Q: What does your average school day and schedule look like?
Saichirag Basima: We start at 8:30 and we have four periods. They’re 18 minutes long and we have a break after the first period and then advisory after the second. Then lunch after the third so we end at 3:30. Except for Wednesdays it ends at 2:30.
Q: What is your homework like and how long do you spend completing it?
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: Both of us are IB students so we get quite a lot of homework and projects. If you want to stay ahead of the game, I’d say like two hours, three hours.
Q: What’s the grading system you follow at your school?
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: It’s out of seven. So for IB it’s out of seven and then we also have AP and that’s out of five. We don’t use letter grading and we also don’t use a 100 scale. For us, seven is like 95% and up.
Q: What differences have you noticed between your school and Dominion?
Saichirag Basima: The scheduling is quite interesting how you guys only have two different schedules. For us we have week A so Monday is a different schedule. It gives us a variety. Unlike here it’s the same thing every other day.
Q: What aspects in Dominion would you like to see in your school? Are there aspects of your school you think Dominion should adopt?
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: I’d say the expansiveness of Dominion. I feel like the hallways and everything is very nicely decorated and the murals on the wall. We do have that, but not as much. You have a school shop, which is really cool. [I] actually bought a sweater. The whole [displays] with for example, Black History Month. Your library is also very, very nice. Ours tends to be a bit cramped. And something I think you could adopt from our school is maybe the lunch schedule, because for us, 9th and 10th graders have lunch together and then 11th and 12th graders, but you guys do it weirdly with like, A, B, C lunch.
Q: What has been your favorite part so far about coming to America?
Saichirag Basima: I enjoyed yesterday. We went to the People’s House, which is like a replica of the White House, and there was lots of information. I also enjoyed going to the Capitol. We got to see the Senate vote for stuff. It was interesting.
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: I also really enjoyed the Capitol. I thought it was very interesting, especially seeing the executive branch. Normally you only see that in the TV shows, so it’s cool to see it in real life. I also thought our Tuesday trip was very cool [to] the African American History Museum and some free time in Georgetown to explore.
Q: What have you noticed about America that has surprised you?
Saichirag Basima: The suburban ness of. It’s not very walkable, at least in our area.
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: Also the kind of culture of not eating, but, like, you just go to Chick-Fil-A or Dunkin before school. We don’t really do that.
Q: Is there anything else you guys would like to share about your trip or something about London?
Victoria Haas-Eberhard: If this trip would happen next year again, I would strongly encourage people to go because I think it’s a lot of fun and it’s kind of living that high school musical life. I just think it’s interesting because our school is American, but it’s not as American as your school. Just immersing in that culture and hanging out with people the same age, I thought that was really cool.
