I am approaching the end of my time here at Schule Schloss Salem so I will give you all one last update before I return to Athenian. My time here has absolutely flown by. Just as I’m beginning to get comfortable in this environment and have figured out the ins and outs of school here, it’s time for me to head home. It has been such a great experience for me, especially as I prepare to head off to college this fall. I think one of the greatest things I’ve gotten out of this experience is a better sense of self-reliance. It’s not always easy adjusting to a living situation and academic system entirely different from that of home and living in another country where they speak a foreign language. It forces you to do things outside your comfort zone to get the most out of your experience.

After I last updated you all, I went to London to spend a weekend with a friend there. I had to take three different trains to get to the Zurich Airport. The school is far out in the countryside where there’s not much of an international presence, so they only announced things on the intercom in German and I had no idea when my stop was coming up. While it was a little bit anxiety inducing, it felt like quite an accomplishment when I actually arrived at the airport having made all my connections correctly. I had a lovely time in London. It was very cool to have the luxury of being in a place completely different from Germany, with a completely different culture, after only an hour-long flight. I’ve been to London a few times before but it was nice to visit again. We went to see Big Ben, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Chinatown, and the National Gallery.

The following weekend, I had the opportunity to visit Theresa’s family in Munich.  [Theresa is a Salem student currently on exchange at Athenian.] This time I was not as on top of it with the trains and accidentally got on one going in the opposite direction from Munich. I quickly realized my mistake, got off at the next stop, and luckily made it back to the station to catch the next train to Munich, as I had missed the one I was supposed to take. I got into Munich an hour later than I was supposed to but, hey, at least I made it! I’m really glad I got the opportunity to see Munich, as it is a beautiful and historic city. As soon as I arrived on Saturday afternoon we walked around the downtown area and saw the Marienplatz (main square) and Viktualienmarkt (outdoor market). The following day we went to the Olympic Tower, where you can see all of Munich and beyond, all the way out to the Alps. After that we went to BMW World across the street, which has a lot of electric concept cars as well as all sorts of other cars. And finally we went to Nymphenburg Castle, where we were caught in a bit of a snow/hail storm. We only got to look at the castle for a little bit before we were running to the car for shelter. Luckily, I didn’t have to take a train back to school. I’m not sure I would’ve made it back in the dark, changing trains four times.

This past weekend we had Carnival, or Faschingsfest as it is called in German. It was a lot of fun to dress up in costume and experience a holiday that we don’t celebrate in the states. It was an evening filled with lots of music and dancing until about one in the morning. It was a very fun experience.

I’ve gotten to work at Kaffee Hahn, the café here on campus, a few times now and I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. It has been a great way to become acquainted with other teachers and students. The coffee machine hasn’t caused me any trouble, so that’s something to be thankful for. There’s another girl who works with me as well which is great. If she wasn’t there, I don’t think I would remember which drinks go in which cups and what everyone’s name is.

That’s the highlights from the past few weeks. I’m savoring my last few days at school here before I go back to my regular routine in California. Exchange hasn’t been the easiest experience the entire time; however, all of the opportunities I’ve been able to take advantage of–experiences I’ve had and memories I’ve made–have more than made up for the bumps in the road. I would definitely encourage anyone who is thinking about going on exchange to go for it. No matter what, it will be a great learning experience and something you will remember for years to come. See you all soon!

I’ve been at the Gordonstoun School in Scotland for over five weeks now and I’ve had many notable experiences. I hope this will let you all know how things are going for me over here.

My time on exchange has taught me how sociable I can be. I’ve been going to Athenian since 6^th grade and have only had to make new friends occasionally at summer camps. Never have I had an experience quite like this one. While I was quiet and reserved for a few weeks at Gordonstoun, I slowly began to extrovert myself and make many new friends. It has been really fantastic to make so many new friends from all around the world. It has given me new confidence and has eased my worries about making friends once I leave for college.

Being at Gordonstoun has made me appreciate both the relaxed environment Athenian creates as well as the democratic nature of the school. There is a uniform at Gordonstoun: black shoes, black slacks, a white button-down shirt, and a blue school sweater. I didn’t really get comfortable in it until four weeks had passed. Being in a uniform every day makes me miss the choice around what I wear to school every day. Over all though, wearing a uniform hasn’t been bad at all. More notably, I miss the democracy we have at Athenian. It seems to me that Gordonstoun is fairly bureaucratic and that things do not easily change. While many people here comment on how casual Athenian is (calling teachers by their first names), I have to keep reassuring them that our classes are still very challenging and we all work very hard. Because of the democratic nature of Athenian, we as a community can assess what needs to change and how. To me, Gordonstoun suffers somewhat from doing things traditionally because “that’s how it has been done for a long time.” Athenian benefits from playing largely by its own rules and constantly evolving to better educate its students for the modern world.

An interesting experience for me has been my participation in seamanship here at Gordonstoun. Seamanship is a three-day training program for all year 10’s in order to prepare them for a larger sailing voyage later in the springtime. Although I will leave for home before this larger sailing trip, I had a fantastic time during those three days. We began our instruction in a small school-owned building near Hopeman Harbor, and then worked our way to the boats. Still in the harbor, we began learning how to operate the many different and complex parts of the boat.

Once our instructors were satisfied with our ability to “lower and dip” the sails, we set out into the Moray Firth. (You can look it up on Google maps to get a sense of where that is.) To safely exit the harbor, we had to row for a time. I also enjoyed the rowing quite a lot, strangely.

While I have been known to get very seasick in the past—just ask Redden, Addison, Haley, or Abigail K.–I felt completely fine for the many hours we were out on the water. Unlike a few of my classmates, I was ecstatic to be out on the water instead of in classed. This experience has made me seriously consider taking up both sailing and rowing.

Both Athenian and Gordonstoun are Round Square schools and both represent the IDEALS in many ways; however, I think that Athenian is more academically challenging. For both schools, service, adventure, and internationalism are all taken very seriously and time is allotted for students to have opportunities in all of these fields.  In order to make time for these, I believe that Gordonstoun somewhat reduces the difficulty of its academics. I have found that this is one of the main differences between the schools. However, the daily schedule at Gordonstoun is much fuller and simply cannot provide the time required for more nightly homework. While this may sound like an insult, I don’t intend it to be and am simply commenting on the different ways each school has decided to spend its students’ time.

Dorm life has been much more comfortable than I had assumed it would be. I’ve made many great friends in my dorm. It feels a bit like a school trip sometimes, staying in a hotel and joking around with classmates late at night. I am constantly around people my age and it’s a bit liberating to be immature around people who won’t scoff at it.

In the past five weeks, I’ve learned a lot about myself. This has been a fantastic experience that I would recommend to all. I anxiously await seeing you all when classes resume in April.

Greetings from Salem International College in Germany!

I’ve been here for almost a month now so I figured it was time to send an update to you all. The first week I spent getting to know the place and the people. I met the other exchange from Markham College in Peru, as well as the other girls in my wing, Mädchenbau 1, including my roommate Delia who is from Switzerland. During that first week I got to take a trip to the town of Überlingen which is about a 15 minute bus ride from campus, where most of the people from Salem go to do their shopping, go out for dinner or see a movie.

