My day in highschool...

Tuesday:

I got up and did the whole morning routine with everyone at 5:00 and then I was off to school again, except this time with my cousin who is in high school. I got there and was not surprised by the amount of swearing I heard or all the girls hanging on the guys and the guys picking on all the girls. We walked to her first class which was art. We sat down at her usual table with three other kids and then the teacher looked at me and said, “Emily take your friend and go sit in the back of the class.” I was like uh oh, I got my cousin in trouble. It was all good though I guess the table was just too crowded or something. The project for the next week or something was to make a mobile. A mobile is a hanger with stuff hanging off of it. The teacher wanted it to be more of a balance though, because “You highschoolers are more advanced than the 2^nd grade so I want to see that.” About half the kids were pretty good and then the other half just goofed around. One kid brought a small bottle of vanilla extract and then dared one of the guys, “Mayo”, to drink it. He did and smelled like vanilla. I helped Emily with the idea she had, but then the teacher pretty much said it as ugly and unattractive and nobody would want to look at it. So then I suggested my own idea and it turned out better... well it started to, but then class ended.

We went to her second class, which was Geometry and I enjoyed that. The teacher was kind of quiet and didn’t always wait for the class to be quiet, but I guess that’s their fault. We learned the same thing that my other cousin learned except on a harder level. The warm up problem was really cool. We had to find the height of a triangular stack of pipes that each had a diameter of 8ft. It would be easy to say that it was 16, but the top pipe sinks in between the other two a little bit so it less than 16. The way you solve it is by connecting the center of all the pipes and forming a triangle. Based on some thermo all the sides of the triangle are 8ft. So then you know the radius is 4 feet. Then you know that half the measure meant is 8ft (because they gave you that info, and because when you had the two radiuses you get that answer). So then you have to find the little gap in the middle of the pipes; to do that you have to find the altitude of the triangle. So you draw a line down the middle and turn it into two right triangles. You know two of the legs one is the diameter length and the other is the radius length. So you us the Pythagorean thermo to solve it and you get the other distance, which was like 4([sqrt]3) or something. So yeah... I liked it J

The last class she had was Chemistry. That class was a lot of fun to. The teacher was very on top of it and in control of the class and I liked that. We did a lab where we had to heat baking soda and do some different measuring. It was a lot of fun... we also had to wear goggles... ugh...I don’t like those :P After that we ate lunch and then she went to this class room and read for 20 minutes. So I picked out a book and read some of it. Then we had to go to her Spanish class because she had to fix something and I almost fell asleep. It wasn’t actually class time; some kids were just looking at their grades. I was struck with the fact that for most kids Spanish class it a waste of time. A fair portion of the class does the least amount possible because they don’t want to learn it and they skinny by with a passing grade and forget it all. I say this with experience. I’m not sure how to fix that problem, but in the long run I don’t think it’s worth it for most of the kids if they barely make it through the class and then learn nothing anyways. Wouldn't they be better off learning something that they might do a lot better in, that is then more useful to them? I don't know.... anyway

After that we went back to her reading class and my uncle came and picked me up. He said hi to a couple of the teachers there and then we left. We went back to the other base and went to a renting place where we got boots and skis for me. I didn’t fit their size 13 boots so I used size 14 ski boots... yeah, very big! We then filled the tank and hit the road to Oberstdorf where we were going to go skiing. We listened to some music, talked, got coffee and snacked. It was a very fun trip. The GPS (Maggie) took us on a very different route there, but it was really pretty and I’m glad we went that way. My uncle and I got to Oberstdorf in about 4 hours. I got a peek of the mountains when we went to France, but when we came down this winding road near Oberstdorf I saw the Alps for the first time and I was taken aback. They were so amazing! And the landscape was beautiful. There was no where to pull off and take a picture so I just forgot about my camera and took the time to just soak what I was seeing in! There was some dense fog so you couldn’t see all the way up, but I was still amazed. We arrived at about 8:30pm. The place we stayed at was super far back in the valley of the mountains, but had a great view! It was a small little house with some rooms up stairs. The room had a couch, one gigantic bed, a shower and sink and then a deck that you could go out on to. It was just right. J

I took some pictures off the deck of the incredible mountain scene, but with the fog the pictures really don’t show it well. We got our stuff all settled in and then both of us went to a small restaurant, where we were the only ones, and had something to eat. I had some apple strudel with almond ice cream and vanilla sauce. It was pretty good! We then got back to the “hotel” and got ready for bed. My uncle did some reading and I wrote a letter and then we went to bed. He told me to nudge him if he started snoring and I told him the same. Not five minutes after we went to bed he was snoring. I just put my ear buds in and let him sleep. I fell asleep myself and never heard him again.

It was a very fun day! Part of it I was in high school for the first time and then 4 hours later I’m at the base of the alps sleeping in a small “hotel” awaiting the next day to go skiing! Thank God for safe travels and an amazing day! J