I came to the United States of America in February 2002. I live in Los Angeles County, California. There're approximately1 eighty-eight cities in Los Angeles County and I live in one of them called Arcadia. The school district in Arcadia is famous for its excellent education quality so many Chinese people live here.
In the States, elementary school is from 1-5th grade and then it's secondary school from 6-8th grade and finally it's high school from 9-12th grade. The students go to the school that is closest to their home, however if all the classes are full, they have to go to another school.
I was really lucky because when I registered for school, all the classes were full, but someone had just moved so there's one spot for me. It only takes 10 minuets to get to the school if I walk from my house.
The first day I came to the school, I was nervous and scared2 and I had no idea what they were talking about. When I entered the classroom, the teacher asked me how much English I knew. I said: “Little.” Then the teacher put me next to a girl, she knows how to speak Chinese, and soon that girl became my first friend and later I made a lot more friends.
Here during class, you can go to bathroom3, drink water or walk around the classroom. Here we have an open house. An open house is where you take out all the things that you made during the year and invite your parents to come to see the progress you make at school. On the playground, we have all kinds of balls that we can play, we can also play in the monkey bars and we can run around on the lawn4.
The school here is very good. There're computers and books in every classroom. We have a little library in the school and there's a tennis court5 at the back of the school. We can play in it if we want. It's totally free and I've been there several times. All classrooms are bungalows6 because earthquake happens sometimes in Los Angeles. In the school there's a cafeteria where we buy our foods. Of course you can bring your own food.
We study Math, English, Science, Physical Education (PE)7 and History, and there's only one teacher who teaches all of the subjects. There's ELD. ELD is a program that teaches those people who don't know English or English is not their native language.
In the classroom we have a little animal. Some times we let the little animal out. At break we can feed the little animal and the teacher takes the little animal home at the end of the day.
When I get home I watch TV a lot and that helps me understand English. I made a lot of friends in a couple of days at school. The lonely feeling I had when I first came here is gone.
1. approximately adv． 近似，大约
2． scared adj． 恐惧的
3． bathroom n． 梳洗室
4． lawn n． 草坪
5． tennis court 网球场
6． bungalow n． （带走廊的）平房
7． Physical Education 体育