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 Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2008 7:33 pm
I've got several things I want to talk about.
FIRST
I need to tell you a bit about Mexico's education system:
3 years kindergarden
6 years elementary school
3 years middle school
2 or 3 years high school
If your school uses two mandatory languages, you'll be introduced to the second one during a year before elementary school.
Which means that I'll be older than most students in practically every high school, but the one at my school.
So I have up to February to choose any snob private high school I'd like. I have three options: ITESM, UDEM, and SPC [my school's high school, where I would be a normal age].
ITESM: I'd get a 60% scholarship.
Prices are like $4,000 a semester, length is 6 semesters.
Extracurricular activities are any you can think of [if they don't have it, you can get 10 students and they will get a teacher]; third language options are Italian, Mandarin Chinese, French, German, and Japanese.
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UDEM: I'd get a 60% scholarship, possibly 90%
Prices are like $3,800 a semester, length is 6 semesters.
Extracurricular activities are purely academic; third language options are French and German.
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SPC: I'd get a 90% scholarship.
Prices are like $3,180 a semester, length is 4 semesters.
NO extracurricular activities; OBLIGATORY third language is German.
...so I don't know where I'd like to go. Help me?
UDEM is the only ecological high school in Mexico, it's IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST. And my sister is there, and she loves it.
On the other hand, all my friends will enter SPC.
SECOND
I went to a pep rally yesterday!
It's not like, before a sports event, but very similar, but it was to show us what UDEM was like. We were divided into teams (pink, orange, yellow, green, and blue), I was in the green team (which is like, my school's color).
So, "General Jacob" gave us a small introduction. He seemed like so mean at first, but he was actually a really nice guy. It was like "So you're laughing at what I say? WE'RE SERIOUS, THIS IS WAR. 10 push-ups!! Now!" (xD)
Then he divided us into the previously mentioned teams (oh wait, he said we were not teams, we were called commands. He called us units sometimes, too), and he ended up being my commander.
Then we went to our base, and had to construct a fortress with several bags full of leaves.
His reaction?
"Guys, your fortress sucks. A squirrell is gonna come and throw it down."
We had to compose a war chant.
"GUYS, we've gotta go in two minutes and you don't have it yet?! gonk scream "
We had to make a flag.
"GUYS, SERIOUSLY. Just tie it already, the markers don't work."
So, we were the worst command when it came to spirit.
Since we lost the war chanting, we had to do the "Tiger's Jump" as our first challenge. You had to actually jump through two hoops like if you were a tiger, and we looked hilarious.
So all the unit managed to get through, which gave us a point. :D (that means we were at -1 points, since we'd lost 2 since the war chanting)
Since we had passed the challenge, we went through the second challenge (the one for the units who had lost only 1 point during the war chant) where we had to get inside these sacks and jump tires. My team won, which left us at 0 points.
Oh, the challenge for the units which had actually won a point during the war chant was to "steal" the bandana of the opposing team, which they had to wear as a belt.
So, after this, my command had lost whatever little spirit we had.
We went back to our base. Lots of us had hurt our wrists, and, in my case, my left ankle (which HURTS).
Our base was in an elevated place. It was circular, and it was on top of the library. In the center of everything was a huge tree.
The next challenge was to try to steal flags from the opposing units (my team had to steal pink and orange). We could hide it, but it had to be visible. My command hid it in the tree in the center of the base (note that our fortress was in the base, but it was only a fraction of it).
IT WAS SO DAMN DARK IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FOREST, AND IT WAS ONLY SIX O' CLOCK.
So we were giving neon glow sticks in our unit color, as all the other teams. We intended to hide them, but if we did, you'd see nothing but black.
I was left, along with four other unit members, to guard the flag.
...it got stolen. Two yellow command members discovered our base, and after nearly fifteen minutes of struggling, one of them managed to take it (well, Rossy and I were trying to hold down the girl who had come along, who was yelling to have yellow come over. SHE BIT ME, but I didn't let go. AND the guy who stole our flag is a national boxing champion). So all of us but one went to look for General Jacob to tell him we had lost the flag. When we found him, he was like
"...seriously? We don't have a flag? WE'VE GOT TO FIND THE YELLOW BASE!! COME ON!!"
Then, when all of green was gathered together, we went to the yellow base, disobeying any orders of doing the trap challenges we got into (lawl. No other team did that, but we would run away whenever we were called for). The yellow team had bottles of water, and the green team was soaked when we managed to get the TWO flags they had at their base [pink and blue. Green was not found! But we recovered it from...team blue, I think]).
So we hid them at our base, and then abandoned it. With no people there, no one guessed we were hiding flags.
