Diary of an Asian Kid

21 Jan 2011

Wow, I actually managed to write for five days straight. Much better than I ever expected.

21 January 2011

First day of winter classes today. Sadly, I was no more awake than usual.

There were two periods of tests today. The first was Civics, including everything in the last semester. I only got eighty-something, which was weird. I usually get much higher during term. Am I forgetting it all so quickly?

After that was Math, similar shapes. I got 96, which meant that I only got one question wrong. Okay. I spent most of the time after I finished the respective tests sleeping and writing yesterday's journal entry.

Winter classes are even more depressing than usual school because there aren't any non-test subjects. Suffice it to say that it was very boring. And we got loads of work. Because the school hasn't set the bell properly yet, we still have one twenty-minute long break, but without the exercises. Miss Chen said that starting next week, that break will be reduced by half, and so will cleaning time, which means that we get to go home at 4:10, twenty minutes earlier than usual. Yes! During that break, I went to find Alice, who was, as usual, in the library.

During winter vacation, most of the seventh and eighth graders have to come back for cleaning, two classes a day. Sporadically, I'd see people either cleaning the toilets, staircases, or sweeping the floor. Poor things. Luckily, Victor's class doesn't have to come because they did well on cleaning during the semester, which means I won't run into him during school. Great!

Had lunch, which was (yum!) pasta, at the historical area with Alice. It was just the two of us, for a change.

There was one period of Geography (which is always interesting) and two of math in the afternoon. During Math, we mostly just did mock BC tests in the new workbook. Mr. Xu says he hopes we can finish a chapter a day. Not really likely, in my opinion. I'll do my best, but I still don't like math.

Between the two periods of math was cleaning, which I don't think anyone did. As soon as the bell rung, most of the boys clustered around the table in the 'teacher's corner' and lined up to play ping-pong. They either play this or cards, because Miss Chen banned them from playing basketball a while back. Come to think of it, she's banned playing cards long ago too (and so has the school), but they don't care about that. It's easier not to get caught playing cards than basketball.

I went to find Alice during cleaning again, and I went with her to the teachers' office to get today's homework and her marks. It turned out that her Math had failed. She got 56, just one question away from passing. Really bad luck; out of the ten questions she guessed, she only got one right. Since there are only four choices, she should have got at least two right, but didn't. Well, maybe she'll do better next time, having used up all her bad luck.

We ran into Tiffany there (her class, 905, is in charge of cleaning the office). Her marks were better than mine, this time. Sigh. She says she would have done much better if not for English. Same can be said of me, only it's Chinese.

Ariel said she had to go back to class after school ends, to get her textbooks, so we decided to wait for each other at the main gate.

Got eighty-something again on the Chinese afternoon test. I'm satisfied with that; as long as I get over eighty on everything, I don't mind.

We got to go quite quickly after that, so I plugged in my earphones and stood at the entrance waiting. Ben passed me and asked for candy, as usual. It was then that I realized with horror that I'd left my lunch bag (all my empty containers/food/wallet are in there) back at the classroom. Darn it.

I had to run back to the classroom to get it, passing Martin, Debbie, Christopher with a bunch of boys from 912, Pan, Leo, Joe, everyone really, on the way. How irritating. Thank heavens, the classroom wasn't empty when I got back, so I grabbed the bag and ran back out. I found out that running while carrying a bag is much more tiring than just running with no load.

I waited for Alice with increasing frustration. Why didn't she turn up? Finally, at five, I lost my patience and headed home, seriously ticked off. School had ended half an hour before; I'd stood there and saw most everyone in the ninth grade come out but her. Grr. Next time this happens, I'll tell her that I won't wait for her anymore, and if I see Christopher I'll just go with him. Hmph. Alice never was very punctual, but that is not a good habit. And I'm pretty sure I didn't miss her. How could I, when this is the only route she can take? She must have been held up or something. Whatever.

Mom wasn't home when I got home, which meant that Victor was playing computer games and watching the television at the same time.

I made myself a cup of instant soup and got out the laptop. I always feel better when I'm surfing the net, reading stories. At five fifty, I put it back and started practicing the piano. Today's class is at half past six.

I had to cycle to piano class by myself today. It was actually quite nice, being relatively dry and cool. Except for the noise of the traffic. I still really like playing the piano, and I was feeling okay by the time I finished the lesson.

Dinner was the leftover pasta from yesterday, which was fine. I spent the rest of the night just relaxing…though the guilt of not studying one bit was always there. It's so irritating, but I don't really feel like studying at all when out of school.