer school for Jenny.
I got up just after seven… Didn't care for that much. My dad drove me to the school and I got there about a quarter to eight. There were a bunch of kids in the front foyer, or whatever they call it at that school. Hmm. Okay. There were papers with names of courses and room numbers. MHF4U1, Advanced Functions, or whatever it's called now. Room 300. Right, good, simple.
I walk up the stairs, which are very straight and nice with a wide walkway, but kind of tiny otherwise. The other stairways are a lot more wind-y, like at my school, but they aren't so open. Good thing I'm not claustrophobic.
The school is nice. Much more confusing than mine. Mine has a really simple layout. I can't quite figure this one out, but if I just keep walking, I eventually find where I need to go. The bathroom doors actually lock, at least the one I tried did. They have those sinks where you step down on a thing to turn them on. Like in little kid school. It didn't work very well. And there were no paper towels. So I'd say bathrooms were on par with my own school's bathrooms. Maybe a little better.
The cafeteria was pretty boring, but so is mine. At the school where I registered, they had this awesome mural in the cafeteria with The Doors and The Rolling Stones and Pink Floyd and The Beatles and all these other cool bands. It was really nice.
I won't be spending much time in the cafeteria though. We have two fifteen minute breaks, one at 9:30 and one at 12:00. So no real lunch. And 9:30 too early to really want to eat anything.
The teacher is good. He seems to actually enjoy teaching, which would explain that, since he said he does summer school, plus night school and day school during the regular school year. Of course, I can think of other teachers who do those things and who probably do enjoy teaching, but can still be pretty terrible. This guy seems alright though.
Apparently we're going to do four lessons a day, but today we only did three because we got out an hour early because of a staff meeting. And then we have a test every two or three days. Which is kind of nice, because you won't have forgotten what you did a month ago.
But you're supposed to have an hour of homework from one normal class. Which means I should have six hours of school plus four hours of homework every day. No fun. Today I only have a little bit, and I've been planning on doing it for awhile, but of course I'm going to put it off like usual.
Apparently they canceled the upgrade course for Calculus, so we had a rather big class of people both repeating and taking a brand new course. I'm supposedly supposed to be taking the brand new course, because the Calculus I took was the old course, but it's really the same thing. Bah. Looking over the course outline though, there does seem to be something missing, but I can't remember what. It was something I didn't understand, so that's good.
I know one of the kids in my class, not too well though, and there are a few other names I think I've heard before. But I never took any math last year, so I don't know any of the math/science grade 12s from this year, I only know the arts ones.
Everyone felt the same way about being there. A girl walked into the classroom saying something about "oh, what are you doing this summer? …Functions". The teacher confirmed that everyone feels this way about summer school when he was talking to us at the beginning of class. No student really wants to be there.
There are also a lot of different reasons for being there. I, for one, am there to raise my mark (come on 86!) so I can get a better scholarship for university. Some people need the mark to graduate. Some people can't take the course next year because of time table conflicts. Some people might just want to get the course done in a month and not have to worry about it next year. There was even one girl who was already in university, but she needed this course to change her major, or something like that. Quite a diverse bunch.
What did we do today? Review of factoring, easy. Well, mostly. A few times I was thrown off because I haven't done it for so long. "Decomposition"? I know I've heard of it but what in the hell…? Quite often I did remember what to do, even if it did take me a second, and had it done before the teacher had explained it, but then there were other times where I completely blanked. Then was long division of polynomials or whatever they are.
Long division. That is like one of the suckiest math things ever. Why would we do that when we have a calculator? Long division? I haven't done that since grade two! But actually, it was kind of fun. And I think I felt that way last time too.
And then we had the Remainder Theorem and Factor Theorem, which are pretty easy as well. Not very exciting though.
So far, it's been pretty easy. Fun, even. Yeah, I guess I did like Math. I never did like English, but I kept on taking it, even when I didn't have to. You know, I'm pretty stupid sometimes.