Since they don’t do exchanges into twelfth grade here, I am taking classes in the 11th grade in IB (International Baccalaureate) Year 1, which is the program where the classes are taught in English. There are two academic programs at the school, the IB and the Abitur. The Abitur is the German speaking academic program and about 2/3 of the 300 students here are in that program, including my roommate. Luckily, most everyone has, at the very least, a pretty good understanding of English. I am living on the 11th grade campus called Spetzgart, a beautiful old castle overlooking Lake Constance. The 12th graders live a five-minute walk away at the Härlen campus, which was built in the early 2000’s. Similar to Athenian, there is a morning meeting at the Härlen campus every Monday where there are announcements and things of that nature so I’ve gotten to spend time at both campuses.

Another thing that is different about Salem is that there are classes on Saturdays. While this was a little bit of a surprise for me, I’ve found that it is not so bad to have class on Saturdays especially because my only class on Saturdays is Art and I have plenty of free periods during the week to explore Uberlingen or hang out with friends. In fact, the way that my schedule is here is similar to what one would typically have in college, rather than high school, with classes meeting once or twice a week for an hour and a half each meeting. Some days I don’t have a class until noon! They also do something called Dienst here every Monday, which is basically community service. Some people help out with the fire service or mentally ill or at the café on campus as well as many other things. I will be working at the café where I will hopefully make all the drinks correctly; I’m told the coffee machine is idiot proof.

It has been interesting to experience life at a boarding school as everyone at Salem is a boarder and so not only have I gotten to meet people from all over the world but I’ve also come to learn what it’s like to live at school. It’s great to be able to have your friends just down the hall from you so there’s lots of socializing but at the same time, if you’re trying to go to sleep and someone upstairs has just discovered a mouse in their room it might be a little while before you have peace and quiet. I got to be part of my wing’s photo for the yearbook where we all dressed up as stereotypical types of students (nerds, sporty kids etc.). I was supposed to be a stereotypical American high school girl, which to them meant I had to either dress up like the Mean Girls characters or the Gossip Girls characters. I don’t think I pulled off Blair Waldorf’s look but I think they were satisfied with my attempt to look the part.

I could go on and on about what is different and what is similar about Salem and Athenian but I’ll leave that for another time. I’ll just briefly mention a couple of things I’ve done since arriving here. After my second week here, I convinced another girl to come with me to tour another town on Lake Constance called Meersburg. There is both a big winery overlooking the lake and an old castle there. The castle is where a famous German poet lived and worked until her death. It was really interesting to look around the castle and see all the different rooms and how they lived back then. As there aren’t any organized excursions for the exchanges here, I’m going to London this coming weekend to visit a family friend and the next weekend I will be staying with Theresa’s (the exchange from Salem at Athenian right now) family in Munich and they are going to show me around there. The weekend after that we have Carnival here at Salem which as I understand it is a weekend of parties where you dress up in costumes and have a good time. Then another week and I will be home.

My time here is flying by and I’m really going to miss all the great people I’ve met here and experiences I’ve had.

Until next time! Auf Wiedersehen!

Last Tuesday, I went with Valentina and her dad and brother to a soccer game. I have watched soccer on TV here, but it did not prepare me at all for going to a game in person. It was amazing and very different from any other professional sporting event I have ever been to! People take their fútbol very seriously here. My first glimpse of the field was impeded by a police officer with a machine gun  in full riot gear. I asked Valentina what would happen if you wore a shirt supporting the opposing team to a game. She gave me a horrified look and jokingly, but not too jokingly, said, “You wouldn’t make it out alive.” When we got to our seats, I saw that two large sections of the stadium, behind the goals, were standing room only sections. They were packed with people, almost exclusively young men.

All of a sudden, a whole group of people flooded one of these sections carrying “Boca” (the name of the team) flags, accompanied by a drum section. The flag bearers spread out through the crowd to the front of the section, and the drum section set up camp in the back. We were sitting in the part of the stadium where there were assigned seats, but I had a great view of the standing sections. There were large bars spaced out periodically along the steps which appeared to be there so people could lean against them if they got tired of standing. What actually happened was that people would stand on top of the bars and loop ropes around the bars a few rows back so they could hang off the ropes and be higher up to see the field. They stayed like this, balancing on top of the bars, the entire game. Then the drum section started up and everyone started singing. The entire stadium seemed to know the song and everyone sang at the top of their lungs. The song was accompanied by an arm motion that can best be described as trying to flick something off your hand using only one arm or trying to move your sleeve up your arm so you can peek at your watch. Eventually most of the stadium stopped singing, but the core section of those surrounding the drummer kept singing. And get this: they didn’t stop singing for the entire game!!! They were several hundred of the most enthusiastic people I have ever seen. Frequently, especially when something exciting happened, the whole stadium would join in. There were some songs in which the arm motion was accompanied by jumping up and down. It was awesome to see an entire stadium of people jumping up and down and singing completely in unison. There were so many songs that it seemed as if they never repeated a song, although I know that’s not possible.

When the players ran out onto the field, everyone threw paper and confetti into the air–it seemed to appear out of nowhere–and sang even louder. The starting whistle blew and the game began. About five minutes in, while I was still soaking in the whole scene, Boca scored a goal! I would honestly say that the level of exaltation, celebration, excitement, and joy in the moments that followed was equal to, if not greater than, right when the Giants won the World Series. It was total chaos. Everyone was jumping up and down, screaming, and hugging everyone around them. It was so exhilarating, I couldn’t help but get caught up in it. I had never heard of Boca before this trip and had no vested interest in the outcome of the game, and yet it felt like I had been waiting for that moment my whole life. The joy was contagious and immediate.

After several minutes, things finally settled down and the game resumed. Within minutes the ref made a bad call and the entire stadium was filled with whistles (the equivalent of boos), and the mood had completely shifted.

I was lucky enough to be able to experience a second Boca goal the level of excitement definitely matched that of the first goal. More singing. When the other team scored a goal, everyone pretended nothing had happened and kept up with the singing. Unfortunately, Boca lost, so I did not get to see what the reaction would have been if they won. But it didn’t matter to me personally very much, and I was so glad to have had the opportunity to go to a game. I don’t think I will ever forget that experience!

Last Sunday, Valentina and I went with her mother, Norma, to vote in the primary elections for Congress. The way voting works is a little different here. There are about a dozen different parties, instead of two main parties. When you go to vote, you are given an envelope and you go into a booth with different flyers for each candidate and party. You then put the slips that correspond to the people you want to vote for in the envelope and seal it. You don’t write anything. There are a lot of very complicated election rules that I was not able to follow completely. In addition, the day of the election was kind of like a holiday.  For example, the soccer game that week was moved to a Tuesday, instead of being on a Sunday as it generally is.

