Friday: the 12th

These mornings are starting to get worst. I'm thinking about drinking coffee or at least taking pills (I'm kidding). Anyway we got on the metro for an hour long journey of hot, underground frenchness. We got to school, and first things first English. The only problem is that we know have a teacher, and we're doing work! Summarizing, ughhh. In summary "I hate summarizing". Next was chemistry, which is pretty easy we're just doing last years work. After that the class where I pretty much just copy down french about the romantic periods, and play games in my head like count how many times she says "uhh". Next was French! and I'm doing really well in that class. I've got to tell you something that I might have already told you. Okay, so this one time Byong Jong (this Korean kid in my class who's kind of shy) didn't do his homework. So he's up in front of the class and the teacher says "Byong Jong, why didn't you do your homework?", and he looks down and says,
"Uhhhhh, I don't know what homework is." I'm pretty sure he just didn't do it, but the teacher made sure to explain it. After that class, and then lunch it was on to Geography, where I'm sorry to say, but I forgot to say what we did in class (It must've been my nap time), after GEO, it was on to the much awaited ORCHESTRA! Now this is no where near as cool as Band, but it's okay. I did get to goof around with the guitar, and the teachers really nice, but the guitar parts on West Side story are wicked easy. I could probably do it in my sleep. So after that I lugged my guitar case home and updated my blog from about 2 weeks ago. (I'm trying to get you guys up to date!)
Peace.

Wednesday- The one week anniversary of the first day of school!

It was just another morning in Paris, Pain de Chocolate, (a chocolate pastry) for breakfast, rushed cramming of backpacks, the usual. I got to school, and being a Monday it started out excellent with French class. We're learning a lot like how to describe ourselves, and other people just in case I see a crime being committed I'll be able to describe the person in French. After French it was on to Business where we're learning how a business runs, and what not (boring stuff). After that it was ICT where once again we just checked our emails, although this time he did have a questionarre for us which was extremely funny to read because he had very obviously written in Arabic, and then used an online translator. Let me give an example of some of the questions.
Do you know of web browser Firefox?
What computer sort do you own?
What sports like you to play?, and my personal favorite....
Do you like the questions I have posed on you on the paper?
So that was fun, but after that I had math which is getting better, I'm kind of worried though I've got a DST on Monday (a dst is a big test, and after that it was the last class of the day Art. And now I know the teacher doesn't like me because she looked at my art (a drawing of the Eiffel Tower), and said "It's not very good", and then she just walked away. So much for constructive criticism

Monday: The 8th of September

First of all I'll give you a quick rundown of the weekend. I went over to Marcos' apartment on Saturday, to play video games, eat McDonald's, and what not. On the way taking me back I got to tell them my address and do the GPS thing, which was pretty cool, and Sunday was as usual...lazy.
So it was back to a long week, although this one was a full week, so I could only hope to survive. So Monday rolled around, and after an hour with the Metro I was on to my first class Biology, and I know I've said it before, but Chelsea must be at least 2 years in advance, because this year we're learning about parts of a cell, which is like 2 years ago work. Anyway, next was English which was a relief because of course still no teacher. Next was History with Mr. Thompson, one of my British teachers. I really like this class, I'm actually learning things that are useful, like 20th century Europe, and what not. (thats the 2nd time I've said "and what not") Then it was off to my personal favorite class French! Then the tie of my favorite class lunch. The rest of the day consisted of math and art (my two least favorite classes), but don't worry I lived through it. After that (4:00) It was finally time to head home.
I guess since this is "The Oldham's Many Adventures In Paris" I'll talk a little bit about the other (less interesting) Oldhams. So Liam loves his new school. He says, "I have 14 friends, but I want 20", but that's just Liam randomness. I'm not sure about Chloe yet she's been kind of hard to read, but I'll get back to you. Mom doesn't start school for a little while so I'm not really sure what she does all day, but she seems happy, and finally Dylan and Dad I hear they have been doing great with home schooling. So now that I've typed this I'll get back to watching Beatles videos.

