Gertraud Holub: NOTES FROM AMERICA "Hello dear, I am so glad to meet you and I sure Hope you will be very happy at St. Catherine's" said the principal, a rather big nun, when 1 first came up to see the scfaool 1 was to atteiid for the following ten months. As a matter of fact, 1 was very happy at St. Catherine's, whidi is one of the High-Schools in Ventura, a city near Los Angeles. Although at first it was not always easy to adjust to all the different aspects of American sdiools, Pat Oheso, my eldest host-sister, helped me in every way, and soon 1 feit quite at home. As everybody eise 1 could choose some subjects, althoughT had to take one English and one Religion class in Order to be able to graduate at the end of the year. At St. Catherine's classes Start at 8:30 a. m. and last till 3:00 p. m. One has to stay at school all that time, even in free periods, which are calied Study Halls, and even when the teacher is sick and nobody there to watch you. There are seven periods with a 45-min. break at noon and a 30-min. class meeting. The last period of the day is calied Activity Period because it is used for club meetings and sports. There is no school on Saturday and the time table is the same each day. Mine was like follows: 8:30 — 9:00 Class meeting. Here we discussed activities, school dances that were Coming up, all the responsibilities we had, and there was time to ask any qestions concerning the class. 1^' period Study Hall period Study Hall 3'^'ä period English 4"^ period Speech („Rhetorik") Lunch. We used to eat outside except the few times it was raining (about 3 or 4 times a year). Most students only eat Sandwiches or cakes. There are several automatons in the auditorium of the school with apples, refreshments and candy-bars. 5^^ period Religion 6"" period American History y"' period American Government (the Constitution and the political life of America). Of these, English and Speech were my favorite classes. Sister Mary Helen is the oldest nun at St. Catherine's but in her heart she has stayed young. She is a great poet and has some books of hers published. Once you get to know her you either hate her for her strictness, or you love her, as 1 did, for her graciousness. 1 remember that even though 1 spent much time on my assignments at the beginning 1 got only C's. To get a B in your report card, one had to read at least 10 novels or works of poetry by Ame rican authors and had to know about them. My average in reading was 18 books a quarter, 1 believe. So-called A-students had to read a lot and besides they had to turn in at least one extra-credit work a week. These could be some prose or poetry written by yourself, or written reports on some literature you had read. Last Summer when Sister Mary Helen made a tour throughout Europe, she came to visit me at Salzburg and we spent a happy day. She always teils me in her letters how much she loves Austria and how she admires her people. Speech too was a very interesting subject, although at first I had troubles with my English. Almost every day we had to give short speeches about articles in the paper, stories of human interest and informative talks.
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