The first day at school

(The content of this post happened on 20 Aug, 2013 CDT)

After spending 3 days with families in Ipswich, It is time to go to school. Ipswich Public School started on August 20th, but before the school started, there was a open-house day. Since whether students or parents can visit the school classroom and meet the school teacher, freshmen and people new to the school, like me, can find the correct class room.

Library

Computer Lab

First floor

Classroom

School principal, Mr. Osborne's office

Lockers

Ipswich Public school is a small school. As far as I know, there are only 300 or so students in the High school. Because of this, the school buildings are small. There were three school buildings, but one was still building, so actually we have only two to use. One have most of the classrooms like math and English classrooms, one have gym, library and some arts classrooms such as band and science room. My locker number is 172, it is located on the second floor of the building which has most of the classrooms. The special thing is, there is no actual "lock" on the lockers, so any people can open it.

Barb drive me to school on the first day of school. The first day at Americas high school is an unforgettable experience. High schools here are very different from high schools in Taiwan, it is freer here. Like I can not choose where to sit in Taiwan, but at here, I can. And, classes started later, the first class started at 8:40 AM. The only thing I do not like is the school timetable are the same everyday.

Here are my schedule:
1 Biology
2 Digital Photography
3 Algebra 2 (Math)
4 U.S. History
5-1 Lunch Time
5-2 SRP (Study hall)
6 Speech (English)
7 U.S. Government
8 Study hall at library

I was the first one arrived science room. Mrs. Ullrich, the science teacher told me to pick a seat, she then said she was also new here. This was her second year being a teacher, she was at the different school before. She said she had an exchange student from Taiwan before, It made me feel more comfortable, because I am not the first "Difficult to teach" student~ Haha.

After the first hour class, all of the high school student meet at gym. School principal, Mr. Osborne have some announcement to students. When I entered the gym, I did not know where to sit, since everybody seems knew, I decided to ask. I follow a student who also took biology, when he sat down, I asked "can I sit here?" He then asked "Are you a sophomore?" Actually, I even did not know what is "Sophomore" mean. But I answered yes, because I did not want myself looks embarrassed. I can clearly remember this moment, because this is how I made my first friend in America. :p

He then ask some question about me, such as what's my name and where am I from. After some conversation, I found out his name is Kevin Charlton. Kevin took a look of my schedule, he said we have most of the class the same, so I can just follow him. How nice! Now I got a friend, well.... also a helper, help me to find out which classroom to go.

Kevin!

Mr. Osborne said many things on the announcement, but I didn't understand at all. The only things I remember is he introduce we, the exchange students, to all high school students. Except JJ and me, there were 3 other exchange students in Ipswich High, they were Claudia, Tanja and Nanna. Claudia is also from Taiwan, Tanja is from Serbia, and Nanna is from Denmark. (Click on the name to link to their Facebook page)

The lunch here were wonderful! Everything...I mean most of the things were delicious. We lined up from Senior to Freshman, take the meal from kitchen where thay made the lunch, then press the personal number on the keyboard (so school can cost money), final, we can add something more at the salad bar, like bread and salad. We can arbitrary choose where to sit, I always sat with JJ at the first two weeks, but now (2 months after) I sit with other American classmates.

SRP is a short time (half hour) after lunch for students to study and prepare for afternoon classes.

Very soon, it was already 3:40 PM, the school ends. It was time to go home! My first day at school was so exciting and full of surprises!