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!

Here's the scoop..

Merhaba again! Okay well, I thought I'd explain why going to Turkey has been a miracle. This whole passion for traveling started when I was 14. I had the opportunity to travel to England and Italy with my soccer team, and I absolutely loved it! I knew I wanted to travel all over. Then this past summer I traveled to England and Spain with my soccer team again. I had, what they call, the "travel bug" - I just couldn't get enough. When my friend went to Norway for two months, I was beyond jealous. Well I was jealous from the start with her because she had traveled EVERYWHERE! Sometimes I don't think she realizes how lucky she is, but if it wasn't for her I probably wouldn't have understood the functioning of AFS. I have been a part of AFS International Club at my school, and hosted a student from Bolivia my Sophomore year. I had always wanted to study abroad through AFS but at the time I couldn't imagine leaving high school and all my activities. Well my friend was going to Italy for a semester through AFS, and I realized I could go abroad without missing an entire year! (My thoughts on that have changed since then, but its okay). I finally realized that my love for traveling would be worth leaving my small town behind, and I immediately asked my parents. No was the first answer I recall. I guess I didn't blame them for saying no because I was really rushing into the whole thing, and ignoring the super expensive price tag. But I wasn't going to give up. I continuously pestered my parents and explained how I could apply for scholarships - but even scholarships wouldn't support me much with the expenses. I started to believe that it was hopeless and that I would never go abroad. I even looked at volunteering opportunities in Africa which were much cheaper - but that was out of the question too. Originally I wanted to go to Austria, South Africa, or New Zealand. Those were available for the semester programs, but the year programs had much more appealing countries to me, such as the Netherlands and Turkey. Above all I wanted to go to Turkey, but it was only offered for the year which wouldn't be possible. Well, just as I was beginning to give up, my AFS counselor at my school gave me the best news of my life. She informed me of a program called NSLI-Y (National Security Language Initiative for Youth) program that offered full scholarships to the countries of Turkey, China, Russia, Korea, Tajikistan, India, and Egypt. They also had the options of going for a summer, semester, or year! It was perfect because I could go to Turkey for the fall semester like I had originally wanted - and it would be paid for! The difference with this program is that it focusing on learning and becoming a skilled speaker of the language. I knew that if I was going to live in Turkey for some time, I'd want to be able to speak the language very well! Okay well all of this seems perfect and amazing - but the catch was this: thousands of people apply for these scholarships, and there were only 600 slots for all the programs. Only 5 slots for the Turkey fall semester..ugh. So basically after I applied, in December, I had to wait to find out if I was a semi-finalist. In January I found out I was a semi-finalist which made me so happy, but I knew there was a strong chance I wouldn't get it. I waited and waited until April when we would find out..but each day of the month continued to drag on and on. I checked other online forums and saw that people were getting accepted to certain programs while others were not. I was so nervous and finally came to the conclusion that I was going to get rejected. Well, one day after school I was sitting in the hallway listening to Turkish music and decided to check my e-mail. I was so nervous when I saw the NSLI-Y notification e-mail that I was shaking, but I opened it..and I got the scholarship!!! I was so happy/shocked/amazed that I started sobbing - but that's just because I'm a super emotional person in general. So basically it was a miracle, and I've been the happiest person ever since. That's how this whole thing started and now I will be "pursuing" my dream. Okay so I feel like this entire post was super corny and way too long. I didn't really plan on having people read it, but if you were curious about how I got to this point, there ya go. Güle güle! - which means, "Be on your way with a smile" :)

First Post!

Merhaba! That means "Hello" in Turkish! I'm not very good at this whole 'blogging' thing, I must admit. Perhaps I should get better considering I will be using it quite a bit. I want to keep a good account of my adventures! I depart sometime in late August for Turkey - my exact whereabouts are still unknown. I'm hoping for either Istanbul, Bursa, or Antayla. I wish I was going for a year. My parents would only allow me to go for a fall semester considering it will be my Senior year in high school and it would have been too much absence right before college. I guess I'm not such a horrible child after all. I bet once I'm gone they won't want me back..and that's okay with me because I know I'm going to love Turkey. Coming home will be the last thing on my mind! I just recently got a summer job which will be nice. It will keep my mind off the anticipation of leaving. I also just went to an AFS orientation which was loads of fun! However, it only made me become even more anxious. Although I have to say that going abroad to Turkey has been a miracle. I will tell you why eventually, but not right now because its 12:00am and I'm awfully sleepy. Yes, its a Friday night so I'm allowed to stay up this late. I'm not typically a nighthawk, but I believe weekends are valuable in time - best make use of them! So I shall say good-night to the blogging world! Or as they would say in Turkish "iyi geceler" :)