School and My Struggle

School

On Monday, my school lessons started. I attend Symbiosis College, which is located near my host mother's language school. The school program is different. The school covers grades 11 to 13, and there are various subject focuses, with school hours running from 11:30 AM to 5:00 PM. Each subject is taught once a day for 45 minutes. (11:30 to 12:15 History, 12:15 to 1:00 English, and so on).

There is a single break from 2:30 PM to 2:45 PM, lasting 15 minutes. However, that's not even the strangest part. Each class (there are 5 classes in the 11th grade) has its own room. Sometimes, the room is just swapped (I have no idea why), and sometimes no teacher shows up at all. You simply sit in the classroom and wait for the teacher. If any communication happens, it’s done via WhatsApp. The structure of the lessons is also different. Students have books for their respective subjects where they highlight the important content. Grades in Indian schools are given as percentages and are based solely on class tests (no other participation counted). For these tests, the pages relevant to the topic have to be memorized. And when I say memorized, I mean every single word must be recalled. The teacher specifies exactly what will be on the test. Students get a study break for the tests from October 10th to October 18th. This means I don’t have school for now.

Bookstore

I went to a modern and large bookstore with my host brother. Among the biographies of famous personalities, there was simply