What ECA has done to me

ECA has been my home, my community, my school for the past 5 years of
my life. I entered in 5th grade, the transition from Venezuelan school
to ECA was hard, but I managed to survive my first year even though my
best friend moved. Which meant,, that I needed to find another best
friend in my first year of middle school. Throughout these 5 years in
ECA I've learned how to respect, and understand other cultures. Being
from a Venezuelan I really didn't have much understanding, and
tolerance for different people. But, that day when Shaika asked all of
the girls to be quite while she prayed towards the Meca in the middle
of a camp in the countryside of Venezuela, made me see things from a
different prospective. I met many people at ECA, some that I've shared
memories for 5 years, and others who just come and go. Even though
it's hard to see people come and go so much, it's great to know that
you have friends all over the world. Today, I concluded, that even
though I personally think ECA is not the place for me, it has made me
into a good, understanding, honest, tolerant, and responsible person.
I've recollected uncountable memories here, and promise to never let
them recede away.

Freshman Year

Freshman year was not that bad actually. I remember last year, all our teachers scaring us, and our upper classmates too. I’m happy to say, I survived my first high school year. Without my friends I wouldn’t have made it, everyone has their ups and downs but this year was definitely a hard one. I got the news that I was leaving Venezuela, and my grandmother's is really sick. But apart from those tiny little things, freshman year rocked. We, day 1 P.E girls, managed to get to the showers before the sophomores after physical education, that definitely was a major highlight of the year. Seeing everyone changing their next year schedule, and figuring out who is with who in their classes makes me sad knowing that I won’t be able to graduate with the 76 class of 2014, that truly does suck. But, I guess I’ll find great classmates in my next school. Supposedly I’ve heard that the best high school year is sophomore, which makes me exited, I hope to have fun in boarding school. And, I know I’ll come visit Venezuela since my parents will stay here. I door in my life is closing, but the next one is already opening.

Blogging, or No Blogging?

I’m not going to lie, I did enjoy blogging. Blogging at the beginning of the year was so much fun, I liked that we would get graded by just writing about whatever we would want to. But, after time passed, my ideas started reseeding, and I barely had any ideas left, which made it much harder to write 4 blogs in a quarter.  The pros about blogging would definitely include being able to express, and write about things that people would be able to read without knowing who I am. I also liked writing about my boarding school experience. The cons about blogging would include not having enough ideas for the end of the year, and not being able to use names was hard. I have an idea, maybe for the next freshman class, you can have them write blogs for the first semester, and for the second semester have them do another type of creative writing project.  

Este Es Mi Pais Natal

For my final project in my I.T class we were supposed to do a poster in Photoshop that represents us in some way. 

I did a poster that describes all the important things for me, and what reflects me as a person. The general color of the poster (yellow, blue, red) is the Venezuelan flag, which represents my home country. It has only 7 stars which in some way portrays my determination, and pride for Venezuela against Chavez. The yellow area of the flag has pictures that show my family. My family is extremely important for me and now that I'm leaving to Boarding School it's going to me really hard to leave them all. My family has always been there for me, which obliges me to give back to them by doing well in school, and being healthy. The blue part of my poster has a background which is a picture of the Avila. The Avila is a mountain in Venezuela which I wake up to every morning, and this picture was taken from my house. This picture was taken by my father whose hobby is photography, I plan to follow his steps, and be as talented as he is one day. Last, but definitely not least, the red area of my poster has pictures of my friends. I consider myself a very social person, and my friends are very important to me. I have been extremely lucky the past few year because I've had many friends that have been supporting me, and I'm happy to know that they are aware that I will always be here for them. For those that do not speak Spanish, the text is a part of the lyrics of a song of Carlos Baute. This song was released during the strike in Venezuela, and people all over the country sang it through manifestations, and it helped maintain hope, and pride for Venezuela.

Having to leave all these things, and people behind will be the hardest thing I'll have to do. But, at the same time I do know that I can count on their support. I feel extremely proud of my work, and I’m glad that I’ll be able to take this on to my new school.

Please Leave!

The corruption that this man is causing is unbelievable. I am a Venezuelan and I can say that he is destroying my country, and in a few years we will be left with nothing, and with only pure communism. Is perspective of life, and his believes are based on socialism, and communism, he thinks that everyone should be equal and that taking away from the wealthy people, and giving it to the poor is ok. Well it’s not. It is not ok because, when he expropriates companies he basically destroys it because he can’t manage it. I am a good source because this man, this beast has taken away from my family, and from many others, and we cannot let this happen anymore. Today March 30, 2011 I am travelling and in immigration, I saw more than 80 Cuban’s leaving Venezuela with televisions, blenders, DVD’s, and many other devices that were given to them by the government. So what is he doing? He is basically letting us suffer here, and give all to Cuban’s and poor people that vote for him. It is sad to say that the only reason I am leaving my parents, and moving away from Venezuela is because of this man who has been in power for 12 years, and he is not planning on leaving.

Lucky!