The driving here is very different than in the Bay Area. Most streets are one-lane, one-way streets and the intersections of these streets are almost always uncontrolled intersections. However, this does not mean everyone stops and waits to make sure there are no cars coming. I have not been able to figure out how it is determined who has the right of way. As far as I can tell, both cars just drive straight through the intersection and hope that they don’t end up in the same place at the same time. Also, there are almost never any sidewalks, so as a pedestrian you just have to be very careful and make sure there are no cars coming as far as you can see. On big, multi-lane streets, there are no distinct lanes until you get to the stoplight. Everyone just goes where they want and then somehow when they get to the stoplight they are sorted into the correct number of lanes. It is really rather incredible that I haven’t witnessed any accidents yet. The driving age here is eighteen, I believe, which is plenty young. I have my license in California, but I cannot imagine driving here in a million years.

I have really been enjoying my classes at Belgrano. I would have to say that my favorite class is Math, because it is in English and I am able to follow what is happening. Also, I am faring better than I had expected in Chemistry, which is taught in Spanish. Luckily most science-y words sound pretty similar in English and Spanish. Biology is in English, but I have not taken Biology yet at Athenian and so I never have any idea what is going on.

One thing that I have found difficult that I had not anticipated is never fully understanding what is going on. I never realized how much I rely on overhearing other people’s conversations and gleaning information about what happened, what is going to happen, where we are going, and just the mundane details of the lives of those around me. If I am not paying absolute attention to someone’s conversation, I never catch the gist of it the way I might casually overhear something in English. This leads to me living in a state of confusion much of the time. For example, one day I was sitting in a classroom, waiting for class to start, and there were several girls sitting nearby talking in rapid-fire Spanish. Everyone seemed to be chatting happily, when all of a sudden one of the girls started crying. One of her friends comforted her, then a few seconds later she stopped crying and business proceeded as usual. I still have no idea what she was crying about or even what the general topic of the conversation was. I have had some very surreal and confusing experiences, but I have learned to just go with the flow.

Valentina has a very large, very close extended family here in Buenos Aires. In the three weeks I have been here, we have all, or almost all, gotten together on three separate occasions: a wedding and two different birthdays. This is a different experience for me, as I have no extended family living in or near the Bay Area. Everyone in her family, both immediate and extended, has been so welcoming, hospitable, and kind to me. I have really enjoyed getting to know her relatives and experiencing what it is like to have a large family living nearby.

One custom that still takes me by surprise is that people in Argentina greet each other with a kiss on the cheek. It doesn’t matter if you are strangers or old friends, everyone gets a kiss on the cheek. I can never imagine doing that in the U.S., and every time someone leans in for a kiss on the cheek I am still a little taken aback.

I am here for five more days before I fly home. This weekend all of the girls in Valentina’s grade are going on a “retiro,” or retreat, to some undisclosed location. We are not supposed to know anything ahead of time (something I have had some experience with), but I am looking forward to it.

 I arrived here in Buenos Aires on a Saturday morning to start my exchange at Belgrano Day School (BDS). The line to get through customs was very long because everyone was returning from their winter vacations. When I finally got through customs, I met the Vice Principal and Round Square Coordinator of BDS and his daughter. We then drove the forty minutes or so to the house where Vicky, a student at BDS, and her family live. I stayed with Vicky for two days, as the family I was going to stay with for the rest of the time had not returned from vacation yet. (Coincidentally, they were in a town in Argentina called San Francisco.)

The next day, Vicky and I went with Michaela Baker and Lucia, the girl she is staying with, to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, or “Malba.” The line to get into the museum was very long. The main exhibit while we were there was “Obsesión infinita” by the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. It was very interesting and there was one beautiful room that was dark and full of mirrors with little balls of colored light hanging down at different heights all over the room. There was a walkway in the middle and pools of water around the edges. There was another part of the museum that was originally a completely white room with white furniture, white paintings on the walls framed in white, fake white flowers in white vases, and white books on white bookshelves. When you entered the museum they gave you a sheet of circular stickers of various sizes and colors to decorate the room with. The walls, floors, furniture, and everything else were mostly covered with colorful dots. It was quite stunning.

We also went to an outdoor fair in a park where people were selling lots of different types of arts and crafts. They have a traditional drink here called “mate” that is kind of like an herb tea. One of the main things they sold at the fair were the special mate cups and straws. I saw people drinking it everywhere. I tried it with sugar and it was pretty good, but I would imagine it would be very bitter without sugar. There was also a lot of jewelry and leather belts and bags.

On Sunday night I went to stay with Valentina and her family and I will stay here for the rest of my trip. BDS is pre-school through high school, so it is very different from Athenian. Also, it is the middle of the city. It takes up one square block and has three stories. They have three “orientations,” or areas of studies: science, linguistics and humanities. Starting their Junior year, each student chooses one area to study. Valentina is in the science orientation. They also have classes that everyone takes such as math, philosophy, a civics class, and electives. Michaela and I are taking a mix of the three orientations. Half of the classes are in English and half are in Spanish. The Spanish they speak here is very different than the Spanish we speak in Spanish class at Athenian; it is called “Castellano” and is a whole different dialect. After a philosophy class in Spanish first thing Monday morning, Michaela and I realized that the classes in Spanish were going to be very difficult. We chose to take plenty of classes in English and are avoiding Philosophy, Spanish literature, and Civics, all of which are in Spanish. It is very demoralizing to sit through an eighty-minute class and understand maybe one in ten words. I wanted to come here to practice Spanish, and I feel confident that even though I am taking less than half of my classes in Spanish that I will still have plenty of opportunities to learn. All of the students speak to each other in Spanish and we speak (mostly) Spanish at home.

Two afternoons a week, we get on school buses and drive about half an hour to sports fields for P.E. Girls can choose between field hockey and volleyball and boys can choose between rugby and volleyball. I wanted to try something new and so I chose hockey. I am really enjoying it! There are three teams based on skill level who all practice at the same time. I was, of course, on the third team. All of the girls are so nice and are eager to help me learn how to play. In the first scrimmage, the ball went through my legs on more than one occasion, but I get better each time I play. This past Thursday we had a match against another school, and I played for about five minutes. Luckily BDS had already scored several goals and would go on to score several more, so my fumbling did not negatively impact the outcome. Almost all the students here have been playing hockey since elementary school. Yet everyone is so supportive and complimentary even when I pass the ball directly to the other team or take a big swing and miss. My current challenge is figuring out how to hit the ball with the correct side of the stick, as you have to use one hand to flip the stick around as you dribble.

The food in Argentina is delicious. I would say that beef and dulce de leche are the two most-consumed food groups here. The beef is very fresh and you buy it from a butcher at a stand in the market where all they sell is beef. They cut it and weigh it right in front of you. It would be a little difficult to come on exchange here if as a vegetarian. The other food they eat a lot of here is dulce de leche. It is similar to caramel sauce but more spreadable and more widely used. Anywhere we would use peanut butter, they use dulce de leche–I have not had any peanut butter while here–and they use it in lots of other things, too. One delicious dessert is chocotorta, which is chocolate cookies dipped in milk layered with a mixture of dulce de leche and cream cheese. You put it in the refrigerator instead of baking it and it is delicious. Alfahores are another yummy dessert. They are shortbread cookies with dulce de leche in the middle, sometimes dipped in chocolate. I also love empanadas, which are pastries baked with meat filling inside. The Safarians, the family I am staying with, are of Armenian heritage and so we also eat Armenian food, which I also really like.