Anyway, I say that now, but I know it must get harder. I know there was a reason I hated Calculus.
Oh, good good news, though! There's no textbook. I was kind of worried about that, seeing as I don't have a locker. I have to bring home a binder and textbook every day? Nuh-uh. Don't think so. Usually I'd only bring home the textbook if I had homework and pull whatever papers I needed out of the binder. I mean, I don't have to walk home, but still. I don't like carrying around shit.
I was yawning all day. I suppose I owe that to my post last night, and staying up and finishing "Grease". And guess what — Sonny and the guys had to go to summer school and it "wasn't that bad". I don't know what to call the look I gave no one in particular when I read that part, but it was a look. Lame.
So yeah. I was really tired and freezing. It was rainy and yucky this morning, but it seems to be better now. And I'm guessing they had the air conditioner on, because the other day was pretty hot out. I'm glad I grabbed a sweater on the way out, but still, it was really cold.
And finally, it was 1:00. I grabbed my bus ticket and my student card from my purse and shoved it in my pocket. Headed down the stairs, followed the crowd. I took my chances with the door in the stairway that led outside. I didn't quite know where to go from the front doors either, so it didn't matter much. I knew what street to go on, but then realized I wasn't sure which way to go. I took a semi-educated guess and was right. I found the street where I was supposed to turn, but was kind of worried, because I didn't see the fountain in the park I was supposed to be looking for.
I kept walking the way the buses were coming from, and lo and behold I saw the fountain. Now I just have to figure out how to read the bus signs. Turns out they have big black and white numbers on them. Sweet. I knew which street and number I needed, so all was good. The numbers were even in order. Descending, of course, and mine was the farthest away. I saw my bus as I was still a few stops away, but didn't feel much like running, since I wasn't sure if it had left the stop yet or not.
Got to the stop. There were people sitting on both benches, and while I could've sat beside them, I elected to stand by the pay phone. Probably should've sat, because I was waiting for a good ten minutes or so. Hopefully tomorrow, at normal time, I'll be able to catch the first bus.
Bus eventually arrived and I was already ready, even had some change (exact!) in case my ticket didn't work or some other terrible catastrophe occurred. There were a bunch of other students and people waiting by now, and everyone got up, but no one really approached the doors. So I figured, what the hell, let the girl who's never rode a bus before go first. So I did.
I hopped on and showed my card. I looked at the slots. Umm, there's a change one and a money one. No ticket one. "Where does this go?" I asked. He told me to put in into the bill slot. I thanked him. I didn't feel like an idiot because he was nice about it. I walked to the back of the bus, as I had carefully planned. That way I could leave out the back doors like I was supposed to. Everyone who was on the bus got off, so I had my pick of seats. I picked the first normal seats on the right side. There were like only three or four rows of front facing seats. Weird. I hate the side ones.
The bus was stopped at the stop for another five-ten minutes. More people got on. It got pretty full. A few others students, a handful of older people, a woman with a "Rock Band" box, two women with babies. An older woman got on, but there weren't any seats alone. She walked past all of the single side seats to the back. And of all seats, she picked mine. She walked back a little bit, like she was going to sit back there, but then looked back at me and I gave a little nod or smile and she sat beside me. I moved my backpack over and she was like "oh no, that's okay".
And eventually, we were off. I looked out the window most of the time. I never realized it, but looking at the city through a bus window is exactly the same as in a car. Pretty boring.
I had my plan all ready. I was going to pull the thingy at the stop before my street, because there was one before my street and one stop after my street. The next one was like five streets down, so I didn't want to walk that far back in case I missed it.
But then a kid pulled for the stop before my street and I realized "hey, I know where that stop is. It's a lot farther than the next stop". So I waited. Maybe I just wanted to pull the thing. I never get to, someone always does it first. But I did it like right as soon as we started moving again. Smooooth. And he stopped, and I got up, and the woman next to me got up, and I thanked her, and I got off, and all was well.
Almost too well…