Aspen Schüleraustausch 2007/08

Bericht von Bettina Muckenthaler, Gastschülerin in Aspen Highschool 2007/2008

Life as a high school kid in Aspen, Colorado

 I have been here for almost 9 months and all I can say is:

I love it!

This year has been such a great experience for me and it definitely brought me one step closer to be who I am. I grew a lot more independent, self-conscious and finally I also know what I want. But enough of all that. Everyone knows how much someone can change when he or she goes on an exchange. I would rather want to point out another experience I made, going to another school and meeting new people. School in the US is very different from the German school. Not only in its system but also in its school spirit. The whole entire school seems to be more unified and kids from every grade are connected to each other in one way or another. It may be sports, art, music or clubs, but every student participates at least in one activity outside of the normal school schedule. Everyone who is not playing in a school sports team tries his best to support his team. He or she might be in a club to make banners and put them up in the school to give moral support. Others sell food and drinks on the stands during games for some kind of fund-raising and all the others come and see the games of their team and cheer them on as much as they can. Sports are so important and not only for the physical part but also because they bring the students together and create an amazing school spirit. “We are Aspen, we are the Skiers!” What high school kid from Germany would say that with such proud? Sports are after the normal school schedule, which makes it an even bigger commitment to participate. School starts at 8:10 am and goes until 3:15 pm, practice goes for another 2 hours, from 3:30pm to 5:30 pm. Every day a week! When you get home after practice you still have to do your homework. There are no excuses for teachers and often you even miss class because you are traveling for games. This might be one of the most fun parts of playing school sports, you get to travel for away games. Driving in a bus for at least a couple of hours gives you a chance to really meet your team members and it definitely does influence the way you play with them in a game. But enough of that too. School is not all about sports also sometimes you wish it would be. In the US there is no such as a class system. Every student gets to choose his own subjects and over the four years of high school he or she has to have a certain amount of classes. You can select 6-8 classes a year and each class is 90 min long. Tuesday and Thursdays have the same schedule as well as Wednesdays and Fridays, which means four classes a day. Mondays are in general all days, which means you have every class for 45 minutes. Lunch is eaten in school but also they have an open campus which means you could leave if you want to. Same if you have a free period, a class period in which you don’t have any class. In general, life as a high school student is definitely a lot more fun than it seems like. At the weekend you hang out with your friends and you go on crazy adventures. It seems just like growing up here but still its very different. And I’m glad that I had the opportunity to experience it. All I can say is: I still love it! It might not be for everyone but it doesn’t hurt to try.

 Bettina