My Teacher and Friends in Michigan

By: Vikra Alizanovic

I have stayed in Michigan, USA, for about 4 and half months when I was 11 years old with my family. We were invited by my dad, who has studied there first for a couple of months. He got this 1 year journalist fellowship program. About four or five months before his programs is over, he invited his family to go there too. There, we lived in an apartment in Ann Arbor. Experiencing education on another country is worth all the costs. The experience itself is the most precious thing you can get out of it. I have also gone to junior high school in Leiden, Holland (when my mom studying), at a school called Da Vinci College.
But then, that is not the main topic of this article. This time, I’m going to tell you my entire story when I was in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Specifically, about the school there.
My first day at school, like all of your first day of school, I was nervous. Plus, it was in another country. I was brought by my parents with my sister, who was going to start her first day of school that day too. I was escorted to my class by the concierge, not by the headmaster. This tells the different compared to when I was in Leiden. When I was in Leiden, I was tested, interviewed, and escorted by the Headmaster herself. Plus, she was really nice and smiles a lot.
At Michigan, I was only escorted by the concierge. Then, on the hallway, she pointed another student. It was a girl. She looked a bit older than me. She looked European. She told her to escort me to the fourth-grade class. When I came to school, the teacher was already waiting for her. I forgot her first name, but we all call her Mrs. Popper. She’s half Italian, half American. She wears glasses, and usually wears her red turtleneck sweater.
She smiled to my mother, and assured her that it was fine to leave me there. After my mom left, Mrs. Popper introduced me to the whole class. I can only recall a few names of my classmates. There was Josh, who’s extremely smart, and supposed to be in fifth-grade class, but stayed here because he said he only feel comfortable studying with Mrs. Popper. There was also Matthew, who always tends to make funny jokes. When I was with him, there will always be laugh. There was Alexandria, a redhead girl who’s quite huge and too tall for a fourth-grader, but she was very smart at piano. There was Alon, a boy from Israel. He was very nice to me, yet, also very discipline. On the other hand, there was also this one guy from Palestine. Although, I didn’t remember his name. There was also a guy from Mongolia, Josua. There was also this one funny kid from Japan, named David Lee. Me, David, and Alon, usually always hangs out together. Play skateboard; go to the forests, etc. There was also Samantha, and Patricia, 2 normal blonde girls. There are also 2 African American boys in my class. There is Alex, who always bragged about his cornrow. And I forgot about the name of the other boy’s name. What I remembered is that, he always comes late. If he doesn’t come late, then he won’t come at all. He visited the headmaster’s a lot of times. The only class he never comes late to is gym. I also got a female African American friend, called Aletheia. I also got some friends from other class. First is Woo-Sub, and Nah-Li, a boy and a girl from South Korea. And Chen, a third-grader from China. These three people have are having problem pronouncing my name. So, instead of calling me ‘Vikra’, they called me ‘Picola’. It’s sad, really! :)