Describe all your schools and workplaces!

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I don't go to school or work right now, but here are the schools I've gone to and places I've worked and volunterered:


Meadowbrook Elementary School (aka Mentalbrook). In Lachine, Montreal, Quebec. 1-story red brick building with MEADOWBROOK in big white clock letters on the wall next to the main entrance. Schoolyard segregated according to grade. Kindergarten and grade 1 kids played in one asphalted area, grade 2 kids played in another, with grass, asphalt and a small jungle gym, grades 3 thru 6 played in the asphalt-and-grass section with a baseball diamond. There were strict rules about who went out and in through what door. Kindergarten kids had one door, grade 1 kids another door, grade 2 and 3 kids other doors, grade 4 kids yet another door and yet another door for grade 5 and 6 kids. So no matter what door your classroom was closest to, ir if you had to use the bathroom which was right inside a certain door, you would have to go all the way around anyway. Rules. grade 4, 5 and 6 kids ate in the cafeteria in the high school across the street. Grades 1 thru 3 ate in the school. There was a really stupid little newspaper called the Meadowbrook News that was published a few times a year.


Queen of Angels Academy (Dorval, Montreal, Quebec). Used to be a country club. Looks like a mini-castle/fortress. All-girls semi-private Catholic school. We had uniforms... green sweaters or blazers, white turtlenecks with QAA embroidered on the neck in green, white polo shirts with the collar in the same pattern as the skirts or plain white blouses, pleated kilts with a red, green, blue and yellow tartan pattern, green knee socks or pantyhose, black shoes. There was also the skort, which was plain black, which I only saw one person ever wear. In certain seasons plain black uniform pants were allowed. Teachers did not have uniforms. This school was at the top of the food chain when it came to science. There were exactly 500 students at QAA. There was a newspaper called the Rapid Report that was published a few times a year.


Lakeside Academy (aka Flakeside)... Lachine, Montreal, Quebec. Formerly Lachine High School (aka Latrine High): My father went to this school from grades 7 thru 9 and I went from grades 9 thru 10. It's light green on the outside, has 3 floors, a student lounge with a ping pong or table tennis table outside of it, big front lobby with benches, auditorium with stage, big gym with a folding wall down the middle with a door in it and bleachers leading up to the third floor, with the locker rooms underneath the gym on the first... an enclosed asphalt yard, parking lots, the cafeteria served good food most of the time but crappy food sometimes... many of us had free breakfast and lunch cards! Breakfasts at the school usually consisted of a yoghurt, a little carton of milk and a muffin, or a Yop and a muffin.


The usual lunches: hamburgers, fish burgers, chicken burgers, shepherd's pie, big slices of pizza, chicken fajitas and this macaroni lasagna stuff. It was all really good except for the fish burgers and the chicken burgers!


For desserts they had ice cream sandwiches and drumsticks in this freezer built into the counter with the door in the surface of the counter, chocolate pudding, jello, pieces of cake with icing, sometimes cupcakes, nice warm soft chocolate chip cookies, apple or cherry turnovers, and other stuff.


There was a resource room where lots of kids hung out at lunch and played board games and went on the few computers that were there. Also at lunch often the computer lab was open. Kids played in the gym at lunch too.


There were about 750 students at Lakeside. Sports teams were called the Lakeside Academy Rapids.


At Beaconsfield High School in Beaconsfield, Montreal, Quebec-- the one with the most tolerant people-- there's a cafeteria with two lines so that people don't have to wait so long, a library with computers you can go on at lunch time, the Embarkations program for kids who want to complete grades 10 and 11 in the same year, and of course the famous Europe trip every year with the guidance counselor! There were about 900 students in the school, which had 3 floors and 6 wings.


At Thousand Islands Secondary School (which almost got called Thousand Islands Technical School... note the initials ) in Brockville, Ontario, there were over 1500 students, and it was a technical school... the supposed future doctors and lawyers went to the other public high school, the Brockville Collegiate Institute (which only had about 500 students). There was a sort of rivalry between the two schools... especially the sports teams... the TISS Pirates (the school color was purple) and the BCI Red Rams (their color was red). The school had 2 floors and lots of elective classes, at least for grade 12 all my classes were elective except the mandatory grade 11 math I had to complete.


I volunteered at the Sainte-Anne's Veterans' Hospital in Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Montreal, Quebec. It had a bowling alley and a newly-opened restaurant-like cafeteria for the residents, apartments for some residents, closed wards, open wards, an auditorium where singalongs and dances took place, a volunteers' room with a camera in the corner and a fridge with some stuff some volunteers brought, a counter with a sink, offices of some people, a coffee maker, tables and chairs, books for volunteers to write how many hours and what activities they did each time, a bulletin board and a white erase board, a clock and a calendar. The closed wards were the nicest I think, with a spotless TV room with a big flat-screen TV and pristine armchairs... across the hall was an open-concept dining room with small round tables with four chairs each... and a stainless steel counter jutting out from a wall, with a sink in it and some other stuff... the eating area was very sunny... some volunteers had to whisper the password to the ward to others because the patients aren't supposed to know it... there are many activities for the residents: Ladies' Tea (for the few female vets there), memorial ceremonies, Roman Catholic mass, Protestant mass, Jewish synogogue, arts and crafts in an arts and crafts room, bowling, current events discussion, singalongs and dances (sometimes called Coffee House, sometimes Pub, sometimes Beer Hall, whatever). The only food they served was plain chips, except for birthday dances (held once a month for everyone whose birthday is that month) where they serve chocolate and vanilla cake. Coffee is free, but residents have to pay for soft drinks and alcoholic beverages. There are dances for Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day and other holidays.


