Surviving My First Week of School!

School in Bolivia is definitely poles apart from school in the U.S. My school is called Colegio Adventista de Santa Cruz. Here are a couple of differences from my school in Bolivia and my school in the U.S.

My host sister and I during my first
 day of school.

§  My school starts at 7:30 and ends at 12:30 (this is including the morning assembly)……that’s only 5 hours and we have a 20 min break in between my second and third hour!!!

§  There are no sports at school; you have to play sports in clubs.

§  Every morning, my school has a short assembly.

Ø  In the morning you have to line up with your class in order of your height, and I’m the tallest girl in my class and I’m only 5’7! Everyone is a bit shorter here.

§  There are no school buses but you can take normal buses, a taxi, get a ride, or walk to school.

§  The student-teacher relationship is very relaxed in Bolivia; you can be really casual with the teacher.

§  There are no substitute teachers.

Ø  Today at school, my history teacher didn't come to school so the whole class just got to stay in the class and hang out for the whole hour.

§  The schedules are bit weird because every day you have a new schedule (but the schedules are the same for every week)!

§  In Bolivia you don’t move from class to class, the teachers move……that makes my life a lot easier!

§  My school is pretty small. It consists of grades 1-12 (I think). Right now I am a junior (year 11) and there are about 40 students for each grade. That is really small coming from a school that had around 300 students for each grade.

§  The classes are really loud….you can barely hear anything because everyone is so noisy! Everyone is always fooling around and screaming…I don’t think Bolivians know how to be quiet!

Ø  During class the students are always throwing paper balls at each other or throwing a soccer ball in the air......while the teacher is giving us a lecture or notes! The teachers in Bolivia aren't strict at all. For example, if the teacher is giving us a lecture and there are a bunch of kids that are talking, the teacher will just talk over them. It’s really hard to concentrate during class!!!

§  You can move your seats wherever you want during class, so by the end of the day the class is a huge mess! There is always a bunch of wrappers on the ground (because people are too lazy to walk t
o the trashcan) and someone always ends up spilling a drink on the floor…..EVERY SINGLE DAY!

§  After school, you eat lunch at home and then you can have a siesta!

This is what my classroom looks like during
class, you can even see some guys playing
volleyball in the back of the class!

Some of my classmates and I during
 our break time!

School is really fun and everyone at school is really nice to me. They are super helpful with me trying to understand and speak Spanish. No one at school can say my name right….they all call me “Shopita” or “Shopira.” I should probably be used to people not saying my name right by now, but it’s super annoying to be called “Shopita.” Sometimes I just give up on my name and I tell people that my name is "Sophie." Learning in Spanish is difficult, but school is really entertaining! There is only one person in my class who speaks English....guess who I sit by everyday???? He’s really nice and I would be really lost without him, thank god someone in my class speaks English. Well, that’s all for now and I will post soon about Carnival and a camping trip!!!!

A picture of my school.

Another picture of my school.