Visit to the East Coast - Connecticut and New York

With the help of my American friends, I have also been able to organize some schools visits outside the Midwest, which is providing me with wonderful opportunities to learn more about the U.S. education system. Last week I had the privilege to fly all the way to the East Coast and visit a few high schools for my project there. I was able to visit two private boarding schools in Connecticut, one of which is one of the most elite and competitive boarding schools in the whole country, and also two public schools in New York City.

Connecticut and the other New England states on the East Coast are famous for their highly respected private schools. Since we don't have private boarding schools in Finland, it was very interesting for me to get to visit these schools and to learn more. The tuition fee at both boarding schools I visited is around 60,000 US dollars per year. It's a staggering amount, but knowing that, it is easier to understand the amazing resources such schools offer their students. At both of these boarding schools there are only about 10 students per class, which means students often get more personal instruction than at most regular schools. The schools have their own campuses with incredible facilities on beautiful locations. Both schools also offer very specific classes, anything from ornithology (study of birds) to architecture.

It was clear right away that the teachers are really dedicated to their work, they live on campus and therefore practically work 24/7. They have evening shifts at the dorms, they often help their students with their homework, they teach classes even on Saturdays and have other duties on many Sundays. It is definitely a way of life both for the students and for the teachers. As my friend who works there said, they really do "eat, live, and breathe" the school. There was a great sense of community and think living at a boarding school must feel like being on an ongoing camp! Just a minority of Americans go to private schools, obviously because of the extremely high costs, but these schools are often seen as alternatives for American and also international students who are looking for more individual instruction, very specific high level classes, and who can afford to pay for that. 

On a different note, Connecticut is also famous for the beautiful coloured leaves on its hills in the fall, people travel there to admire them. I also admired the pretty white wooden New England houses you could see everywhere. I happened to be there at the perfect time!

It was also very exciting to get to visit two public schools in New York City. The United States is often described as the melting pot of different cultures and this is very vividly seen in NYC. The schools I visited there have lots of students with an immigrant background. Since the student population is so diverse and most of the students are so called English language learners, the teachers work hard to differentiate instruction based on their students’ native languages and skills. The students seemed to love their teachers and hang around at school even after classes. Since living in a new country isn’t always easy, the teachers put a lot of effort in making everyone feel welcome and they really were lovely. This was not my first visit to New York, but I had never seen everyday life at schools in such a big city before. It was really exciting and also reminded me of how diverse the United States really is.

The United States has, of course, a long history of immigration and all Americans have a story of their ancestors and their different roots. I've noticed that people here, especially those of European descent, might still identify themselves as Greek, German, Norwegian, for example, even though they are all American and their families have lived here for decades or even centuries. The roots still stay with them. I had a couple of days to explore exciting New York City after my school visits and I also visited the Immigration Museum on Ellis Island. I had a personal interest in seeing that place since also a great number of my relatives travelled to the United States as immigrants in the 1800s, many of them stayed here, some came back to Finland years later. Even my great-grandmother was born in the U.S. Walking around in the building where many immigrants had waited for their official entry to the new country, I couldn't help but think, how much courage it has taken to leave everything familiar, spend weeks on a ship across the Atlantic, and enter a country you knew hardly anything about and where people spoke a different language. Even though times have changed, the world has become smaller, and travelling a lot easier, there are still many courageous people leaving their home countries today, some of their own will, but many because they are forced to do so. Schools play a key role in helping young immigrants feel at home in their new countries. 
 

During the week I also walked around visiting all the major sights in New York and was once again amazed by the size of the city. It's something you just have to experience yourself!

Travelling around the Midwest

During the last couple of months we have done different trips around the Midwest. The Indiana University has organized various visits, mostly school visits, for the whole group and at the same time we have had the chance to see different places in the states of Indiana, Ohio and Illinois. Here are just some examples of the places we've got to see over the past few weeks.

Indianapolis is the beautiful capital of Indiana and also the biggest city closest to Bloomington. So far I have had the chance to visit a couple of schools close to the city. As a group we also learned about the history of the American Indians by visiting the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indian and Western Art. Even though there are not many native Americans living in this state anymore, the name Indiana still refers to the "Land of Indians".

