First three weeks of school!

Blog 7 - First three weeks of school!

It’s almost been a month since we first touched down in India, and of that month, a lot of time being spent at school. I am attending Amity International School, Sec-46 Gurgaon. Unlike some of my friends, I am the only exchange student at this school, making it a great immersion! I arrived to my host family on Saturday evening, and was then going to school on Monday. As my temporary host mom is a junior school (K-5) teacher, she was able to guide me on where I needed to be and go. When we first arrived at school, I was told to go to a conference room to wait for Principle Ma’am and my teacher. During the wait, I reviewed most of the AFS India handbook, which was really good to have as it was a revision of everything we discussed at the orientation. Once I met Principal Ma’am and Pooja Luthra Ma’am (my teacher), we went outside in which students traditionally welcomed me with tilak (die on forehead), following by a picture with some administration, the principal, and my teacher. 

We then headed back into the room to discuss my classes. Pooja Ma’am asked if I wanted to do the science stream, as she said she looked at my transcript and she noticed it was strictly STEM based. AFS strongly encouraged us to stay in the humanities pathway as the studies in India are more rigorous in terms of memorization and about theoretical learning than in the US, where it is more project-based practical learning. Therefore, taking heavy and drastically different coursework would take away from the immersion and cultural understanding that YES Abroad and AFS are after. With that in mind, I changed my timetable (schedule) to emphasize creative classes like Tabla (Indian instrument), Home Science (Indian cooking), PE (to learn cricket), Yoga, and more that I would not have the opportunity to take in the US.

Back to the first day… After discussing my classes with my teacher, my host mom toured me the school. We stopped in a lot of elementary classes with young children. I really enjoyed talking with them and sharing about where I am from, with them sharing about themselves! 

After a couple of hours touring the school, we stopped in her class, the Multiple Intelligence Lab, emphasizing on children’s multiple strengths beyond the norm of the academically inclined (as academics are very strict and emphasized in India). After an hour or so, my teacher gave me my timetable (schedule) of my classes. I went to my sculpture class, but the teacher was not there, so the pottery teacher taught me how to create many different types of pots, plates, bowls etc. Once that class was finished, I headed back to the MI Lab, excited for what’s to come. The only homework I had was to prepare a speech and get it checked by Pooja Ma’am. On my third day during assembly, I recited my speech in front of classes 6-12 (I believe). 

Once three weeks passed (two days ago), I finally received my uniform, in which I was excited for as being the only one without a uniform screamed exchange student! 

As of now, I created many friends in my class and in school, and hope to deepen and create lifelong bonds with these relationships with the nine-ish months to come!