Mud

Today I went back to school!

Well, I also went back to school last Monday, but when I arrived there on the back of my host dad’s bike, the gates were shut and locked, (yes, we get locked inside the school during the day), and we were told that they were resurfacing the schoolyard, (but not in so many words). The next day we weren’t sure if they were done with the schoolyard yet, and no one answered when we called the school, so we figured I should just enjoy some sleep. Tuesday and Wednesday nights I was up late with college applications, (by late I mean 3 or 4 am), and Friday my parents decided it just wasn’t worth it, and Saturday was Shabbat so I don’t attend. Because no one really needs 6 days of school anyway.

Of course, when I finally went to school today, I did get the expected questions about where I’d been all that time, but since my obligations towards school are limited, I’m pretty used to that. (Here’s the Rotary Youth Exchange deal on school: You should go except in the case of a cultural experience. Well I can’t have any cultural experiences if I’m too tired to move, so exhaustion rules out school too). But they had more to answer for, since the schoolyard for which school was closed last Monday is more of a lake than ever, every huge and stinking puddle of dirty water ringed by a beach of sticky mud.

I’m only going to say nice things about school, though there are a few things that I’m sure I could complain about, because I’m not here to be negative about anything. Because it really is part of my cultural education, I mean it’s part of the culture here that real kids get sent off every day to wear monochrome uniforms and identical hairdos.

From now on, my dad will drop me at school in the morning, and I will get to skip about half of the maths class that I’m not even taking, meaning I’ll actually be getting a good amount of sleep per night, if I don’t stay up too late writing blog posts, which I’m . . . oops. Then I move around between Science classes, retreating to the schoolyard for classes like Fashion Design and English for which the teachers don’t usually make an appearance. There I sit with my buddies and talk and gossip and get covered in schoolyard dust until the bell rings for the next class. It’s a nice bell, a real bell, not like the ones we have in the US.

I really don’t miss school in the US.

What I *do* miss are my mama’s oatmeal cookies.

Just FYI.