Ankara - AFS/NSLI Trip #1

I just returned from Ankara (a second time). The purpose of the trip was for us NSLI-Y students to have a security briefing, sightsee, and go over some orientation we missed due to our mishaps in traveling on the way here. It was really exciting because I hadn't seen the four other NSLI-Y students living in Samsun since we had arrived in Turkey. We went to the top of Ankara Castle  and took a bunch of awesome pictures of Ankara. After that, we went to the archaeological museum which I didn't know we were going to. I was soooooooo excited/happy to see it. My love for archaeology grew even more and it's just so fascinating. We also went to Ankara's biggest mall. The girls and I shopped around, but because it was so big I didn't really get anything. We had about two hours, yet it flew by and I ummm sort of got lost.. :( I found this really interesting French store (they had a sweatshirt that had sushi on it!) but the other girls wanted to go somewhere else. So I said I'd meet them at the entrance...well, I went to the wrong entrance. But it was okay cause I was right near the correct entrance and I found them/they found me. I was a little scared, that was a BIG mall. Anyway, we have fun. The next day we went to the U.S. Embassy and had our security briefing by foreign service officers from the U.S. It was really interesting - Turkey's level of terrorist threat is: HIGH. However, as long as we use common sense we will be fine. We went to memorial of where Atatürk is buried. It was really beautiful and incredibly interesting to see. Gosh, we did so much in a short amount of time! We also visited the head of TOMER language school, and got t-shirts and bags! Later that night we got caught in a thunder storm. It was the most intense one I had ever seen/heard. We ran in the rain for a little while which was super fun, and then settled down at this cafe. And fun stuff occurred :) The last day we were there, we had orientation at the AFS office and chilled. It was really sad saying good-bye to the Samsun students when we were in the airport. We are all super close, and the next time I'll see them is in November I think :/ Here are some photos from the trip. Also, I included photos of the school uniform. Yes, I went to school for one day and it was really funny. I'll tell more details later :)

First day of school :)

HAHAHA

Epic photo taking of my fellow NSLI-yers <3

View of Ankara

Lunch!

Atatürk's Memorial

LOVE

SÜMELA MONESTARY

Today we went to the Sumela Monestary which is located in the mountain region of Trabzon. It was SOOOO beautiful, it really was. It's incredible because it was built into the rocks of the mountain, which seemed impossible during the time period when it was built considering their lack of technology. It was obvious that many people died while trying to build it, but it was their service to God and if they died, it was for a good reason. Very sad - they were so dedicated to their religion. Before we walked the pathway up to the Monestary, we had some çay and talked in a small cafe. My host families cousins, aunt, and their uncle joined us. It was really nice to get some fresh air too since I've been in the city. It reminded me of Maine a lot! I told my host family that I wanted to build a house up there. They just laughed. I think that might be kind of difficult, but its worth dreaming. It was very misty/cloudy which they were disappointed about, but I still thought it was beautiful. Perhaps we will go back again on a nicer day. Tomorrow is the first day of school; however, I am unable to attend classes. Apparently my registration forms are running late. I will still go with my sisters and watch their opening "assembly" thing, and perhaps still wear my uniform for fun :) I have language class at four that day and I need time to pack anyway. Yes, pack...becauseeeeeeeee I am going back to ANKARA! So this is another reason why I'm missing school all week. All the AFS-Turkey students are meeting in Ankara for a security debriefing and some touring around. I'm really excited to see my buddies who have been in Samsun! We leave early Tuesday morning and I'll return sometime Friday. I think it will be a lot of fun, and it will also give my sisters some time to adjust into their school schedule. As for me, I'll be anxiously awaiting for the following Monday. I will be focusing on Science and Math (oh noooo!) even though I wanted to focus on Literature. At least I will be in my sister (Ecren's) class - so she can help me :) I will post again either tomorrow or when I return from my trip! (I know everyone is dying to see a picture of me in my uniform...dad;)) hosçakal! 

