I've been thinking a lot. Usually when I'm cleaning fish tanks at work I just have tons of crazy thoughts run through my head. It never stops. One minute I'm thinking about what I'm going to write my college essay about - the next I try to think of Turkish words and quiz myself, but then I usually get interrupted by some people who want to buy fish - which always reminds me of my dead goldfish, Matisyahu, whom I loved so much! See? I get so distracted! Anyway, it doesn't help that my friend is in Turkey right now. She said: "Danielle, you are going to LOVE IT HERE!" So not only am I incredibly jealous that she's there right now having the time of her life, but the fact that I have to wait till the end of August to go just kills me! And there I go again, whinning, when I have no reason to be. It makes me sound ungrateful, and believe me, I am SO grateful! So I think my problem is that I think, but not properly sometimes. That probably doesn't make much sense..but that's okay. (Tamam or Peki is "okay" in Turkish!).

Turkish Mosque - This is where Turkish people go to think, pray, and worship. This might come in handy for me some day.

So the countdown begins..

I hope this will be me sometime in the near future..

Today my friend is leaving for the summer program to Turkey through NSLI-Y. I'm very excited for her and she comes back August 8th - she'll be able to tell me all about Turkey before I leave! Just a few nights ago I went over to her house and had a lovely supper with her family and Silvia from Indonesia! We ate mussles, fresh carrots, amazing Indonesian rice that Silvia made, BAKLAVA, and Middle Eastern pancakes with special syrup and almonds. Let's just say that it was the best dinner I've had in a long time. So then as I was driving back from Blue Hill (after my mom told me to drive safely probably 50 times..and that's not an exaggeration) I was about 3 minutes away from home, with my windows down blasting my music because I think I'm sooo cool (not really, but its fun) when this HUGE moose comes running in front of my car! Luckily I have super fast reflexes due to the vast amount of nintendo gaming I've experienced over the years..much thanks to my brother! So I completely stopped and just stared at the moose who was just standing in front of my car. I thought to myself "The last thing I need to do before I go to Turkey is get killed!" And eventually it ran off into the woods like it didn't threaten my life or anything..Ahh maybe my blog should be named "Summer Adventures" instead..HAH. Okay well I've been trying to find out more information about my upcoming trip, and from what I've heard we aren't going to be living in Ankara or Adana. I've also heard that we will probably be leaving around August 20th because apparently our orientation in New York is August 21st. So with that being said, the countdown till August 20th BEGINS! Also, my Turkish translator/phrasebook just came in the mail! It's wonderful and has handy flashcards too! There are just so many things for me to do between working and applying to colleges (Bryn Mawr!). In ways I want the summer to go by fast so that I can finally be in Turkey, yet I need more time to get everything done! Hopefully everything will work out. inşallah = hopefully - as you can see it has the name "allah" in it (Muslim God). It basically means "If God is willing". I picked that up the other day and thought that was pretty cool. Okay enough talking "konuşma" - here are some lovely pictures:

Turkish Flower = çiçek :)

That's Coral and I! Basically sums up how I feel about going to Turkey!

Ch-check it out! Hayat güzel :)

Guess what!? I'm in my local newspaper! Here's the online version of the article if you wanna take a sneak peek:

http://fenceviewer.com/site/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=36555

I'm not going to lie, whenever I get the chance to talk about Turkey I get so excited! If you want to learn more about Turkey, or visit (which I highly recommend) - here's a great website:

http://www.gototurkey.co.uk/

It basically tells you everything you want to know and justifies my reasoning for why Turkey is so AWESOME! I decided I need to make a list of goals that I wish to accomplish while abroad. Here's my make-shift list for now.
(I will periodically update it when I think of new things to add).

DANIELLE'S LIST OF GOALS WHILE IN TURKEY:

- Eat Baklava (This should not be difficult..)
- Visit Troy, Ephesus, Blue Mosque, Cappadocia
- Obtain Muslim Prayer Beads
- Cook Eggplant Parmesan for my host family (This just screams DANGER!)
- Take a Turkish bath! Apparently they are heavenly
- Say "Seni Seviyorum" to someone and truly mean it

That's it for now. More to come soon. Hoşçakal dünya!

Conflicts?! I think not..

Recently in Turkey there has been a huge conflict between the Turks and Israelis. Apparently a ship containing a vast amount of activists, many of whom were Turkish, entered into Israeli territory. Israel felt threatened and raided the ship. Several people aboard were injured and some were killed. There were at least four Turkish people that were killed. This enraged the Turks and I don't blame them for being so upset. The whole situation in general was unacceptable - but there isn't much that can be done at this point. However, because the United States has been a strong ally to Israel, the Turks are not only upset with them, but the USA. Of course we had nothing to do with what occurred, but this is how the world works sometimes. I was worried that this conflict would prevent my going abroad to Turkey, but apparently the summer people are still going - and by the time I go the whole issue will have cooled down. Besides that, I am getting more and more anxious everyday. I have been trying to learn as much Turkish as possible, but it is quite difficult. I'll get better in time though :) Today I estimated or briefly counted the number of days till mid-August and it seems to be around 60-70 days. That is a long time. But I suppose its much needed because I have to do all my college applications this summer, work as much as possible, and spend some valuable time with my friends. I decided that once abroad, besides updating this blog and Facebook/e-mails occasionally, I want to cut myself from all contact here. The time difference will help with that because when the majority of people back in the US will be online, I'll be dead asleep. And I mean dead - learning a language is exhausting! Well that's the latest for now.

Oh, I almost forget! I have been "officially" accepted by AFS-Turkey. Which means the country have Turkey has granted me permission to be an exchange student in their country. Now I just have to find out about my host family..which could be awhile. But that's okay, I like surprises. Güle güle!