I wasn't really satisfied with my schedule, but it was the best it could be considering the options. But I knew it would be hard getting used to the same schedule every day, especially having gym class the first hour. Gym class itself was pretty hard for me at first since I wasn't used to working out. We have P.E. in Slovakia, but only three times a week and we usually don't do anything serious. And Fridays, fun days? Really fun, that's true. I've always sucked at volleyball, but everyone in my class was used to it. Here, however, people seemed less happy with my sport abilities. I felt embarrassed being one of the two girls in the fitness class when all the guys played so good. I got a lot of not really nice comments on my volleyball. And as if that wasn't enough, I almost passed out in the first fitness class because I was probably dehydrated. So I must have looked like I've never had any exercise in my life. Nice start, Viera.

Another shock came to me in the French class. I didn't speak French couple of weeks before leaving my country, and even before my French was really bad (although I was still the best in my class in my home school) and suddenly I was in French 3 (when I told the teacher how many years I've been learning and how much grammar I've had she decided French 3 would be optimal solution for me) where I was expected to speak fluently and write a lot of papers. As if it wasn't enough that I had to speak one foreign language, English, I had to manage to speak another one. I got my first one-page paper that day on my impressions about United States and it was extremely difficult for me to write it. I felt like I didn't speak French at all and I had to open the dictionary every couple of minutes. Besides, it was hard to find quiet place in our house. My host grandparents were partly deaf so the TV sound was at maximum and we could hear it all over the house. The room I found the quietest was bathroom, so that was where I wrote my first homework in America.

Other classes were pretty okay though. Even Mr. Mawk's classes seemed easy at first. But I kept in mind what I was told by everyone, even Mrs. Robertson, “You'll die working.” At that time, I thought everyone was exaggerating, which later proved wrong. First thing I noticed about Mr. Mawk was that everyone from central and eastern Europe is Russian to him. That really annoyed me since my country never had anything to do with Russia and almost none of our people speak Russian, although it's both Slavic languages. I met famous Mr. Grudem, my World Literature teacher ( “Don't take World History,” I was told by my host sisters and I took their advice.) and Mr. Forseth, Algebra II teacher, which I liked the most at first, though it wasn't hard to notice this class would be extremely easy.

Soon I felt like home, working almost every day, doing homework – which was something new, because although we do get homework in my school, no one cares if you turn it in or not. And no one certainly grades it. Everything was fine with my host family, especially my host sisters were lot of fun. I didn't really miss my family or friends, though I was writing e-mails to my best friend every day to let her know how I was doing and how different this country was and I was calling my parents every weekend, which was maybe even too often in my opinion.

Now, I'm writing this paper with two and a half weeks left before I leave this country. I'm glad I'm going home so soon (especially because I can't stand American food ) but I'll certainly miss the life in United Stated, the school, people I have met and even communicating in foreign language.