Spirit Week

"School spirit is emotional support for one's educational institution. This can apply to any type of school, from elementary schools to universities. It can be manifested in the exhibition of school colors in dress and decoration, attendance of athletic events, or verbally in the form of chants or cheers.
Educators in primary and secondary education often associate proper behavior with school spirit, especially in the context of situations when students are outside the school itself. Because student behavior reflects on the school, representing it well shows a degree of student investment in their institution's good name. This definition of school spirit is closely associated with good sportsmanship among students and their families at sporting events and is loosely based upon encouraging each other."

Chelmsford spirit week (November 21st to 27th) was a fun filled week where Chelmsford High School got ready to face Billerica High School, our rivals, in the annual Thanksgiving Football game. As the week went on, CHS built school spirit in preparation for the big game. There was a friendly, interclass competitions, where one of the classes wins and shows the most spirit. Some of the competitions were Penny Wars (gathering most pennies) and Spirit Chains (most "links" bought). In addition to those two events, a community service portion was added with the "Can and Book Drives" (gathering cans and books and then donating them), where are cans were donated to the Chelmsford Food Pantry. The other part (the fun part) of the competition are the theme days, where students went "all out" by dressing up and participating.

       

The first theme day of the spirit was pajamas days. The second day was sports apparel, the third day was dress up day, the forth day was crazy socks day and the last day which was Pep Rally was the maroon and white (school colors) day. Seeing all of the students dressing up this way was really nice, it made school fun and unique to go to. Also every class has created/designed an own 3D spirit wall which was judged for points.

During the spirit week the Homecoming Dance took place. Lots of the school students attended the dance. It took place in the caff. It was really fun, everyone danced and had fun. It kind a reminded me of the Macedonian parties because there were a lot of people and also loud music with lots of lights. What was different was that everything was advised by teachers, the dance ended really early and there was no drinking.

The spirit week ended with the amazing loud Pep Rally that took place in the gym. Most of the sports captains and teams were recognized during it. It had lots of cheering and it was really really loud.

They also announced the winners of the spirit week: 1st place Seniors, 2nd place Juniors, 3rd place Sophomores and 4th place Freshmen. This week was really fun, crazy and totally different than any Macedonian school week.
(Full picture album - Click here)

International Education Week - IEW

"International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States."

 So IEW this year took place from November 11th to 15th. I was well prepared for it. Weeks before the IEW,I printed lots of flyers announcing the IEW. I sticked them all around the school so everyone was able to see them.

 We (me and the other 2 exchange students) went to the principals office and talked about the IEW. We wanted to do a global presentation for the whole school, but during the IEW week everything was busy so we decided to mount the international lunch that takes place in March with our huge presentations hopefully in front the whole school. So during the actual IEW we did individual presentations in our classes, different classes or any group of people. I was very well prepared. I had an awesome Prezi presentation. I did several presentations to classes during the IEW. 

(I also teached them Macedonian language and how to write their name in Macedonian!)

One of the best was my presentation to the International Relations class and to the International Relations club. They were really interested about Macedonia and the culture even though 90% of them never ever heard about Macedonia. The funny videos that I had in my presentation made it really fun and cheerful. They asked loots of questions and most of them were for Macedonian social/night life. They were amazed that Macedonian people start going to night clubs from 6th grade and also they drink, but not to get drunk, just for atmosphere. I could talk a lot about the presentation, but the best way for you to get it if you see it on your own:

(click the volume button (left bottom corner) to mute the background music of the prezi)
Teaching other people about my culture and my country was really amazing and seeing that they are really interested made it even much more amazing. The presentations about Macedonia wouldn't / didn't take place only during the IEW, but they will take place during my whole exchange year here. I have a huge responsibility here by being probably the only Macedonian person that the people here will meet and this responsibility is called a (youth) ambassador. 

Having that responsibility, my year here in the U.S. and all the presentations I am doing are firstly to achieve my program goals:

• to promote a better understanding among youth from selected YES countries about American society, people, institutions, values, and culture;
• foster lasting personal ties;
• engage the exchange participants in activities that promote mutual understanding, respect for diversity, leadership skills, and an understanding of civil society during their exchange in the US;
• enhance Americans’ understanding of foreign students’ countries and cultures;
• increase the capacity of organizations in participating countries to engage youth in activities that enhance mutual understanding, respect for diversity, leadership skills, and an understanding of civil society through alumni activities.

and further on of course, to have fun and achieve all my own "drawn" goals in my head.
(Full picture album - Click Here)

Halloween

The Halloween excitement for me started couple days before the actual Halloween day. We decorated our house using lots of orange colors and of course, the pumpkins that my host dad grew. It was amazing, the whole neighborhood was pretty, especially the trees with their golden leafs.

So on 25th (6 days before Halloween), I went to Lowell to volunteer for Monster Bash (Halloween event). I volunteered for 6 hours there. I was helping in building the haunted house for the event. We were building the haunted house in the hallways of Lowell High school. What was really amazing was that the people who were in charge of the haunted house (they were couple), did not get anything for doing that and they were building the haunted house for years. Every single item and material for the haunted house was theirs, bought from their own money. In the caff of the school, the other group of volunteers were making candy boxes so the kids that will come to the event would get free candy. So me and my group started building the house from scratch. We firstly built the rooms and then we covered everything with dark material so no light will enter inside and then finally we decorated it with scary items/dolls like glowing/speaking zombies, witches etc. It was amazing, I had so much fun!

The next day, 26th October was the actual Monster Bash event. Tons of kids with their parents came to the event. First they entered the caff. In the caff the different volunteering groups organized different games. For playing every game the kids won a prize, either some toy or candy. There were lots of fun games. After playing those games the kids entered the haunted house. After helping to build the haunted house the day before, the organizers allowed me to scare the children in the haunted house. So my job was to scare the kids going through the haunted house. It sounds kind a mean but it was SO MUCH FUN. I was pretending to be stationary skeleton and then from a sudden I would yell or something. The poor kids were crying so loud. Some of them even exited the haunted house on that point and some of them fell on the ground from being scared! Anyway, after the haunted house was over, my voice was so sore of all of that yelling!

Then on the actually Halloween day (31st October) was even more fun. I went to school, but this day it was not a usual day of school, it was Halloween! The school had a huge banner on the entrance and many of the students were dressed up. But not only the students, some teachers were dressed up too! One of those teachers was my English teacher Mr.Shea. He was dressed up like a gorilla. Another teacher was dressed up like garbage etc.. It was really fun and crazy. After school ended I went straight home to work on my costume. I "made" a 3 in one costume using my host dad beekeeper outfit.

I was an astronaut, a fencer and a beekeeper! Then me and my friends went to a Mexican restaurant where of course everyone was dressed up. I ate my first burrito there! I liked it, it was amazing! Then we went trick or treating! Yeah, high school students were trick or treating, nothing unusual. We trick or treated in a different neighborhood where the houses were close next to each other. The neighborhood was next to a lake/pond. It was really beautiful. I got lots of candies, it was so much fun. The only (kinda) bad thing was that the next day we had school.

The Halloween party was the weekend after Halloween. Everyone was dressed up. This time I was the king of Macedonia! The party was both Halloween and double birthday party.

It was really fun, it kinda reminded me of the Macedonian parties because there were lots of lights. I answered tons of questions about Macedonia and I sang the Macedonian anthem! Yeah, it was really fun day/week.

(Full picture album - Click Here)