My New School!

There's less than a month left of American high school! I'm breathing a sigh of relief as my major projects and AP exams are wrapping up. Today is Project Day at the Kalamazoo Area Math and Science Center (KAMSC)! We're required to do research each year, and on Project Day, we put up our tri fold boards, turn in our papers, and celebrate having our research behind us. At night, we all come back for an awards ceremony. I'm looking forward to it!

I had my first AP exam today (AP English Literature/Composition). Four hours of scantrons and essays later, I emerged from the testing room a little dazed and extremely relieved. I have AP Language/Composition tomorrow and AP Government next Tuesday and then I'm done with AP until Senior Year! My AP-free year in Morocco sounds all the more amazing right now! 

We had our School Webinar last night! We will all be attending L'Institut De L'Agdal, a high school with grades 10-12. I'm going to be in 11th and will probably in the Economics or Social Sciences track. Our school has around 100 students and they are helping AMIDEAST to find host families for us! I also found out that we're going to be doing a final project for AMIDEAST. I'm excited to learn more, this year the students are taking photography classes and making a portfolio, though I don't know if we will be doing that. School in Morocco works differently than it does here, as it operates on the French system. We have school on Saturday mornings, I'm still trying to open my mind to this idea. We don't have classes for seven hours a day, all day, instead, our classes will meet for two to three hours on a couple days during the week. This results in open hours during the day, perhaps I can sneak a nap or two in there, though I doubt I'll have time for it! Here's a picture of our school that one of the current students took for me!

MY NEW SCHOOL!

I positively cannot wait. I've been reflecting on my American high school experience and how I will explain it in Morocco. So as a test run, for everyone who doesn't live near me, I thought I'd explain my American high school. 

This is Portage Northern High School, where I'm a current sophomore. 

I go to Portage Northern in the afternoon, for my social studies and language classes. There are about 350 kids in my class and our mascot is the huskies! I've enjoyed being on swim team and forensics here, and my school has been amazingly supportive of Peace Jam, a club they helped me to start this year. Happily, it will continue next year, though I will miss being a part of it very much!

I spend my mornings at the Math and Science Center (KAMSC). There are 80 kids in my class, we take math, science, and computer classes there. I can't find a picture of it anywhere online, but it's on the fourth floor of a very old building, resulting in daily 84 step walk up the stairs. I applied to KAMSC in 8th grade, and I will return to KAMSC after my year in Morocco. My classmates come from high schools all over the area and because our class is so small, there is a definite sense of camaraderie, which I will really miss next year. 

At this point, I'm not too sad about leaving. A year is a long time, but it's not forever. It hasn't really sunk in yet that I won't see all my amazing friends for a year, and I'm not sure when it will. I will be leaving behind two great communities, both of which have supported me and challenged me in different ways over the past two years. Of course, high school is high school, and there are inevitably bad days and good days (and the year isn't over yet!). But on the whole the good days have outnumbered the bad ones and I will remember PN and KAMSC from L'Institut de L'Agdal in the fondest light! Lots of love!