云附星耀2017-2018赴美交流学生学习感言
My Other School in the USA
2017-2018学年交流学生
谢逸霞
（现为2017级高二理4班学生）
在阿拉斯加州的巴拉诺夫岛上，有一个宁静的小镇叫做锡特卡。在这里你可以体会到极昼极夜的美妙。在极夜期间，时常在半夜可以看到极光。做为一个在南方长大的孩子，能看到极光是多么幸运的一件事啊！
在云大附中的姊妹学校Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS)最令我兴奋的就是可以自主选课。因此，上学期我选了美术、海洋生物、英语2和阅读。下学期我又选上了微积分、实地调查、英语2、海洋科技和中文课。在海洋课上，我跟着老师学习了大部分生活在阿拉斯加附近海域的生物。对于每一种生物的学习，我们要进行一个星期。从学习他们的基本信息到去发现他们和捕捉他们并把它们带回实验室做进一步的研究。每一次出海寻找生物之前，我们都要进行潜水的训练以保证我们的安全。每一次我们都分为两人一组，合作学习研究和最后的总结报告。
在英语课上，我们需要在两个星期的时间内阅读完一本书，并且每周都要交读书笔记和准备章节测试。整本书读完后，我们要自己收集相关资料，完成相关论题的论文。2017-2018整个学年，我先后读完了《追风筝的人》、《高危地带》《华氏451度》、《尤里西斯冒险记》和整套的哈利波特。在每节英语课上我们都围坐成一圈，然后讨论书中的细节和分析作者的修辞手法。每本书看完后，我们都会在一起观看根据小说改编的电影，并且对比书和电影之间在细节上的差别。在实地调查课上，我们整个学期一共做了九个实地调查。我们去了阿拉斯加大学实验室，和真正的科学家一起做实验。在这本课上，每周我们都会观看一部BBC的纪录片，然后记录一篇观后感分享给周围的同学。
海洋科技课其实是一种参与科学研究的课堂。我们通过收听海洋中各种不同的音频来判断海洋生物的生活习性和迁徙路径。在这节课上我和我的搭档Olin一起研究的是北极圈内近十年白鲸所发出的音频，并和一位来自加州大学的科学家Josh John 一起准备了在圣地亚哥所做的学术报告。我非常荣幸地在下学期成为了中文课的助教，因此中文课上的学生也就成了我最好的朋友。每逢佳节，中文老师和我都会准备传统的中国美食与选修中文课的学生一起分享。在中国新年的时候，我们一起去了阿拉斯加最大的城市安克雷奇过中国年，在孔子学院和亚洲圣经教会的款待下，我和我的同学们一起度过了一个非常有意义的中国年，也向外国友人传播了源远流长的华夏文化。
圣诞节，是西方国家最重要的节日。我去到了热情友善的寄宿家庭。他们一家都是虔诚的基督徒，他们义务地成为我的寄宿家庭，让我体验到了一个真正的圣诞节。每天的晚餐，我都会为他们做两三道特色的中国菜让他们品尝，晚饭过后他们都会为我讲圣经故事。
在参观教堂时，我还认识了来自其他国家的交换生，有来自巴基斯坦、埃及、约旦、奥地利和土耳其的同学。每个周末我们都会约在一起，一起看电影、读书，因为他们的家庭都与中国有商业往来，所以我们总会讨论起一带一路。我们互相学习各自国家的语言，分享各自国家的美食。MEHS的课外活动也极为丰富，有皮划艇、烹饪、做衣服、观察星星、攀岩、蹦极……，也正因为这些活动让我结识了许多朋友，也是这些朋友让我体会到了不同国家的文化差别和地域的差异性。
我非常感谢云大附中给了我这一宝贵机会！成为赴美交流学生，让我有机会在异国学习并探索外面的世界。我相信这一独特的生活经历必将改变我今后的人生轨迹。
On the Baronoff Island in the USA, there is a peaceful place called “Sitka”. In Sitka you can see the beauty of the polar day and the polar night. During the polar night, northern lights can often be seen in the middle of the night. What a lucky thing it was for a child who grew up in the south to see the Northern lights.
In our school’s sister school, Mt. Edgecumbe High School (MEHS), we could choose courses to study. For the first semester I chose arts, marine biology, English 2 and reading. The next semester, I chose precalculus, field research, English 2, sea technology and Chinese.
For the marine biology, I learned most of the mammals in the ocean around Alaska, and for each mammal, we learned basic information first, and then we went to the ocean to find them, and brought them back to the laboratory for further research. Every time we hang out on the ocean to look for marine mammals, we had to do diving training to ensure our safety. We worked with our partners all the time, we always helped each other and prepared for the presentation when we have done the leaning.
