Here are some excerpts from the eyes of an easy going 6 year old whose hero is Calvin (from Calvin and Hobbes). This kid moved from a Japanese run private school (known as a boot-camp because of the high work load and the higher standards of conduct expected) in Bellevue, WA to a local school in Hyderabad.
The Journey:
On our way to India, we had a stopover in Amsterdam, where I offered him a bag of candy that looked like 'm&ms' and made by Hersheys. He read the label and immediately protested:
"I will not eat 'kissables', if I do I may fall in love. I do not want to eat them. I do not
want to fall in love."The School Bus:
I am very excited about going in a School bus, I have been on a School bus only on field trips. I don't like the new school, but I like going on a School bus.
You know, the first day when the bus was about to reach school, something strange happened, "all the kids on the bus got up and crowded to the front of the bus". Isn't that funny? I was the last to get up and get off the bus.
I got bullied by some older kids in the bus, they asked me not to talk in the bus and that I needed to go back to Seattle if I wanted to talk.
(I reacted quickly and asked, "why didn't you bully him back?" his response -- "Bullying is not a good thing, and its not right, so I will not do it")
(What is the solution? Do our kids need to push and be more aggressive? Will our kids survive if they are proper and follow the western etiquette?)
School:
I hate recess (from a kid whose life revolved around recess and play time). I don't have any friends, they all talk in 'Hindi' and 'Telugu' and I cannot understand them.
There is one girl in my class who came up to me and said she was from the US. But I don't play with girls.
I am the best behaved kid in class. There are kids who sit on desks, some even walk on them and others talk during class (this coming from a kid who was very talkative and had his share of quiet time in class).
Why is everyone here called an auntie? *smirk* We have two class teachers and an auntie, they come and go, in and out of the class through out the day.
We work all day, we write a lot and we also eat a lot. They make us finish all the food on our plate. I had idli for snack, rice and dhal for lunch, milk and samosa for afternoon snack. Work here (in school) is very easy, BCA (Bellevue Children's Academy) was a lot harder (this coming from someone who actually skipped a grade and jumped up a grade level in order to be with his own age group in India).
We had a lot of homework at BCA. This school doesn't have much homework.
In India, everyone is 'brown'.
Random:
You know, in India you can have other people drive for you. Also, you can honk whenever you feel like it (this was during my first attempt at driving).
When I ask for my turn, why is it that others don't listen?
I don't like mosquitoes. I hate mosquitoes. I don't like India because of the mosquitoes.
My life has completely changed. Its so different. Can we go back to Seattle?
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