Amir Yacoub came from Al-Remal, Gaza, to experience a real American high school experience.
“[North] is so huge. It has a big stadium. It has so many classes and activities, and it has awesome teachers,” said Amir Yacoub.
He explained that Gaza and America are very different in every sense.
“We have apartments to live in. Here you have houses and very quiet neighborhoods not like our noisy city. Also the food differs a lot because we don’t eat that much fast food,” Yacoub said.
His life in Gaza was fairly simple and not as different than here.
“It is kind of simple. I live in an apartment, [and] I go to an American School,” Yacoub said.
Yacoub takes Photography and Engineering as electives, but there are some things he finds completely odd.
“The diversity here is so fascinating, but [there are] weird things here. For example, we used to measure temperature in Celsius not in Fahrenheit. That I can’t get used to. Also, the measuring system here is so different. We use metric system; you use inches and feet [and] that I never studied,” said Yacoub.
Yacoub misses his family and friends and will be returning to Gaza in June of next year, but he has been liking Grayslake a lot.
“The hamburgers here [are] the best. Also the school is so huge compared to the one I used to go to in Gaza,” Yacoub said.
Yacoub frequently hangs out with his friends on Thursdays because for students in Gaza, Friday and Saturday is their weekend.
“My sister graduated last year leaving the house, so in some sense, [he’s] filling in the cracks,” said Amir Kherzai, Yacoub’s host.
Kherzai has been enjoying Yacoub’s stay with him and is excited to experience new memories with him.
“[My] favorite memory is probably telling him what waffles were,” Kherzai said.