Ok, now I'm exited. JUST ONE WEEK TO GO NOW! The last/stretch before Xmas! Yep, this Week everyone was in the Christmas mood (Teachers included), my Class was barely even controllable! Its been slowly boiling inside each of our minds since November:
Christmas is coming....
Christmas is coming.....
Christmas is coming....
...CHRISTMAS IS COMING!!!
Yep, the finish line is now in s I was really feeling that Christmas vibe this Week, so much so that the moment the Week began I just couldn't WAIT for it to end! Because not only was it near Xmas, it also marked the start of the winter Holidays! Of course, the School wouldn't just let out of the door Friday evening without having first undergone several challenges and hurdles now, would they? This Week had it all, from Parent Evenings to hard, pressure-ific Tests, to Mornings in Church, sad goodbyes and even me singing! And also lots of boredom, but you throw Christmas into the mix everything becomes boring in comparaison I suppose...
So lets start with Monday the 13th. German I find is one of those lessons where I can be absolutely outstanding at it one minute, and then completely crap at it the next. I always feel uneasy during this particular lesson, and for all I know the Teacher could throw a surprise Test at us on something that we have completely no idea what we're talking about! Monday wasn't that day however, and things went fine, apart from the announcement of a big Test on Thursday. Science was probably the highlight, as experimenting with pure carbon dioxyde was pretty fun. Art was a real treat: as the Maths Teacher was away on a School trip with the 3emes Class, the Art Teacher gave us two options: we either work on the computer (doing the the same 'mysterious element' thing like last week) for an hour and then we can just do a bunch of Maths exercises that the Maths teacher had prepared for us...OR we could just work on the Computer for TWO hours. NO CONTEST. It was mainly just me fiddling around with all the photoshop tools for two hours and learning how to make some kick ass pictures (the demon portal one I am especially proud of).
In contrast to the fun Morning, the afternoon was quite boring, perhaps because I really wanted the day to end at that point (every day now feels like a mileston overcome). I can basically describe it like this: HISTORY = ZZZZZZ, FRENCH = ZZZZZZ, FLE = ZZZZZZ. Job done.
Tuesday was more of the same, Maths turned into a complicated Brain teaser (I hate fraction problems!), but at least I made an effort to get them right...and surprisingly enough I really did get all of them spot on (for once)! THE MATHS GOD HAS STRUCK MERCY, YEEHAH! The three hours (THREE HOURS!) of History and French were once again one BIG bore fest (I was seriously losing interest at this point, even for my Class, who became increasingly hard to handle, chucking bits of paper and rubbers across the room from behind the Teacher's back, we just didn't care at this point and wanted Christmas to come NOW!). I noticed several people had started wearing Xmas hats in the playground too, and the giant School Christmas tree had been put up too, so there was definately a strong Christmas vibe going about. English had a certain sadness about it though, as the Teacher, M. Onno, confirmed that he was leaving at the end of the Week (due to a few health issues and a long overdue retirement), and that he was to be replaced by a new, younger, healthier Teacher that was in actual fact English! Apparently this new guy was born in New Zealand, raised in England and has only just come into France. The Class gawped when the Teacher said that he knew little French (obviously NOT a problem for me). German was sadly another bore fest, along with Extra Maths (Its like Maths, but more of it!), so not really much to comment about there.
Tuesday night was the Parents evening, and for the most part, it went extremely well. To be honest, the Teachers didn't have alot to say to me, just that I'm the best pupil in the world (could participate more though), and with scores like 18/20, there isn't really much to say other than that. The Maths Teacher said that she is really trying her upmost to help me, simply because she knows I can do much, much better than this. What shocked me the most was when she said that most people who enter 4eme (who have all had extremely good reports in the past) do tend to drop a few a points in the first Trimestre. It was almost like she was creating excuses for me being bad in Maths, when perhaps she was just forgetting to think that: 'I'M JUST THAT BAD IN MATHS, PLAIN AND SIMPLE AS THAT, OKAY?' She also expressed her opinion that 4eme is much harder than any of the other Classes before it, and she was amazed at what good Results I have garnered. In French the Teacher explained that although I am good in some areas of the subject, she feels that I kinda drop the ball when it comes to grammer. Can't argue with that, cos' I suck (S-U-C-K) at grammar. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not just going to sit idly by and watch every Maths and French Test go down the drain and just dismiss it as a: 'What can I do, I always suck at these subjects!' , because I (at least most of the time) really try to put an effort into getting the highest Result possible, even if I can only truly aspire to get a measly 10/20 every time. In hindsight they were almost too positive about me, as I could now write right down quotes about what the Teachers had said to me that are so full of praise-fulness and adoration it would just blow your mind out. Basically, what I'm saying is that its almost too good to be true. You'd think I was their favorite student or something listening to half of the stuff that they said!
