Çok Mutluyum! (Very Happy!)

It breaks my heart to know I have to leave this place...it's now been about two months and of course its gone by way too fast. I love it here so much, I'm the happiest I've ever been, and my host family is just so wonderful. My sisters are REAL sisters to me; I can tell them anything and confide in them. I love them and they love me in return. There is no drama at school, or at least very little from what I can see. The culture is really growing on me, and I'm feeling so empowered by it. I guess I can't really describe it, but when I'm walking down the crowded streets by myself, I just feel like I really belong here. When I hear the call to prayer, it's just so beautiful to me every time. I know I'm not Muslim, but I just feel like I have something to believe in - and that's really special. I guess I'm not really sure how to describe my feelings right now, so I'll stop rambling!

Tomorrow is Republic Day (Turkish Holiday/Independence Day) basically! We had a half day of school today so after I went out to lunch with a bunch of my classmates. After that we went to a cafe to play games and then to the cinema to watch a Turkish film- that was interesting..hehe. Then tomorrow we are going to watch some celebratory activities and what not. I think tomorrow night I'm going to watch "Saw 234273096723 (haha)" with my sisters and Hawaiian friend CRISTINA! In celebration of Halloween on Sunday, of course. I made  a little flyer with a pumpkin on it, and I wrote all my classmates names on it- and "Happy Halloween". I'm going to bring it to school along with candy so they can celebrate with me, and learn about this fabulously "sweet" holiday us Americans love:) I have a few trips coming up soon- Ankara on November 15th for another AFS trip. We are going to Cappadocia (second time for me!) and I'm excited to see my other AFSers:) and then I'm going to live with another host family for one week in Samsun, where my other AFS friends are living- so I'll get to experience another Turk family/culture. But luckily it's only a week because I'll miss my host family in Trabzon too much! 

The latest "big" news is that I met Trabzon's mayer! He requested to see us four Americans living here because its the first time Trabzon has had American students come here apparently. So it was really "official" and we had tons of paparazzi which was sort of intimidating, I guess I didn't realize it was going to be THAT official. And we also were in the newspaper! I saved the clip to show my family back home. I guess I never thought in a million years I'd be in a Turkish newspaper. So I'll show a few pictures of that. okay i'm done talking for now. 

Melek <3

The Mayor! (Valli)

Something was really funny... :P

With our host families:)