Part 4: Middle School in Miami
In January of 1996, as lunch was ending, my teacher told me to go to the office. Jim and Ciri were there ready to pick me up to take Cata and me on a trip up to Miami, where about an hour later we were to tour several private schools. In hopes of rekindling fond memories of Bucaramanga, we first stopped at an all-girls Catholic prep-school; but for some reason it did not have the same cozy feeling as the schools run by nuns in Colombia. Before Cata and I even got the chance to look around, we drove off. A few miles down, we stopped once again, but this time everyone was out the car door and shaking hands with the staff. Palmer Trinity, as it said on it’s large gates, welcomed us with smiles, silent halls, uniforms, palm trees, and a parking lot that looked like an expensive dealership. Although not as strict as the one back in Colombia, this place was a huge improvement from Key Largo School. It is impossible to compare public and private institutions in South Florida. I cannot say that Key Largo School had failed, but Palmer Trinity felt more like home. It was peaceful, small, and clean. The ingredients that appear to make the perfect environment for excellent education; at least that is what Ciri probably thought.
Although I remember my first encounter at a new school back in third grade in great detail, remembering my first day touring Palmer is tricky. I do recall that I was taken to the sixth grade class and assigned a buddy. She was sweet and very helpful. She would show me how to navigate the lunch line, where the bathrooms were, and introduced me to her friends. The class was small, composing of 31 students and run by a very pretty teacher—I later learned she was a one of nine finalists in a Revlon beauty contest. That same day, I got to sit on an art class. Not only was I excited by the activities the teacher gave out, but by that room itself. Even today, I could probably draw a floor plan purely from that single memory! To end this flashback, I also remember my first embarrassing moment here. My buddy had just finished complementing my shoes, and was curious about where I bought them.