So, five minutes before the flag war ended, we found ORANGE.
WHICH WAS THE FLAG WE NEEDED TO WIN.
And we struggled against orange.
And struggled.
And pulled, and pushed, and got stepped on, and thrown to the floor, and soaked again, and dirty, and sweaty.
General Jacob pulled us girls apart from everything, since he didn't want us to get hurt. THEN YELLOW AND BLUE UNITS CAME IN.
It was a fight among 60 people, for a flag.
Yellow noticed it was orange, and left.
Most blues obeyed what the rally leader said, and left to the general headquarters at the right time.
BUT THE GREEN / ORANGE STRUGGLE WENT ON FOR HALF AN HOUR, UNTIL THE LEADER SAID NO ONE WOULD GET THE FLAG.
So I left early, because a friend was taking me home.
So it seems my command won, and they got a 2 GB Flash Drive, a pen, and a book bag.
¬¬
THIRD
I am reading Anne Rice books.
I love it. I'm reading "Servant of the Bones". It's the best narration I've read since "The Hunchback of Notre-Dame"
I felt compelled to start with her vampire series first, but decided against it based on the book review opinions.
Ah, good stories and a great narration. I missed that since I read Twilight (no offense to those who like it. But Anne Rice has a great book, the first one by her I ever read, called "Pandora". It's like, practically the same story, but it has so much drama and there actually is suspense and terror in it)
My mother loved the Twilight movie, by the way. I was like gonk , since I had kinda liked Anne Rice's vampires since I can think (thanks to my older sister).
FOURTH
GOSH, I TALK TOO MUCH.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 10:18 am
doesn't where you go change like the uni's you can get into and stuff? And don't you want a HELLA awesome education?
I'd say the second one, because of the scholarship, and it sounds like you love it, and it really does sound good. It's not hard to make new friends
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 12:04 pm
Don't sacrifice your education for your friends, because they aren't the ones who will have to live through the results.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 4:22 pm
I think I must add on to something.
SPC is my current school. I've been there for almost ten years, it's where I grew up, where I developed a personality; I've lived a lot there, basically every important thing in my life.
The entry exam there is supposed to be really really difficult, and when you graduate, your level should be high enough to enter any university in the world.
If I enter UDEM, I'll live with what I've hated the most in my life for the past three years: my parents thinking I should be like my sister.
My average at school is 98, hers was 100. My parents keep reminding me that I should be like her, that I should take the decisions she takes, that I should dress like her, that I should walk like her, that I should do anything the way she does. :/
Though I do have possibilities of getting the 90% scholarship, I doubt that I would. Supposedly, this year it will not be awarded to a single student from each school, but to any student who gets an exceptional average on the entry exam.
Well, I may not be the best student at school, but when it comes to those USA sent exams, I've always been the best. Both in my school and in my whole city and state...
Also, there's something else getting in the way. I had always wanted to enter SPC, but they say that two years instead of the usual three give you a crapload of homework.
Now, I want to enter this music school in the afternoons. Two hours a day, six days a week.
And I have very strong reasons for wanting to enter. Everyone who knows me in real life knows that singing is like MY ONLY TALENT. It is also the only thing I've liked my whole life, ad the only thing I've never ever stopped practicing.
Several other people know that losing my voice would make me kill myself (and I mean it).
SO SPC DOESN'T SEEM TO GIVE MUCH TIME, but it's only during two years of the six years I'd study to finish music. UDEM gives THE SAME amount of homework, but during three years. gonk
...so you might have by now noticed that I've never been allowed to take decisions, so I don't know what to do now. gonk
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:23 pm
Wow, my HS is 4 years. D:
dood, ITESM has a SLEW of languages. At my HS, we have French and Spanish. Any other languages? Tough s**t, pick one. (I'm lucky to know the Chinese & JP I do) I like it for the languages, but it seems to have the least nice price, length, and scholarship.
UDEM looks okay. SPC looks like a copout of a year and forced German ick. But its mostly paid. D:
My Pep Rallys are boring. HICK TOWN EW. I usually skip them.
Read the Kathy Reichs "Bones" books. They're good.
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Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 6:43 pm
Luna Amatista I think I must add on to something.
SPC is my current school. I've been there for almost ten years, it's where I grew up, where I developed a personality; I've lived a lot there, basically every important thing in my life.
The entry exam there is supposed to be really really difficult, and when you graduate, your level should be high enough to enter any university in the world.
If I enter UDEM, I'll live with what I've hated the most in my life for the past three years: my parents thinking I should be like my sister.
