Day Five: High School Part Two

It’s funny, when I first started at my current high school, I thought it was just about the most confusing building I’d ever seen. But it literally has nothing on the high school in Japan. I walked in feeling very confident about what I was doing. I swapped my shoes for the slippers just as I had the day before, and started off down the hallway. I knew the room I was in was on the fourth floor, so I started up the first set of steps I came to. There was just one problem: My classroom wasn't there. Hiding my panic, I tried to look like I’d just wandered up onto the fourth floor on purpose and had every intention of going to my class as soon as I was done looking at other classes.  I walked back down, looked around, and walked back up again. My classroom still wasn't there. I repeated this action several times, as if by repetition I could will it into existence.

When the fourth floor still wasn't doing what I wanted it to do, I walked to the staff room on the second floor with the intention of asking a teacher for help. I got to the door, peeked in, and stopped. I really didn't want to go in there. I wound up sort of hovering outside, smiling vaguely whenever a teacher inside made eye contact with me. Eventually, the English teacher from the day before came out and helped me find my classroom. I suspect that one of the other teachers probably told her that “The weird Canadian girl is just standing outside staring in forlornly. Can you go find out why she’s acting like someone just died?”

In the long run though, I don’t really care how it happened. I’m just happy that I found my classroom.

According to my schedule, the first class of the day was supposed to be math. In fact, by the looks of it, everyone else thought it was supposed to be math as well, so when the Japanese teacher came in, we were all a little confused. I’m assuming that she explained the reason for his absence, but I don’t really know what it was. So it happened that we had Japanese before math instead. This class quickly began to irritate me when the teacher kept standing directly in front of the line I was trying to copy. It was like she was doing it on purpose, because I’d start a line and she’d shift to stand in front of it, so I’d go to start on the next line, and she’d move just enough to block both lines at once! Then, when she finally did move, she’d point out something and her arm would hide the one character I needed. Tell me, how could this possibly have been a coincidence?

After Japanese class, the math teacher showed up looking alive enough to proceed and the day continued as normal. That is to say that I tried using “Serina’s System- For When You Just Don’t Know What Else To Do” again, and unfortunately it failed utterly this time. It’s a pity that he no longer thinks I’m some kind of genius, but I’ll probably never see him again anyway. And admittedly, he never actually said that he thought I was a genius.

This class was followed by Japanese history. I spent the entire class once again copying from the board. It really felt as though the teachers had some kind of conspiracy going though, because the teacher always managed to stand in front of what I was trying to copy too. And when he wasn't in the way, boy-in-front-me took over the position with his head of anime hair. (Do you have any idea how distracting that is?)

The final “class” before lunch was an evacuation drill. Although personally, I don’t think that it taking ten minutes for the school to evacuate to the gym is the best way to go. What good is the gym gonna do? It’s part of the bloody school! And ten minutes? I’m pretty sure that the top floor would be completely screwed.

At lunch, I sat in the group of girls again, and partway through two students from a different class came up and started talking to me. They both had very fluent English, and the boy spoke French as well! I would have asked them where their English got so good, but the bell rang and they left. Plus I’m not very good at thinking on my feet, and honestly, the question didn't occur to me until much later.

My last two classes of Japanese High School were biology and physics. Biology went much the same as the day before, but I understood physics. I even did several of the questions. It was in this class that I really longed to understand Japanese, because the teacher kept making the class laugh.

Before the end of the day, one of the girls I’d talked to a lot brought me a gift. I was able to return the favor because I had been thinking ahead that day and I’d brought some presents. It was very nice of her, and I’d like to perhaps meet her again someday.

At the end of the day, I went to the ikebana club (Japanese flower arrangement) and made a couple of arrangements myself. Only one of the girls there actually spoke English, and it wasn't the teacher supervisor. Communication was very interesting. Whenever an idea was successfully conveyed to me, everyone would cheer.

 After that class, two of the girls took me for a short visit to the kendo club. This was entertaining because I got to watch people hit each other with sticks. I wish I could have stayed longer, but I knew that I had to get back soon, and I only watched for about ten minutes. This was followed by a short visit to the badminton club where I played a game with three other students. It was fun, and again, I wish I could have stayed longer.

By then it was past five, and I decided I’d try to find my own way home. I thanked the ikebana girls who’d led me around the school, and waved goodbye as I left the premise. Then, I was too focused on not getting lost to think too much about school. I made it to the busy street and paused in confusion. Unsure of which way to go, I decided to continue along the sidewalk. A couple of steps in this new direction revealed the gas station I’d gone to the other day, and I realized that I actually did need to cross back where I’d been. Retracing my steps, I crossed and, thankfully, found my way easily from there. I was feeling pretty proud of myself as I entered the house and confidence was one my side, so I decided to wing it and use the term I’d heard used in anime when the character arrived home. As it turned out, I was right.

I've found watching anime has proved useful in a few situations. For example, I probably would have attempted to jam my bag into my desk had I not known about the hooks on the side.

And in conclusion, based off these recent occurrences, I’d like to think that I’m no longer prone to wandering off by mistake and drowning in a gutter somewhere. I’m not saying my sense of direction is great, but provided nobody moves that black truck, I think I’m all set.