'6eme was a hard time for you, lots of difficulty in the language, hard relations with certain students...but in 5eme its like you just sort of found yourself, its like we found this polished diamond that grew and grew until now, where you're the Top Of The Class! Every subject superb marks, I mean you learn your History, you learn your Technology, you learn your Art, you know your stuff: Tim, its just quite simply incredible at what you've acheived in two Years!' - M. Riallin.
'Polished Diamond'? 'Incredible'? 'Top Of The Class'? Could that truly be me? Or perhaps its just a little bit over exaggerated: I mean, for starters, my Results aren't that incredible (admittedly they are good though), I only got a 14,89/20 Overall score and that was just because of my best subjects, and I'm only fourth in the Class Overall, not the complete Top. It was undoubtably a positive reaction though. And in case you were wondering, yes, I am overwelmingly chuffed. The only problem now is that I really have to sustain this amount of excellent Results, I can't really slip up once or my perfect scores will go down the drain (if it wasn't for that stinker of a German Test, I'd bet that my Score would be at least three points higher than the measly 15,50/20 I got). That's mainly one of the problems that I have with getting all these great Results, it's just the sheer pressure, the absolute weight of everything that's expected of you and what ultimately...does decide your future. To put that weight onto someones back, someone who's future that hasn't yet been pathed out like the future of a man who's employed and is currently earning dosh, is just colossal when you get down to it. Because it's at this stage when everything clicks into place, this period where we get our first job/house/life where all the main decisions are made and set in stone. Here we decide who we want to be, where we want to be and how do we want to be for the rest of our life. And thats the emotional strain that is, ever so slowly, starting to tug upon me, because this is the point when we get to choose our future. Kind of like in Mass Effect 2 (oddly enough), because all of those decisions that you make threw the course of the game does ultimately decide how the Game will end. Maybe I'm thinking to much about this SH*T for right now, although every time I go to School, it's present in my mind. God it sucks going into adulthood, when you was a kid things were so much simpler and less complex...
Wednesday....oh boy. The good news is that because the Sport Teacher, M. Dany has gone to Spain with another School, there is no Sport. YAY! Bad news is that because we've got no Sport we had to sit through another hour of Perm (we already have one Hour of Perm on a Wednesday anyway), with no Homework to do what-so-ever. B-O-R-I-N-G. At least in Technology we got an Hour on the Computer (I've finally found that light/mouvement detector thingy, so thats good). And even worse, it turns out that my Geography Test didnt quite go as well as I had thought. A score of 18/20 in the first Trimestre for History/Geography, was no mean feat: I had to get near perfect marks in EVERY single Test. Looks like my hope for beating/matching that score has now been dashed, as my latest Test has earned me an awful, pitiful, down-right-evil score of 15/20. 15/20! Can you believe it? Its like all my nightmares put into one! ME GETTING A 15/20? ME?! How could this happen? It turns out, it wasn't what I got wrong, it was what I forgot to put on the Test. A few of my answers weren't complete enough, and I had colored in Spain with the wrong colour! I made *GASP* five mistakes! FIVE! I WILL NEVER LIVE THIS DOWN! Its been my lowest score in the subject for nearly a Year. A YEAR! This kind of failure only deserves the EPIC FAIL title:
Thursday, was a bit of a mess. I had big two Tests to revise for (Maths and German) and I wasn't even really sure if either of them would turn out to be good or not. Well I failed the Maths Test due to a simple error that I would normally never commit in Class, so it was a bit of a by-product of the short time limit to complete the Test plus the added stress factor of it being a Test (you can see how this can send someone completely insane, can't you?). Thats not to say I failed it completely though, I managed to put in enough good stuff to warrant a 6/10. I felt a little bit inferior to be honest, most of the Class had got good marks. Score No 2 for the EPIC FAIL this Week. 'CHRISTMAS IS CORRUPTING MY BRAIN!!!' M. Radenac, my Sports Teacher when I was in 6eme took the reins from M. Dany (who was still absent) and we were forced into Ping-Pong. M. Radenac is one of those Teachers where, although being as strict as hell, does alot of charm underneath that rough exterior, so he was for the most of the time alright. But that didn't stop him from writing a dozen words to the Parents of the kids that had forgot to bring in their Sport's bag (bit unfair if you ask me, they didn't bother to bring their bags in because they thought there wasn't going to be any Sport anyway, what with the Teacher being absent and all). And mark this Day in your calenders folks because for once I wasn't bad in Ping-Pong! Can you believe it? I DIDN'T TOTALLY SUCK THIS TIME! This time the score board was about even-even, with two draws and one very close win (another five seconds of match and I would have won, GOD DARNIT!). After the Holidays its the Test, so I had better not lose that sudden winning streak that I had going at the end! After Ping-Pong it was time to head down to the Church, for the annual Christmas celebration:
Sorry, did I just say Christmas celebration? More like a shambles, It was sooo poorly prepared. Every time the music didn't work the Head would just give the microphone over to the batty priest, to again recite how good Christmas was and that we should all believe in Jesus. It was very much the whole: yadda....yadda...yadda...believe...in...us...or...you'll...burn...in ...hell-type thing. I almost fell asleep half way through and the songs were just one big 'WE LOVE YOU JESUS!' The only good thing about it was that we were all given Chocolates at the end. Heck if they did that every sermon I'd come! Once the ill celebrations were over we all retired for good ol'lunch.
