First day of school

Eastside high school!

Yesterday my first day of American high school finally started! I was really nervous about it before, but there was no need to be nervous. School here is a lot of fun and I love all my classes! In this post I want to tell you how my first day has been.

I don't have to take the school bus, because my host sister can drive me to school. It's only a short drive. In my opinion the school starts very late: at 8:45! It's great though because in that way I can sleep longer, haha. When we walked into the school I immediately felt like I was in a movie, which was really fun to experience. It wasn't really hard for me to find my classes during the day, because I already had a tour through the school. I only got late one time so that's a great accomplishment for me!

One of the hallways

I started with the classes US History and Drama. I think US History is going to be hard because we have to learn a lot in just one year, but it's also interesting so I don't really mind!
Drama will probably be not that hard and a lot of fun. The teacher is really nice and the school has a big auditorium where the plays are held.
After Drama we all had to go to Homeroom. I didn't know what that was before, but if you're Dutch you can compare it to 'Mentoruur'. It's some time where your Homeroom teacher gives you important papers like the school guide, and tells you things you need to know. I won't have Homeroom every day, but only at important days like the end and beginning of the school year.
After Homeroom it was time for chorus. I really like this class because it's so different than normal classes, it just consists of singing! We're going to do some performances throughout the year and we'll also make a trip, so I'm happy to be a part of the choir!

My fourth class was Astronomy. I had to take a Science class and I think astronomy is really interesting. What we do during class is learning about different planets and stars, and I like it so far. The teacher also organizes something called 'Star Parties' where we'll meet at night to look at the sky through telescopes.
After that it was time for lunch. Because my school is big, there are three different lunches. I'm in the third lunch. I think that lunch on the first day is something every exchange student is scared for, because you don't know many people yet and don't know with who you have to sit. Luckily I met a nice girl during Homeroom so I could sit with her and her friends. I was curious if it would be like in the movies: all the different 'groups' at their own table, like the 'nerds' and 'mean girls'. Well, it was a bit like that but not as extreme as in the movies.

This is where we have lunch!

After lunch I had English, which is about American literature. We haven't done a lot yet so I can't really say if I like it. The final two subjects were Algebra and Film Criticism. Algebra (math) is just like in the Netherlands actually, so everything looks pretty familiar. I'm glad that my last period is Film Criticism, because that isn't a very hard class. We're going to watch a lot of movies and after that we'll criticize them. We could give requests of movies we'd like to see. I think that's a lot of fun! After the classes ended at 3:45 I got a ride home and after writing this blogpost I'm going to start with my first homework.

I'll have the same schedule every single day, for this whole school year! That's something I'll definitely have to get used to, because the schedule in the Netherlands changes everyday, and repeats itself every week.

So far my experience with American high schools is positive. An advice for other exchange students is to tell the teacher or your classmates that you're a foreign exchange student. When they hear that they'll probably be really interested in you and your country, and ask a lot of questions. In that way it's much easier to make new friends!