After visiting a couple of schools in Columbus, Indiana, we also stopped by a lovely old cafe, Zaharakos Ice Cream Parlor, which is also a museum at the same time. Such a pretty place!

A couple of weeks ago Indiana University organized a visit for us to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, which presents the cruel reality of slavery in the past. The so called Underground Railroad was a network of secret safe houses used by enslaved people trying to escape to freedom by crossing the Ohio River.

A couple of weeks ago we also got the chance to visit a school and spend a few days in one of my favorite U.S. cities, the biggest city here in the Midwest, Chicago! I had visited Chicago some years ago and I was excited to go there again. This time it was literally the Windy City, since the weather is now slowly getting colder, but it was still as gorgeous as ever. We went on an Architecture River Tour, visited the America's tallest building, Willis Tower (or Sears Tower as it used to be called), and many more. One of the things I like about Chicago is its amazing location. Lake Michigan never ceases to amaze me, it's like a sea!

 

A few friends of mine and I also visited the Amish country in Montgomery, Indiana, some time ago. It was an interesting experience, like going back in time. We had the chance to have a dinner at an Amish restaurant and also visit their auction where they were selling goats, old items, etc. Attending the auction seemed to be a common pastime for their whole families on a Friday night. 

While driving to visit all these different cities and places, it’s been wonderful to also see more of the countryside, places I would not necessarily have seen as a regular tourist. 

Life in Bloomington, Indiana

Before I left for the U.S. I didn’t know much about Bloomington. I just knew it was a relatively small town somewhere in the middle of the state of Indiana. The city of Bloomington definitely has a small town feel, but at the same time it's also a very lively college town where there are a lot of things going on all the time. For example, it offers many cultural and other events. All the Fulbright teachers here have taken advantage of this and have gone to see different theater plays and concerts. So far I've seen, for example, Mice and Men at the Buskirk-Chumley Theater and the legendary Tony Bennett sing at a concert at the Indiana University Auditorium. The Auditorium is very famous for bringing Broadway productions and world-class singers and other artists to Indiana. Indiana University Jacobs School of Music is considered one of the top music schools in the country and it also offers many performances, even from opera to ballet. Since we've been here, we have also had the chance to experience two festivals, an Arts and Crafts festival and the Lotus Music Festival. Even though the Indiana University campus is in a very central role in the city, there is also a downtown area that to me looks like a very typical Midwestern small town in the U.S. It's a nice area to walk around sometimes. Looking at some of the buildings there, I feel like I'm in a modern version of a Western film I remember seeing as a child.

It has also become clear to me that sports play a big role in American university towns. It is the football season now which means there’s a football game every Saturday, and the teams of different universities play against each other. My international friends and I went to experience this very American event one Saturday. It’s common for people to go tailgating before the game, which basically means barbecuing on the parking lots at the stadium before the game. We were invited to the School of Education tailgate. The actual game was a four-hour event and it was much more than just watching people play football. Music was played by the marching band every few minutes, cheerleaders were dancing, different videos and advertisements were shown on the big screen, and of course there were fireworks. And not to mention, lots of people in their red Indiana shirts. That is the uniform of most college students here! It was a fun one time experience even though most of us had no idea what was happening in the game itself. It didn't matter since the games seem to be big social events and it was interesting to see what it was all about. I’ve heard that many good players are given scholarships to go to American universities since this is also a way for the universities to make money when people go and watch the games. It's big business.

Besides, studying, working on our projects, visiting schools, travelling and enjoying what Bloomingon has to offer, it's also been very interesting just to live basic everyday life here. I guess what makes living abroad always so fascinating is that even everyday things like going to the grocery store can be an interesting experience. You don't find as many stores in the downtown area here as you would in many European towns and cities. For a Finn who is used to finding for example grocery stores here and there and very close to you, travelling a bit further away to do your shopping has been something I have had to adjust to here. It’s not very typical for a smaller American town to have public transportation since basically everyone has a car, but here in Bloomington we are lucky to have at least some local busses that run pretty regularly.

Since we are 17 teachers from nine different countries from all over the world and we all live as close neighbors, this has been a wonderful opportunity to learn from each other as well. We've spent a lot of time together, we’ve had potlucks with international dishes, etc. Sharing this Fulbright experience with all these wonderful people has been the best part of living here.