Tuesday, September 16, Day 4,  Entry 1

Today was our second, and last day at Wakefield Memorial High School. I spent the day shadowing another WMHS student and went to all their classes. This way, I got to attend different classes than yesterday, such as culinary and algebra which were very interesting and different to the classes we have in Switzerland. During our free period we toured the school, which was something that I didn't get the chance to do yesterday. During that period we also went to the school gym and learned how to throw a football! On the picture, we were in Spanish class playing Kahoot reviewing a topic that they had started that week. In every classroom, they have the American flag hanging on the wall; every morning during the pledge of allegiance they stand up and face the flag to show respect to the people who fought in the military.

After school, I rode the yellow school bus for the first time. I couldn't believe that it looked exactly like I had seen it in the movies. On the way home, my host sister explained to me that the school bus driver is very spontaneous with the routes that he takes; he never takes the same route, but at least he stops everywhere that he needs to. The experience of riding the bus was very interesting since the driver seemed to be having problems with the gas because he was driving very funnily. The bus itself was very loud and there were a lot of younger high schoolers, who were all chatting very loudly and moving around. The seats were surprisingly narrow and you didn't have a lot of leg room, but it was so much fun to have this authentic American experience.

In the afternoon, my host sister, another student and I walked downtown to look at the town. We went to Wakefield library, which is quite old, but really beautiful. The antique building was built by an architect from Boston called Bulfinch, who is also the architect of the state house, which we are visting tomorrow (I also learned a lot about the history of Wakefield from my host mom!) The town of Wakefield isn't very big, but it's incredibly charming. After that, we went to a rather popular and very cute thrift shop in town. There were some nice pieces, but they were rather expensive. Later, we all grabbed coffee at Dunkin Donuts and the sizes were almost double the size of what we consider "normal".

 

Entry 2

The first picture I chose was of the street near my house on the way to school, where you can see a school bus driving by. I had never seen a school bus before. I guess, in all the American movies that I have seen, they never showed any of these buses, they must not have fit into the storyline. Frankly, I quite like them. I also loved the way the street looked that morning and, of course, I felt excited about going to an American highschool.

I met friends of mine in one or two subjects. We had astronomy and criminal psychology together, which were actually pretty interesting subjects, to say the least. As long as it’s not math, it’s fine. The teachers were nice and the stuff we were doing was cool. In the second subject mentioned, we looked at our fingerprints and looked at the anomalies of each one and compared them to other people’s fingerprints. The astronomy teacher was actually looking at the camera there, probably wondering why I had my phone out.

 

We had art class, and the teacher was actually a really nice guy. He talked to the students like he was part of the group. I obviously didn’t have any real work to do in that class, so I just copied stuff off Pinterest. Great stuff, Pinterest. The teacher didn’t mind me working on other stuff in class and even complimented my sketches.

I love cats. And the family I am staying with has two of them. So here’s a picture of one. They are actually indoor cats. That means that they don’t go outside at all, which may come off as cruel, but is for their own safety. They are Siamese and we live right next to a crossroad. They do love their food and occasionally come to wake me up in the middle of the night because we have the audacity of ignoring them in their time of immense boredom.

One of the things the family wanted me to see was an arcade, but it was closed. Still, it was a nice idea. Maybe next time. So, we had tacos instead. And this might be weird, but—I’ve never had tacos before, so that was nice.

I’m really loving America so far! The food and the people are great, and I’m excited for the days ahead.