Friday: The 5th of September

It was Friday, morning and it was still hard getting up at 7, (I'm sure I'll be saying that all year) The previous day had been easy school had gotten off at 1, because Sport (P.E.) hadn't started started yet, but today was my full day lasting till 6 o'clock. Luckily school started out with English, which meant break because we had learned that the old English teacher had, "left the country for personal reasons", so everyone in that class got an hour of free period, which meant standing around and talking. After that luxury, we had chemistry with Mme. Grandjean, pronounced grahjahn, it was pretty fun to say. Now I'm not dissing the French or anything, but they're a year behind Chelsea, Vermont in the science department all the material sounds very familiar, but I guess that just means easy A. Next was Music, and being a lover of music, and player of music I had my hopes up. When I got in I immediately learned it was going to be one of those everything in French classes. We're learning about the romantic period in the 19th century which wasn't exactly what I was expecting but what ever. Its kind of funny though, in all my classes that are in French the teacher will talk for like 15 minutes, and she'll ask someone to translate for the English speakers, and one of the bilingual children will say what she said in one sentence. It kind of makes me wonder what all they're saying. Next was one of my favorite classes French. The teacher is so nice, and I'm learning a lot (I should be fluent by the end of the school year) which is pretty cool to think of. We then had lunch, and I went down to whats known as "Canteen" where the kids who pay for their lunch from the school go. I bring my lunch, but I go with my friend because otherwise he would eat alone. And let me tell you, that food is like air plane food, it's EXACTLY like airplane food. Even the cheese was airplane. It looked French, it smelled French, but it was airplane. Anyway, after that it was on to Geography. I thought this class was going to be like the capital of this is this, and the capital of this is this, but it's like history of the geography. I like it, and plus our teacher has a cool British accent. Math was next, and I'm kind of scared of our teacher. He's got a French accent, and I can't really tell when he's joking. One minute he's laughing, and then the next he's yelling. I'll definitely update you on him. Orchestra was my final class of the day. We're going to be the playing West side story, for the play at the end of the year. Mom didn't let me bring my guitar because she's always cautious, and saying "I payed $120 to bring that thing here", so this time I just listened. I think I'm going to like this class. It reminds me of when I played for Annie, in Vermont...good times. Anyway, finally it was 6, and I went home exhausted. On the way Chloe told me we had got Internet, and I got really excited. But I had wait the next day for mom to put the software on. And I'd like to take this opportunity right now to apologize to the readers (Brandi Smith especially) for not updating like I promised, but the internet swept me up. I'll try to be more faithful.

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.....REALLY

Okay today was the real first day of school. We had classes and everything. By now I was established in the community of 9th grade. Not well-established, but people could most likely remember my face. The name might take a while, but the face probably stuck. One thing I have noticed is that none of the teachers can really pronounce my name at all. It's always pronounced either like cahlehb, cahleeb, or on a couple of occasions cableeb. I've kind of let this slide because its kind of funny watching them pronounce my name, but all the kids know my name. And on that note, all the kids speak really good english, while all the adults have super thick accents. That day I had Business, English, ICT, Math, and Art. We skipped French because we were getting assigned lockers which aren't really lockers, there really just little cubbies that close that we have to share with another person. Business is okay, I think that may be the class where I catch up on my sleep, we didn't have really have English because I guess the teacher is in Argentina or something, so we just stood in the hall for an hour talking and what not. ICT was really cool because we just got an hour of free period on the computer. Our teacher has a really thick Arabic accent, and he keeps repeating that we are going to "Brock the compooter!" (Break the computer), so that class is pretty cool. After that we had lunch (you can actually go out to eat for lunch! But I stayed inside) I continued onto math, which is not my favorite subject, but by the looks of it I should do okay this year. The whole class is on this two year program I.G.C.S.E, I think. Where we learn like algebra, geometry, advanced algebra, statistics, triginometry, etc. all at once. That may sound crazy, but it's two years, and plus we're starting out with identifying numbers so I think I got this. After math art was the place to go. The art teacher I soon learned barely spoke English, like some of the adults in the building. So most of the time I was just nodding, then asking one of the bilingual students (there are a lot) what she was saying. We drew pictures of who we are where we're from, you know all that stuff. By the way she looked at my drawing I think she liked it. She said something about and then walked away, so I guess I'll never know. After art it was finally time for home I met mom outised at around 5, and we made our way home.