My average at school is 98, hers was 100. My parents keep reminding me that I should be like her, that I should take the decisions she takes, that I should dress like her, that I should walk like her, that I should do anything the way she does. :/
Though I do have possibilities of getting the 90% scholarship, I doubt that I would. Supposedly, this year it will not be awarded to a single student from each school, but to any student who gets an exceptional average on the entry exam.
Well, I may not be the best student at school, but when it comes to those USA sent exams, I've always been the best. Both in my school and in my whole city and state...
Also, there's something else getting in the way. I had always wanted to enter SPC, but they say that two years instead of the usual three give you a crapload of homework.
Now, I want to enter this music school in the afternoons. Two hours a day, six days a week.
And I have very strong reasons for wanting to enter. Everyone who knows me in real life knows that singing is like MY ONLY TALENT. It is also the only thing I've liked my whole life, ad the only thing I've never ever stopped practicing.
Several other people know that losing my voice would make me kill myself (and I mean it).
SO SPC DOESN'T SEEM TO GIVE MUCH TIME, but it's only during two years of the six years I'd study to finish music. UDEM gives THE SAME amount of homework, but during three years. gonk
...so you might have by now noticed that I've never been allowed to take decisions, so I don't know what to do now. gonk Yeah? I've lived somewhere AWESOME forever, and then moved. It's shaped your personality? Then MOVE. You're not going to develop more in the same place. If you don't want to go to UDEM, don't. But it sounds like your decision is made. you're going to go to SPC, you don't want to go to UDEM, you don't look to be considering ITESM. The hell did you ask for our opinions if you're just going to say we're wrong?
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Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 3:16 pm
Hirun Hikari Wow, my HS is 4 years. D: dood, ITESM has a SLEW of languages. At my HS, we have French and Spanish. Any other languages? Tough s**t, pick one. (I'm lucky to know the Chinese & JP I do) I like it for the languages, but it seems to have the least nice price, length, and scholarship. UDEM looks okay. SPC looks like a copout of a year and forced German ick. But its mostly paid. D: My Pep Rallys are boring. HICK TOWN EW. I usually skip them. Read the Kathy Reichs "Bones" books. They're good.
The reason I like ITESM is actually the languages. xD (And if you gave me the choice, EASY: Italian)
My aunts and uncles and everyone say I'd love it there. Besides, my cousins are there.
But THE PRICE. D:
Even if I'm not the one who'd be paying it, there's a big difference between ITESM and any other high school I did investigation on.
Actually, HS is two obligatory years, but most high schools decide it's way too difficult that way and extend it to three.
That's the only reason.
Pixie: You have several points I should consider.
Like, really really think over.
And despite whatever it may seem, I'm considering each one just the same. I have arguments for and against each one.
ITESM has Italian, which is the only language I've tried to EVER learn (I was forced on English and German). But the price! D: And my scholarship would be lower.
UDEM has like everything I love, but it's a Catholic high school (that's the only thing I don't like about the school itself).
And SPC has nothing I like except that I would be able to get done learning German (I have as much knowledge of a language as a two-year-old :D), and that my friends would be there.
But I'm the kind of person who is so stupid and such a coward, that I am afraid to try anything different than what I know. ANNNND I get nostalgic about everything to an extreme point.
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Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:10 pm
SPC Sounds to me like a dead end. You had a wonderful childhood there, yes, but now you have to choose your future, not your past. Move on, even though it'll be difficult, it'll be for the best. It really seems like the worst of the three options-- ITESM sounds like the best, even though it does cost the most.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 1:51 pm
I LOVE CAPTURE THE FLAG. Its so brutal and violent and you get to scheme and steal flags and be all blood thirsty and scream mad I would be so crazy if I was at your pep rally thing, I would kill them all mad
ANYWAYS You should go to UDEM. Because its affordable and better than SPC. And breaking out of your comfort zone is really, really good for life experiences. Plus it will help prepare you for when you leave home, which is an even harder transition.
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Posted: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:16 pm
I KNOW, IT WAS A GREAAAAAAT GAME.
But two hours was quite a lot of time. And I was so full of dirt and twigs and minor cuts. xp
Also, a mini update!
My friends told me that especially someone like me might have no future at SPC. biggrin
...no, really, they told me that.
And then one of them started arguing against herself.
"Aw, it'd be so awesome to have you with us for two more years!"
"DON'T LET YOURSELF BE INFLUENCED BY YOUR FRIENDS."
"Aw, but it's been five whole years! ;_;"
"Don't listen to her, you need to follow your dreams!"
It was quite entertaining.
So, I'm now tied between ITESM and UDEM.
ITESM has better student exchange programs, but the ones at UDEM are more friendly.
And I'd have to investigate which one offers more programs to study outside the country, because GODDAMN I WANT TO TRAVEL. crying
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