But the biggest difference with regards to food is when it is eaten. We eat a very light breakfast, usually tea and a piece of toast with dulce de leche, and then we eat lunch at school. In the late afternoon we have tea time, usually around 5:00. Then we eat dinner around 9:30 or 10:00! The first day I got here, when I was staying with Vicky, we ate dinner at 11:30! Another day I went out to eat at a restaurant with Valentina and a friend of hers at 11:00. No one can believe it when I say that I am used to eating dinner at 7:00 pm!

Last Friday, I went to the (sort-of) wedding of Valentina’s cousin. We went to the “civil,” or the legal part of the wedding, and then to a party at her cousin’s grandmother’s gorgeous house about forty minutes outside Buenos Aires. The actual wedding in the church is in October. At the party I got to meet Valentina’s extended family. When we got there around 4:00 in the afternoon, there were people passing around hor’derves. Over the next few hours they passed around the equivalent of a full meal, there was a toast to the bride and groom, and we ate cake. In the evening there was music and dancing. Around 9:00 Valentina and I went to go to the bathroom. I saw a table full of plates and silverware, and I asked Valentina what that was for. She said, “Oh, that’s for dinner.” It turns out everything we had eaten earlier was lunch! We left the celebration around 2:30 a.m., and Valentina said the party would go on for several more hours.

I also visited “La Casa Rosada,” or “the pink house,” the Argentine equivalent of the White House. It is historically pink because it used to be painted with bull’s blood for color. Argentina is having elections for Congress this coming Sunday and so on most corners of busy streets there are stands promoting different candidates. Here in Argentina everyone ages twenty to sixty five is required to vote and it is optional from sixteen to seventeen. The penalty for not voting is a fine. Also, candidates are not allowed to start campaigning until one month before the primaries.

Someone asked Michaela and I what classes we were taking next year, and when Michaela said she was taking Gay Pride and explained what it was, no one could believe it. It seems like everyone in the school now knows that Athenian has a class about the history of gay people. Gay marriage is legal here in Argentina, but there is much less exposure to homosexuality than in the Bay Area.

I can’t believe I am already almost halfway through my time here. I am very much looking forward to the rest of my time!

Getting off the plane in the Launceston airport on June 14 marked the start of a new adventure. I was greeted there by my host, Alice Holmes, and her family. Arriving at their home–and my home for eight weeks–I almost immediately fell asleep from the jet lag. On Saturday (my first real day of experiencing Tasmania) Alice took me to see a few of the sights of Launceston. We walked through Seaport and went on a scenic walk to see the Gorge. Later that weekend, we went to Tasmania Zoo where I saw a wallaby, an emu, a kookaburra, a quoll, a dingo, a wombat (my new favorite animal) and, of course, a Tasmanian Devil. Before I came to Tasmania, I was filled with numerous tales about the fierce Tasmanian devil and the weather (which is about the equivalent of San Francisco in the summer). From what I have seen in many of the zoos that I have visited thus far, my preconceptions have not matched the stories. The Tasmanian devils have flaunted the strength of their jaws while eating the remains of an animal, but instead of attacking their keeper, they fell asleep upon her feet and in her arms.

My first day on campus of Scotch Oakburn College I had no idea of where to go, what to do or how to act. The sight of hundreds of students in stiff collared shirts and blazers threw me, having been used to the sight of Athenian students casually wearing jeans tucked into UGGs. But it wasn’t only me confused by the unfamiliar apparel; I stood out like a sore thumb. My first stop in this jungle of navy blue and maroon blazers was Mr. Jenkinson’s office. He introduced me to the schedule, provided me with a school planner, handed me a Round Square pin, and set me loose to see what Scotch Oakburn has to offer. For the next two weeks, I was instructed to follow the same schedule as Alice so that I could have time to become more accustomed to the school. Continuing through my first day was somewhat a challenge. The schedule consists of three double periods which are about the same length as long periods at Athenian (90 minutes) with recess, assembly and lunch in between. In my first class, Advanced English, as I entered the room I was serenaded by fifteen students with Katy Perry’s “California Girls.” The day progressed, laden with comments on my accent and questions about America. The following class was Sport Science. One physics class later, the day was over. I met many new people on my first day but I unfortunately forgot most of their names. When we arrived home, I was overwhelmed with exhaustion.

The rest of the week went a little more smoothly. I was shocked by what seemed to be an infinite number of new names and faces that I thought I would never remember. But slowly I began to recognize my way around the school and was soon capable of wandering off from where my new friends ate lunch and returning without having to ask for directions. On Wednesday, I was finally able to get a Scotch Oakburn uniform and this camouflage allowed me to merge into the sea of students. Although I was grateful not to stand out as much or have to pick an outfit every morning, I soon tired of the starched shirt and tie. I was amazed by the list of classes a student can take as an elective such as three different courses of cooking, art, furniture design, business enterprise, sewing and physical pursuits.

The following weekend, we went to Bicheno which is located on the east coast of Tasmania. The coast is renowned for the white sandy beaches and clear blue waters.  Google ‘Wine Glass Bay’, which is a ways down the road from where we stayed in Bichen, to get a view. One of my greatest regrets of coming on exchange in the winter is not being able to enjoy the warmth of the summer sun at the beach. Regardless of the frigid temperature of the ocean (about 40 degrees or lower), the water was so tempting that Alice and I went for a swim in the icy waves. The following day, we went to the East Coast Natureworld. There, the kangaroos were free to roam the zoo and the visitors could walk through the bird and wallaby enclosures. At Natureworld, the devils were too old to be held, but I was able to pet a Tasmanian devil while the keeper held it.

Returning to school for my second week, it was a similar layout of classes as the week before. I followed Alice through all her classes, joined her in tutor group (similar to advisory), ate lunch, etc. On Tuesday, I joined the soccer team for the first time. We stopped by the school store and got a soccer uniform and shoes the day before. Having never played soccer outside of middle school PE, I didn’t know what to expect from training or this team. One of my new friends, Charlotte, is joining the soccer team for the first time in her life as well, so we stand by each other and make fools of ourselves while trying to kick the ball. There are two practices a week (Tuesday and Wednesday) and by Thursday every muscle in me ached. On Friday, Mr. Jenkinson asked Alice and me to speak at an assembly. We agreed and spoke to the entire ninth grade about Round Square and the differences between Athenian and Scotch Oakburn.

