James Coleman
America Inside Out
A little bit about everything...3/18/2018 Hi guys!
I really don’t have any special ideas for this blog post, so I’ll just tell you few things I did this week. Firstly, I started doing tennis. I am not a sporty person at all, but as America is all about sports, I decided to try. And I am happy I did! I have never played before, so now I can’t even hit the ball with the racket, but I think it will be better by the end of the season. A little bit of irony: every day when I am dying by the end of the practice, the turkey vultures come and start circling above the courts, which makes me feel like I am literally something dead… Secondly, I became a member of the National Honor Society. That was an amazing ceremony with cookies and punch afterward. I am really grateful to my friend Alayna for the beautiful speech she wrote about me. The only thing that makes me confused is that we have to do some volunteer hours every year to stay a member. But I won’t be here next semester to do it. Does it mean that they are going to kick me out? If not, does it mean that I am a cheater who doesn’t do her work but stays a member? Also, I was “lucky” enough on St. Patrick’s Day to wait 20 minutes in the line at Skyline for the green spaghetti and realize that the customer in front of me get the last portion:( However, the Universe re-counted my karma and gave me a little bit of luck to find a perfect prom dress. I bumped into it by accident and now I am really looking forward to wearing it. To sum up, that was a good week! 7 more days before the spring break! We can do it!
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Queens and penguins3/11/2018
Hi everybody! Today I want to share with you the biggest success I made since I arrived in the USA: I won the school talent show! It was so unexpected, so I can’t even describe my feelings! I am extremely grateful to everybody who supported me, and I really enjoyed playing on the stage of Franklin County High School. However, I not always liked to play on the stage. I spent 9 years in music school learning how to play the piano. Now I can’t believe that I had so much patience: 9 years is more than half of my life! I liked music, but not everything was always perfect. Sometimes when the things were going extremely wrong I would just hit the keyboard with my head and shout “I WANNA DROP THIS (here usually was a bad word)”. I had the best music teacher ever: she not only taught me how to play but also became a good friend of mine. She often kept an apple in her bag for me when I had to stay to practice really late and skip lunch. The only her disadvantage was that she always wanted me to perform at numerous contests and concerts, which meant that I had to play on the stage. And being judged by somebody... Everybody stares at you and every single movement of your hands. I hated that! My teacher used to say, “All stage is yours, so just feel like a queen!” But instead I felt like a clumsy penguin: I always got too nervous, forgot notes and completely messed up. Once I even stumbled over my dress hem and fell from the stage... All 9 years were full of the most epic fails and falls you can imagine. Only after I graduated and started playing what I want (music school requires you to play only classics), I started really enjoying what I was doing! I realized that it doesn’t matter how many mistakes you make or what other people may think about your performance as long as it brings you joy. When I was playing at the talent show, I still was nervous and made mistakes. But it doesn’t matter because I felt good at that moment. Even if I didn’t win, it still wouldn’t matter because I felt good at that moment! So, probably my teacher was right: if you love something and it brings you satisfaction - just do it, feel like a queen! Or a king:) Imagine, you are Ukrainian...3/4/2018 Hi guys! Today my post will be a little bit unusual. I want to tell you a little bit about daily routine of Ukrainian students. Imagine that you are a student of Gymnasium #143 in Kiev. Yeap, sounds like you study at the gym, but it is just how we call linguistic schools. If you attended a mathematical school, it would be called Lyceum, school without any speciality would just have a number. You wake up between 6:00 and 7:30 depending on how far away from school you live and put on your school uniform. Usually you just have to wear “office-style”, like a collared shirt and black pants or skirt, on some holidays you may wear traditional Ukrainian clothes. You go out of your apartment, wait for elevator and hope that it is not broken: I am pretty sure you won’t be happy to use stairs as you live in a high-storey building. Don’t wait for the school bus, it won’t come! In Ukraine there is no school buses, you either use public transport, which is almost always free for students, your parents may drive you, or you just go on foot. You don't drive as in Ukraine you can get your license only after being 18 years old. The trip won’t be long: every district of the city has a number of schools, so any child can attend school near his house. The lessons start at 8:30, you are supposed to be at school by 8:25, but you may come earlier to meet with your teachers if you have some questions, or just to chat with your friends. To enter the school you use special electronic pass with your photo and date of birth. Not all students have lockers as we have to buy them, but it is not a big deal. You are welcome to leave your stuff at the school cloak-room, just be sure not to leave phone or money at your pockets. You don’t have to leave your backpack there and can carry it around the school if its more comfortable for you. Usually, schools don’t give you a computer, so you have to carryall the paper books. You have from 5 to 8 lessons per day depending on what grade you are. Ukrainian schools are not divided on elementary, middle, or high school. Well, they are, but all grades study at the same building, just on different floors. 1-4 grades are called elementary school, 5-9 middle and 10-11 high school. The highest score on test you can get is 12, the lowest to pass the test is 5. You can’t choose subjects you want to study, you have to study everything the school wants from you. Geometry, Algebra, Physics, Chemistry, Bio, Literature, English, Ukrainian, German or French, Russian, History... you have A LOOOOOT of homework! However, you have different lessons on different days so you have enough time to do it. You may have 2 lessons of Bio per week, 3 lessons of History, etc. And you may choose whether you want to study more Math or foreign languages. The bell rings, you sand up to say “good morning” to your teacher, but you don’t pledge allegiance to the Flag. Your desk is made for two people, so you will have to share the working space with somebody else. You change the classroom for every lesson, but you stay in the same group with the same people. In Ukraine each grade has 2-3 groups called with letters of the alphabet. They may have some speciality, or may not. So, you can finish 9B linguistic (which means you have more lessons of English per week, than lessons of Math) and next year go to 10B linguistic and keep studying with the same classmates. Or you are fed up with languages and next year you go to 10A mathematical… The breaks last different amount of time: first is 10 minutes, second is 10 again, then 20, then 20, then 10, then 5, and again 5. You may eat your lunch or rest on the bench at the school yard during one of the long breaks. You can buy lunch or snacks at school cafeteria and you don’t have to have special account, just bring cash with you to school. Or make your lunch at home and bring it in the lunchbox! The school is over at 3:05 and you are free to go home, or to stay and talk with your teachers again if you have any questions. Usually sports, extracurricular activities, clubs don’t take place at school. If you have any hobbies, you leave the school and go to another building where you club is. That’s how your day would look like, if you were a Ukrainian student. What do you like about it? What do you find not comfortable? I am looking forward to read your comments about this post:) Daria GoptsiiAn exchange student from Ukraine. Archives
April 2018
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