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL.....KINDA

Okay today was my first day of school....kinda, because we didn't have actual classes, but the new students were supposed to meet the returning students, and we're supposed to hear about the rules, and you know all that junk. So my mom and I headed on our way to school. When we got there I already knew the building because of the placement testing, and I also had a "posse" if you will, of friends who I could talk to. Which made it a lot easier, because upon walking in I found that everybody knew everybody (except me of course) It was basically the newbies standing around in a bunch, and the returning students rowdily talking about their summers and what not. This went on for a while, but finally we ushered into a classroom....well to be more accurate a basement. But when I say basement, I don't mean like dark damp boiler room basement, but nice carpeted basement. It was our home room. The teacher (with a thick Irish accent) began to call out roll call. There was an arrange of names from Neeloy to Nozamoo. I began to look around I began to notice all the diversity, and I'm not talking like Diversity Day in Chelsea Vermont where you go on a virtual safari or something, but this was "The Jungle". We proceeded with the rules, all that junk you know, so I'll just to skip to lunch. I had began to hang out primarily Marcos (the tall Brazilian), and Maxine who I figured out was from Australia. But it was here at lunch that I met some future buddies that I will now list (please note that the spelling of the names are probably inaccurate): Quentin- Now I'm not completely sure of his complete story, but he's french, but he used to live in London. He's really cool, and really obsessed with Borat. Neeloy- Neeloy is from India, and he's also really cool, and really obsessed with Borat. Girls- I just decided to put all the girls into one catagory because I'm too lazy to separate them. There are two Americans Drew, and Casy (NY, and NJ), and there's another Casy, and a whole bunch of others, that would take up many hours of my valuable time. The bottom line is that there 37 kids in my grade (I think), and all of them seem to be nice. Like I said it was a half day so after that I got picked up by mom. I was happy the day had gone well, but I was worried about going to school till 5, and on some days 6 o'clock. I guess we'll just have to see how it turns out.

Announcement #2

Okay everyone since I have started school the blog will not most likely be put up on a daily basis, but more of an interesting day basis. But don't worry there are many interesting days in the Oldham's Many Adventures In Paris. Sometimes it will be updated daily sometimes not, but what you can count on is interesting stories from the Oldham's. At the very least every week I will recall some of the times we've had.

Day 18 Aug. 29th

The second day of testing was upon me this morning. Today I had Reasoning, French written, and French oral. I woke up and got ready to head our the door. I didn't have to wake up at 7 like last time because my test started at 10:15. It was a stressful trip there, much sweating, and running around. Finally we got there (this time I had a backpack). My mom figured out what time to pick me up, and I was on my own. I immediately greeted "The gang" I guess you could say. Mark, Maxine, Zeno, Dimitri, Dag, and others, and sat down to my test. It was fairly easy, and immediately after I got the French written. Now the French....bot so much. I had no idea anything that was on the page. But the lady said that it can't hurt me or anything it's just to see where I am. At first I pretty much went with the "When in doubt go with B" philosophy, but I eventually asked the lady, if I should be doing this if I had no idea what I was doing. She told me just to skip to the story part. So I tried my best to describe the story, but it mostly sounded like, "Boy to see television, boy tired, boy test bad" It was about this kid who for got to study for test, and fell asleep watching T.V. So I got the jist of it. After the test, I waited out in the hall for other people to finish. While I was waiting, I met a new guy. I don't remember his name, but he's from Indonesia, and he plays Guitar Hero. Eventually they came out. Dimitri, had to leave but the remainder of the day was spent hanging out and talking with Zeno, Maxine, and Guy from Indonesia. (Mark didn't take the French test) We wandered around for hours because the next test wasn't till 2, exploring the building, talking eating lunch. It was in this two hours that I got my family's uniforms. Mom told me we would be picking them up today. Eventually we ended up in the hall way. I had found a guitar (a really crappy one), and one of the teachers let me borrow it. They seemed pretty impressed with "The skills" It was about 1:30 and by now more people had come. I met two American's! They were from Utah (brother and sister), and the guy seemed really cool. I was playing Beatles tunes, and he would sing along with me. And guess what? He said he played guitar a little bit! I may have found my Paul Mccartney, or John Lennon, or whatever. They also play guitar hero, but they left theirs in Utah. They also mentioned there was a 9th grader girl from New York, so it looks there were more than I realized! It was at about this point that the French oral started. I did a little better on this one, but not by much. I think it's safe to say I'm going to be in beginners French, but we'll see. After that I took my box of uniforms outside where my mom was waiting. We stuffed them in our backpacks, and after making a quick detour to the park to check our emails, we headed home, where of course Liam wanted me to play the worm game

Announcement #2

YES!!!!
Shout it from the rooftops! The Oldham's have internet, and phone!!!!!!