May We Remember...?

The other day was 9/11, so apologies for this slightly belated post. It was kind of interesting to see how the day is treated in the country that it happened in, because I mean, in NZ it's not really a big deal, It's sort of something that happened long ago and far away. Here that is not quite the case. September 11th has been officialy commerated as Patriot Day, and although there is no day off for it there are certain things that must be observed. Any flags flown from homes or goverment buildings must be flown at half mast and there is a moment of silence at some point during the day.

Also in psychology we watched a movie called '102 Minutes That Changed America' which was essentially pieced together footage from various sources that covered (funnily enough) 102 minutes starting just after the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. There was some unsettling stuff in that video that I'd never seen before, but the two that got me the most were shots of people jumping out of the buildings and falling ALL the way to the ground and the huge dust cloud.

When the first tower collapsed it sent this gigantic wave of pulverised concrete and debris flooding down the streets of Manhattan and you could see people running full tilt down the streets with it following them but tey would just be enveloped. Once particularly eerie sequence was some guy with a camera running down the street away from the cloud but it catches up with him and everything turns this horrible murky brown.

As far as respectfulness and honouring the day goes it's to varying degrees, my psychology teacher made a huge fuss out of it but I suppose that's fair enough. People at school though seem a little nonchalent about the whole thing but I can sort of understand why. They were all seven eight or nine when this happened and so it's a little hard to summon up the kind of horror that people who were older at the time must have felt when it occured, they remember, but only just. Some people said they didn't even know what the World Trade Centre was at the time (neither did I), a lot of the staff refer to it as 'your generation's Pearl Harbour' but it's not really, it's THEIR generations Pearl Harbour because they are the one's who are able to identify most strongly with the tradegy, most of them wouldn't have been alive (or if they were they would have been of a similar age; 7, 8, 9) at the time of Pearl Harbour (December 7th 1941 if anyone's wondering, but you could always ask Harry) so they would have been similar to people my age in regard to 9/11.

Also I thought it might be more of a big deal in Pennsylvania because of the hijacked plane that crashed in the field but I'm prety sure it never even got mentioned

Ok I'm done with that convoluted ramble, I hope you can undersand what I'm trying to get at. Also I know I obviously didn't take the pictures but I felt like I had to put SOMETHING up.

Lots of Love

IT'S A BOMB!!

Hello again everyone!

Time for a new update. I'm now into my second week of school and so far it's been a rather interesting experience. My school is called Red Land High School and is one of two high schools in the West Shore School District, the other being Cedar Cliff High School and APPARENTLY there's a huge rivalry between the two.

Annnnyway, I figured seeing as I'd already passed school in NZ I may as well take a whole load of subjects that I wouldn't normally take an as a result I've ended up with: mass media I and II, German I and II, English IV, psychology, photography and 20th century history. Paolo, this should interest you, you're no longer the only one who has preferential blocking. When I went to select my subjects most of the rest of the school had already done theirs and the 12th grade guidance counseller (who fulfills more or less the same role as Ms Kilian) shifted people out of classes so that I could take what I wanted, I feel kind of guilty but o well, they'll live.

I don't have any pictures of the school but I will get some so don't stress to much, however, one thing I can say about the school is that it is, for lack of a better word; prison-like. The entire 1300 student school and their myriad classrooms is contained in a single brick building, but that brick building is huge. It consists of two storeys and houses around 60 classrooms, a library, pool, gym, tech block, everything.

Adding to the prison atmosphere is the fact that once you're in, you're in, the doors lock behind you when school starts at 7:37AM and you can't leave the building, apparently this is something to do with bomb-threats and someone was telling me that last year the school was evacuated every second day for a mont because of some kids fucking around and making false bomb threats. Lunch is eaten inside in the cafeteria and there are four different lunches; I have first lunch at 10:30 which is kind of lame because I'm not hungry... Also, iPods, phones etc are confiscated on sight anytime, including lunch and flex (which is similar to study period but MUCH more restricted). You can only go to the toilet once or twice a day and this requires a pass from the teacher. It's strict, especially compared to ye olde' WSC, but I'm getting used to it.

In the corner of each class hangs an American flag and every morning at the beginning of the first period the entire class stands, turns, faces, and says the pledge of allegiance while the American national anthem is played over the loudspeaker. Luckily I myself don't have to take part in this activity as at this point in time I am on a bus to my first class which is outside of school grounds. Another thing which is taking getting used to is getting up at five to six in the morning to get a ride to school with my friend RJ, but in the afternoon I come home on a big yellow schoolbus! which I shall also get a picture of.

Now, for the answer to the question I'm sure you've all been dying to ask: ARE AMERICAN HIGH SCHOOL STEROTYPES REAL?!?!?1!?!! And the short answer is yes, to a certain degree.

For one thing, my school looks more or less exactly like the kind of schools you see in the movies, and the two accurate sterotypes I've come across are that football players are arseholes and that cheerleaders for the most part are annoying and girly and wear to much make-up. Now, bear in mind that when I say accurate I don't mean that they are spot on but you can definately see where they came from and how they are perpetuated, some people fit them perfectly, others a little but, some not at all, also I've been called a scene kid more times than I care for, but by people who have no clue what they're talking about anyway.

That's all for now, but once again feel free to leave comments and ask questions or send me emails or whatever!

Lots and lots of love