As many of you might know, or might not now, I spent a year in a wonderful country called the United States of America. My adventure began at 4.00 in the morning at the Vienna airport, where I departed on my journey. I had never been in the United States before, and I was anxious about what was waiting for me there. My destination was the giant city of Indianapolis. Would I make any new friends? Would I like my new host family, or was I to be at odds with them? I did not know.
Fortunately, my doubts vanished entirely when I met my host family. I can say that I had the privilege of living in the best family in the whole of Indianapolis! I was taken care of by an elderly couple. My host mother´s name was Rosemary and my host father´s name was Harry. They also had a gigantic extended family, full of really kind and nice people. With my host family being this great, I didn´t really worry about any other stuff, and enjoyed the days until the start of school.
I quickly found a bunch of friends in school, and I didnt need to worry about not having anything to do. I befriended some other exchange students, notably Ingrid from Norway, Viktor from France and Ming from China. These guys and my friends from school kept me company for most of the year.
Apart from having to do a lot of homework, everything about the school I went to was pretty cool. It was called Scecina Memorial High School, and it was a private school. I was able to choose from a wide variety of subjects and set up my own timetable to my own liking, which I proceeded to do. I chose a bunch of different subjects, but the ones that were the most fun were Current Events and AP World History. Current Events kind of dealt with the political, economical and social state of the current events throughout the world, and it served really well to enlighten me about various things in the world. We analysed a lot of stuff that happened and often spent hours just talking or polemicizing with our teacher Mr. Sanders. AP World History on the other hand, was full of fun class activities. I was able to participate in the re-enaction of the trial of king Louis XVI, I took a part in the fictional trial of Marco Polo, and also participated in many class projects. I also liked our teacher, Mrs. Rosswurm´s, sassiness.
A part of the requirement of me being a student of the school was that I had to take part in some clubs. The clubs I thought were the most fun and entertaining were the Debate Club and the Football team, so I joined them. It turned out that joining the football team was not such a good idea, after seeing a lot of my friends suffering from concussions and after being knocked breathess a couple of times on the field, I promptly reconsidered and left the club. Even though I was still something akin to an honorary member, I no longer enjoyed the privileges of a football player. The debate club was very different though. The people I met there were a bucnh of extremely inteligent people that provided more than enough challenge when one was trying to beat them in a debate. We had a lot of fun, and that´s what I think is important about it.
While not in school , I usually got to chill around and relax with either my friends, or my host family. My friends and I would usually go to the city centre to have some fun pretty much every evening. While with my host family though, I got to do al lot of exciting things too! For example, I was taken to visit my host mom´s sister in South Carolina. We had to get there by a car, and boy was that a ride. We spent around eight hours in the car, but I got to talk to my host mom and get to know her better, so I wasn´t really complaining. I also got to visit Chicago and traverse it through and through, which was pretty awesome! Overall, I think that this American trip was freaking awesome. For anyone who wants to try it, but is still not sure about it, I encourage you to do so. You won´t regret it.
by Jakub Barszcz
Year 1, Issue 1