We needed to finish reading a book in two weeks, taking notes and writing an essay about a project in a month to get credit. During the whole school year, I finished reading The Kite Runner, The Hot Zone, Fahrenheit 451, Adventures of Ulysses and the whole set of Harry Porter. English class, we sat around to discuss the details of the book and analyze author’s rhetorical devices. When we had done the book and the essay was finished , we would watch the movie adapted from the book. Then for the next class we would compare the details between the movie and the book.
For the second semester, we did nine experiments in field research and we went to the University of Alaska laboratory to do experiments with real scientists. In this class, we watched BBC documentaries every week, and then recorded a post to share with the students around us.
The sea technology course is actually a class that requires participation in scientific research. We judged the life habits and migration routes of marine organisms by listening to different kinds of audio in the ocean. In this class, I worked with my partner, Olin, to study the audio of the beluga in the Arctic Circle in the last ten years and to prepare an academic report in Santiago with a scientist, Josh John from the University of California.
I am very happy to have become a teacher tutor to help the Chinese teacher. At the Chinese festivals, Chinese teachers and I will prepare some traditional Chinese food to share with students in the Chinese classes. In the Chinese new year, we went to the biggest city in Alaska, Anchorage, visiting Confucius College there and the Asian Bible Church, which prepared the best Chinese new year for us. I spent a very meaningful time with my classmates, and I also spread the Chinese culture to foreign friends.
Christmas is the most important festival in the Western world. I stayed with a friendly host family. They were devout Christians who were duty bound to be my host family and let me experience a real Christmas. Every day, I would cook Chinese food to treat them. After dinner, they would kindly tell me a biblical story, so that I could know more about Christianity.
When visiting the church, I also got to know the exchange students from other countries, including students from Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Austria and Turkey. Every weekend we got together and went to watch movies and read books. Because their families have businesses with China, so we always discussed The Belt and Road Initiative. We learned each other’s languages and share the delicious food of our respective countries.
There were plenty of activities after school at MEHS, like canoeing, cooking, making clothes, watching stars, climbing, bungee jumping… It was precisely because of these activities that I made a lots of friends, and those friends made me truly realize the cultural differences and geographical differences of different countries.
I am very grateful to our school for giving this opportunity to me so that I was able to study in another country and see the outside world. I am sure that this life experience will change my trajectory. Go braves!
Such a Warm Place2017-2018学年交流学生
李诏琪
（现为2017级高二文2班学生）
风好大，很冷。这是我出飞机舱门时首先想到的。风大得能把眼睛都糊住了。“这好像和来之前听到的的不太一样，锡特卡的太阳似乎并没有我想象的那么友好啊”。结果第二天就放晴的天空笑着轻轻的给了我一巴掌。直到离开前，当地人才哈哈笑着告诉了我们一个公开的秘密：“你并不需要为了锡特卡出现了你不喜欢的天气而烦恼，因为在五分钟之后他就能变成另一个样子”。特别是在一个下午之内经历了小雨、放晴、彩虹和大雪时，就能深知这句话的准确性了。那里磨人的天气让人又爱又恨，当你将要对着连续下了十天的大雨咒骂时，天空中突然出现的彩虹就能将你压抑了多天的抑郁心情一扫而空。锡特卡这个顽皮的小老头好像就喜欢看你对着他急得跳脚而又无可奈何的样子。
小镇上的人们也和天气一样时时都充满了活力。作为一个旅游小镇，一到旺季，从早上开始岸边就会出现各类观光游轮。这时很多镇上的人们都会到游轮上做介绍或者担任一日导游介绍人文风情。就像担任我们“家长”的寄宿家庭一样，Karen和Jere每年的这个时候都会在游轮里担任讲解员，跟着游轮一起向北直到温哥华完成人文旅行。这个镇上的教堂是一个人们比便利店还要频繁出现在内的建筑。重大节日时，大家都会聚集在教堂举行盛大的晚会，享受着节日的快乐。我们常常调侃这里是一个适合退休人群的大型疗养院。早上一边观赏着鲸群一边享用早餐，随时都能去屋子旁边森林里的小道上跑步锻炼（只是需要担心棕熊的出现）。晚上到剧院里欣赏芭蕾表演。周末时全家一起开着小艇到旁边小岛上的cabin里郊游野餐，冬天到Swan Lake拿上一杯热可可看着孩子们在湖上滑冰玩雪橇…… 镇上路过的每一个人都会笑着对你打招呼，在他们脸上你找不到一丝愁容。