The following weekend, Alice and I went shopping in Launceston. I enjoyed seeing the differences between shops in Tasmania and the shops in California. On Sunday, we went to an AFL (Australian Football League) game between Hawthorn and Brisbane. Of course, being a foreigner, I had no idea how a football game in Australia is conducted. Alice had shown me short clips of other games before we went to watch, but I was still lost. After an hour or so, I began to understand the rules of the game better which made the experience much more enjoyable. Hawthorn won by a landslide and is still on the top of the ladder while Brisbane is around fourteenth out of eighteen.

My third week at Scotch Oakburn College was very similar to my previous two weeks of school. On Tuesday I came with my friends Kate and Georgia to their cooking class called “Festive Foods.”  With the Fourth of July coming up, their class was assigned to make festive American cuisine, pumpkin pie. For homework, the class was asked to research the history of Independence Day. Because none of the students had done this assignment, the teacher asked me to lecture the class on American history. It surprised me how easily I could recall the information that was chiseled into my brain since the age of five. The class continued with the production of pumpkin pies and cakes frosted with red, white and blue. In celebration of the Fourth of July, my host family made a special dinner of hot dogs, potato salad, corn on the cob, and apple pie. After dinner, we layered on jackets and went outside to play with sparklers while the sky flashed with lightning that looked almost like fireworks.

On Friday, I met with Mr. Jenkinson in the morning and I finally received my own personalized schedule. I now have five classes: Maths, French, Psychology, English, and World History. Four out of five of my classes are with eleventh and twelfth grade students. The only class I have with the tenth graders, who I had been taking all of my classes with prior to Friday, is World History. The first class I had was English where I knew absolutely nobody, but everybody was welcoming and I enjoyed their company. It seemed that they all knew Pierson and they amused me with some stories from his stay in Tasmania. The bell soon rang and school was let out for a two week winter holiday, but first I had to walk across campus in the pouring rain. Once again I asked myself what too many people have asked me already. “Why did you come in the winter?

The Round Square African Regional Conference

Over the week-long mid-term break, Reneilwe, Michael, Aidan, Kristen, Mihaela, and I all attended the Round Square African Regional Conference at Tiger Kloof School in Vryberg! After hours of road trip games, KFC, and getting terribly lost, we were the last school to arrive at the conference (along with another school from Ghana). We quickly signed in and received our baraza bandanas, which assigned us to our different baraza groups (discussion/activity groups) by color. I wrapped my sky-blue bandana around my forehead as I searched for my group. In the back corner of a huge tent where people were buzzing around and busy setting up a braai, I found my baraza group just as busy trying to succeed with their name-game. As soon as I joined in, I failed miserably (being confused about how to play the game and not knowing a single person’s name). But everyone was upbeat and willing to teach me how to play, not to mention very patient when I couldn’t remember their names for the hundredth time. The night ended with a lot of laughs about the awkward moments, not realizing that there were plenty more to come. All of the students were separated into rooms where they didn’t know anyone. I shared a room with four other girls, coming from schools in Cape Town, Ghana, and one girl from the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls (yes, it’s a Round Square school!). We all went to bed quickly and quietly, knowing that we had a very full day ahead of us.

The students walked out of their rooms, greeted by a sun barely waking up over the low trees. We walked over to the dining hall, had a quick breakfast, and split into two groups for the day. My group began the day at the lower field where a mass of children from local schools were anxiously waiting to have a field day with us! All of the students, the conference attendees and local children, were divided into four color groups. I proudly wiped yellow war-paint under my eyes and shouted our mighty mighty yellow battle cry, stomping my feet and pumping my fists like some odd sort of ape. So the games began! We cycled through the classic field games–egg on a spoon, bobbing for apples, the water-balloon toss, and potato sack race–until we finally ended at the worst game of all. We stood in a yellow cluster, all facing outwards, and squeezed together as we were encircled again and again by a tight, thin rope. When the game masters had finished, they told us and the neighboring blue cluster to begin walking forward; it was a race to the end of the field and back, as a group. The beginning of the race was okay because I was in the front, but as it went on the cluster started rotating, and I was soon stuck in the back. I was stepped on, elbowed, and eventually dragged by the group to the finish line. While the people leading in the front celebrated our victory, I confided with the others who had to suffer the wrath of the back of the cluster. We all began to walk to the finale of games (the tug-of-rope) when I suddenly felt extremely dizzy and unbalanced. Thank goodness Michael was there to catch me as I collapsed to the ground and blacked out. I woke up with a multitude of heads floating over my face and was taken to the nurse so I could rest. I was completely fine; heat exhaustion and dehydration had just gotten the best of me. When I returned to lunch later that day, I was greeted by people making sure I was okay. They were happy to hear that I was completely fine.

After lunch, our half of the students loaded up into vans and were driven down the road to meet children from the townships near Tiger Kloof. When we arrived, a line of little boys and girls stared in excitement and wonder as we got out of the vans and walked toward them. The conference attendees stood by the children and were divided into groups of four or five to visit a specific child’s family. I stood by our new little friend, James, along with Reneilwe and some of our new friends from conference; Casper, Edu, and Kaye. We followed James through the maze of recycled homes until reaching his home, but we were surprised not to see any adults there. We were greeted by a young girl doing laundry in a bucket almost her size, methodically scrubbing clothes and hanging them up to dry. When our adult leader asked the kids where their parents were (in their language), the kids spent a few minutes talking and waving their hands around their heads, pointing in different directions around the township. Our leader then translated for us and told us the story of how both of the children’s parents had abandoned them, the father moving to one side of the township with another woman and the mother to the opposite side with another man. These two kids had an older brother who took care of them; he had dropped out of school in the seventh grade in order to go find a job and feed himself and his siblings. We all stood in shock, not knowing quite what to do. We gave the kids a bag of food that we had thought parents were going to prepare for them, and soon had to leave for the bus again. In the bus we all talked about how this wasn’t right, how these kids needed a parent and how the oldest boy had been forced to grow up way too quickly. We talked and talked about the injustice, the inequity, the corruption of “the system” as a whole, but looking back, none of us said what we were going to do to change it. We voiced our opinions loud and clear, but then sat on the bus and waited for somebody else to fix it. By the end of the conference, that all would all have changed.

