Anyways, sorry I haven't been posting as much lately but I suppose it's a good thing because that means I'm getting more settled in here. Things have settled into a normal routine. I've been here for a little over two months and I know my Spanish has improved so much. I can more or less understand almost everything someone says to me in Spanish (Castelleno, at least. Valenciano is another story...). So, everything's been going pretty well. I love my family and my friends, and my language is improving. The only thing I hate is.....SCHOOL.
I've honestly never hated school in my entire life, I've actually always quite liked it, so this is a new feeling for me. The reasons? First of all, I don't understand any of my classes, besides Castelleno, because all of my classes are in Valenciano. Second of all, I don't exactly like my teachers. Some of them are nice, but I've noticed they don't have the same passion for their jobs as American teachers do. It's just what it sounds like...a job. After class ends, they're out of there, so there's no staying after and getting extra help or anything.
Also, everything's really casual here. We call the teachers by their first names, which is so weird to me, and every day is casual Friday here for teachers. My teachers always wear jeans and are really relaxed, but I feel that it takes away from the respect that students are supposed to have for their professors. I don't know, I just am not crazy about the way they teach here.
Also, when you enter high school here, you pick a route, Math, Science, or Letters. I am in Science, (Even though I hate science!), for the sole reason of needing science classes to be a senior when I come back to the U.S. Anyways, when you pick a route, that's what your in for your entire high school career. You have the exact same classmates and teachers every year, and after summer break you pick back off where you left off. So, everyone here knows formulas and equations from the year before that I've never learned before. My teachers don't explain them, because everybody already knows them. Not to mention the science and math courses are so much more advanced than in the U.S.
Science and math are my worst subjects anyway, and it just makes it so much worse when they are harder, and in Valenciano. I get so frustrated in school because I don't understand anything, and sometimes my teachers don't understand, and are unsympathetic (mainly my math teacher, who I dislike more than anyone else I've ever met). Sometimes I'll come home from school and just want to sleep, because of how tired I was from trying so hard to understand, and also because I just want to cry because of how terrible it is sometimes.
My notes that I take in school are actually pretty comical. They're all in Valenciano, and since I don't understand the words (and most likely, the handwriting of my teacher as well), they come out looking like really weird words in English. It's kind of funny. For example, my math notes say something like "sun 35, cat 35, tan 35". I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be sin, cos, and tan, but I can't be sure because this is literally what it looks like to me every time.
Anyways, I now have a math/ chemistry tutor. I've only had one lesson so far, but he was really nice and taught me a lot better than my actual math teacher. Hopefully I will be able to understand a bit better now, and school won't be so hard. Sorry for the rant. I needed to get that out.
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