Collecting From Old High School

Well, I've got it all. I have everything on the list now. What I didn't get in donations from the school, I was taken out shopping for with an old Guidance counselor. And after we got everything, he gave me $200. Plus an extra $20. Plus another teacher slipped me $20. Second time I've been reverse pick-pocketed (or put-pocketed I think I've actually heard it called).

Plus someone else bought me some stuff. And she's going to give me some cash, too.

Now that I have high-quality versions of everything I need and more from that absurdly large and detailed list, you want to know how much money I have left from donations?

$500.

I never even really asked for anything.

My old Social Science's teacher's parents went shopping for me.

My old English teacher gave me... let's see... eleven dress shirts. I remember that guy gave me a grade over 100% twice and asked me to do an ISU on a book he only ever had one other student do. After I failed to get into University (school offered to pay for my application on that, too) I remember I returned to the school once, and we had a long staredown. Eventually he turned his head and walked away, neither of us having exchanged a word. I felt like a samurai that had fallen out of grace with his liege lord.

This guy is 300 pounds. Back in the day, when I was a measly 235, I never would have been able to wear this guy's stuff. But now I am also a daunting 300!

I met up with both my old History teachers. One of them tried unsuccessfully to teach me a high-level History class. He took his job very seriously and was a very individualized teacher. All the students in the class were completely unprepared for his method or his curriculum. When we failed to reach his expectations, it seemed to me that he was genuinely pained by it, and held himself responsible. But everyone in the class adapted and reached levels I didn't think were possible through a high school history class dealing with a random bunch of lazy students. The only person that couldn't adapt was me.

He thought I had a lot of talent and a good spirit, but no matter what he tried with me I was the one student that couldn't catch up.

Anyway, he had already caught wind of what I'm doing and he seemed really genuinely glad for me.

...This Guidance counselor... He worked overtime to help me out. We spent five hours shopping.

They want me to stay in contact while I'm at Katimavik, so that they can use my insights and know what to tell students who are looking into joining Katimavik.

From Value Village we got... two brand-new brand-name pairs of jeans, a pair of shorts same condition same brand, a pair of shoes and a brand-new pair of boots that would normally cost like, $500 I'm told, for $12 each. And the place we went to get mittens, we got 40% off.

My Guidance Counselor was ballistic at all the great deals. He said it was eery. He even got himself a few things.

But I'm not even touching the full roster of items I got. That would be too much. I can't pack it all and I didn't accept a bunch of things because they wouldn't fit me or Duncan. Yes, they were giving to Duncan too. He got a bag of clothes from the original base donations same size as mine.

It all seems like a bit of an overreation doesn't it? Everyone over there is going ballistic. I feel pretty loved right now... After this big brew-haha, I truly can't allow myself to lose resolve or get kicked out.

No gaggle of worshiping schoolgirls this time, though...

Went to my final Karate lesson today. Of the five people who always show up for every single class, a grand total of none of them were there. It was just me and one other guy. The head sensei also wants me to stay in contact.

It'll be no issue. If I can blog I'll just keep a link of people who want to stay in contact and forward my posts. It won't be a daily thing, pretty sure. If it's too frequent I won't forward EVERY post. I might just modify a few posts and send a summary via email.

Seems like a lot of weird coincidences today...

Oh, I spoke to a guy from Katimavik who wanted to test my French. He confirmed that, yes, I wasn't lying when I said I couldn't speak French. He asked me four questions and I was supposed to answer them in full sentences in French. It was funny because he followed up the request by saying that I'd already been accepted, this wouldn't affect my participation it was just being done for research purposes, he knew I couldn't speak French so this would be over very quickly but then his pbhrasing afterwards was the standard for anyone taking the test which sounded like it expected some level of competency.

Last chapter of Naruto out today. I'm gonna talk about it! I haven't really done that except for passing statements since one post near the beginning of this blog. But since this is my going-away chapter I'm going to indulge.

I had made a prediction and it turned out to be wrong. I thought that Kakashi would beat Sasuke in the fight, but that it would be attributed to Sasuke's injuries from fighting the Five Kages, so it wouldn't make him look weak and then, as Kakashi dealt the finishing blow, Naruto would save Sasuke.

Turns out, though, that instead of Sasuke being saved from Kakashi by Naruto, Sakura was saved from Sasuke by Naruto...

Gotta hand it to Sakura... She's managed to be rescued from Sasuke by both Kakashi and Naruto in one encounter!

The fight was uncreative... I've already rewritten it in my head.