uçak

CAPPADOCIA

I just returned from my tour in Cappadocia, and it was absolutely amazing. Although everyone on the tour was Turkish, and spoke only Turkish (except for my host family), I was the interesting "American" haha. We all had to introduce ourselves since we would be getting very close over the course of the trip. I was able to introduce myself in Turkish, which was funny! But yeah, it was a good start to a 12 hour bus ride to Ankara. We visited many different sites, all with historical value or religious meaning. It was really interesting and beautiful, the countryside was breathtaking. Despite how much I wanted to sleep, I couldn't stop looking out the window. Once we arrived in Cappadocia, I was beyond amazed! People lived in the caves and had schools, churches, dining rooms, living quarters, etc. It was weird to think those people did that. We also visited the underground city which was really cool. Although the tour was entirely in Turkish, and they all kept cracking jokes because I couldn't understand anything, one of my tour guides knew some English and was able to translate some things for me! My sisters also helped too which I was very grateful for :) I got to see how turkish carpets are made, dishware, jewlery, and so forth. On the last night we went to "Turkish Night" which was a bunch of cultural dancing such as Whirling Dervishes, Folk Dance - Horon, etc. A bellydancer, haha, and various other things. It was soooooooo fun to watch!! At the end, everyone went out on the dance floor, including myself, and had a dance party to some sweet tunes. It was awesome, really. Then we continued the dancing on the bus and stopped on the side of the road and began to dance. I danced Kolbasti and that was really fun :) They also made me sing for them on the bus, and at the end of the trip when we said what we enjoyed, I spoke in English while my sister translated. Apparently they all "loved" me and I was really glad to have left a good "American" impression, especially since the USA beat Turkey in the basketball world cup that same night (it's a big deal here) :P So much happened and I wish I could explain more, but I would be talking forever. I guess I can just say that everyone should come to Turkey. Period.

turkiye rocks...literally

i love my sisters!

countryside

turkish, english, german, spanish, french, and japanese!

turkish night!

Süper!

I love it here. I mean, I really love it. Today I met with Şerofettin (my liason/afs guide) and the other AFS-Turkey semester students to go over some orientation we missed due to our delayed travels. It was pretty funny, he taught us some swear words (Şero, I hope you’re reading this ;) haha) but yeah, it was good. Then after my sisters and the other AFS students (Victor & Slyvan) and their host siblings went to the Trabzon city centre for pizza! Everyone knows my love for tuna fish…well, they make pizza here with tuna! Yeah, my dreams came true haha. It was SO good! I also enjoyed my orange fanta :) My sisters tried to have me order the pizza myself, and, well, hah, that was interesting. Turkish is sooooooooo hard, but I will have language class everyday for three hours so I should get much better. After lunch we went “shopping”. Let’s just say I love all the stores/clothing. It’s going to be hard trying to save my money here…I want everything! It was really great and we went to my host father’s cosmetics shop and then his new restaurant across the street! I was so amazed. We will go back again I think sometime soon which will be nice because now I have lots of Turkish Lira :) After that we took the dolmuş (small little bus that is basically a taxi but for multiple people) back to our home, except we accidently got on the wrong one hehe. So we ended up walking for a bit, but that was okay because I love the city! We ate dinner again at my host father’s restaurant and then went for a walk. At the playground we swung on these cool swing thingys and talked a lot! I love my sisters!!! I’m so glad they know English too or else I’d be in big trouble ;) okay well...güle güle!

Awww Slyvan! 

Pizza..with Tuna! :)

She is so cute! ecesu - çok tatlı :)

This has been quite the journey...

NOTE: so I wrote all of this before I got to Trabzon. Now I’m happily there with my amazing host family and I’m soooo soooo happy and I love it here so much, but I’ve had quite the journey trying to get there…


Sometimes I love traveling. I love the “getting there” part - the “in-between”; not so much. After arriving in New York for orientation (which was very exciting!) I felt like the long journey was off to a good start…however, it has ended up to be quite a disaster.


Orientation lasted from Tuesday afternoon till Thursday evening. The NSLI-Y kids had orientation for an extra day compared to the Spain, France, Austria, South Africa, and Switzerland AFS students who arrived the next. As for NSLI-Y participants, it was Turkey and Egypt. We all bonded and had a lot of fun! By the end though, my group going to Turkey (10 students all together from the entire USA) was the last group to head to the airport…which was somewhat frustrating, but hey, it was fine. Or so I thought.


Our first flight from New York to Washington, D.C. went fine - but once we landed in D.C., we had a delay that kept continuing to get put off more and more. Our connecting flight from D.C. to Germany was very tight but we all figured we would be fine and make it. Well, once we landed we had probably 5-10 mins to get to our gate. We all SPRINTED about a mile and a half, carrying heavy bags and all, to find out we had missed our flight to Germany by four minutes. Yes, four minutes. Despite us all being incredibly sweaty, tired, and pissed off (or at least I was) - there was nothing we could do. We ended up staying the night at a hotel and planned to tour D.C. the next day, considering the only available flight next to Germany was at 10pm the following evening.


