Today was my first day at school. To be honest I didn’t even know what I was expecting.
I couldn’t grasp the idea of summer going to be over for the past week. And here I am, in the school year. I will remember every single day of this summer. It has been arguably the best summer in my life. I made a car out of wood, I had the entire Vietnam family here for the first ever time, I went to Europe (still can’t believe it), and reflected for the last few weeks. Honestly, it felt like a couple days. I still remember building my car like yesterday and now I’m going to school. I can honestly keep repeating this and it will just get more emotional and deep.
Today mom and dad drove me to school and I notice that I wasn’t particularly nervous when I entered. I was more… excited. I have always despised school changes but I was for some reason especially looking forward to this one. I think I have developed my social skills a lot since my last school change. When I came in, it was obviously very awkward but I thought that since I already knew some people because of the party a couple weeks ago, I would have someone to talk to temporarily. I kept on looking everywhere for those people but only bigger grades were here and one person from my grade that I didn’t talk to. Eventually, after a couple minutes of walking back and forth, some people I recognized arrived and we all got settled. All the 8th graders sat in the big room and talked to Paloma which is a Science teacher. Here we call teachers by their first names to feel closer and more casual. The school itself is really small, way smaller than SJS but it doesn’t feel too weird yet. After setting up our computers, we had recess which we can go outside for. It’s also very normal to go outside at VISST because they even allow it for 15 minute recesses. After that we split into pods. Pods are a new concept to me and the school. It’s basically a group of people from varying grades responsible of an area in the school and also like a discussion group before school meetings. We got to know each other in the pod and after that we had an activity to break open a box with riddles and get the surprise. We got an initial clue which was “how many times a rock spins around a hot thing”. Someone instantly thought of Earth because it spins around the Sun. We put 365 in and it worked. After many boxes in boxes and locks in locks, including running to find a code under a table in the Chemistry lab, we finally got to the final box. The box had 2 locks and 2 clues. One of them was “the price of a medium cappucino at Blenz Coffee”. That meant someone had to run down to the cafe downstairs and ask for the price. The other clue was “the leading digits of a round number”. At first we didn’t know what it meant as in round so we thought about 000 or 360 but someone mentioned leading digits which meant it had to be a long number and related to round somehow. Pi. That was the answer and it worked. So when we pulled out that lock, it accidentally pulled out the second lock too. We were shocked, was this supposed to happen? So the run down to Blenz Coffee wasn’t even necessary? We all laughed at it and got to the surprise which was candy. It was a fun activity and I got to know the school, the students, and the mood in the school better. After this was lunch, which was elongated to 1h30 today. That is very long and I sat at a table with Paloma. We talked a lot and she asked a lot of questions. Turns out her mother is also from Vietnam but she can only speak French because of the colonization. After that a guy sat down on my table and after a bit of introducing and eating, out of nowhere he just says: “I actually have that exact same shirt”. I was wearing a Mercedes F1 shirt at the time so I asked if he like F1. He did in fact and oh, we talked for half an hour about F1 and this season. I didn’t even realize it but I was talking to a 9th grader on my first day of school and I was so deep into the conversation too. I think that if you have many hobbies or interests, it can be easier to find and socialize with people. It was a very cool experience, finding someone who also shares the same interest with you, especially on the first day of school. And also thanks to the fact that VISST only has like 60 people, so I basically get to know everybody in the entire school pretty quickly and easily. After lunch break, we got into our pods and did a briefing for the school meeting. School meetings are basically assemblies but students and staff get an opinion and it is very free to speak. Shaun, the co-founder, also my pod leader, and a cool guy, will talk about some things that are happening in the school or need students opinions. For the start of school, he talked about clubs, improvements to the school, device policy, and everything. It was actually really long so I was getting very bored but it felt so special to be there listening to it. It was a very special type of school and I’m not sure if I will like it but I sure am right now.
That was pretty much it and I hope everything goes fine from now on. And even though I had so much fun, chilling in my room in the dark without worry just hits different. I don’t want to go back.
