High School, a sea of different types of people and faces. With so many unique waves of people, it is difficult for someone to fit in and find their place in the sea, especially if they come for a different ocean.
Skola means school in Slovakia, and going to a new school is always scary for anybody; especially if they are from another country.  Simona Imrichova is a new student at Arvada west High School from Slovakia. She has been in the US for about a month and has been able to see what life is like for American students.
Even though she came from another country she is just another teenager. She goes to school and hangs out with friends on the weekends. Being here she has been able notice a few differences though.
When reflecting on the major differences between school in her country and A-West, one thing came to mind first. “Different classes,” said Imrichova. “Students are similar, but new people.” Since attending A-West, her school life has not really changed very much. “In Slovakia we had four years of high school and exams at the end of each year and for the fourth year you get to choose your classes, so if you wanted to be doctor, you would choose chemistry and biology, and for a business career, you took math and business.” Imrichova’s high school has one big difference from A-West, and it is the only thing she does not like about life here. “I do not like that there are only 7 classes. We had 14, different ones every day. One day it was science and math and the next somthing different. On Friday we had only 45 minute classes so we had 12 of the 14 on those days.” There were a few things she had to get used to. “I think it is similar, but my school in Slovakia is so much smaller, so it was hard for me to learn the layout.”. She has been able to adjust well enough to life here that she fits in with everyone else.
Imrichova’s  weekend life is the same most teenagers her age, ”Last weekend [we were] at [the] stock show, then [we] went with my host mom to her friend’s house. She has two daughters and [the three of us] played wii. And I like shopping, so we went shopping.” Just like other girls, she hangs out with her friends and has fun whenever she can.    Slovakia seems, to an American student, like it is worlds away when in reality it is very similar in society, celebrities, and schools. Even the weather is almost identical. Imrichova was not bothered by the altitude or the weather at all. “Temperature is the same, but here you have one day where it is one degree then seventeen the next day,and in Slovakia we had negative five (forty one degrees fahrenheit) and then negative four (thirty nine point two in farrenheit)  the next. Bigger differences in temperature here, but similar. Weather is the same, but more sunshine here. I really like that.”
Imrichova is only here for a little longer, then she goes back home. “I am here for the semester. I will go home on the sixth of June.” Imrichova is a very friendly person and even though she is from another country, she is just the typical teenage girl trying to get through high school like the rest of the student body.