Touring D.C. was not fun. It was hot, and we were all still very tired - but excited to know we would be on our way to Turkey soon. The flight to Germany went very well, and much faster than I thought. We had our flight to Turkey about an hour after we landed. I was so excited...SO excited...to know that we would finally arrive in Turkey within three hours and start on the orientation we missed there. Well, come to find out, the flight we were SUPPOSE to be on is entirely booked. So here I am, stuck in Frankfurt, Germany, pre-writing this blog considering I can’t connect to internet and our flight to Turkey isn’t until 10pm tonight. And hopefully nothing goes wrong with that. But to top it all off, all our luggage isn’t even here. So it’s probably lost somewhere in Europe…who knows. I can’t believe airlines do this to people. Honestly, I know worse things can happen, but this is the most frustrating thing for me right now. All I want to do is be in Turkey, happily. Also, I’m assuming we have flights tomorrow (Sunday) to our host families. But considering we’ve missed all our orientation in Istanbul and now won’t be getting there until 2am, are we even having orientation? Or are we delayed getting to our host families? I have no clue. Despite all the negative aspects of getting to Turkey so far, I love my group. We are all very close and trying to make the best of the situation - but all I can think about is the other AFS groups already in their host countries, and how we are the only group who hasn’t made it yet. WHY!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Gosh, really, my love for Turkey is just killing me. Things should have just gone smoothly. Turkey better be as kick-ass as I expect it to be or else I’m going to flip shit..just kidding, I know it will be incredible. I guess all this shitty, stupid miserable stuff happens for a reason. So this post is really long, and during a lot of it I have been venting. But I assure you the next post shall be much more positive (I hope!). Other than that, I’m attempting to listen to Turkish people speak in the airport and figuring out what I’m going to do for the next 9 hours of waiting. Wonderful. At least I’d rather be in Europe than anywhere else…

Stuck in Germany.. :(

Our added detour/adventure

My adventure begins..

Well, this is it! My (rather long) journey begins! FINALLY! Tomorrow I leave my house at about 7:30am to the Bangor Airport...from there I'll be flying into Laguardia, New York. It's going to be SOOO exciting, but very sad at the same time. My mother is planning to sit with me in the waiting area until I board the plane. I know she's going to break-down, and how hard this will be for her and my dad. I keep telling them that it will go by so fast, and they'll have to get used to it anyway when I go to college. Anyway, I'm not looking forward to that part at all. Once I'm on the plane I'll be able to take a deep breath, listen to my iPod, and relax. I just have to make sure I get on the right shuttle once I land and meet up with the AFS people. Luckily I won't be alone again in the rest of my travels, which is quite a relief. From the airport I'll be heading to our hotel for our 2 1/2 days of orientation. I'm quite excited to meet the rest of the Turkey participants who I've been connecting with through Facebook and whatnot. I can't say I'm too thrilled about the orientation aspect, as a lot of it I'm sure I've already covered. I understand its an important part of making sure I'm a well-informed AFS/NSLI participant, so I'll just have to hold my excitement for Turkey a little longer..ughhh. Thursday evening I'm off to Turkey! I'll probably be flipping out..eeeeeeeeek! The flight will probably be super fun, but long. I've been abroad before so I know how the overseas flights work - I'll try to sleep through a lot of it. Early Friday morning I'll land in Istanbul. I'll think to myself "I'M IN TURKIYEEE! OH GOODNESS!". I'll need to be pinched I think. Or slapped..haha. Orientation in Istanbul for a couple days should be SUPER DUPER fun! I'm so anxious for that! On Sunday I'll be flying to Trabzon to meet my host family and get settled. That will be the most exciting thing :) On september 9th, Ecren, Ecmel, and my host mother are taking me on a tour to Cappadocia! 
---> Kapadokya Turu!
 http://www.gundonumutour.com.tr/mainlistdetay.asp?id=735 
I'm hoping we'll get to go in a hot air balloon to get a better view of the land. It's in Ankara - Turkey's capital. It's going to be SO MUCH FUN! School doesn't start until September 20th so I'll have some time to get adjusted before the heavy workload. Well, I apologize for this post being so long. It will be the last time I post for awhile. I'm planning to keep internet usage at a minimum so that I can put more into this experience. I'll still be in touch, but if you're curious about my experience here is the place to look - there will also be many pictures on Facebook I'm assuming. Okay, well enough rambling. Thanks again everyone and sorry for all the hype it's been for the past few months. I've been waiting for this since last July - and now it's finally here. Veda herkes! Seni özleyeceğim! :)

I will change..and I'm okay with that.

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!