First Days of School!

I had my first three days of school this week at Colegio Concepcion de Chillán.  Besides the fact that I have no idea what the teachers are saying half the time, school is going okay.  It's exhausting though having to get back into the routine of getting up early and its a long day.  Right now it is really frustrating to no understand what's going on and what everyone is saying, but I know that will change soon and I will be able to follow along.  Luckily enough I recognize some of the material being taught in some subjects which is good because then I have an idea of what they might be talking about! 

Here in Chile the school schedule is a lot different than what I am used to in Vermont, but I like it a lot here! I have school from 8am-1pm, then go home for lunch and go back to school from 3pm-6pm on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Those days are really long, I don't usually end up getting home until 6:45pm and by that point I am absolutely exhausted.  On Thursday and Friday I only have school from 8am-1pm, not bad! I prefer those days a lot more!  I take the bus to school too, but it's no yellow school bus here.  The bus is basically an old premier bus, it's so funny.  Most of the streets are pretty small and consist of very tight turns so it's always an interesting ride to say the least. 

In school here you stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers switch classrooms.  I have History, Math, Biology, "Lenguaje" (which is Spanish class), English, Philosophy, PE, Chemistry, Physics, and Elective.  I don't have all these classes everyday which is good, because I am totally and completely lost in Physics, and Philosophy and Chemistry.  I don't even know if I could take those in English..so they are a struggle right now! I haven't had English class yet because it is earlier in the week, but I look forward to it!  Each student chooses an Elective class, there are four to choose from, and in my case it's basically another 2 hours of Biology and then I also have Geometry on Friday.  Friday is only your elective class.  I understand some of the History and recognize some of the Math and Biology since I have taken those classes before.

My classmates are great, they are so welcoming and are always asking me questions and practicing their English with me!  It's funny to hear them speak English, but then again I must sound pretty funny too trying to speak Spanish with them!  My first day they threw me a surprise welcome party!  They made me a poster that said, "Welcome Emma" with a Vermont picture and a Chilean picture with an airplane connecting them.  We had some food and they played American music for me!  It was really fun, and it was so nice of them!  They speak slow and repeat everything for me which is great!  I have a great class and I can't wait to get to know them all better as the semester progresses.