High School: America v.s. Slovakia

Although high school is usually very similar almost anywhere you go, I have found a few differences between the high school that I'm use to in America verses high school here in Slovakia.

My Slovak school Jura Hronca

First off is the fact that the cafeteria is open almost all day for students to visit and get food when they have a free period that isn't filled with a class. HOWEVER! I am not 100% if this is completely true or not, it's from assumed knowledge that I've gathered through observing the hallways and the other students.

Second is that almost each student has a different schedule and many of them get out of school at different times. For example, since I have not had a schedule all week for school, each day I have gone with a different classmate from my homeroom to their classes (most of which are filled with many of our homeroom classmates) and every day I have gotten out at a different time. One day I got out at 2:15 pm but today I got out at 1:10 pm! And of course it already being Friday made today even better!

And third is that this school has combined elementary, middle, and high school classes, including the higher level courses which are called I.B. (I have no idea what it stands for). Altogether my school Jura Hronca contains approximately 1,200 students. This is a MUCH smaller amount of students than I am use to! In my hometown of Portage, Indiana, my high school alone contains about 2,600-2,700 students; more than twice the amount of the school I am currently attending in Bratislava!

That's all I've picked up on so far, but I'll be sure to update you once I find some more odd differences about my school. 

Ciao!

Friday: 5th Day of School

So as far as school goes, my third, forth, and fifth days completely made up for my terrible second day of school! All of my classmates are incredibly nice and are all anxious to meet me and show me around the city. Although I still don't have a schedule, I'm not stressed out anymore. I will receive my schedule some time next week and until then I'm just going to go with the flow!

Here are just two friends of mine that I met in school;

(Left - Barbora)                              (Right - Victoria)

Tonight I was out with a large group of friends from school among other friends who were invited and wanted to meet me as well. We spent all evening in Old Town, or Stare Mesto (I think that's the real name for it) which is my favorite part of Bratislava! We spent all evening and all night together and had a great time. I've met a really amazing bunch of people here and I can't wait to get to know them better as the year goes on!

Second Day of School: Second Thoughts

(More thoughts taken straight from my journal from today)

Having second thoughts.

Maybe it's not so hopeless for me.

After talking to my homeroom teacher and the teacher who met with us (the Rotary Exchange students) to decide our classes for the year, I am starting to feel less lost and distressed. They told me that they knew about my absence of a schedule and reassured me that I would have one by the end of the week (hopefully) and that it was okay that I was going with one of my homeroom classmates to her classes to meet other students and teachers to get into the flow of a normal schedule.

They probably reassured me like this mainly so I wouldn't just be sitting in the middle of the hallway crying like a lost child with my head between my legs. Nonetheless! The reassurance helped!

So hopefully this whole school situation will get better as time goes on.

Now to go buy my "elektricenka" card for the bus or train or whatever and then find out how to get home.

And I'm still hungry.

Second Day of School: First Thoughts

(My thoughts from school straight from my journal)

Okay guys, I'm not going to sugar coat this one for you.

My second day of school has been awful. Absolutely terrible. I have no schedule for classes, they gave me a huge stack of books - all in Slovak - I don't know my way around this enormous 4-story building, all of the lessons I've been to today are taught in Slovak, none of my teachers know where I need to go, and I don't have a school counselor to help me or tell me what to do. I am completely lost. The only sliver of light on this sinking ship is the cloudy and confused help of 3 very nice girls I met in my homeroom class who are trying to translate their very foreign - to me - school schedules so I can have a rough understanding of what a normal school day - for them - entails. So here I am, sitting in the corner of a German class, listening to chunks of German and Slovak dialogue sail through the air, all the while wishing that I was back at home. And my German teacher didn't look so pleased to see me; from what little Slovak I know, I heard her say "No good" when my peers told her I was the American exchange student.

All in all, bad second day at school.

But I have to keep my head up. There's always light at the end of the tunnel.

Unless, you know, it's dark out.