I worked at Provigo in Dorval, Montreal, Quebec, in the bakery section. Several stainless steel counters, 6-foot-high ovens with racks, a deep sink, a floor drain, lots of labeling and washing and putting stuff in containers, a walk-in fridge or freezer, a break room upstairs for all employees with a smoking room, another room, bathrooms and a fridge and a bulletin board, some tables and chairs and lots of lockers.


I worked at Tim Horton's in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was a food-court-style mini-Tim-Horton's in a glass-walled "pedway" connecting the two mall buildings over a street. There were a few Filipino workers and some other employees from other cultures. They threw the donuts out every day after the place closed, so we were allowed to eat as many of the discarded ones as we wanted and take them home, and eat some for lunch and during breaks too. We had to sign in or we wouldn't get paid!


I volunteered at the Conservative Party of Canada in Brockville, Ontario. I shredded paper in a small back room (and the shredder would get so hot it stopped working for a while.) It was a very small office.

Homeschool was cool.

Work, such as Burger King, Carasim Coffee, Banta, McDonald's and Wal-Mart stank.

Its hard for me to discribe what my schools looked like, but I did go to collage in kinda a strip mall, it was a farily new facility and going inside it looked like an unfinished warehouse, and it was meant to look that way, all the rooms did not have ceilings and the carpeting looked very expencive with nice geometic shapes all over it. The computers were new, tho the desks appeared to be old. This was a community collage. My other collage I went to after wards was in the mountains and very rustic. Their was even a lake in front with cabins on the other side.

I work in a warehouse currently, thr place is enourmous!! We have seriously hundreds of millions of dollars worth of product you will find in any gas station, super market, and convience store. Last year alone we threw away $1,100,000 worth of product eather cause it was outa date, or the pallet was damaged (but the product was fine), or had a little dust on it. This warehouse is 3-4 stories tall, and i cant even discribe the size of it, all I know is its the laregst place I have ever been inside of. Everybody has a vehicle, i drive a forklift or a powerjack, at any givin time we can have 50 semi's backed into the facility.

Theres something very satisfying about moving pallets around...

Schools:

Kindergarten: Patterson Road Elementary
First and Second Grade: May Grisham Elementary
Third through Sixth: Patterson
Junior High: Orcutt Junior High
High School: Valley Christian High School
Jr. College: Allan Hancock College, Santa Maria
University (Bachelor's and Master's): Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo
Legal Office System Courses at the Santa Barbara Business College, Santa Maria

Workplaces:

Home, editing and writing
Allan Hancock College, Lompoc, teaching English
Santa Maria Times
Santa Maria Public Library

Kindergarten:
School 1- A very awesome school. I had tons of friends, the best teacher ever, and my older cousin, Katherin, went there as well. It's a shame we moved to another state halfway through.

School 2- My classmates and teacher were nice, but those older kids were just absolutely horrible towards me. They often picked on me, but at least my classmates thought I was really cool.


First Grade:
School 3- Once again, I had a lot of friends, but a couple of class bullies as well (who apologized during the last three days of the school year). My teacher was okay, I guess. The principal, Ms. Beasley, was a total jerk though. I called her Mrs. Beastly.


Second and Third Grade:
School 4- I had tons of friends, one class bully (who eventually moved to my new school and class), and a jerk-face teacher. The principal was very nice, but the dean was rather rude.

School 5- I ended up switching schools in October of second grade (for reasons unknown). That mean bully in my class ended up moving to the same class, but was much nicer from that moment on. However, the kids that were in that class became my enemies through high school. However, I had a lot of good things going for me as well. Second grade was probably the best schoolyear I had and my art teacher thought I was the most outstanding student he'd ever seen! I got a picture in the Indiana State Museum and I got first place in the all-school Amer-ithon for raising the most money. Being from a well-off family didn't hurt any!


Fourth and Fifth Grade:
School 4- It was back to School 4 for me. Unfortunately, I was no longer popular at all and at this point I was accumilating more and more bullies. Some of those mean kids from before also switched over to this school, but not all of them... Basically, this is when things started going downhill. And this is also when they'd have me trapped in this little room, making me stay in there all day. It was sort of like an asylum room, I suppose. There was a window on the door and my mean classmates would always look in and laugh at me. There was also a video camera, too. I'd stay in here all day on most days.


Sixth and Seventh Grade:
School 6- The worst school of my life. Period. I had a lot of friends, but tons more enemies. And the staff automatically punished me if anything happened. This is also when students started using physical violence and harrassment against me. There were some days where I skipped school altoghether because it was so bad.