而作为我一年之内的主要活动地点，Mt. Edgebumbe High School (MEHS)是个让人随时都充满愉悦和放松的地方。美国高中一般每天只有四节课（早上9:40到下午4:00）,并且学校和机场位于离downtown有着一段距离的Japonski岛上。学生平时去超市和电影院都需要用将近20分钟走过一架长长的跨海大桥，所以学校尽量让学生避免在校园生活里感到枯燥，每周都会发一份放学之后的课外活动表供学生选择：爬山、划艇、看日落、篝火晚会和公园郊游都是最频繁的活动。每个人都可以加入自己擅长的的运动队，每天放学后参加训练，一两个月后到其他城市的学校参加比赛。还有美术、音乐节以及DDF之类可以“远距离出差”的社团活动都是炙手可热的项目。为了让我们体验得更加透彻，除了英语之外其他的课程都无限制地让我们任意选择。我们因此也遇到了许多善良而又有耐心的老师同学。
因为MEHS在日本也有姊妹学校，他们今年也有学生来进行了为期一周的交流活动。但因为语言原因不能长时间停留学习。意想不到的是，在偶尔一次的教堂活动中，我们才发现隔壁的Sitka High 居然也有交流学生（他们来自：埃及、奥地利、巴基斯坦、土耳其和约旦）。也许是因为都远离了家乡，母语不相同的我们竟然比和其他学生更要亲近，拥有了无数令人感动的回忆。比起在美国学校学到的知识，让我更感激的是收获到的无数家人。他们一直在用自己的方式让我们忘记离家的烦恼，其实这一年的经历用一页纸是根本讲不完的。如果有一天你去到了那个美丽的小镇上，请代我向那些可爱的人们说一声谢谢。
Chilly. That was the first word that came to my mind when I got there. The wind was so strong that it always tried to cloud my eyes. “Looks different from what I heard of before I came here. The weather seems not that friendly?” I thought. But the sky “accidentally” turned clear the next day. Later, before leaving Sitka, people just told us the open secret: “That’s fine if you don’t like the weather now in Sitka ’cause it gonna change in the next 5 minutes.” Especially after you experienced a light rain, clear weather, rainbows and a heavy snow all in one afternoon, you will know the accuracy of the words.
People here are awesome. As a tourist town, a variety of sightseeing cruise ships will appear on the shore from the morning in the peak season. We stayed with the Christener family over Christmas. Karen and Jere are instructors at this time of year on the ships, traveling along with the cruise ships north to Vancouver to complete the cultural trip. The church is a building in which people show up more frequently than in the grocery store. On major festivals, people gather in the church to have a party and have fun during the evening. We always said that Sitka is actually a large nursing home for retirees: watching the whale group at breakfast in the morning, running on the trail in the forest near the house (you only need to worry about the brown bears) and enjoying the ballet performance at the theatre in the evening. Sometimes you can row a boat to the cabin with your family on weekends. In winter, it’s great to have a cup of cocoa while sitting on the Swan Lake, and watch the kids skating & sliding on the lake… I had only seen this casual life in movies.
As the main venue of my school year as an exchange student, MEHS is a place where people are always able tohave fun. High schools in the U.S just have only four classes per day (9:40 am to 4:00 pm ). The school and the airport are on Japonski Island which is a distance from downtown. Students usually need to cross a super long bridge to to down town, nearly 20 minutes on foot. In order not to get us bored, the administrators sent us weekly reaction calendars for us to pick from: mountain climbing, rowing, watching sunsets, bonfire and park outings are the most common activities. Everyone can join in the sports teams that interest them, and do training every day after school. After one or two months’ training, they will travel and attend games in other schools. We also have arts, music festivals, and DDF, which can manage long “business trips”. In order to make our experience more thorough, the school required us to pick English 2 and select whatever courses we like. That’s why we met a lot of good friends.
MEHS also has a sister school in Japan. It sent a team of exchange students this year for a week of communication. Unexpectedly, in the occasional church activity, we found that a nearby school, Sitka High, has a similar exchange program (Their exchange students are from Egypt, Austria, Pakistan, Turkey and Jordan). Perhaps because “exchange students know each other better”, we were closer to others, and had a bunch of fond memories.
What I appreciate most is the new family I stayed with over Christmas break. And they often used their cute ways to help us not to get homesick. Actually it’s so hard to write down all experiences in an essay, just like I can’t intactly express how nice the people there are. If you go to that beautiful town some day, please say “Hi” from me to those lovely people.
云大附中星耀校区