Going Away Festivities!

Yesterday I had my going away party. It was a lot of fun and I was really glad to spend time with my friends one last time for awhile. We played ping-pong, swam in a cold pool, lounged in the hot tub, ate lots of food, and just chilled in general. Also, two other kids on the NSLI-Y program going to Turkey for the year came to the party even though they lived much farther away which was so awesome! I'm glad I got to meet/bond with them even though we'll see each other again in about a week :) So I meant to keep this short only because I hate dealing with good-byes and whatnot. I'm slightly..okay no, I'm a REALLY emotional person in general. I know I'll be back before long enough (if I come back, that is). So basically I'm just glad everything is working out for the best right now. I'm beyond ready for this adventure, and I have been waiting for too long. I plan to post one last time before I leave, but for now I just want to thank everyone again (for the millionth time!) for being so supportive towards my upcoming experience. I truly appreciate it and I'm so thankful to know that people care - it means a lot to me. Anyway, I don't like this sensitive stuff anymore...soooooo HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY! Here are some pics! 

I will miss you all!

Memorable notes ;) 

Hahaha, I love this!

Lucas, Myself, Matt, & Abigail

(Lucas & Abigail are also going to Turkey with me! Matt is going to Australia!)

CAMPFIRE SONGS! just kidding :P 

<3

Pre-party excitement! One week left! 

HOORAY!!!!!!!!

I'M GOING TO TRABZON, TURKIYE!!!!!!!!!!! And guess what!?! I have the best host family ever! I have two lovely parents Nurhayat & Ayhan and three beautiful sisters Ecren, Ecmel, & Ecesu! My host mother, Nurhayat, is an civil engineer and my host father is a mechanical engineer and owns three restaurants and a cosmetics company! Ecren is 16 years old and Ecmel is 14 - we will all be attending high school together and luckily both speak some English which will be really helpful for me when trying to learn Turkish! Ecesu is 5 and she's absolutely adorable! I can't wait to meet them all, they are going to be so perfect :) They live in an apartment flat in the city and it's only three miles away from our high school (Kanuni Anadolu Lisesi). I will be in the same grade as Ecren and she will help me with my studies :) Trabzon is very beautiful and is on the Black Sea coast. From Istanbul by bus it's about a days worth of travel...it's way far out in Turkey! But I absolutely love it and I'm really going to enjoy my time there. I just wish I could be there now..September 5th is when I will see them! Çok heyecanlıyım! :)

Nurhayat - Ayhan (with little Ecesu) - Ecren - Ecmel

Such a beautiful family :)

Trabzon City! 

It's so beautiful! 

I love my sisters! Can't wait to meet them :)

TRAVEL INFO!

Finally got one of the e-mails I've been awaiting for quite some time..I am officially flying to New York on August 31st. Orientation will occur there until September 2nd and then later that evening I will start my long journey of flying to Istanbul, Turkiye! I won't return to the US until February 12th - however I want to try and stay longer if possible (but that's another story). They said we would be hearing about our host families within the next few weeks so I'm quite anxious. I have an official day count: 43. Still so much to do in preparation! Everything finally seems to be falling into place and I'm truly thrilled. Although I've been having an amazing summer with my friends and I'm so lucky to be enjoying the time here before I leave. It's making the time go by much faster! Acele et Türkiye! Ben endişe ediyorum! (Hurry up Turkiye! I'm anxious!) Here are some summer pictures prior to my departure:

I'm so happy!
(Cadillac Mountain)

I'm sure the ice cream in Turkiye will be much better..but this was pretty scrumptious

Beautiful Maine - I will miss..but only a little :)

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!