After lunch was the longly feared German Test, one that had scared me for Weeks on end. I was so paranoid of getting a bad Result that I even revised during Lunch, a feat that I rarely do. The Test was really, really hard (Just as I expected). Alot of it was on words that we hadn't even seen before, but the Teacher was generous enough to add in a few bonus questions that could help to get the Score up. Well the Results are in, and I can say, that despite hours of preparation, I only garnered a 14,5/20 in total. Much better than the people around me, but still another failure in my eyes. SIGH. Are my 18/20 days truly over, or is this just the Xmas spirit corrupting my brain? Hopefully things will pick up after the Holidays. Music was, as per usual for this Week, BORING.
Friday couldn't really be classed as 'an average School day' mainly because of one reason: the entire day was one big excuse for a party...
In Fench we watched a film on one of Guy de Maupassant's classic fables (seen as we're currently studying him), and it has to be one of the most depressing things I've ever seen! Okay, so its about a rich married couple, who, for some reason can't have a baby and want to adopt a child from a Family in exchange for a ton of money. The first family they meet refuses, but the second Family, who are poor and in much need of money have no problem what-so-ever in giving their six-year-old son away to a Family they don't know ANYTHING about and will probably never see again! Lets just say it doesn't end well, by the end its pretty much one big messed up disaster of a family. The mother commits suicide, the Dad dies of alchohlolism (ouch big word) the kid dies of an illness, people get put in prison....the whole thing is just one big depression-fest! If you don't want to commit suicide by the end of this movie 'Aux Champs' I'll be amazed. And S.V.T was no better, because in that we saw a movie about the Pompei fiasco (we're currently studying volcanoes remember..) and you know that doesn't end well! 'Happy Christmas everybody, now let me show you this cool movie about a gigantic volcano that explodes and wipes out thousands of people in a whole manner of increasingly gruesome ways!' Okay so for starters EVERY single character in the movie dies at the end: A pregnant woman dies of gas poisoning, while her boyfriend takes poison and kills himself! Earthquakes that quite literally (finally got that spelling error fixed) tears people to shreds! Ash clouds that not only fills your lungs up with fluid and burns you inside out but then encases you in your stone tomb amist thousands of people suffocating! Wasn't the happiest of mornings was it? At least we had no lessons. The afternoon was one big farewell party for M. Onno, who was almost in tears. The amount of goodbye things I had to sign...from postcards to drawings to posters to books to...well just about everything! He was overwelmed with the all the gifts and cards he recieved from his students. The last hour was all of us sat in the canteen, being served hot Chocolate (it is Christmas, afterall!) and cake and even more Chocolates, it was a veritable party! He made a very emotional speech about how much technology has changed since he first arrived, and he said that the first photocopier he saw cost nearly £1000! It was all very heart-tugging, to be honest I don't think I've ever felt such a way about a Teacher before! Then again, he is the Teacher that keeps giving me scores like 20/20...so that's probably it. And just before the final minute doomed, we all got up and sang his favorite song: 'Imagine' by John Lennon (http://youtu.be/XLgYAHHkPFs). And yes, even I piped up and sang for once. I must say, if I was a Teacher that had spent this long in a College then this is certainly how I would want to go out. Even his wife showed up, who seemed equally as sweet. Good times, and for once I felt grateful for going to School (These feelings rarely happen though, maybe once or twice a Year at best...). And that was it, now I can just revel in my pre-Christmas Holiday!
So all in all it was quite an emotionally charged Week, with the odd case of SEVERE BOREDOM thrown in for good mesure. Hopefully things will calm down a bit after Christmas, so I can really get my head down and work hard after all the Presents have finished being unwrapped and the fire-crackers have all been burst, and even when all the festivities calm down....not forgetting the Doctor Christmas special, of course. Well until then, or maybe before New Years Eve, don't really expect much from this blog, perhaps I'll do a post on all the pictures from Xmas day but nothing of this magnitude. So long (for now) and I wish ye' all a very merry Christmas!
'So long, M. Onno, I hope you have a happy retirement.'
P.S Only five more days to go, the wait is just KILLING ME!!!!!!!!
Fantastic Tim, you have achieved so much over the last 2 years. I hope you feel really proud of yourself :-)
ReplyDeleteCan we see the 'Demon Portal' image that you did in photoshop? I'd love to see more of your art.
Love Aunty L
PS Only 3 more sleeps 'til Christmas....