Somehow (oh, somehow!) we've made it to day 6 of Guest Blogger Week. Today's entry comes from Kristine, who came over from Denmark while she was a teenager. I'll let the blog take you from there.

I'm going to tell you a little about my experience at an American high school, back when I was an exchange student in Michigan many years ago. While the concept of screaming cheerleaders and their purpose was a very perplexing one to me, even stranger things that I witnessed was the hierarchical system of The Most Popular, The Class Clown, the Whatever of the Year. It was really all quite vexing, especially coming from a socialist nation where no one is ever nominated as being better than anyone else. My blog entry is not about screaming cheerleaders but, rather, the kind of peculiar silences that would only be noticed by someone un-initiated into American culture. Two examples will suffice:

The first incidence was in Study Hall. My advisor had signed me up for the class and I didn't know what the class was about, but I thought it would be interesting to be taught about learning skills or something of that nature. So I go to class and the class is full. The teacher is sitting at his desk at the front. Silence. Ten minutes go by: still silence. Then twenty, then forty: still silence. I was completely baffled. What kind of class was this where the teacher doesn't teach? Then the bell rang and everybody got up and left.

The second incidence was a dialogue in a classroom before class where two kids in front of me began chatting and I decided to listen in. One of the kids responded to the other by saying, "Yeah, tell me about it!" Then there was that silence again and, slowly, the other kid turned around and started minding her own business. What just happened there? Why didn't she tell him about it? Why was there now silence after a request for more information? So confusing.