Monday morning, my roommates and I beat the sun for early rising once again, as we took turns taking showers with a shower head that only ever sprayed a little bit of water. It was nearly impossible to wash my mountain of hair, but we walked to breakfast all cleaned up and wondering about the day ahead of us. On the schedule we had received, it read “Eight Kilometer walk” for Monday morning. We were all confused about why and where they were going to have us walk eight kilometers.  After breakfast, we loaded up into vans and drove for a good fifteen minutes, reaching our final destination; the middle of nowhere. The only thing we could see was a little farm house and some cattle grazing in the field. As it turned out, this farm house was our destination. There we would meet three children who walk eight kilometers to school and eight kilometers home every single day. We were going to join them on their walk this morning. The three children led us, walking quickly with their little heads bobbing back and forth–and the entirety of the conference followed like an extremely disproportionate tail. It was hot and sticky and dusty. We were all very sweaty, but no one complained. We all realized that this is what these children do in order to just get to school, not to mention the fact that they have to get back home every day. So we followed the kids, stunned and amazed by their motivation to learn. After not so long, we reached Devondale School, where scores of kids were waiting to meet us. They got in a circle and began singing songs and dancing and laughing; they were full of an incredible amount of energy and joy. We followed them where they ran and listened to their beautiful voices as they sang for us and they led us to a small staged area, complete with a single tree to give us some hot-sticky shade. To my surprise, the kids and staff at Devondale had prepared an entire welcoming and thank you ceremony for the conference. We sat and watched the singers, dancers and speakers, all giving us performances from deep within their hearts. It was clear that all of the children who performed had worked hard in order to show us their best. By the end of the ceremony, we were all excited to give the children the backpacks that we had brought for them—and they seemed even more excited to get them! I left the school feeling happy that I was able to help these children a little bit, but at the same time I felt a little bit empty inside. I wanted to do more, but I didn’t know what I could do or how I could do it. I thought about the children who walked so far to get to school and wondered if bicycles could help them, or if I could donate books to the school library, or maybe even raise money to get these kids some air conditioning because it was extremely hot even on this day in the late fall. But the problem seemed too big, and I wondered how people started change. What could people do not to just cover up a problem, but to make it disappear completely? Throughout the conference I continued to wonder who I could talk to so I could help these kids, but in just a day or so this response would change as well.

After a long, tiring, and emotionally exhausting day, all of the conference attendees were excited for the conference talent show that night! We filed into two rows that stretched around the perimeter of the dining hall, open to a large rectangular space in the middle that was ready to be filled with some teenage talent. There was an array of performances; a girl who did some traditional dancing from India, indie rock songs played on the guitar, a skit about a princess saved from the evil dragon, and even some sweet African drumming. Ironically, representing Stanford Lake College was Mihaela and I, both singing our countries’ national anthems. Mihaela sang the sweet and somber tune of the Bulgarian national anthem, and everyone was mesmerized by the language and the melody they had never heard before. After a round of applause for her, I stepped up and began singing the U.S. anthem. Now, I had sung the anthem before in front of many more people than were at the conference, but this performance was just as, if not more, terrifying than that. Singing directly in front of people who are looking at you from all sides, staring, and knowing that everyone is listening to every note that comes out of your mouth… but I sang anyways. To my utter amazement, by the end of the song everyone was cheering, and there was even a group of kids shouting “U.S.A! U.S.A!” I laughed in a mixture of relief and surprise at everyone’s excitement about the anthem, and after the last few performances and a quick poker game my roommates and I walked and laughed all the way to our room. It was amazing, in just two nights we were all so comfortable with each other. We shared food and stories before going to bed for the night, and each minute we bonded more and more.

Our schedule read “The Tiger Kloof Challenge” for our final morning at the conference. None of us had a clue what that meant. We were told only that we were going to get dirty and sweaty, and therefor to dress appropriately for outdoor activity. So armed with bandanas and water bottles, us teenagers met at the lower field only to be guided down a narrow dirt path, framed by prickly bushes on either side. We jostled down stone stairs, passed a moss infested lake, and traveled through a hallway of trees until finally reaching our new meeting spot; a set of monkey bars. This was the first of ten challenges that our baraza groups were to complete. We had fifteen minutes to complete each challenge and gain as many points as possible, in hopes that we would be the baraza group with the most points (and win a bag of sweeties!). We began swinging down the line of bars, everybody cheering for one another until blisters grew on our hands. At the end of those fifteen minutes, we ran to “the wall”, where we had to help each other climb over (flailing limbs and all) as many times as possible. And the morning continued like that; pulling ropes, balancing platforms, jumping carpet squares, and blindfolding ourselves, but the most eventful challenge was the “tire pole”. Looming about ten feet in the air, a wooden pole stood ringed by an old tire sitting in the dirt. Our task was to get the tire off of the pole, without touching the tire to the pole, as many times as possible. So we began slowly lifting the tire up; boys got onto each others shoulders, reaching as high as they could to get to the top but they couldn’t quite reach it. Their solution was to throw the tire off to the pole, but unfortunately I had just stepped away from the pole because I couldn’t be of any help reaching the tire. The next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a large tire mark rolling from my shoulder to my forehead. I opened my eyes just to see yet another multitude of heads swirling over my face, everyone asking if I was okay or if I needed any help. Funny enough, I actually felt fine. I sat down for a few minutes, brushed the dirt off of my back, and went right back to work trying to get that tire off the pole. I figured that the easiest thing to do would be to get on the tallest member of our groups shoulders, so I called Timothy (or as we ironically called him, Little Timmy) over and helped the others get the tire off of the very top of the pole a few times. I must say, going into this conference I never thought that I would’ve come out of it saying that I had gotten hit in the head with a tire!

After the Tiger Kloof Challenge, there was a closing baraza session where we talked about what we were taking away from this conference. There was a lot of good conversation about things that we can do with our schools to help our communities, or projects we can go on to make a difference, or an organization we can raise money for with bake sales and car washes and all those good things. But, the most important point was this; we don’t need anyone else in order to be able to make a change. We don’t need our schools as middle men. Rather we hold within ourselves the power to create change. Hard work and commitment over time will equal either success or failure, but even that is better than waiting for others to do what we are called to do ourselves. As we all walked out of that meeting, we committed to each other that we were going to be the generation to make the change, and we were going to start with being the change ourselves.

 

It has already been three weeks since my arrival at the Hamburg Airport on April 8^th. I was picked up and driven directly to Stiftung Louisenlund, my amazing exchange school, by the school van. With little time to cool down myself from the excitement of being in Germany, school started right from that Monday morning.

Louisenlund is a private school located in Güby, Shleswig-Holstein, a state of northern Germany neighboring Denmark. As a boarding school with over 300 boarding students and 50 day students, Louisenlund has a beautiful campus. It is surrounded by forests and a harbour of the Baltic Sea. Although the school is kind of “in the middle of nowhere” (one hour drive to Kiel and two hours to Hamburg, which are the two big towns of the state), the peaceful and pure environment in this small town for studying, as well as living, is appreciated.

The first few weeks living in Germany was a little bit of challenge, but really cool!

The change in climate made me “suffer.” It was already spring time, but the northern part of Germany was still crazily cold, even compared to the winter in California. It was always freezing and rainy and the strong wind was pushing me back every time I moved forward. Luckily, everyone around told me that I had picked the best time to stay because the weather between April to June is normally warm and comfy, and they just went through a really long winter. Well, it really takes time to adjust to it.

Another challenge I face is the German language. Although most of the students and teachers in Louisenlund are able to speak fluent English, assemblies on every Monday morning and announcements after lunch are all presented in German.  After the meetings I was asking whoever was sitting next to me for translation. (Hope that didn’t annoy them too much…) Whenever I was sitting straight and pretending to listen carefully when they were speaking in German, I understood nothing.  A voice raised in my head all the time —— I should have learnt some more German beyond “Guten Morgen”(Good Morning) and “Danke”(Thanks).

