Today was one of the most important days of my whole exchange. I got up at 7 am, which is late for a school day, but since school only starts at nine, there is enough time. Last night I didn‘t sleep very well. So this morning I wasn‘t very tired and had a lot of motivation to get up in the morning. So I got ready and left the house at about 8:15 am. We walked to the corner, where the bus would pick us up. It was really hot outside, considering that it was only morning. We were standing there for a while, until the yellow bus finally arrived. We got in and I sat next to my host sister. I know it‘s weird to make such a big deal of a bus, but it‘s something you always see in movies and never imagine really sitting in one. The bus arrived about 15 minutes later at the school. So I went inside of the building with my host siblings and eventually we had to split up and go to our classes. The hallway was really crowded and it was loud; just like on TV.
My first period was AP Human Geography. My teacher, Coach Nicoletti, seemed quite nice, but the kids in the class were kind of weird. I found out that most of them were Sophomores, which means they are more than a year younger than me. The coach introduced himself and told what we should be expecting of his class. He said we would go way beyond maps. We would learn about many other ways to use geography and we would try to apply it as much as possible. As I said, I didn‘t really socialize with anyone in that class, which was kind of a bad start. I was just hoping it wouldn‘t be like that all day long.
Second period was French. And oh my…. I have a lot to tell about that class! The teacher, Mrs Shelton, is really nice and we had a great time. The problem is just, that although it was French IV (highest French class), 90% of the time, everybody spoke English. Even the exercises that we should do, like looking up the history of a certain flag, Mrs Shelton told us to do it in English. So at least half of the lesson had zero French involved. Then she said, she would do a PP presentation to introduce herself in French and we should take notes. That was the first time I‘d heard her speaking French. She seemed fluent but the accent…….oh god the accent! She‘s a native Texan, so everytime a word ended with an „é“, she pronounced it like „ey“. It was truly painful to listen, but she is a really nice lady, so I feel bad about saying this stuff. But there was another thing in class that I noticed and I can‘t even think about it without chuckling. There were students that mixed up South America with South Africa, asked where Belgium was located and thought the French flag was Dutch! All of these students said things like that out loud without feeling ashamed or at least realizing how stupid that was. This class was really nice, but I just can‘t make a streight face when something like that happens 😉 Nevertheless, I liked the students and especially the girl next to me. She said her parents were from Quebec and until she was eight, her parents partly communicated with her in French. But she told me that she had forgotten almost everything and that with this class, she wanted to learn her parents language a bit better.
Third period was AP US History. The teacher was Mr Beery, who claimed that his name originated from Switzerland and it was Bieri before they „americanized“ it. In the beginning we all had to introduce ourselves by saying your name and a fun fact. In the same class was Diletta, an Italian exchange student. So when it was her turn to introduce herself, she said that she was an exchange student from Italy and the whole class went like „WOOOW“. So when it was my turn and I said that I was from Switzerland, the whole class repeated the „WOOOOOOOOOOH“, and it sounded a lot more impressed haha XD. I kind of felt bad for her because it was so obvious… But the class turned out to be not as fun as I had expected. The teacher announced a quiz (test) for Monday already. That‘s not really a good start….
The fourth period was finally debate. I had already known the teacher, Mr H., which made it a lot more comfortable. And with me in the same class was Nathan, who I already knew. He belongs to the Landrum family, which is inseparable with my host family, so I had met him a dozen times before. But right after the class had started, Mr Montgomery (the principal) made an announcement that all exchange students may leave class and gather in his office. So I went to the office as quickly as possible. We all sat around a table and Mr Montgomery welcomed us again to the school, asked us about our experiences so far and invited us to have lunch with him tomorrow. So tomorrow during fourth period and lunch break, Mr Montgomery will take us to a restaurant! Then he gave us paper to fill out so he could order the Letter Jackets for us. If you don‘t know what Letter Jackets are, google it. They are really cool and come in different designs, but usually they need to be earned with good grades and a certain amount of classes taken. But because we are exchange students, the school will just give us a jacket for free! So when this „meeting“ was over, I went back to debate class. It wasn‘t much time left, so the bell rang after a few minutes.
Some students said they would go across the street to the shops to buy some lunch, but I had a sandwich with me, that my host mom had made for me. Others went to the cafeteria, but I didn‘t know where to go. But luckly Nathan said that he would eat in the classroom and a lot of other students did the same thing. So I unpacked my lunch and started eating. Once Nathan went out of the classroom to get chicken popcorn or something like that, I socialized with the other debaters. They were really nice and seemed excited when they found out that I was an exchange student. Everybody asked where I was from and they all said that they either were in Switzerland already or that they would like to visit the country. That kind of surprised me, since I had expected them to not even know where it‘s located. The students from debate are definitely my favorites, which is ideal, since that‘s the class I would spend a lot more time with (sometimes weekends because of tournaments).
After lunch I had AP Environmental Science. In the classroom they have a tarantula and a snake. The teacher, Mrs Hoover, immendiately told us that the snake was called Sugarcup and the tarantula‘s name was Fang. I sat next to a girl named Christine, who was really nice. In the beginning, we took an online test to calculate our environmental footprint. The problem was, that my Chromebook (yes, we actually have to work with this crap) wasn‘t working. It did work in the end though.
Sixth period was AP English. Our teacher Mrs Anderson is really cool. She was the one that had convinced me earlier to take AP instead of the usual English class. She was hilarious, making a lot of jokes and even asked us wether we think Trump‘s hair is fake or real. She told us a lot about what we are going to do in this year and what we should expect. So far, I think that English is my favorite subject after debate.
The last period was statistics, which I was very worried about. But the teacher, we just call him Mr BT, was really chill. He said that he struggled a lot with math when he was our age and that he would try to not give us a lot of homework. And the thing that made him really popular among the students, was that he said he wouldn‘t enforce the smartphone policy. The policy says that when caught with a phone during class, the phone would be taken away for the day and the students would be charged 15 dollars. Now Mr BT said if you use your phone during class, he would just take the phone and put it on his desk and at the end of the lesson give it back. So he seems like a really good guy. I didn‘t really meet anyone in this class, but I‘m glad I found nice students in some other subjects.
After the last bell rang, we all went to the places where the buses were. I saw my host siblings again when looking for the bus. We had to wait in the sun for a quite long time but then we finally found it and went home.
Fun facts about High School:
- It‘s really crowded in the hallways and everybody is stressed, since every time they‘re late (also just a few seconds), their parents get a message.
- The school bell is the sound of a ship, floating on the ocean, since our school mascot is a pirate.
- Our principal interrupts classes about 20 times per day with his announcements. Some of them are just a reminder that you should be proud of the school and its spirit.
- In the hallway, there are cops that ask you where you are going when you‘re in the hallway during class.
- There are 8 stairs that go from the second to the third floor, but only 2 stairs leading to the first floor.
- There is a very strict dress code, but everyone keeps breaking it.
- Other than the exchange students, there are a lot of immigrants going to this school that speak with an accent.
- All black girls wear their hair in braids.
- A lot of muslim girls cover their hair or even wear traditional muslim clothing.
- Besides the pledge of allegiance, there is another pledge for Texas. And they do the pledge every day in second period, standing, hand on your heart, and directed towards the Texan flag.
So all in all I‘d say it was a good first school day. And I think I made at least 3 friends. Michelle and Justin from the debate team and Jakob, who for whatever reason suddenly showed up in the debate room during lunch. I met a lot of other kids that were nice, but the reason I consider the three of them friends, is because they asked for my phone number/snap code. So with them I‘ve been texting back and forth since lunch. In fact, they are texting me right now….