Eighth Grade:
School 6- I went here again for two months before things just became beyond unbearable. This was the worst moment of my life.

Homeschool- Since my mom was busy working constantly, I had to homeschool myself with the materials. She'd call the homework hotline from my school and get the assignments from there.

School 7- My friend really wanted me to go to school with her, so I did. It was bad, but not as bad as School 6 had been.


Ninth Grade:
School 8- The school was fun, but unfortunately for me, all my enemies from previous schools were all joined together in the newly built Freshman Academy. And we were the first class to get to use it. I normally took any chance I had from it to go hang out with the upper classmen. Most of the football was extremely nice to me and were my bodygaurds (they got a boy expelled for me!). However, when they weren't around, I was in some very bad situations with bullies that I was nearly killed from!! ! Well, at least I had plenty of friends there! And a very nice principal as well.


Tenth and Eleventh Grade:
School 9- The second worst school. I had no friends and all enemies. The staff was just as bad as the students! They didn't use physical violence, but rather cliques and rumors. It was torture. The principal would put me in in-school suspension most days just to be done with me. This, to me, was fourth/fifth grade all over again.

Homeschool- Halfway through sophomore year, Mom got a tutor and from there, I was homeschooled. It was very, very lonely but at least I was away from those awful kids. They were so bad, in fact, that I couldn't even leave the house without a disguise. Yeah, they were that bad.


Twelfth Grade:
School 10- The school that changed everything. I gave myself an all new identity and pastlife with the other students and no one even realized it was me from the other schools! I became one of the most popular students there and there was an excellent staff. I am currently still going there once a week for two hours to finish up a couple credits.

Beaconfield Private High School is rather posh, instead of tradional concrete most of the place is wood and resembles a university - hell all our teachers even hold PhDs. It's an uptight but closeknit school, were everyone watches the debate team matches instead of football games. I'll admit there is an air of arrogance but it's well earned in my opinion.

Well, I'm not going to post specific names of schools and workplaces here... so as not to give away personal information online.

Nursery School - Only remember very vaguely, but remember one room in it better than the others. I remember being fascinated with the French newspapers which for some reason were there. The building must have been new, only a few years old when I went there.

Primary School 1 - Again I don't remember much about it. The school as such no longer exists - the village's primary school moved to a new site. The only thing I really remember was being hyperactive, running in and out of the classrooms and over the tables. In those days I was hyperactive and uncontrollable.

In between primary schools 1 and 2 I was in a children's home, in what had been a country house. I remember occasional part-day visits to classes at the primary school in the nearest village.

Primary School 2 - An old Victorian building - while it was a mainstream school, at this school I was in a unit for children with 'behavioural problems'.

Primary School 3 - I think this was a 1970's building, and I remember it being open-plan, with classrooms running into one another, so if you were in a classroom you could possibly see 2 or 3 other classes as well. For some reason I was very popular with the kids there, maybe a school more tolerant of difference, but I wasn't complaining.

Primary School 4 - Moved to a city, and the school I went to there for just over a year was a bad experience. Went from a happy existence at primary school 3, to quite rampant bullying at this one.

Primary School 5 - Back to the same town where primary school 3 was. Things went a bit better there, any bullying was nowhere near as bad, and made a few friends, even if normally treacherous ones.

High School - Went to the same school for all 6 years. A 1960's building, about 1000 pupils, a playground which was all tarmac and concrete enclosed within the school building. Had my ups and downs there, I suppose I quite enjoyed it at the time but looking back I don't remember it fondly, or with any nosalgia whatsoever.

University - Was at one of the most highly regarded UK universities (not Oxbridge) and got my degree in Business Studies there. To say coming here was a culture shock was an understatement. Again don't remember the experience fondly or have any nostalgia about it.

Workplace 1 - Came here almost straight from university, kind of a recruitment agency but on psychometric principles. Hard to explain. There was only me and the boss (Director), in a small basement office sublet from a larger firm who occupied most of the building. Narcissistic and exploitative boss, horrendous and somewhat traumatic experience.

(In between the different workplaces I had various temporary jobs, during otherwise periods of unemployment.)

Workplace 2 - Traffic/transport management company, about 20 employees based in an average factory building. My performance in the job (mainly an office job but also involved a lot of buying) was well below par. Maybe I was still carrying the scars from workplace 1. Almost exclusively male, kind of a hard environment at times but none of that office politics stuff.

Workplace 3 - Chain of sports stores. Worked in 'head office' which was a basement underneath one of the branches, and in this basement I was alone with the two bosses (two brothers) though each having our own office. These bosses were very emotionally and verbally abusive. Traumatic experience.

Workplace 4 - Where I am now. In the charity sector, and I have to say this job is going very well. The experience is a lot different from previous jobs. There is an office politics but it's not intolerable, and has got better as staff have come and gone. However, clearly I am having co-worker relationships that are a heck of a lot more complex than what I've had in previous jobs. Co-workers (as opposed to bosses) in workplaces 2 and 3 were more straightforward. That has been a challenge, along with all the banter that I seem to have to respond to, which I am just lost with. But my performance is so much better, my strengths seem to be getting used to great advantage and overall, a happy ending.