Thanks to the “geographical advantage” of the school and with many of the students boarding in the school, going off campus became luxurious for me. Within these three weeks, I luckily got to go to Schleswig and Hamburg. Schleswig is a town 15 minutes away from the school and it is where my exchange partner lives. Led by a history teacher, Mr Thiele, Michelle (an exchange student from Canada) and I visited the Viking Museum and were amazed by all the ancient architecture.  Hamburg is the biggest town in the state of Schleswig-Holstein and has served as the central harbour city for centuries. Buildings with emerald green rooftops are pretty and everywhere. There is one more thing that I would love to mention–the “Döner”, a kind of Turkey food, that is very popular in Germany. It is pretty much like a taco and it’s super yummy!!!

After three weeks of staying, I got to know more about the school and Germany. Here are some interesting facts.

First of all, very different from Athenian where we queue up for meals, students and teachers here have their seats assigned, normally by the houses or classes, and they have lunch in family style.

Second, to me, having a own sailing team and their own harbour for practice are really special. It is just like we Athenians are building up great airplanes. Here at Louidenlund students are building amazing sailing boats.

And there is always something fun going on at the school every Friday evening, despite the fact that we still have classes on Saturday morning. Students hold school-wide parties (which is called “Shülerhaus” in German) every Friday night, dancing and having fun. In addition, there was a play produced by the school drama club last Friday. Although I didn’t get most of the actor’s lines which were in German, I was impressed by the all those talented students and teachers who made much effort to put on this brilliant show.

In short, I am getting more and more comfortable living in the school and in Germany because of all the nice people and the fantastic things I have seen. There is only one more month left for me to enjoy the school and German culture. I really appreciate this chance of coming to Germany for exchange. I know that there is going to be a lot more new and fun stuff coming up and I am so looking forward to it!

Lauren Glenn:  The Six Day Weekend

This weekend was one of the longest and busiest of my life. Each day seemed like it spanned 48 hours rather than 24! Every minute was filled with so many new and exciting opportunities and experiences!

Friday: This day began with school as usual; four classes and then tea time. But around noon, I left with the seventeen other students in the SLC [Stanford Lake College] chorus to go perform at the Earth Day Festival at Southern Cross School near Haenertsberg. None of us knew quite what to expect, but we were all quite surprised when we saw the school. Our van navigated through windy, dusty trails, around bushes and sun baked trees, until we finally arrived at a small market. There were plants, animals, bags, jewelry, and even trailers being advertised and sold. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to loiter; we quickly changed out of our uniforms and ran over to the small stage where we were to perform. This platform was barely big enough to fit the eighteen of us, but we shuffled and squeezed onto it and sang our tunes. After our performance, we watched some of the Southern Cross students’ presentations as well. There was everything from ballet to hip hop, spoken word ranging from feminine power to John the Baptist and even a poem about The Jabberwocky. This small show soon ended and we were invited to come back later that night to watch a few more performances.

When we returned, it was dark and the school seemed like it had come alive. The first presentation was of traditional dancing from one of the eleven language groups in South Africa. (I believe it was Zulu, but nobody knew for sure.) The dancers were wearing colorful beads and fabrics, leopard prints and multiple types of furs in very strategic places around their sweaty, hyper bodies. Through their dance they told stories of their history–speaking, singing, and acting out their heritage. I was just as impressed by the next group of performers; a group of around fifteen students stepped onto the stage with drums that were half their height. The teens began with effortless rhythms, tapping the drums as if they were trying to crack open a safe; but this simple style soon evolved into a ring of complex beats, taps, and hands reaching from one drum to the next. Of course, all of us from SLC were dancing around to the music. We were fueled by all of the energy popping through the night air.

Saturday: We spent the first half of Saturday sitting in the van, trying to get home. After the first two hours of driving back to campus our bus “lost its oomph,” as our driver described it, and we waited for another hour or a different bus to come fetch us. We arrived back at the school, and Reneilwe’s mother picked up both me and Mihaela (an exchange student from Germany). Mihaela and her host, Makungu, were both going to stay the weekend with me and Reneilwe. Because the four of us still had a Saturday night with no plans, we went out with a few of the other exchanges and their hosts. In all there were ten of us; me and Reneilwe, Mihaela and Makungu, Michael and Khanya, Alexa (from Canada) and Kate, and Liam (from New Zealand) and KG. After watching “Warm Bodies” at the cinema, we ate a Californian pizza at a restaurant nearby. We then proceeded to stroll out of the restaurant, walk fifty feet to our left, and go straight into the restaurant next door for dessert. The night ended with a lot of laughs and some ice cream on Khanya’s face!

Sunday: The day before, Reneilwe and Makungu had told me and Mihaela that they had a surprise for us on Sunday, but we would have to wake up pretty early to get to it. So at six o’clock in the morning we all filed into the car and drove for three hours to Johannesburg. Between short naps and listening to music, Mihaela and I kept asking and guessing about where we could possibly be going. The mall, a show, a museum? We finally arrived at a large sign that read, “GOLD REEF CITY” in sparkling sun-lit letters, framed by winding rollercoasters and teenage screams. So we spent the day at a theme park! There was almost nobody there; the longest time we waited to get on a ride was only about five minutes! We twisted around the Anaconda, got shaken in the Jozi Express, and spun around and around on the UFO. By the end of the day, we were all dizzy and stumbling back to the car to get home. On the way back we stopped at the mall for food. Since I had been missing food from home, I bought myself some tuna maki from a take-away sushi restaurant. Reneilwe and Mihaela went to a Chinese restaurant just across the food court and Reneilwe tried chow mein for the first time! Let’s just say that we won’t be taking her to Panda Express when she comes to the California.

This week has started out very well. Make sure to check in next week, I will be blogging about the Round Square Regional Conference!

 

 

 

I am a sophomore on exchange to the Vivek High School in Chandigarh, India. I arrived in Chandigarh on March 17, so I’ve been on exchange for a several weeks and already seen a lot of India! Chandigarh is a city about a half-hour plane ride from Delhi that is very modern. It was built in the fifties and is a beautiful city with lots of greenery! It is a union territory, as well as being the capital of two states in India – Haryana and Punjab.  Chandigarh is known as being the cleanest city in India.      

My first week, I stayed with a girl named Anahita who has just come to Athenian on exchange. I stayed with Anahita, her parents, and her grandpa, all of whom were very nice and welcoming! Anahita introduced me to some of her friends, who were also very sweet and fun. Over my first week, we went around to see Chandigarh. The city is flat and feels very spacious with lots of parks. The roads and sidewalks are much wider than they are in the U.S. This is a good thing, because there are so many different types of traffic on the road–from cars and trucks and motorcycles to rickshaws, bikes, wagons, and horses! Because of the many different vehicles, driving in India is very different from driving in the U.S. Laws are more like guidelines. People don’t pay too much attention to lane markers, even driving on the other side of the road sometimes. Like in England, cars (usually) drive on the left. Finally, everyone is honking all the time. Even at night I could hear constant honking from the road. However, honking is not considered rude. Instead, it is necessary to honk or else people may not know you are there.

