A Year of Summer: vamos a escuela!

So highschool here is not exactly the same, or even similar to Canada. I go to a 'technica', which differs from a 'normal' because there are classes like mechanics and wood and metal shop. But even though I go to a technica I don't have those classes because I'm in the science branch of the school system. Basically I'm here because it's where my host sister goes, and when school starts in the new year in March I will go to the escuela normal which is closer to my second and third host families.

So I will use today as an example of typical day. I got up around 10 and went for a run. Josefina got up and went to school for 7:30 but I only have to go in the afternoon. Which is a godsend because if I had to do 8 hours of school a day here, I would probably go into a coma. Franco and Josefina get home from school around 12 and we have lunch. Lunch is the big meal of the day here, and always includes bread and some sort of meat. I think my host family has been making an extra effort to put vegetables on the table because they know that I would prefer to eat vegetables over meat and starch. After lunch we ride our bikes to school for 1:30 and have classes until 5:30 or 6:45 if we have gym. Today we did in fact have gym. We played volleyball and it was THE MOST IRRITATING HOUR OF MY LIFE. I'm not exactly a star volleyball player... I couldn't even make the school team; but these girls are awful. They screamed for an hour straight. I felt so bad for our male gym teacher, it must be so frustrating to deal with these girls. The other classes are 2 hours long and extremely boring for me. So far we haven't really done any work except in math. I'm actually a little confused as to how these kids learn, because for at least 2 of the 4 hours they sit around and talk while drinking mate and eating cookies. With the teacher. They talk about the classes subject, but I don't understand when they actually learn about it. After school we ride our bikes home and have a snack. They eat constantly here, it's pretty much their favourite social activity.