Philly Adventures: General George A. McCall Elementary School

The greatest thing about moving across the world is a longer winter break and skipping a grade. I finished half of second grade in China and entered third grade in Philly after a month off from school. In January my parents sent me to McCall Elementary, about a fifteen minute walk from where we lived (707 9th and Bainbridge Street-Google map it). Most nerve racking moment I've ever experienced to date. That's why I remember it so well.

I walked into my third grade class and the teacher introduced me. She was a tall black woman with black curly hair and a serious demeanor. I dragged my broken black book bag across the classroom to my seat. The longest walk of my life. Everyone's eyes were on me. I can imagine what they were thinking. 'Who is this kid?' 'Another Asian kid?' 'Does he speak English?' I put my butt on my chair as soon as I could and tried to drift off into anonymity. They were going over multiplication tables that day. I've had this stuff memorized since the first grade. The question on the board was 3 x 5. Nobody knew what it was so I raised my hand and wrote in very small numbers 15. The teacher got up there and erased my answer!!!! WTFFFFFFFFF??? Do they do multiplication differently here? Was I wrong? What the hell kind of place is this? The teacher then wrote in very big numbers 15. Oh!! wow I panicked for nothing.

Later in the day I decided that I needed to try something. My mother had told me the day before that if there is one phrase I needed to know for school it was "May I go to the bathroom?" hahahaha, she got the grammar right, too. So I decided to try it out (I didn't even need to go). I raised my hand and asked. I can't even remember if I said it right, but it created a reaction. She called another Chinese kid up and gave me a brick with a number on it (our room number I later found out), and sent us on our way. I followed this kid down to the basement and the whole way I was thinking what the hell is this brick for? And did I ask the right thing? I asked him in Chinese if he was leading me to the bathroom, the kid did not speak Chinese
-____-. I was about as confused as an 8 year-old could be. Finally, in the basement we entered the boys' bathroom and that is where I saw urinals for the first time and toilets separated by walls and toilet paper available (mind blown). The kid was kind enough to show me how to use the urinals, not on purpose of course, he just needed to go and I followed his lead. Great, now I knew proper bathroom etiquette in American public schools; it wasn't much dissimilar from China, except you needed a pass, hence the brick. When I got back class ended and it was lunch time!

Lunch SUCKED!  Now I know that it was penne pasta with meat sauce, juice and a bag of chocolate milk. The pasta came in a microwaveable container, so it wasn’t as fancy as it sounds. At first I thought they were steamed scallions. Who would eat such a thing? When I used my fork (which was also very foreign) the pasta just broke down. It had been steamed so much it dissolved if you touched it. I didn’t eat that day. Another weird thing in America culture is recess (they even have a cartoon dedicated to it). WTF?? We play in school? Wow, did I just die and go to heaven? We played tag and wall ball mostly. There weren’t anything else to do but we were pretty happy with it.

It turns out that the black teacher I had was a sub and the next day a white lady came in. Her name was Ms. S and we had to call her that. I was wondering why her name was Ms. S. I knew it was a letter in the alphabet so for a while I thought all teachers were called by a letter. Ms. S had these heavy earrings that dragged her ears down and you can see the holes being stretched out in her ears. Gross! She was very nice though. After a month Ms. Lane came in, our regular teacher. Apparently, Ms. S was also a sub. Ms. Lane had some kind of accident and the class welcomed her back enthusiastically. A week later she brought her dog into class. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF?????????????????? This is when I decided that America is the oddest country in the world. The dog shit everywhere and took pisses on desk polls. Funniest thing I've ever seen. I learned nothing in third grade but assimilated to the culture and learned English. My ESOL teacher was awesome! She gave us prizes for reading small books and learning words. Those two years really helped. In fourth grade I had Ms. Castleberry. The best and most influential teacher I've ever had. You will learn about her soon.