Sequoia union high school is very, very different from Queen Victoria or Epsom Grammar. I was not prepared for the hundreds and hundreds of boys and girls pushing through the halls and running up and down the stairs. But I recovered from the shock and am now liking everything about Sequoia—or at least nearly everything. Because I had already taken the required subjects, I was allowed to choose most. There are many after-school activities. I managed to make one of the tennis teams. There is a very select group called the Treble Clef. Girls with very good voices are supposed to be the only ones eligible. This year about forty girls were tried out. I was chosen and this is how it happened. The music used for sight-reading was called “My Country, 'tis of Thee,” but the music is the same as “God save the Queen.” Now I am a member of the Treble Clef. All members wear a tiny gold pin shaped like a Clef. I have joined

COVER GIRL: Miss Tuhingia Barclay, the Russell girl who was the first Maori to win an American Field Scholarship, is our cover girl for this issue. She wrote the article published here about her experiences in an American High School. She is due back in New Zealand in August. Above: Miss Barclay with her hostess in Redwood City. (Both photos: Reginald McGovern, Redwood City.)

the church choir and although the service is a little different, the music is familiar. We use the same anthem book as we used at St Mary's Cathedral Church, Auckland.

I am busy preparing speeches now. Next week I am to speak to a women's club and the following week to two men's clubs. A Rotary luncheon is also very close. I also speak during assemblies to different groups of students. A remark I hear is: “Say, we sure like your accent!” Everything is fun and I am very happy.

There are dozens of clubs (drama, world affairs, stamps, etc., etc.) and organised sports (swimming, tennis, hockey, fotball are the main ones). Girls are not expected to take part in inter-school sports. The boys do all that while the girls are expected to cheer their heroes, cry when their team loses and rejoice when the team wins. Most of the inter-school games are played at night, and so Friday night during the football season is quite a night! I usually go to the games with a group of other senior girls, an hour before the game starts to find seats in a good position and to watch the school bands. The suporters from both schools sit in assigned sections. Everyone wears a white shirt or sweater and clutches a pom-pom—a bundle of narrow strips of crepe paper in the school colours, attached to a stick. The cheer leaders stand facing the rooting section and they lead the cheers assisted by about six girls called pom-pom girls. The pom-pom girls are dressed alike. Our pom-pom girls wear purple pinafore frocks, full-skirted over white sweaters—purple and white are Sequoia's colours—and they carry large pom-poms which they wave in unison.

I can't tell you anything about the football game because I don't understand it. The football players wear long-sleeved shirts, long slacks, helmets, and a lot of other paraphernalia. I miss the bare legs of the New Zealand Rugby players. At half time the bands perform–and I mean perform. They make patterns on the field, execute dance steps as well as play music. Everyone enjoys a football game but the fun really begins after the game.

Unlike in many of the schools in the eastern U.S.A., pedal-pushers and matador pants are taboo in the schools here. But that still leaves the students many garments to choose from. Some of the girls wear straight skirts, sweaters, saddle shoes and sox turned right down over the back of the shoes; others take advantage of the pretty cottons that are very cheap and very nice. However, a full-skirted cotton frock cannot be worn without a crinoline petticoat or hoop, and I have seen three girls wearing crinoline petticoats form a barricade in a hall at Sequoia and hold up a crowd of students. However, at Sequoia, it is the male member of the species that has the brighter plumage. I hope to have coloured slides to show you when I come home. The rainbow looks faded compared with a bunch of Sequoia boys. You might see a husky American youth dressed in a baby pink shirt and matching, yes,

I said matching corduroy slacks, or a boy driving a canary yellow car dressed in the same colour.

As I am the first American Field Scholarship foreign student Redwood City has had, I am on a fuss and am kept very busy visiting people. San Francisco, about twenty-eight miles away, is a fascinating city. There is Chinatown (the largest Chinese City out of China); Fishermen's Wharf where the small fishing boats unload their hauls of fish and where bait for the tourist in the guise of shell ornaments and toys is offered outside restaurants which sell wonderful fish and other sea foods; the crazy little cable cars which rattle up the steep streets and screech down the other side with the pasengers clutching the rails, the conductor, each other, anything; the Golden Gate Bridge, and most important of all—Blums. Of all the great stores in San Francisco, Blums is my favourite—here is sold all the gooey, rich, unwholesome, fattening, wonderful food that I love.

I am having a wonderful time. Everyone is so kind and so willing to show me their part of America. I have been taken on picnics, motor trips, hikes, and have been into homes and really made to feel one of the family. This is a wonderful land.