UPRIGHT!!...at ease...

Let us begin my second day of school. Yes, I'm diving right into it because I spent the entire night (5 hours) losing a battle with Microsoft Word in attempt to send my monthly Rotary report and now have a really short time to write this but I'm determined to.

The morning begins with putting on my fantastic new orange uniform. The pants go all the way up past the belly button and the hips. A little uncomfortable at first because I like my pant cut lower but after putting on the shirt, my opinion changed rapidly. This. Fabric. Is. So. COMFY!!! It's very nice to move around in as it is a P.E. uniform. It's not exactly flattering but I quite like it! I look forward to actually having P.E. class in the P.E. uniform (Thursday morning).

My first class of the day was English. Now in my mind I'm thinking "I GOT THIS! I will be the best student in the class!" That was in theory. See, I was raised speaking English so I don't have to think about all the grammar rules when talking to someone. Slowing down and going back to that whatnot breakdown of English, I kinda sorta didn't do as well as I thought. It was pretty complicated. The teacher was asking for answers that followed a certain structure. This is what I saw:
- Adj. + V-ing
- N. + V-ed
It took a second to figure out all the symbols but later I got the hang of it. The lesson was of compound adjectives like "absent-minded" and "heart-breaking" etc. Easy to recognize, but not as easy to think of on the spot. I had to think back to 5th grade English class. XD

Next was Art class. The only Chinese the teacher said that I understood was "black dog" and "flower." After my classmates helped me translate the instructions, we all got an assignment. From what I deduced, we had to make a triangular name tag. On one side we write our name and the other we draw something "from the heart." Being Taiwanese, I write my Chinese name vertically...my classmates ended up writing theirs horizontally. Oh the irony. My "from the heart" drawing ended being a compilation of a bun-bun with a carrot, a wittle birdie, the Texas and Taiwanese flag in an X-shape crowned in a checkered heart, a swiggly sheet music snip-it and finally an abstract drawing of the sun and moon in a peace sign shape. I was afraid my other pictures were too realistic since I didn't know what kind of picture we were supposed to draw so I created an abstract something-something just in case. :P In the end the teacher came around praised me so I guess I did it right. XD What surprised me was that she took the papers instead of having it as a name tag on our desks. I really didn't understand what was going on in that class other than 'write your name and draw something.' XD

Lunch with wo pengyoumen ('my friends' in Chinese) consisted of the oh-so-healthy combo of dumplings and bubble tea. XD My friends were getting dumplings so I joined in on the fun. Also we have a really short time to order and eat food with the multitude of people crowding the tiny cafeteria so I just went with the flow. Eventually I'll know what the food court as to fully offer like perhaps fruit or veggies.

After lunch waaaaaas NAP TIME!!! HELLO MY LOVE!! There was a slight problem though. Before the nap-y-poo some of my new friends invited me to go to the night market close by my school on Saturday night with them. This got me really excited, plus talking to my classmates gets me excited period. So I had adrenaline flowing through my veins as I attempted to sleep. I could literally FEEL the adrenaline pulsing. Luckily I did fall asleep...but only for about 4 minutes. Then the cursed bell rang. NO! I need more time!! Oh well, I'll adjust and hopefully get better at falling asleep on the spot. I know my classmates from Junior year are snickering at that statement but remember I didn't fall asleep Senior year compared to the previous Junior year. :P

So my class transfers from a dark, sleepy, cool, cozy room to BRIGHT HOT SUN FILLED OUTSIDE-NESS FOR MILITARY CLASS OF EXTREME ALERTNESS!!! Yes, that's right. I have Military Education class on Tuesday. No it's not textbook based. Want to know what we did in the class? Stand. Stand completely still with feet together in a V shape and arms firmly glued to your hips. Stand like that not moving for 10-20 minutes. Now change positions to feet apart and hands behind your back, hands flat with the right one in left. Stand like that for another 10-20 minutes. Now we shall do some changing of positions between the past 2 and another one with left hand on hip. Next we march to a chant in Chinese. Keep marching with no idea what you are saying in Chinese. Stop. March again. Repeat the march chant 4 times total. If you have any jewelry on, you're screwed. (Good thing I made sure not to wear any) Does this sound fun to y'all? No? Well actually it kinda was. Very interesting and cool because I was able to stand stiffly for that long with no problems. But hey everyone, I have a military class! I never thought I would ever say that but it's the truth.

After being intimidated by the soldier in charge of the military class for 50 minutes, it was back to the room for Geography. The teacher told Erik(the other exchange student from Sweden) and I to do whatever we wanted. Erik went off on his phone and earbuds. I chose to study some Chinese characters. Just as I learned "ground" I look up at the Geography powerpoint and there it was on screen! I never thought a Chinese character I just learned would be applied in real life so quickly! Nice karma there!

On a side note, I noticed many students fell asleep during class and the teachers didn't really make an effort to wake the slumbers kiddos. *thinks back to Economics class with Mr. Veihofer (or however you spell his name)* If I slept in his class with my head on the desk, I would get my butt handed to me (so thank goodness I didn't!). I didn't expect to see students sleep at all during class but it was kinda common. That's a slight relief just in case I doze which I do not plan on doing at all if I have a say in the matter! But I do have a say...so...yeah. No sleeping Andrea except during nap time. :P

On yet another side note, I have to mention how sweet and thoughtful my classmate to the left of me is. In the morning she gave me a drawn out class schedule diagram in both English and Chinese with lots of pretty colors because I didn't know the schedule the previous day. That is so nice of her!!! THEN later in the day she gives me a small pineapple cake for a snack for me to try. GOOD LORD TAIWANESE PEOPLE ARE THE SWEETEST PEOPLE EVER!!! I'm so dumb-founded by these kind acts that all I can say is "thank you" in Chinese and give a small head bow. I shall have to think of something to do for them. Baking some sweets perhaps? Still brain-storming on that one. ;P

No progress on camera yet but hopefully there will be some by the end of the week. Somewhat long and boring story to that but it's 12:03 AM and I need to go beddy-bye. You'll just have to see what actually will happen :P Heck, I'LL have to see what actually will happen XD