We’ve been in China for a month now. Dad, Mom, Harry and I moved to Tianjin on 25 August. We’re not very far from Beijing. Two days ago, we celebrated my 16th birthday. It was great celebrating in China; the only thing that was strange was the cake—here they’re not as sweet as the ones in New York. On Monday school starts—I wonder what it will be like.

On my first day I was looking around for a locker to put my books in. However, here all the students keep all of their books at their desks. We stay in the same classroom because apparently we don’t have to go from class to class—teachers come to us!

Today we selected teacher assistants for each subject. Their duties are to collect homework, make announcements, and do other things for the teachers and the students. It’s kind of a big deal here! Since I am from the US, I was asked to be the English assistant. I felt so proud but quite nervous at the same time because I wasn’t sure what I had to do, but I accepted the job anyway.

Boy, what a week! Now we have nine classes every day, including the morning class, a combination of our American schools “Homeroom” and “Study Hall”. I think Chinese students work too much! I have to do my homework when I get back home. I don’t even have time to watch TV or surf the Internet like before. I sometimes miss New York and my school because we didn’t have to study so much. We had more time to hang out with our classmates and neighbors; here, besides their usual classes, students take part in weekend classes in subjects such as English, Chinese and math.

I get a lot of attention, being from another country. Everyone wants to practice English with me! A really cute girl even asked me for my phone number on my second day and sent me a text message! I’m making a lot more friends now. I just need a lot of help to improve my Chinese. Some students want to do a language exchange program with me. Nice!