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Most of the students come by bus. These buses are big and yellow and there is room for about 50 students. But some lines are totally overcrowded. There can easily be more than 60 students in a bus. You don't have to pay anything for the ride. Schoolbuses are free. From 11th grade on, when students have turned 16, many of them drive to school with their own car. There is a big parking lot next to the school. School starts at 7.55. At that time you have to be in your homeroom. This "period" lasts 10 minutes. In the homeroom you are told the latest news about e.g. sports, how the schoolteams played , which trips you can participate in. Class matters are also talked about! Sometimes there is an extended homeroom, which lasts 30 minutes. Up to lunch time all the following periods are shortened then. This always happens at the beginning of the schoolyear. After the homeroom your first actual period starts. Every day you've got the same schedule, except for the few special subjects. The students have lunch at school. The first lunch period is the 4th period. That means that the first group of students have lunch at 10.30. *funny* .The last lunch period is the 7th period. Students are allotted to the four lunch periods, so that none of them is really overcrowded. School ends at 2.30 pm after 10 periods. If you want to catch the bus after school you have to hurry up. They leave about 5 minutes after school has ended. Many students stay at school to participate in some sports activities like football, soccer, fieldhockey, cross country, golf, basketball, tennis.
Or they just go to the weight room. Others leave school directly for work. Many students have a job. Practice normally ends at 5.00 pm. There is a bus called activity-bus which takes all the students back to their busstops, homes or towns. The bus covers a very long distance. If you can get off at the beginning of the line you are lucky. The last students arrive back home at only around 6.45 pm. Many parents pick up their children, as they don't want them to get back home so late. A lot of homework has to be done after school. I guess it takes an average of about two hours a day.
All in all, the American schoolday is very long and exhausting with a strict discipline and lots of rules.
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