Chapter+3

Chapter 3 I had been in my new school for one month. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the hamburgers were a better choice than the fish tacos in the cafeteria. I liked most of my classes except for chorus. I really don’t like to sing. I would much rather be in the gymnasium playing basketball than singing Do Re Mi. I made a few friends with some boys in my math and science class. We have similar schedules, so we get to see each other a lot and hang out at lunch time. At my old school everyone looked like me: white, jeans, sneakers and a polo shirt or sweater. Here I am seeing all kinds of people- Asian, African-American, Hispanic, Middle Eastern. You name it I have seen them all! This is really different than what I am use to. Most of my new friends are white, but we also like to hang out with some African-American kids during lunch. Everyone here seems pretty cool and accepting of me, but there are some kids I wonder about.

Before I came to New York my parents talked to me about 9/11. They said New Yorkers are even more sensitive to this than we are to this subject. They said I would probably meet people who had friends or family members that died in the Twin Towers. Some kids maybe even have a parent who died. I asked them what caused 9/11 and they both turned to each other with a look of confusion. My dad finally spoke up and tried to explain who the terrorists are and why they did this. He said it was Muslims. Having lived in an area where I rarely saw a person I would call Middle Eastern this seemed pretty interesting to me. At that point I knew I wanted to find out more. My science class had about twenty-five students in it. There were probably five white kids, four Asian kids, seven African American kids, five Middle Eastern kids and four Hispanic kids. I had never been in a classroom like this before. Part of me thought it was cool to see all of these different people. The other part of me was curious to see if they were just like me or not. I knew we looked different and some talked differently, but were all these things true that I had heard about Middle Eastern people? Did they all hate me and want to kill me? Should I talk to them? Will my parents be mad if I do or will I be turning on my country? As it turns out my lab partner that I was assigned to was one of the Middle Eastern students. Her name was Aasmaa. For our first assignment we had to play a game where we go to know each other better. We each had to list five things we thought the other person liked to do or participated in at school and then compare our answers to what we really liked to do. She guessed that I liked to play video games, soccer, basketball, paint, and listen to music. I guessed that she liked to sing, draw, go shopping, hang out with friends, and pray. I figured this is just a game, so I might as well take a guess! When she read my answers I told her she got four out of five correct. I do not like painting! You will never catch me doing artwork outside of art class! When I read her answers her face brightened up and then quickly turned to a look of sadness. I thought to myself uh-oh now what did I do. She asked “pray?” “Why did you say pray?” I responded to her, “I thought all Middle Eastern people like to pray a lot. Isn’t religion a big part of your life?” At that point the bell rang and she said, “You are right and you are also wrong in some ways. Tomorrow during lunch I want to show you something”. I figured ok, now I’m in trouble. I might as well talk to her since I’m stuck with her the rest of the year in science class!