Pandemic Anecdotes

Chapter 12

17th of August, 2020

It is now time for the first virtual day of classes. And everyone is already wrapping up their elongated summer breaks for the entering of School Year 2020 - 2021. I wasn't quite sure yet on where do I do my virtual classes but for now, the dining table will do for the meantime.

As the day started, I realized that some of the traditions in school are still adapted to this day, to say the least the unannounced schedule of until what time are we to have classes. We were given a class schedule, of which in the first three days would be the adviser's orientation. The other subjects we would be having today are General Mathematics (nooo, my worst enemy), Oral Communication (that's interesting), another Communications subject (for us, it's Komunikasyon), and finally Media and Information Literacy (a Grade 11 Computer subject).

The first schedule was weird to be honest. At first, I don't like having classes on a Saturday. Secondly, Physical Education, or PE for short, would be met twice-a-week with an hourly schedule. It meant that passing of physical tasks or activities would to be truncated in order for them to be done within the hour. Finally, Religion is actually in the first subject of a Wednesday and last on a Saturday. Okay? We good with that weird schedule then.

Of course, I was surprised by the day that James and Marcus, are actually my classmates, along with David and Andrew, two childhood friends that I've never mentioned in this story since the first 11 chapters. Anyhow, the day went according to plan. Or so I thought I would.

During the introduction of General Mathematics, my internet suddenly went super slow, causing my feed to become a bit laggy. I first turned off the camera and typed the excuse of my sudden off-cam. While there, my internet is starting to go back to normal. Despite it's going back to normal, every time I turned on the cam, it would suddenly lag. Now, it's personal. I simply pulled off my camera cord in frustration of the slow internet, and remained off until the end of the subject.

Next up came Oral Communication. And let me tell you that I didn't leave this subject without a smile in my face. The teacher is super chill, like really down to earth chill. She made sure to everyone that we can call her subject OralCom instead of the longer word, since it's a bit too "syllably".

What came next is the other Communications subject, the teacher is in between a down to earth chill and a mother. Reminds me of the former High School days in between Grade 8 to Grade 10 life.

Lastly came Media and Information Literacy. I've known the teacher before as she was my adviser in Grade 7, and became my Computer teacher last school year, which was suddenly a back-to-back meeting with her again. After the first day went by, I gave a big huge sigh with regards to the experience. I'd never wanted to encounter again another sudden internet interruption, as I've had a horrible time during General Mathematics or GenMath for short.

This day didn't came out as sunny by afternoon after all. In fact, it was actually very rainy when I finished classes. While it was a great opportunity to finally have my first experience with the virtual learning world, it's quite sad that you can only catch up if you have the proper internet connection and prepared enough data just to catch up with a lesson.

Even though, actual classes (like learning lessons and stuff) don't start until Friday, I guess for now, it's best that we still have to do an orientation of our own in the Teams platform.