My American schedule

Even though each day in the USA as an exchange student was different from one another, I still think that almost every day had the same structure (and I am speaking about a school day). So now the question is: what was my day like?

Breakfast

Well, as one of my American parents would drive me to school and it would literally take two minutes, I would wake up only forty-five minutes before the school bell would ring, around 6. 50 a. m. , which would give me enough time to wake up and complain about how early it was, yawn, scratch my eyes, brush my teeth, get ready and eat my breakfast, which would be different from day to day. I think my favorite was having breakfast burritos, but even pancakes or banana bread were good.

School started at 7. 35 a. m. and each morning I would get to class a few seconds before the bell would ring, I became a pro at doing it. My school was organized in trimesters, not semesters, and we had day ones and day twos.

August to November Day One

From August to September I had a reading class, which I could not keep up with, so I dropped it, and for the rest of the trimester, I had a free block, which meant that I could sleep in and go to school at 9. 05 a. m. Between first and second block there is something called “Advising”, which was basically a 30 minutes class on just homework review and help from the advisor if needed. For the whole year, my second block was Senior Math. I took this kind because by its name I thought it was a higher level of math, but it turned out it was quite easy, and not really what I expected. Rather than calculus, it was something like economics and real life topics like student loans, housing, budgeting and so on.

Finally half of the school day was over and I had now around fifty minutes to have lunch. Between August and September, I kept going to Bulldog Deli, which was a sandwich place in front of my high school. Good, if it was not for the fact that each time I would spend around six dollars. So then I started eating in the cafeteria or even better, I would go home to get something from the fridge. If I was lucky, my friends would ask me to join them to some different fast food to grab lunch. Once we went to a place kind of far from campus and ended up having pie just when we were supposed to be back for the third block. The other exchange student and I had the same class and it was kind of embarrassing to disturb class together after twenty minutes from its start. Memorable.

Third block I had a really fun class called “Casablanca”. We needed to make short clips and movies and present them to class. We would get some guidelines from the teacher and then we would brainstorm some ideas for our projects. I was an “actor” rather than the editor of the video. I wish my classmates would have sent me the videos and bloopers they have but they never did. Ugh. Team Activities was the only Physical Education class I basically had, and I even started it later in the year, so I think I took it for one month and a half, maximum two months.

(This is me while I was filming a video for my Casablanca Class. I was a zombie).

August to November Day Two

In the morning on day twos I had Intro to Art, we would draw some comics and later in the trimester paint some stuff. Right after I had a free block during which I would normally go to the library and after class, I had American History and American Government. During the latter, as I introduced myself, my teacher said “Oh, Berlusconi Land”.... alright.

November to February Day One

I had Web Programming in the morning, which was quite boring and the class was also small. I think we were not more than ten. I would come to school with my coffee even though my teacher would tell me not to drink it near the computers. I needed energy, otherwise, I would have fallen asleep on the keyboard for sure. During my second and third trimester, I took American History, class in which I got the lowest grade, B+. I was fine with the results, but I just could not keep up with the things in class and could not really stand group projects. The fourth Block I had Latino American Literature. I chose this kind of English class because I wanted to learn something different, there are a lot of Mexicans in Colorado, and also because it was the only class available for this block. Lol.

November to February Day Two

In the morning, since the trimester before I liked Intro to Art I took Ceramics I. I created some mugs and uncertain “artistic” things. As many of the friends I made in Colorado were Spanish speakers I decided to take Spanish, I was not really allowed to start one because languages are courses that last one year but since I was an exchange student it was ok for me to start.

The teacher liked me and as she knows Italian and Spanish are quite similar she suggested to be in Spanish level II rather than level I. I liked her classes, I had straight As and my classmates could not understand why. When I had to read they stared at me as if I were some kind of alien. “Are you sure this language is new to you? Why do you have an A already and read so well when I had Spanish for two years and still have a C? ” and here it goes the “I am Italian and my native language is very similar to Spanish” speech.

For the third block, I could have had a free because I was a senior but I decided to take Drawing and Painting I because I wanted to take as many classes as I could and spend more time at school. I would have never said this in Milan, but in the US I wanted to make the most out of everything and this meant not to stay at home but to be out there.

Concluding my day I had Public Speaking. I have never liked reading or speaking in class, in fact, I am quiet at school in general. My teacher understands and speaks Italian because apparently, she studied in Italy in the past and so sometimes she would speak to me in Italian. This was nice but the speech part of her subject... not so much. Anyways it was good for me to take it and I do not regret it.

February to May Day One

For my last trimester of the year, I decided that I wanted to challenge myself and start a new language. Despite being loved by my teacher, I think I was quite good in German, I wish I had the time to continue because if you ask me to tell you something I can probably just say "ich bin Cristian". I then had Senior Math, American History and then a free block, which meant I could go home at 1. 35 p. m.

February to May Day Two

My morning would start, as usual, with me rushing to school before they would lock the art hall entrance. Once made it inside, I would go to Intro to Guitar. To be honest I already knew the basics but I stopped playing for a while before going on exchange so I wanted to take this class and have an opportunity to play again. After advising I had Spanish II, and then after lunch, I had a free block. In this case, I would go home for lunch and stay there for two hours. Back to school, I would have my last class: Creative Writing. I did not like the teacher as she was not very understandable, and the class was small. Anyhow, I ended up getting an A on a book for children I wrote for an assignment. It was about a shy penguin who became famous for playing guitar.

This was pretty much my schedule, composed by

• fifteen classes
• advising
• tennis
• Interact club

For the first month and a half, I played tennis. It was the first time in my life playing tennis. I believe I played only once before and it was with my siblings, for fun. I was alright at it, not the greatest but if I was passionate about it and continued it maybe I would have become good at it. I had to practice everyday which sometimes I did not like, and right after I would go home, shower and get ready for dinner. During the fall season, I also went to some of the football games, especially to the Friday Night Lights. From January to late March my afternoons were filled with rehearsals for the play I decided to act in. It was not taking me lots of time but it was fun for sure. I have great memories from that.

On either Mondays or Tuesdays, my American dad would drive all of us to Dairy Queen to get a blizzard. On Mondays, my American mom was busy at home and on Tuesdays, my American brother had trumpet classes so in either case, he had to drive.

I would get tired earlier at night compared to when I was in Italy, but I believe it was because my day was longer, I had more things to do and school was also longer. Anyways, I wish I could go back in time and live once again a day of high school in the United States of America.

- Cristian

Photo gallery