Today was my first real day of school. I came there and suddenly I had to put my phone in a holder at get it locked away for the rest of the day. First class was Math and all my classes today were going to be in the Mountain Room. I have very quickly gotten used to this school and I’m pretty much comfortable here now. I sit with two people called William and Andrew. They are both pretty chill but Andrew is always messing around since he is comfortable now and is really “mặt dầy” when he talks to the teachers. It doesn’t matter that much. All classes today were pretty boring because the teachers had to introduce themselves and show us the course. The math teacher is pretty cool, and he gave us a diagnostic test to see our skill level. He said from this he can modify the program if he needs. I find that since VISST isn’t a big school, teachers can modify and change the program and course to fit our needs and knowledge. It feels really cool and feels like I am noticed. I have gotten pretty close to Andrew, William, and maybe Hudson and Lucas. There is actually a Hudson in my new school that looked the exact same as Hudson M when he had long hair because the new Hudson also has long hair. He is a pretty nice person. Lucas I feel like only cares about girls or something which I am not bothered by but we still talk sometimes. On Wednesdays, we have 2 English blocks back to back and since the blocks are 1h15m long it adds up to 2h30m. There’s obviously a break in between but it will probably get boring pretty easily. And especially today because the teacher was talking so much to introduce new material. The first class we had an activity where she put us in groups and we had a couple questions to interview each other. It was so fun with William, Andrew, and Hudson but they will never replace my old friends. Speaking of that, it was SJS’ first day of school today and a lot has changed coming from my sisters and friends. The schedule has changed and instead of homeroom there is advisories which is like an activity time split into houses and whatever. Because of that, classes now start at 8:10 which gives you even less time to get warmed up and talk to your friends before school starts. In grade 8 homerooms also don’t matter that much since the classes are mixed up so you can still have class with someone from the other homeroom. However, Azan still says that he doesn’t have any classes with Hudson which was probably on purpose because they are very trouble making. I’m very sad that I am not going to school and spending most my day with my friends anymore because I had a sleepover (hangout) with them a couple days ago and they really fit my humor. That is why we are such close friends and it will be hard to find someone that fits me that well since one grade here only has 18 compared to around 45 in SJS. I am having more fun and honestly just more happy in VISST though. I will obviously miss the old environment and people surrounding me but hopefully I can make it through. I am getting emotional writing about my friends because I know I will not be with them the entire school year and we will eventually go from basically seeing each other for most of our lives to hanging out if we are free. I have my first practice of the season and also my first Div. 2 practice later today so I will write about how that goes. I am very stressed but also excited for Div. 2. I hope it won’t be too hard but I know that I will have to get used to not getting the best results because it’s not like I can dominate like I did in Div. 3. Anyways, talking about my second day at VISST again. We had the second English block which I honestly forgot what happened except that we walked outside to the VPL. Last block was French and I was actually not bad. I could understand most of what the teacher was saying when she was talking in French and my pronunciation was not that bad compared to the French immersion students. I introduced myself in French too.
Day 2: I had two sciences and we got to build some new furniture for the classroom like electric tables and cabinets. They were all from Ikea and the tables were pretty cool so I helped out a lot. Andrew is very chill and might actually be my long term friend. French was normal. Did nothing much. Did a diagnostic exam and I probably did pretty well. Last block was Arts. Arts is actually interesting because we do all types of art. First unit will be photography, then drama, film, and finally post-production. The teacher is very, I don’t know how to say it, jolly? Whatever, I think the year will be pretty cool and I also get to do this with the 9th graders.
Day 3: Today was Friday, and the entire grade got to go on a high ropes field trip. We used the public bus there and it was pretty cool. Andrew is very chill and funny. The activities were fun and we did one that there was a ball on a cone and we had to get it with some materials without going inside a circle around it. We used a rope with a bucket in the middle and somehow held it across the circle with trees and used another rope going across to push the ball in the bucket. It was cool and fun with the group and I got to know many people. The actual climbing was okay, my hands were burning and in agony from the belaying and the climb was actually pretty hard because I suck at it but it was fun. I loved pulling and slacking as a group and giving people wedgies. I opted out for the ladder activity but I still had to belay for all of the people so it was exhausting but it was honestly fun. Ciara or Kiara I don’t know is a pretty cool person and that’s pretty much it for today. When we were using the bus to get back to school, we took the 16 which also went past my house so I just went off early. I have a Div. 2 soccer game tomorrow at 8am. I am very nervous but I just want to contribute somehow and I don’t need a star performance. Thank you mom for supporting me and bringing me even though I know you don’t like it. I am also scared of the opponent tomorrow but I have nothing to lose and nothing to expect.