My pencil is sharpened and pointy.
My backup pencils are ready.
My eraser is in my hand.
My passport is out and I'm prepared to show photo ID.
THIS IS WHAT I'VE BEEN TRAINING FOR MY WHOLE SCHOOL YEAR.
I GOT THIS.
It's our Chinese school's graduation exam. In China, it's literally the Chinese level of a nine-year-old kid.)
First mistake of the day:
Everyone in my Chinese school class was taking it in the same classroom room (except for Christina Wang the eighth grader but that just sucks for her), and I was talking with them (*gasp I speak) while waiting for the people to call my name and force me into the classroom of doom.
I didn't actually hear when they called my name, and since somehow everyone knows me, I called a lot of unnecessary attention to myself.
"That's okay," I say. "YOU STILL GOT THIS."
Mistake number two:
I thought it would be really fun to draw on the admission ticket they gave us. I was drawing on my photo ID part when I realized that probably wasn't a smart thing to do. I erased the pencil marks---
and apparently the whole image.
Stupid cheap ink.
Literally half my head was gone.
"IT'S OKAY. ACT NATURAL. EVERYTHING'S FINE."
i managed to convince my classmates that erasing it would be really cool, so hey at least I'm not the only one :D
Some kid erased his whole face ^.^
Mistake numero tres:
"Hey, we were supposed to have number 2 pencils right?"
"Well, they said to bring 2B."
*cue entire class panicking*
"2B?! Are you sure not HB?"
"Does it really matter? I only have HB!"
"Wait wait did the teacher say this?"
"WHAT IS A 2B PENCIL EVEN. THAT'S LIKE ART. WHO HAS A 2B PENCIL."
Someone goes to ask the test administrator.
"大家坐下来,有问题稍微等一下. (EVERYONE SIT DOWN. WE WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS LATER.)"
When everyone is settled and into the room, she decides to address the pencil issue.
A student raises his hand.
"Were we supposed to have 2B pencils because I only have HB."
"用中文说!这是中文考试,说话应该用中文!(SPEAK IN CHINESE! THIS IS A CHINESE TEST YOU SHOULD BE SPEAKING CHINESE!)"
"我们要 (Do we need) 2B 铅笔 (pencil) because I only 有 (have) HB 的 (this word doesn't really have a meaning)"
"来这里是来考毕业考试,连这么简单的问题都不会问!(You're here to take the graduation test yet you can't even ask a simple question in Chinese!)"
The whole class just kind of sits in silent shock at her directness and meanness.
Technically, we only need a 33% to pass. It's surprising how bad you can be at Chinese and still graduate.
At this point, she decides to tell us (in Mandarin of course) that we indeed do need a 2B pencil.
Everyone slowly raises their hand in shame when she asks who needs the correct pencil (she was scaring me. I pretended I actually had 2B pencils. Poor, rejected HB pencils).
The scary woman immediately launches into a lecture.
"铅笔都没准备好。你们这是靠什么试啊!(You don't even have pencils. How do you expect to pass this exam?)"
*silence*
"老师只准备了两支铅笔,哪知道大家都没带铅笔!(I only prepared two pencils. I did not expect no one to have the right pencil!)"
*silence*
“要考试了,你看我还要给你们削铅笔。你们觉得这样好吗?你们也不是小孩子了。好意思吗?(We're about to take a test, and I'm sharpening pencils for you. Do you think this is good? You're not little kids anymore. HAVE YOU NO SHAME?)"
*at this point, I'm really scared of her*
After more stuff about how we were going to all fail now because HB is like two shades lighter than 2B, she finally stopped making us feel bad about our existences and started administrating the test.
She was mean, okay.
Really mean. And scary.
All that scolding from before- it wasn't just an annoyed voice.
It wasn't scolding.
It was soul crushing.
Think of the meanest person you know speaking in the meanest voice you've ever heard.
Now multiply that by a hundred.
That's not even half as bad as she was.
Even the parents outside, who had seen her yelling at a girl for forgetting her passport/photo ID, thought she was mean.
That's saying something.
All those parents grew up in China where it was normal for teachers to be super strict.
She was so scary.
I'm now terrified of Plainsboro teachers.
At the end of the test, she asked us all what Chinese school we were from.
"Huaxia," we replied hesitantly.
“那个分校? (Which branch?)"
"南部 ._. (South)"
"Cherry Hill?"
"...Sure."
Can't have her tracking us down, can we?
Seriously, I'm so scared of her now.
I half expect her to show up at my house one day and yell at me for using an HB pencil.
I feel bad for those Plainsboro kids who might actually have her as a teacher.
I'm pretty sure she legitimately hates children.
I bet she eats them for breakfast.