Chapter 2

As promised, I shall write about a really huge part of this adventure actually, which is school.  I won't deny it - first day of school was pretty scary and awkward.  Being a new student in the middle of the year is a challenge but what's so fun about life if there weren't any challenges? I attend Charlo High School in Montana which is a rather small high school with 4 exchange students. So I was surprised to find that many of the students already knew me before I came. (O.O)

Let me clear out all misconceptions first. 

CLIQUES

In my opinion, cliques don't really exist. I mean everyone tends to hang out with a group of friends but the jocks, queen bees and nerds are pretty much overrated in the media. Then again, my school is relatively small so perhaps the drama has been scaled down - luckily for that. Just like in Malaysia, the Seniors are presumably higher up in the student body.  The sequence is Freshman, Sophomore, Junior and Senior. I'm a Junior because the Senior class has too many people apparently but my classes vary from Sophomore classes to Senior classes so all's good. ;)

LOCKERS

Yes, it's true! We do have lockers and I was tempted to carry my school bag to class but decided not to. Haha. The idea is to put everything in your locker and just take the textbook for your next class out. It surprised me that most students do not bring their textbooks home unless they have homework. I wonder how they study?

CLASSES

High schoolers pretty much travel from class to class. We have eight periods in a day with lunch in between.  School begins at 8.15am and ends at 3.30pm. You have all your subjects every day and you get 3 minutes between each class period to grab stuff from your locker which in my opinion is NOT ENOUGH. It got me running around looking for classes and shifting through students. My school has two buildings with classes in both so the first two weeks got me arriving at classes just in the nick of time.

FOOD

I like this part :) You can eat food in class and there is a snack machine and soda machine in the hall.  The cafeteria serves really good food.  That's my opinion of course. They have a lunch menu on the school website and on the notice board for each month and they change every day. Haha. It ranges from hamburgers, tacos, tortillas, pizza, spaghetti, salad bar, mashed potatoes, and many more so it really depends on what you like.  You might have some trouble if all you eat is rice and you can't live without chilli. And they serve cartons of milk daily!

And get this! You can go out of the school for lunch as long as you write it on the Registry book at the office and there is a cool grocery store across the road you can go to for an alternative lunch if you don't like the menu. Close friends will take a while to find and really bond but acquaintances or buddies are everywhere.  The teens are pretty friendly in classes and they'll definitely help you if you ask for help but what's important is you make the move.  You have to try and take the initiative to make friends and talk to people even though it feels quite daunting at first. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.  But, really, this just takes time. Oh yeah, and relationships like having a boyfriend or a girlfriend is rather common.  People don't treat it as a big thing but more of a very very very normal thing. Yep. 

These are the subjects I've decided on taking:

US HISTORY

History is either something you like or hate. I so happened to be a fan of history so all's well for me. We just finished a novel on World War 1 and even though I had four days before a test came up, I managed to hang in there and I was pleased with the outcome.

CALCULUS

Haha. Probably the only class that actually has constant homework (Malaysian schools give more homework generally) but Calculus is the class I feel most...inclined to.  There are only four guys and two girls in the class including me. The guys are really great people because it takes certain type of people to even care to put so much effort to take up a subject like Calculus. I found out we're doing a college course so I haven't come across some stuff but the basics are the same.  And being SEVEN, YES I SAID SEVEN chapters behind, I just feel that it really challenges me every day so I decided NOT to drop this subject.

The results of this quiz made my day :)

SPANISH

A whole new language. I really enjoy the classes because it's so new and I wouldn't have had the chance to take this in Malaysia! Do you think I should go for the National Spanish Exam in April? We'll see :) I'm not even gonna talk about struggling because I would be lying if I were to say all the subjects and homework in school was extremely easy.  But that's the whole point. I'M LEARNING.

SPEECH

Another class I look forward to every day! Mr. G, my teacher is just awesome. One of those rarities in the teaching industry - having the knack of slapping his hands together.  He thinks I'm from Japan no matter how many times I tell him I'm not but I'm not taking it personal because he is just a comedian.  He thinks my Indonesian friend (who is also an exchange student) is from Istanbul and he keeps asking when my Georgian friend is going to go back to her country. Haha. Hilarious.  There were two days when we just watched Despicable Me and other days we filmed a movie review we did for our fave movies. Currently, we finished talking about our prospective colleges after high school. FUN.

Mr. G looks like a teddy bear :)

STUDY HALL

I was actually taking Physics before this but because I came in in the middle of the year, it just didn't seem wise to me to burn the midnight oil for both Calculus and Physics trying to catch up with the class.  So, I decided that it was just wise to take Calculus and focus on that during Study Hall so that when I got home from school, I still got to spend time with my family, help out around the house and well... HAVE FUN. Because in my opinion, there's so much more about this program than just purely academics.

ENGLISH 10

Due to the time constraints, I was placed in a Sophomore English class rather than a Junior class but I just think of it as another way for me to meet more people.  Currently, we are doing a book project on Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

CHOIR

JOY. The sky is falling - Choir is a subject by itself! And I just love it! We are currently preparing for the Spring Festival where we will be performing two songs - spiritual and folk. Can't wait!

ART

I came in when they were about to complete their clay project but I managed to squeeze in some time to make a teapot!!! Coolio! Now, our next project is a cylindrical compartment with coils on its surface using clay as well.

Apart from school and family, I've also attempted to fry some bananas with my Indonesian friend, Azharra and it turned out better than I expected it to be.

Skiing was a whole new adventure in itself.  I could ski pretty well. The only problem was stopping which if you are heading down a cliff alone, would be a MAJOR problem. I've had probably 3 close shaves and I ended the day in style by ramming into a metal ski rack. Moral of the story: Skiing is a dangerous sport.

Me: Do you think I should ski down the hill?

Friend: Um. I don't know.

Me: Maybe not. It looks pretty steep.

Friend: Well, you'll never know unless you try. Go for it!

Me: Really? Okay!

*tilts skis, goes down gradually fast*

In my head: Okay, Andrea, stop, stop STOP SSTTOOOPPP. Uh. Oh.

*BBAAAMMM*

And the rest is history.

At least I returned in one piece.  Drink, anyone?

I managed to visit my host grandfather's amazing collection of perfumes and a whole cabin full of neat stuff.  I managed to say hello to 6 of the horses my host family owned and actually experience the enthusiastic jeers during a basketball game which my school won in the end!  Chinese New Year was pretty low key here but I dressed in my Cheongsam just for kicks in school and managed to get some people interested in the whole celebration.  Last Friday was Pajama Day which was pretty cool actually. Students could dress up in their PJs and donate a dollar for cancer.  We also recently went for a school field trip to the University of Montana to watch a live play.  The bus dropped us off what felt like kilometers away from the entrance and my ears almost froze to death walking through the biting cold weather. It was I think -32 BELOW FREEZING.

I kind of look like her, don't you think?

Well, I am extremely exhausted after having written so much. Nonetheless, my excitement continues to spark new interest in the coming happenings.  Valentine's Day is a big thing here so I'm looking forward to see how the day will unfold.  Will be attending a Sweetheart Dance tonight with a couple of my friends who are exchange students as well! Looking forward to meeting all the exchange students around Charlo and other places during an upcoming Valentine's Party.  Till then.

Thank you, Lord.

Sincerely,
Constant traveller (: