Imagine starting your senior year in a different high school… and you don’t even speak the language. This is how I am currently living. My name is Sophie and I’m a exchange student here in Westhampton.
“A culture shock” is what I’ve been living for a month. As a French exchange student, I’ve had to adapt to the American culture and its school system; which is extremely different from the one I used to be part of in France.
On my first day of school here, I think I got lost at least 5 times. In fact, I didn’t even know how to read the schedule I was given!
In France, school starts generally at 8 AM, with a one-hour break for lunch at 12, and then we can only go home at 6. You probably think it is too long for a school day, but paradoxically, I was more exhausted at the of the day here! Since I didn’t know the building and were not told that classes last 40 minutes, I was surprised (or even panicked) when I had to run one room to another.
I was also quite surprised when I was told I was going to have the same classes everyday, again and again… In fact, in France, middle school and high school students have different classes everyday, like in American colleges.
I used to have one or two tests a month in every subject and was stuck in a room for 2 or 4 hours in order to write an 8 page essay, so I don’t really miss my former high school right now.
What struck me on my first days of school here was how relaxed some classes can be. Tell a French teenager she would be allowed to drink, to listen to music and to eat candy in class, she wouldn’t believe a word. In a typical classroom in France, students are not allowed to speak (but do it anyway) and drinking water (even if it’s 85 degrees outside) during class is considered as a lack of respect for the teacher (which is quite unfair because the latter can eat chocolate and drink soda all day without being said anything!)
Something missing in France are clubs. Public French schools don’t have any activities apart from soccer or basketball and don’t organize Proms either. That’s why so many friends of mine back at home can’t believe I’m really going to a “real prom, like in the movies.”
Despite these differences, I realized that I just began one of the most amazing years of my life, and I’m very excited to be a part of WHBHS for the few months