As soon as I was sent to the French School for girls I learned that I was “different”. The girls in my classroom obviously had a problem accepting me. I felt like a new hen brought to the corral where the other chickens pick on her. At first I did not realize what it was and thought that it was related to an incident I had had when I still was at the parochial school. But how could they know?

At the parochial school, when I was 7 years old, one girl had said that my father was not a doctor. Since he was, I did not like it and I told her so. She then repeated it and said something uglier about my father so I pushed her. She fell backwards and hit her head on the curb. She was unconscious.

The nuns, of course, made a big deal about it. They called my parents and her parents. The girl came about long before our parents arrived and I had the opportunity to apologize in front of the nuns. So when the parents arrived things were kind of okay again. There were a lot of explanations. However, thinking back, I noticed a big difference between her parents and mine. The way they dressed and the way the nuns treated them in comparison to my parents. (Usually the nuns showed a lot of respect for my father who did all their dental work for free.) Much later I learned that the girl I pushed was the daughter of the owners of one of the biggest department stores in Santiago.

At the French School I noticed that most of my classmates were picked up in cars sometimes driven by their mother or sometimes driven by a chauffeur. I was picked up by my mother who came by bus and had to walk the 3 blocks from the bus stop to my school. In fact, very few of my classmates walked the 3 blocks with their parent or even with the nanny who would come to pick them up by bus in some rare occasions. I had a nanny but I guess my mother was following orders from my father to pick me up from school in person.

Also I noticed that my teachers, specially the one in charge of “gymnastics” was very partial to some girls and she would always put me at the end of the line or comment on my inability to do good in sports. I was, of course, a little chubby because in my family we ate really good French and Chilean food.

I was sometimes so bullied (I learned this word in USA) by my classmates that one day after the lunch break I decided to hide under a small cement stair that went from the patio to one of the doors of the big house that was our school. But that door was permanently closed. Under that stairs lived my friend, a black cat with a bad eye and very well fed by the girls, the janitor and the house cleaning ladies at the school. She would come and purr and show me that she really liked me.

Of course, the teacher missed me at the first afternoon class and they started searching for me. I was found by the gardener/janitor who knew I liked the kitty and would visit her. He told me that he would say that he found me sleeping and that was it. My classmates laughed at me, but it was not made a bigger deal.

At that School we had an interesting schedule. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays we had classes morning and afternoons but Wednesdays and Saturdays just half day. On Saturdays, at lunch time the whole school formed in the big patio, where we also played ball games and did our gym classes. We were aligned by grade. The school principal, and owner, Mme Gabriele, would give a small speech and distribute “bon points” to the girls who had obtained good grades, or done something good or important during the week. After the ceremony a French Bakery delivered trays and trays of French pastry and each girl could choose a Napoleon, Beignet, Brioche or a Croissant filled with chocolate. I think there were also other choices but those are the ones I remember. At home my mother’s favorites were Creme Brulee and Baba au rhum.

Because of my grades I was able to jump the 5th grade of Preparatoires or Elementary school (Educacion Primaria) and went straight to First grade Humanidades or Secondary School. Secondary School had 6 grades divided into 1st to third and then 4th to 6th. Since I did good in writing and my little poems or articles were sometimes published in la Revista “La voz de la Maisonnette.” (small magazine The Voice of La Maisonnette) of the school I decided to join the Literary Academy which was the name of one of the extra curricular activities we had.

I also became a member of the Theater Academy. Each year at La Maisonnette, it was a tradition to celebrate Madame Gabriela’s birthday on May 17th. One of the events during this celebration was the presentation of a play. I participated in two productions: one was an American comedy, and the other was a Spanish classic.

Additionally, I was a member of the “Rojas,” the red team in sports. We held a “de Colores” championship, where the blue and red teams competed against each other annually. While I did not excel in sports, I had the opportunity to serve as the leader of the pep team for the “Rojas” during several games. We also participated in the Women’s Interscholastic Athletics Championship at the national level. The only event in which I could compete was the “lanzamiento de bala” or shot put, which I suspect contributed to the deterioration of my rotator cuff.

When we reached 3rd grade of Secondary School we were offered a decision. Did we wanted to continue our Scientific/Humanistic studies up to the 6th grade or follow the Home Economic alternative. The first option would qualify us to take the exam to obtain the Bachillerato (certificate to demonstrate that we passed the 12 years school exams) and then continue, if we wanted, to study at a University. The Home Economics choice would allow you to take classes to make you a good housewife candidate without having to obtaining any Bachillerato.

The exam to obtain the Bachillerato was rendered before a group of examiners from a nationally accredited public school. In my case, the examiners were teachers at the Liceo N°7 de Providencia. Each examiner corrected the tests. The Bachillerato test had a written part and an oral part and it lasted at least 4 hours. The Bachillerato accredited the studies carried out in secondary education (grades 1st to 6th in my case.) Later, the number of years needed in what Chile called Secondary Education were reduced to only four. (“La Universidad de Chile Y Su Histórico Vínculo Con La Admisión a La Educación Superior Del País” 2017)

After obtaining the Bachillerato, we could apply to a University School. I selected the University of Chile’s Journalism School.