Being Lucky, ok so I don’t want to be arrogant, but I’ve been told to be extremely lucky. I remember when my dad would go on vacation, he would bring my sister and me presents, and I would always chose the hand with the best present. My sister nowadays still remembers those things, and they still happen. 3 years ago my sister and 2 friends, hosted a fashion show to recollect money for an organization of children with cancer, and they had a raffle. In the raffle I was asked to be the one that drawed the number tickets out of the bowl. When it came to the last prize, which were pearls with gold, I drawed my own ticket and I was the lucky winner. It is proven by all members of my family that my luck is truly a gift. This December vacations we went to visit boarding schools, and when leaving St. Mark’s school, I saw a gold coin in the floor next to my car. And I said, “If I get in I’ll definitely frame the coin.” One month later we find out that I got into St. Mark’s. And now in this right moment I’m on a plane on my way to the re-visit day, and hope that this luck made a good decision. 

ByeBye

I think it’s going to be harder than what I thought it would be. I’ve been at ECA for 5 years already, and every year I’ve had to see my best friend leave (5^th-Alisson, 6^th- Valeria, 7^th-Delfina, 8^th-Valentina,) and now, I’m the one who is leaving. Even though ECA is not my favorite place, it’s still been my second home for a long while, and leaving it behind will be hard for sure. Apart from the general things like, teachers, I’ll have to leave my friends, I’ll be leaving behind my British School family (Eleni, Matias, Fernando, Allan,) they’ve been in my life since Pre-k, and I have shared a lot with them. Apart from them, leaving my cousins, Rodrigo and Jorge is definitely going to be hard, especially Rodrigo who I’ve studied with my whole life. Inspire of all them, there are no words to describe how difficult it will be to leave Irene, and Clarisa behind, they have only been in my life for 2 years, but I feel like they are as or even more important than the rest. I have shared so much with them, and just thinking about two other girls that will replace them is quite impossible. Kind off mean to leave my parents for last, but they know I’ll miss them, and a lot. Not having my sister around for two years has made me share so much with my parents, and not having their support next year will be challenging. 

Uniform or No Uniform?

I can assure you that most normal High School students would prefer not to wear a uniform to school. But what are the advantages of wearing a uniform?
Well, good things about having to wear a uniform are:
*not having the stress to choose what to wear in the morning
*no problems caused at school because one girl has something nicer than the other one
*wearing something appropriate
Here in Venezuela most Venezuelan schools use uniforms, not only because they are Cristian schools, but because they believe in a equal society. Which means, maybe there is a girl that can't really afford brand cloths, but her best friend wear brand cloths. In other words, if all girls wear the same cloths, no problems of jealousy or hatred will be caused. Apart from all the pros of wearing a uniform there are always some disadvantages to everything.
Some bad things of having to wear a uniform in your teenage years are:
*not having the chance of expressing your personality with your stile
*trying to break the rules and changing the uniform.
For example I would like to use another shirt that isn't my uniform shirt, but I like it because I don't have to stress out every morning thinking about what I'm going to wear to school.

VH Imissyou

I will be interviewing my best friend that left to Costa Rica, I will be asking her different questions about her school compared to ECA.
Tell me about your new school, what are the differences of ECA and your new school in Costa Rica?
The differences of ECA and Lincoln School, are that at my new school, there aren't that many international students compared to ECA. Another difference is that in Lincoln there aren't that many opportunities of sports, or arts. There are about 100 students in each grade, and at ECA there are only about 45 students.
How are the teachers at you new school?
Teachers at Lincoln are divided per grade, meaning they don't teach more than one grade. Most of them are Costarican, or American. Compared to ECA, the relationship between students and teachers is less casual, caused by the amount of students at Lincoln.
How many classes are you taking? Are they easier or harder at ECA?
I'm taking 8 classes, Social Studies, English, Spanish, Math, Science, PE, French, Art, and Music. I meet my classes everyday, which makes it harder than ECA.
What are both schools strengths?
The strength at Lincoln, is that the academic is much more strict, and at ECA is also good academically, but at ECA you are given much more opportunities in other things than in Lincoln.

Different Perspective

Going to visit the schools I'm applying to, definitely changed my opinion, and point of view. My first choice now was my last choice before. All the schools had different things, that made them extremely unique from each one. For example, Choate Rosemary Hall has a really amazing dinning hall, and the dormitories are really big. Apart from being an amazing school, I know about 10 students that go there and they LOVE it. Its far less daunting to be new at a school when you know at least someone there.The next school I visited was Northfield Mount Hermon. I wasn't expecting a lot from this school, but deffenitly I was proven wrong. I was astonished by this schools, amazing therter, and concert hall. After visiting this school I past by Deerfield Academty. We didn't have a formal tour but a friend that attends there showed us around. The campus  was huge, and beautiful. But it's definitely one of the hardest schools I'm applying to. The next day we visited Middlesex. Middlesex, was a very small school (compared to Deerfield) it was much more cozy, and our tour guide was really nice. At this school I was asked to write an essay which made me nervous. After going to Middlesex, we went to St. Mark's. At St. Mark's I got interviewed by a Venezuelan admission team member. She was very nice, and will help me get in. St. Mark's was my least favorite of them all. After that we visited Lawrenceville, AMAZING. There are no words to describe it, it is definitely my first choice of all of them. the dormitories are so big, and the people were very nice. I really hope that I get into more that one so I'll have the chance to make a choice.