My First Day

Today was my first day of school. I approached it with a little trepidation, feeling not unlike I did when I went to grade one. I packed my sandwich and bottle of water, a pen and a notebook, as well as some mental preparation and off I went.
I arrived to find the fifth floor abuzz with students registering, filling out forms and getting sorted into several common languages for orientation. I ended up in the English orientation (surprise surprise) and voraciously absorbed all (as only one who is starved for information in his native language can), that the person behind the podium said.
She then turned us over to a Japanese teacher, (who does not speak English) and we were handed a placement test. I have to admit I got beat up pretty badly by the test. I couldn't read half of it, I couldn't understand half of it, and I didn't have enough vocabulary for the other half. I couldn't even land a punch.
But as I had time to kill I remembered a time a little about a year ago when I went through a placement test for a part-time class I attended. And I didn't feel quite so bad, at least I wrote something down this time.
It turns out that classes don't start until next week, so all my trepidation was for nought, and I get to experience the joy of it all over again next week.
Ahh the blessings of a language barrier.