If she were at home in England, Kimberly Neighbor would be in "Year 7"
at a British "High School" this year. But instead, she's in seventh
grade at a Northern California middle school. In the following excerpts from
Kimberly's diary (journal), she continues her account of her new life in America,
including her first dip in the Pacific Ocean.
Kimberly's Diary (September 23 – October 19, 2000)
Saturday, 23 September
Today we drove down to Half Moon Bay (a Northern California town on the Pacific
Ocean). We went down the most beautiful coastline I have ever seen. The mountain
roads which Dad drove on were so winding, but I loved them. Dad has a friend
from the Exchange Programme
who lives in Half Moon Bay. The town is fantastic. It has lots and lots of little
shops selling the most interesting things. In some ways it reminded me of Europe.
While we were there, I loved playing in the surf. You just don't get surf in
England, apart from Cornwall, and that is an eight-hour drive from where we
come from in England. The Pacific Ocean was surprisingly cold. You imagine from
all the films we see on the television that the Pacific would be warm at least.
At first my ankles and my legs felt a bit numb, but you soon get used to it.
It really is a fantastic experience jumping in the waves. All I want now is
a surf board for my birthday, so that next year I can go surfing.
Where we were jumping in the waves, there were signs and notices about shark
warnings. That is another thing you never see in England, a shark. What self-respecting
shark would want to bother turning up in the dirty water of the North Sea! According
to the notices, there had recently been a shark attack, and someone had been
bitten, although they had lived to tell the tale!
Sunday, 1 October
Today my mum
took me to a garage sale. This is a bit like a boot
sale in England. The big difference, however, is that the people who are
trying to sell the belongings they no longer want or need, do it from their
own homes. They put notices up on lampposts and at traffic junctions in order
to advertise.
People don't do it that way in England. Schools usually rent out their playing
fields in order to bring in extra revenue for the school. The people who are
trying to sell their goods pay the school a nominal sum such as five pounds,
and then they drive their car onto the grass or the school playground and sell
their goods from the boot
of their car.
Tuesday, 3 October
I had to bring an assessment sheet home for my mum to sign today. We don't get
these things in England. Here, every tiny little piece of work that students
do in school counts. From Grade 7 on, all these grades count towards graduation
– or not graduating, as the case may be – if you don't get the grades!
The system is so different in England. We get homework, of course, but the
exams at the end of the year also count. Also from the age of 11 (Year 6 in
the senior school), all the work is geared towards the public exams we have
to sit at the age of 16, the GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education).
The aim is to get as many of these as you can with grades A, B, or C, as these
are the pass grades. Depending on how many you get, and you should aim to get
five but preferably more, the better the chance you have of being able to do
the "A" level subjects that you want to do to get into university.
Friday, 6 October
Disaster struck today. A couple of weeks ago I had my ears pierced. I had wanted
them pierced for a long time, and my mum kept saying, "You can have them
done when we go to America!" This morning I woke up and discovered that
the stone (in my earring) had disappeared. It was nowhere to be found. My ear
lobe was very red and swollen, and it was really sore.
I went to school as usual, but I had to be treated in the medical room at
school because my ear lobe was oozing pus! Yuk!!! The secretaries rang my dad,
who came to pick me up after school because I was in pain. Dad took me to the
doctor, who advised that we go to the emergency center attached to the doctor's
surgery.
In England, doctors' surgeries don't usually have emergency centers attached
to them. You would normally expect to have to go to the accident and emergency
department in the local hospital.
Monday, 9 October
Today at school we started a project about the Romans. In Grade 7 we have to
study the Romans and other ancient civilizations during the year. It is a project
which is mostly done at school during school hours, but we type it up on our
own computers at home so that it looks neat. This gets you more marks and therefore
better grades at school if you hand in a project which has been typed up and
has computer-generated art.
This is so different to the way it is in England. I was talking to my mum
about my project, and she was saying that projects have gone out of fashion
in England. The curriculum there is so full of everything else that there is
no time anymore for things like projects.
Saturday, 14 October
We went to the Pumpkin Festival in Half Moon Bay today. It was such a brilliant
experience. The Pumpkin Festival is on all weekend long. There were tiny little
booths set up by people selling all kinds of merchandise, some of it to do with
pumpkins and some of it general American culture, such as hand-carved wooden
ornaments and handmade moccasin slippers.
People were going pumpkin crazy. They were wearing all kinds of clothes decorated
with pumpkins. You could buy pumpkin bread, pumpkin cake, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin
pie, and pumpkin ice cream, and even some kind of pumpkin liquor!
Sunday, 15 October
My best friend, Heather, invited me to go to the Pumpkin Patch about ten miles
from where we live. Just like all the other things to do with Halloween, we
don't have anything like this in England.
The Pumpkin Patch is on some farmer's land. He had put all his corn bales out
in the shape of a maze, and all the children had to go in the maze and find
the middle and then find their way out again. There was also a hay structure
in the shape of a pyramid, which children could climb to the top of. You could
get a wheelbarrow and pick up as many pumpkins to take home and decorate as
you wanted. You had to pay for this, of course. There were also farm animals
there to visit.
After this we came home, and then we went out for a meal at the golf club my
friend's parents go to. I have never been out to dinner so often and eaten out
as much as I have in the States. It is simply not the culture to do this in
England because eating out is such a big treat because it is so expensive!
Friday, 19 October
I went shopping after school with Heather and her mum. We went to a charity
shop and bought some secondhand clothes to dress up in for Halloween. Heather
and I have decided that we want to be southern belles for Halloween. So we bought
long dresses, and petticoats, and shawls, and little handbags. We are going
to have our hair done up in ringlets by Heather's mum. We even bought some really
pretty shoes to wear. Then when we are all dressed up on the 31st October, we
are going "trick or treating" around Heather's neighborhood. I can't
wait!
Kimberly's
prior journal entries
PearsonAtSchool Products
Writing
Journals
You'll find advice on how to use learning logs, reader response journals, and
writers' notebooks.
Journals
as Frameworks for Change
This book illustrates how to guide teachers and school community groups through
change.
Lesson Plans
An Immigrant's
Story – Grades: 6-12, Language Arts, Social Studies
Web Resources
Reading Matters
Read about a young girl's experiences in war-torn Sarajevo in the book Zlata's
Diary.
http://www.readingmatters.co.uk/books/zlata.htm
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