I’m Elise, and I’m 15 years old and in the tenth grade. This past year, I found out I’d be moving to Abu Dhabi in the U.A.E. Since then, I’ve asked a lot of questions, listened to other’s questions, and answered a few also. Many people are interested in how my sister and I adapted to this new lifestyle in Abu Dhabi since it is a very foreign place! But they still have McDonald’s, BurgerKing, and most importantly, my favorite drink at Starbucks!
Hearing I would go to an American School, I assumed that everybody would be American. That’s what you’d think too, right? Well, the first day arrives, and I’m blown away. There are kids in my classes from places I’ve never heard of before! I have a friend who’s Australian, a friend who’s Brazilian, a friend who’s Palestinian, a friend who’s Jordanian, a friend who’s French-Canadian, a friend who’s German, of course, a few that are American, the list goes on and on! The best part is walking through the hallways, which is when you experience multiple languages spoken. People at ACS (American Community School) are extremely friendly! When they start up conversations, they’re actually really interested in where you’re from, it’s not that they just feel it’s necessary to ask. The students in my grade are all friends with each other, which makes it really nice that our grade is so close. We have only about 80 kids per grade, so it’s quite easy to be friends! We don’t really have cliques, but they’re more like friend groups, which of course every high school has.
You might wonder how the actual school is. It’s much more difficult work-wise, just because of what’s expected of the students. The teachers obviously all love what they do, and it makes learning a lot more fun! My Globals (social studies) teacher loved the French Revolution to almost a strange extent. He would probably have spent hours upon hours talking about it, if the bell had not rung for school to get out!
Our school schedules are much different than my previous high school, Cocoa Beach Jr./Sr. High. Our week is split into two different days, A and B. On an A day, I first have algebra 2 advanced. It is an extremely tough course. After algebra 2 advanced, I have a 20-30 minute break, that we call Tutorial. During this break kids usually eat a little snack, you can also buy muffins, subs, cakes, and drinks from a little kiosk in the high school courtyard. Other kids can finish some homework they didn’t finish, not like that would ever happen!! Mostly the kids just sit at tables and talk for the time until they have to work their brains! After the tutorial, I head off to choir. This is probably my favorite class! Our teacher, Ms. Jensen, is the cutest woman you’ve ever seen! She’s a really good teacher, and she picks great modern songs and different versions of songs that sound really nice. We have a concert coming up in a few months, it’s called the Pop Concert, and it’s the Beatles theme! We also have another little concert, and one of the groups is singing “Viva La Vida” acapella (which means every part is sung, and there is no instrumental accompaniment). This song is a few years old sung by Coldplay. I’m really excited! After choir is everyone’s favorite, LUNCH! We have almost 50 minutes I believe. We all just hang out during lunch, eating and talking, and enjoying our free time! After lunch finishes, we all part our ways to separate classes. Previously, I had Tech Tools, in which I had to make a website on a world problem, and perform various assignments on different programs. I had to make a Public Service Announcement, a poster, multiple power-points, etc. This coming semester I will have Recreational Sports. During this class, I will have the chance to go bowling, play golf, try wrestling, learn squash, and many more sports of the like. After this class, I go to Globals. Globals is my social studies class. I learn about governments around the world, and revolutions also. It’s also an informing class!
My B-day is my not so favorite day. First-class is English. We’ve read the book All Quiet On the Western Front so far, and I found the book intriguing. It was difficult to read, but easy to understand. We also did more work about World War 2, such as war posters, poems, extra videos, and even outside videos from TedTalks. After English is the usual tutorial, allowing me to relax! After tutorial, I go to French. In this class, we are only allowed to speak french, so I find that after the class when walking through the hallways, I think in French! I always think about if someone asks me something, I’m going to answer in french! Next is lunch, and usually, I’m very hungry by then! After lunch was my fun class, Team Sports! This next coming semester I’m going to have community service though, but that needs no explanation! You can think of what it is just by the name! In team sports, I played many sports that need teams! First, we played volleyball, then badminton, then water sports such as water polo and water basketball, then indoor soccer, floor hockey, basketball, European handball, frisbee, dodgeball, and kickball! We were always busy in that class! After this comes chemistry! It was almost hardest, because it’s the end of the day, and you just want to leave already! I’ve found this semester quite interesting, and though I thought I would dislike the subject, I’ve realized I really enjoy it! So far we’ve learned about conversions of moles and conversion factors, more and more. We are learning the same things as my fellow friends at Cocoa Beach in their Chemistry class! Because I had actually enjoyed the subjects I learned, it was much easier to study for exams this December.
By the end of the week, one is pretty exhausted from school, so of course us teenagers like to do a lot of things! We usually go to one of the 11 malls (supposedly there is going to be 18 soon!!) and sometimes do a little shopping. Or we might go to the cinema (yes, I just called it a cinema) and watch a movie. Though it’s difficult since movies here come out a little later than in the States unless it is an extremely popular film. There’s also a lot of people who have get-togethers over the weekends, so most of the time you’ll find high-schoolers doing that. You can also go to the beach, but now it is colder out, so probably not this time of year! There are also a few neighbors right out of the city, where a lot of kids from my school live, and there are always kids playing rugby in the park there, or hanging out at someone’s house watching scary movies. There’s never a time when you won’t be able to find something to do! A few times, the girls will just plan a dinner, and we’ll all get dressed up and eat. Our weekend starts on Thursday night, so some Thursdays, there are school sports that have games, and since our school is exceptionally spirited, you’ll find the majority of students there! These first few months I’ve been here, I’ve already gone to a swim meet, a volleyball tournament, and a girls’ soccer game! It’s really fun since some kids get REALLY into it! At the volleyball tournament, there were drums, and people cheering along, and even vuvuzelas! It was really loud! Especially when about 5 classes of kindergarteners came and started screaming in their high-pitched voices! I had a huge head-ache that night!
You might think, ‘hmmm it sounds almost too perfect…’ so, I’ll tell you a few things that remind us it’s just normal! When I first came here, I hated it. And when I say hate, I mean H-A-T-E! I enjoyed the first 3 days, but come the fourth day, I came home, and slammed my door shut. I screamed at my parents, asking to be home-schooled and move back! It took about 2 weeks for me to actually like it here. It was mostly because I really missed my friends from home. I still do, but since I’ve made really great new friends here, it’s not as hard for me. I still talk to my old friends via Facebook, Skype, and Oovoo, which are probably the world’s greatest inventions!
Another thing is that I had become very Floridian, and used to wearing short-shorts and tanks tops all the time! Well here, you can’t exactly throw on a pair of shorts and walk out of the house! You can, but you will get weird looks from many people, and feel very uncomfortable. It’s funny, but now even I feel strange wearing capris out of the house! We usually wear jeans, but leggings and jeggings are very popular here too! Also, students can wear tank tops, but they must wear cardigans over them to cover your shoulders. I get use out of some shorts and skirts I brought because you can wear them over to friends’ houses, and it will be fine!
All in all, if you ask me, I really love it here! I’ve gained so much knowledge, and experience in things I’d never imagined!
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