8 Facts of My Week (2)

1. I have noticed that the bus has a very distinct order of students. The freshmen sit in the front, and a little bit in the beginning of the middle. Some of the sophomores overlap a little with the freshmen in the first half of the middle, and the rest sit all the way in the back. The juniors dominate the second half of the middle, and finally, the seniors overlap with the juniors and the sophs that sit in the back.

On Thursday, I nearly missed the bus, and so when I got on, nearly all the seats were taken. The only available one was with the seniors. I got quite a few dirty looks for disrupting the natural order of the bus, and the people around me refused to have conversations with each other because some freshman dork was awkwardly sitting there, reading a book and glancing up nervously every ten seconds.

2. I have a Lit teacher who grades with an iron red pen, and I swear to God I'm going to die in that class. I consider myself pretty good for my age when it comes to writing fiction, but I despise essays. I like analyzing literature (even though I'm terrible at it), and I like a lot of the reading selections we have in this class, but I just hate writing essays. They're so mechanical and boring, and the page limits are irritating.

3. I learned the llama chant. I'm pretty sure I'm the last one in the whole school, but finally - FINALLY - I can join in when people start shouting, "Happy llama! Sad llama! Mentally deranged llama!" I also learned awkward turtle, and the awkward turtle chant (complete with Pedophile Wave at the end). I feel so accomplished now.

4. I went to an ice cream social last night thinking that (1) I could try, like, not being anti-social and (2) ICE CREAM ICE CREAM ICE CREAM. But in the end I was too full of Indian food (two Indian dudes had their birthdays today, and they actually brought it awesome food for my math class) to enjoy the ice cream, and predictably, I was anti-social. I did talk to some people, so I guess in the end it was sort of fun. I hadn't expected much anyway.

5. Indian food is good. See #4. Interestingly enough I was able to tolerate the spiciest food out of everyone, including the people who were raised for a while in Korea.

6. It always happens that on my busiest weekends (i.e. this one), my teachers dump the largest amounts of homework possible. In addition to all the essays and papers and whatnot, I also have to study for three gigantic tests that are worth like half my grade each. Oh, and the tests are all within the next few days. On hard stuff. Yay.

7. I'm volunteering at a math competition tomorrow, for 4th-8th graders. I got a free awesome Staff t-shirt that I have to wear, and I got grouped with my friends. Except, of course, for some reason my friends are in separate places from me, so I'm stuck with my sort-of friends (the ones you say "hi" to and hug on "hug-an-Asian" day [600 of the 1200 people at my school are Asian], but don't really have a lot to talk about with). Eh, could be worse.

8. I was giving my French presentation while spinning my pencil (I'm a nerd, it's what we do), but I was nervous and a little sweaty so my pencil slipped. While struggling over a nasty verb, I reached to catch my pencil and instead watched it bury its point in my palm. However, my French grade could use a little help, so instead of bailing, I tearfully spoke butchered French while blood dripped from my hand.

I think I did pretty well, all things considered.

So how was your week? Do you take a bus with a hierarchy? Had trouble with an essay? Struggled during a presentation?