Translating My Life from English to Spanish: Why IES El Palo Really Is In the Sticks

The part of the city that I go to school in is called El Palo, and with good reason. The word "palo" in Spanish means "stick" in English, and my classmates take great pride in the fact that they know this translation, causing them to refer to El Palo as "the sticks" (plurals don't really go over so well when whoever's attempting to speak English doesn't understand that sticking an "s" on the end of words isn't just something we do to make it sound cooler). Needless to say, this makes me laugh- the irony that they don't know what exactly they're saying is just too funny.
Don't get me wrong, ladies and gentlemen- my high school isn't that bad. I've managed to make some friends who don't do the dangerous drugs and/or have multiple facial piercings, people have stopped throwing glass directly at me, and I don't even notice the graffitied penises on all the school artwork that much anymore. Not to mention the three layers of gates that lock us in all day have stopped being so scary and the fact that we don't have either a heating or cooling system isn't as bad as it used to be. But it is certainly a giant leap away from Summit High School, and here are some pictures to demonstrate my point.