New School

I know I haven't written in a while, but I got lazy again. So in the beginning of April, I started school again after having a 3 month break for summer. My new school is called Cruz del Norte High School. Yes, it is actually called High School...their failed attempt at making the school American. The school is really new. This is the first year that they have a senior year. Its only a few years old.

I decided to switch schools because in my old school, I spoke so much English with the other exchange students and I wanted to go to a school with only 3 exchange students. Also, I wanted to meet new people and possible make new friends, and I just wanted a new experience and to be out of my comfort zone, because that is what this year is all about.

On my first day, I got to school and nobody really helped me. The director didn't talk to me, and just told me I can choose what class to go to. It was dissapointing because I was hoping she would take me to the class and at least tell the kids and the teacher that I was the exchange student and that I would be there for the next 2 months, but nothing like that happened. They just ignored me and acted like I didn't even exist, but luckily I found 2 people that I had met earlier in the year and they helped me and told me where to go. When I finally got to my class, NOBODY talked to me. The people close to me didn't even ask me my NAME! It was horrible. I felt so bad and so uncomfortable and I was miserable.
I wanted to go back to my old school where people talked to me and I actually had some friends. Luckily there are 2 other exchange students in the school, one from Germany and one from Switzerland, so I was able to hang out with them during the breaks, but in the class I felt so awkward because nobody talked to me for the first week. Then after that, people slowly started talking to me and asking me questions about New York and my exchange year. I am not sure what it was, but maybe they got used to my presence and thats why they talked to me...who knows.

It was really different because when I went to Arco Iris (my first school) in August, when I got there people swarmed around me, were asking me tons of questions, helping me get used to the school, telling me the schedule, rules, lending me pens and paper, and just really making me feel welcome. But in Cruz del Norte, it was the opposite, so that was really hard for me because I slightly expected it to be like the first time I went to school. I just think that the kids in my first school are a lot different from the kids in my new school. They are more welcoming and more friendly and more helpful.

The good thing now is that I finally have friends. I have 3 really good friends in school that I go with outside of school, and I talk to a lot more people during school now. I know 3 friends sounds pathetic, but here, making 3 friends that you go out with outside of school is actually really good. A lot of Ecuadorians think that it's pointless to get to be really good friends with an exchange student because they know we will be leaving in a few months, but I am very lucky that I have made really good friends in both of my schools. A lot of the kids from my class that had never talked to me before, are finally talking to me, and I just feel a lot more comfortable in the class and even if there is a big group of people I don't feel left out. It is a nice feeling. I just needed a month or two to feel like that and to make friends.

They have some weird classes, like cooking class, where the kids are required to bring hige knives into school...something that really shocked me being from the US haha Also, there is a technical drawing class, French, Portuguese, and other classes that are mandatory to take that in the US are optional and you only have to take them if you are interested.