Monday, September 15, 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 couln'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".