Waiting for the Train

This morning I woke up early (as usual), but this morning I had to GET UP earlier than normal because today was my first day going to school in the van instead of by bus. While my host brother Surya was here, the bus was no problem because I had someone with me to walk there and back, and to cross the VERY busy road that goes through the center of the city. Once he left, my host mother (and I) thought it best if I ride in the van- a smaller bus that comes right up to the gate of the apartments that I'm living in.
So, after eating my usual breakfast of corn-flakes with hot milk, my host mother walked me down to the gate where we met two other girls that go to my school. She then left me there, and withing a few minutes, the van pulled up to the stop.
The van is like a small bus- it is longer than a car and taller. This van is grey, and we took a different route to school than the bus so I got to see a little bit of the neighborhoods on the way. We traveled bumpily along narrow streets- squeezing between the pastel colored houses on the sides, and the other traffic that was moving along the same way or opposite us. It was crowded, but the kids riding in the van were very nice- most of them were studying for their monthly tests that started today- chatting and discussing answers and readings in their textbooks.
When we got close to the school, the van stopped. I looked out ahead to what seemed to be a traffic jam- there were cars, buses, scooters, and animals all stacked up for a few hundred feet. I asked one of the girls next to me what was happening and she says "oh it's the train- we'll just wait a few minutes." And so we did. Here there are no automatic signals that go down when a train is coming, it's all manual work, and so the gates are dropped up to fifteen minutes in advance! We sat there waiting for a while, and then the train came- speeding along- a blur of red, and black where the windows were.
When we finally reached the school I realized that we were actually over half and hour early- which I guess is normal for the vans. I ended up sitting outside my classroom with some of the girls that were there, watching them study and relaxing for a while.
Today was a pretty boring day at school for me. I talked to the principal on Wednesday about dropping Physics and French (Physics I just DON'T get, and the French class is already pretty far ahead and so I wouldn't be able to catch up) and today was my first day to not attend those classes. The first two hours this morning however were for an exam- and since I'm not taking the exams yet I just sat in the empty Biology lab and read "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and worked in my SAT book for two hours. After that it was break, and then we had Math, and after math was French and then TWO periods of Physics, so I spent another two hours in the BIO lab reading before I got to FINALLY go back to class for the last period- English. Every day's schedule is different, and since the students are taking their exams right now I'm probably going to have a lot of free time- that's OK though! I can read my books!
Now I'm home for the afternoon, waiting for my host mother to come home from work, eating a nutella sandwich and some wheat thins that my parents sent in a box that came yesterday. I was so excited to get the box! Although it was pretty beat up, almost everything inside survived the trip- books, DVDs, wheat thins, medicine, some more gifts, and a stuffed puppy that I absolutely love! I slpet with it last night- and last night has been the best sleep that I've had since I've been here! Thanks Mom, Dad and Liv for all the stuff!