So many things have happened during this week, and I'm inspired by so my experience. In order not to forget what I'm going to write, here's an outline of this article: English class, physics lab, and cross country. 

1. English Class

   All the Upper Mids (Juniors) at Hotchkiss have to take AP Literature, and all of the classes, though taught by different teachers, have the same syllabus. I was initially assigned to Mr. Gardner's class, and he's no doubt a great teacher. When I was making some changes to my course load and schedule, I was afraid that I might be switched out of his class, but it turned out that he taught two classes, and the other one fortunately fit my schedule perfectly. 

   For the first marking period, we are reading The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. I bought this book long ago, but back in China I never had enough time (or interest) to actually finish it. The book was a play based on the witch hunt in Salem in the late seventeenth century. It was written in the 1950s, when McCarthyism was all over the place in America. The author wrote the book to remind the people how similar the situation was to what had happened almost three hundred years ago. I'm taking AP US history at the same time, and I'm learning the Puritans at the history class while reading about them in English class -- a nice coincidence. In the class on Thursday, we were asked to act the play out. I was volunteering for Betty, the girl who had been lying on the bed for most of the part, the "bewitched" kid who was the start of the witch hunt. There were a lot of funny and awkward moments, especially when we were reading the lines out with ancient English exclamation like "gah", and all the students just laughed out so loud that we almost couldn't finish the rest of the lines. But acting out the play, no matter how terrible our acting skills were, helped us understand the texts much better than just reading it. By being assigned to characters in the play, we could start to involve in the conversations and feel their pain, their sorrow, and their anger. Back in China we sometimes acted too, but because there were nearly sixty people in a class, it's impossible to have everyone engaged in the activity. I really look forward to the next English class, and I want to try acting Abigail, the main character of the play who has much more lines than any other characters and is the most manipulative of all. 

   By the way, I auditioned for Spoon River, a play produced by the Hotchkiss Dramatic Association, and I got a part (actually everyone auditioned were cast, which still amuses me a little). Hope my acting experience could be greatly enriched at this school.

2. Physics Lab

   After the physics test, we had our first physics lab. I've done the experiment, the measurement of gravity on Earth, before, but it still amazes me how advanced the American version of the experiment is. Actually, the basic procedure was the same, but back in China, I spent so much time drawing the graph and calculating the numbers by myself, but here students all made use of Excel to draw the graph and analyze the data for them. It took less than 4 minutes to see the results, whereas I used to spend thirty minutes trying to perfect the curve and the graph. I was very unfamiliar with Excel, so Peter, my physics lab partner, was doing all the computing work. It seemed to me that American students were much more dependent on modern technology: they used calculators to do everything, and they used laptop or other softwares to do the rest of the analysis (or they outsource them to China and India!). I still do not know if it's a good thing or not: if the physics experiments were designed to test the students' ability in analyzing the data and coming to a right conclusion, I'd prefer Chinese way of doing it; but if they were designed to connect students with modern Physics and technology, the American way clearly works better. However, since I'm currently at an American school, I obviously need to quickly adjust to the American way of doing things, which means I need to learn more about Excel and the use of laptops and many more. 

3. Cross Country

   My mom, the first time hearing me choosing cross country as my fall sports, was surprised and couldn't understand why I didn't choose field hockey or other sports that were unavailable in China. There were two reasons why I chose it: First, cross country only has a varsity and a junior varsity, while other sports all have a third team. This means that no matter how terrible you are in cross country, you can at least end up being a JV player. Second, cross country is thought to be a hard sport (it really is), and it is very popular among the admission officers in college. So in fact there is really just one reason: cross country is good for college application. But it turned out that this really is the least important reason why I'm doing cross country. 

   For the first work out, the coaches clearly wanted to cut some people off the team (we had almost 100 people came on the first day), so we had to run the whole course. I had been a huge slacker for the entire summer, and after two miles I was already dying. So I didn't go for the third mile, but even if I hadn't finished the entire course, my body still hurt so much the second day. I thought about quitting and joining the soccer team, but even the Third soccer players seemed very professional, so I was easily scared off and kept with the cross country. 

   It's only been a little more than a week, but my legs were way stronger than they were. Yesterday I finished the 5 kilometers course at Hotchkiss, which was extremely hilly and considered to be one of the hardest course in New England, but I didn't feel any pain today. I wrote an email to my coach yesterday telling him that I was so happy to have finished 5k without stopping for the first time of my life, and to have stayed on the team. He responded quickly, and I was so touched by his email. The email reads:

"Dear Zoe,

You SHOULD be very proud of the effort you made today!  It is not an easy thing to push yourself for so long, and to keep pushing yourself.  It is a very difficult challenge indeed, and you let the strong side of your mind defeat the not-so-strong side that keeps whispering, "Stop....."

You are a beautiful runner, with excellent form and very strong legs.  I hope that as you continue to challenge yourself, you will gain the stamina to help you run faster and faster over longer and longer distances.  You will be AMAZED by your improvement if you keep working hard.

I am happy that you belong to our team.  I admire your effort, and I thank you for your very VERY thoughtful note.  I believe in you even more than you believe in yourself.

Your fan,

Mr. B"

Hopefully I could soon get on the varsity team (I'm always in the awkward position between the fast people and the slow people). And what else can I say? I love this sport. 

   Yesterday night I had an amazing time watching a magic show and hanging out with my friends afterwards. The two-day weekends were super chill, especially when I had finished all of my homework. Tonight I need to study for my art history quiz tomorrow, I hope it turns out fun. 

   Peace out.