The “Beep. Beep …Beeeep” is met with a hard slam. Every night when I go to bed, I think that I will be able to wake up before that annoying thing buzzes in my ear, but every morning it’s the same thing. I am jolted out of a deep sleep. The upside is that there is always the smell of toasted bread or sausages wafting up from the downstairs kitchen. I love that smell and I know that besides the toast there is most likely a batch of cookies also down there. I jump out of bed, take off my pyjamas and race to get into my running clothes. (My mom doesn’t distribute any cookies to anyone that doesn’t exercise at least 30 minutes a day) So, I bypass the kitchen entirely and go on my short run.

Afterwards, it’s time for a shower and change into the BISP school clothes. I log in with my tutor and listen to the day’s notices.  Since I never made it to the kitchen, my mom sneaks something up. Usually yogurt, fruit and toast with a glass of juice (the cookies will have to wait).

Mr. Du’s Mandarin class is first up. We check in, recite and practice our speaking and occasionally we get to writing. After this, my schedule takes me to the stranded island in Lord of the Flies. English, as you might have guessed, is period 2. Ahhh now it’s break time. I quickly go to the kitchen, grab that well-deserved cookie and then Skype a friend or two. I love to use filters and add funny things like dog ears to my picture. It’s a silly thing to do, but amusing.

Now back to serious business. Chemistry is next. The periodic table is the subject of the day and we listen to that song that everyone on the planet seems to know. I take a lot of notes as Mr. Wheatley is quite merciless when the time comes around for our end of unit tests. When the singing is done and the notes are written, I head for history and the Russian Revolution. I am plunged into the grim world of the 1920s in Russia.

Finally, it’s time for lunch. I eat with my family each day at 1:00. Since school ends a bit before that, I use the extra 15 minutes to help my mom with last minute preparations. It’s a big mixed green salad with hard boiled eggs and fresh avocados. Thank goodness it is not a heavy lasagna or something because last period is PE! Oh wow, another run today! I do the same circuit I did in the morning. Had I known that PE would be running, I would have gone for a swim in the morning instead!