Soon after I arrived, we went to one of the markets and I got henna on my hands, which is called Mehndi here. The people who do it are amazing artists and the Mehndi was very pretty! We also visited the rock gardens in Chandigarh, which are extremely well known. The gardens have rock structures and waterfalls and plants. They also have lots of little statues and interesting designs on the walls made from trash. One wall had patterns made of old plugs in it. In the entrance to the gardens there were hundreds of small figures made of things such as broken bangles. After walking around the gardens, I went on a camel ride with my friend Roshni. We climbed up a ladder to get on the camel’s back, and the man in charge walked us around for a few minutes. It was fun, but a little scary because we were so high up and when the camel started running I felt certain that I was going to fall off. It was very bumpy, like trotting on a huge horse.

Anahita’s parents took me to see classical Indian music and dance performances in the evenings. We went three nights in a row to an art center where they hold lots of festivals and performances. Each night, there was live music first, and afterwards, different styles of traditional Indian dance from states in India. My favorite performance was the Odissi dance from Orissa is Eastern India. The dancers wore beautiful, brightly colored costumes, and imitated poses of gods and goddesses in the temples of Orissa.

Something I’ve found interesting is that people eat silver here! I’ve had it in two places. Once it was just a little bit topping a custard-like dessert. The other places I’ve seen it are in wedding invitations. Although I have yet to attend an Indian wedding, I’ve heard a lot about them! There are certain times of the year when people marry for auspicious reasons. So far no weddings have happened, but my host family was invited to a few weddings. When you invite someone to a wedding, you go to their house with the invitation and bring some sort of sweets or snacks with you. What has so far appeared to be the most common sweet to bring is a box of thin little diamond shaped cookies that are very soft and sweet with a thin layer of silver on top. They’re delicious, and since my hosts have told me that I’m supposed to gain weight on exchange, I’ve probably eaten several boxes by now.

A week after I arrived in Chandigarh, I went on an adventure camp with the class going from eighth to ninth grade. (The school year in India ends sometime in early March and the next year begins in early April). A girl who is doing a gap year as an assistant teacher at Vivek from Markham College in Peru also came on the trip and I became good friends with her. We went to a hill station called Chail in Himachal Pradesh, and spent two nights at a camp there. Chail is in the mountains; there are mostly tiny villages and only a few towns, and the hills are very beautiful. While we were driving, I saw lots of monkeys sitting along the side of the road and there are cows everywhere, including in the towns and villages. I even saw a camel, a yak, and a peacock flying across the road. We reached the camp after driving for four hours and the instructors showed us the tents where we would be staying. To someone used to making a tiny tent on the ground out of stakes and tarps, the tents at the camp seemed very luxurious, with beds, lights, and bathrooms with running water. In the afternoon, we went on a hike through the forests, which was cut short when a huge storm hit. We had to run back, our shoes so heavy with mud we could barely lift them. We spent the rest of the afternoon stuck inside because of the rain, and had to move to cottages when some of the tents flooded and collapsed. The next two days we did activities such as rappelling, artificial rock climbing, and a zip line. In the evenings we had bonfires and a DJ who played Punjabi music, so I learned a little of the traditional Punjabi dance: Bhangra for boys and Gidha for girls. Although I do not usually enjoy camping, I really enjoyed the trip and made a lot of friends!

When I returned from Chail, I went to stay with my next host, Aakriti. It was Holi, so her cousins from Delhi were visiting and I got to be really close with them. When I first came to stay with her, she was referring to one of her cousins as her brother and I was very confused, as I only remembered her telling me that she had one sister when we’d talked over email. However, I’ve since learned that in India, cousins are called brothers and sisters.

Holi is the festival of colors and water, and celebrating the holiday is referred to as “playing Holi.” For Holi, we went to a park with lots of packets of colored powders, water guns, water balloons, and buckets. Everyone wore old clothes and we spent hours throwing water balloons, dumping buckets of colored water on each other, and smearing the colored powders on everyone’s faces. The colors were meant to wash off easily, but we accidentally used permanent powders so my face was slightly red and yellow for several days. It was one of the most fun things I’ve ever done and I definitely plan to play Holi again!

A few days after Holi, I was able to go to Delhi and spend two days there with my host and her cousins. We took the train early in the morning and arrived before noon. That afternoon, my host, her cousin, and I visited a place called the Kingdom of Dreams just outside of Delhi. The Kingdom of Dreams has a huge indoor hall with sections representing each state in India. It was insanely packed so that we could barely move through the crowds at times. At the Kingdom of Dreams, we also saw a sort of Bollywood musical performance with lots of singing and dancing. It was in Hindi and I tried using a headset that translated the lines to English; however, the plot was not very important so I left the headset and enjoyed the music and dance instead. Our second day, we visited several historical sites. First was the Qutab Minar, a huge tower built by a Muslim ruler over a thousand years ago, then the India Gate, and finally, Humayun’s Tomb, which has similar architecture to the Taj Mahal. Although we didn’t have nearly enough time to see everything, Delhi was full of history and very interesting, as well as being a lot of fun!

Because Indian culture is so rich, I’ve learned a lot about cultural customs in my past few weeks on exchange. There is a saying in India that “the guest is God,” which many people have told me about, and they clearly feel that it is very important to treat guests this way. Everywhere I have gone, people have insisted that I eat something, as feeding guests is the main act of hospitality. In fact, I have not once felt hungry while I’ve been in India. I pointed this out to my host’s uncle, who told me that the word ‘hungry’ is usually only used in the context of the poor in India, because people eat all the time. Not huge amounts, but everyone is always snacking. This is partly because most middle to upper class homes in India have help around the house – housekeepers, cooks, and drivers. In the U.S., it is very uncommon to have people keeping house for you. In India, it is both a cultural norm and a huge industry, so that those who are well-off can enable others to earn a living. It has taken some time to adjust to the fact that I don’t have to get my own glass of water. It feels a little weird, but it’s all part of my exchange experience!

I’ve also picked up a bit of Hindi and hope to learn more when school starts. Hindi and English are both spoken in Chandigarh, along with Punjabi, which is the language for the state of Punjab. In India, Hindi is spoken everywhere, as is English, but each area has it’s own language(s) as well, so there are many national languages. Since Hindi is the most widely spoken language, I’ve tried to learn a little of that. I can say my name – “mera nam Mirella he” – and ask someone their name – “apca nam quiya he?”. I’ve also learned a little about how the language ties into the culture. In India, respecting one’s elders is very important. “Ji” can be added after someone’s name to show respect, and people will call a girl a few years older than themselves Didi, meaning older sister, and a boy a few years older Bhuya – older brother. My host calls me Mirellu and I sometimes call her Aaku, because in Hindi, you add “u” to someone’s name to make it a pet name.

After spending a few days in Delhi, Aakriti and I returned to Chandigarh, where we’ve had some time before school starts.  Over the past several days I’ve met some of Aakriti’s friends and seen more of Chandigarh. School is finally starting and I’m really looking forward to meeting people and seeing what school is like in India!