December
Before I go much further, I will warn everyone that my english is getting
worse, and it is 12 AM currently, because that is when I have time to write
this, so please excuse my bad grammar etc. :)
The one piece of advice I will give to everyone is your exchange will not
be like anyone else, you will probably think yours will at least be like the
other people’s in your country.. but it could be more similar to someone in
a different country considering how much your house location, school, host
family, rotary club, and you effect it. I believe it is 50 percent what you
are given to work with, and 50 percent how you choose to work with what you
are given. Make your exchange what you want it to be. If you want to learn
the language, study the language enough so you can only speak that language,
don’t let people speak with you in English. If you aren’t happy with what
you are doing everyday, find new things to do, you live in an awesome
foreign country. If you don’t want to get fat, only eat what your host
family gives you to eat, and don’t eat other things voluntarily (this helps
save money as well). And altogether when you feel super bummed, depressed,
or bored (I can honestly say I have yet to be super bored), look around and
remember you are in a freaking foreign country and no matter what you are
doing its so awesome!
Since I don’t know have exactly one thing to talk about, because I have
been here for a while, I will just tell a few things that come to my mind
about being here. Enjoy.
My host family was out of town when I first arrived so I had to sleep at
a Rotex’s house my first night. My first night I went out with him and his
friends, and then the next morning I was dropped off on a different
continent (Istanbul is the coolest city ever), at my host aunt’s work, and
shortly after, was on a six hour bus ride to the capital of Turkey, Ankara,
with her. She knew no English and I sadly knew very little Turkish, gotta
love dictionaries. The thoughts that kept going through my head included,
“This is so ******* cool and beautiful, and I am so lucky” and, “Literally
no one on this bus can communicate with me and no one knows exactly where I
am right now, hopefully my aunt is safe *giggles to self*”. That night we
arrived and I met tons only Turkish speaking people, was forced to eat lots
of food (everyone else hadn’t ate all day because of ramadan), and had no
idea which of the people were actually the family I would live with later
hahaha. Later in the night I figured out which family was mine, and we were
off from the major city, Ankara, to a village in Kirsehir, I spent the rest
of the holiday there with extended family. It was overwhelming and I never
knew what was happening, but it was so beautiful and eye opening. I kissed
old people’s hands for candy, watched a chicken be slaughtered, and walked
around mountains while hearing the call to prayer. I will never forget my
first Bayram (Turkish Holiday).
I have been to Anıtkabir twice now, and it is extremely breathtaking.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anıtkabir, if you don’t know what it is, LEARN
:). Atatürk is a fantastic guy, and made this country what it is today.
One day I was wondering around my school campus, (because it is a large
campus on top of a bunch of mountains, including a preschool, middle school,
high school, and university), when I stumbled across a ceramics building. I
ended up going in with my close exchange friend, Fernanda, and now I go at
least once a week. I have developed a great friendship with the old Turkish
man that runs the building. I can come and go as I please. Some days I go
alone and I study Turkish and drink tea with him, which is really good for
me because we only speak in Turkish. Some days I go and make pottery while
meeting University students taking ceramics class. I am so grateful for this
discovery and love my pottery teacher so much. I can honestly say he is a
huge reminder of why this program is so cool, I don’t know how else I could
have had this relationship, and it is so important to me.
We had Turkish classes in a really famous area of Istanbul, where most
night-life and tourists are known for going, Taksim. All the exchange
students in Istanbul had to go every Saturday and Sunday for six weekends. I
can honestly say the entire process made my Turkish worse, but I just think
of it as something I paid for to learn my way around the city. My house is
kind of far out on the Asian side, and to go to Taksim every weekend, I have
multiple options of transportation. I usually include the ferry ride,
because it is so beautiful and relaxing. Also, because my house is kind of
far and my host parents do not let me come home late, I have ended up
staying at at least half of the other exchanger’s houses. This has ended up
being a really good thing for me, because I have seen different kinds of
Turkish life, exchanges, and can get myself around lots of different areas
in Istanbul. I can proudly say I could be dropped off at a random part in
the city and I would be able to get myself home, I might be scared and laugh
at myself a lot, but I could do it. I frequently use minibuses, otobuses,
metrobuses, trens, dolmuses and ferries to get around (okay, an occasionally
taxi, if I’m feeling lazy).
By the way, being foreign and using public transportation makes for the
funniest stories.
Example number 1: My purse kept hitting this lady in the face one time,
while she was sitting down and I was standing up. I tried to move, but it
just kept smacking her in the face. Finally, she asked me in Turkish if I
could please sit my purse down, but because of my Turkish level, I at first
thought she was asking me if I would like to sit down, so I answered no with
a huge smile. Then I replayed it in my head, laughed, and set my purse down.
Example number 2: My real mom in America sent me a package, you think it
would just come to my house, but noooo that would be easy. It was held in
customs a good hour away from my house. My host dad took me in morning
traffic to pick it up, but I was left alone at a random place to get home...
with my package. My host dad thought I knew how to use the metro bus from
there, and I just told him I did, because he was clearly already frustrated
that he had spent so much time driving me for a package probably filled with
peanut butter and tampons, on his work day. I then got lost in the city of
Istanbul for a good three hours.. with my huge box in hands. Public
transportation is crowded, and conducted in Turkish. Throughout this day I
had to set my box on multiple people’s laps and dropped it a few times when
getting off wrong buses I tried to take. Altogether I made it to a familiar
place, just to find that I didn’t have my home key wooooo. I then sat at a
starbucks with my package, an americano, and Christmas music in the
background; feeling pretty accomplished. At a certain point you don’t notice
people staring at you anymore.
Example number 3:One night I was taking a taxi ride home from a close
friend of mine’s house, because it was late and I didn’t know an easy public
transportation route from her house yet. I had never explained to a taxi
driver how to get to my house before, and I only knew how from one landmark.
I got in the taxi, gave him the area and address, and he acted like he knew,
and started driving. We talked a good amount, because he quickly found out I
was foreign and was interested haha. I explained that I was a foreign
exchange student, what I was doing here, and he told me about how he usually
works on the European side and which shopping malls and places I should go
to party hahaha. As we got closer to my residence, he started asking me
questions, in which I would respond “I’m thinkinggggg (in turkish
obviously)”, nervously. This ended up being an extremely humorous time. As I
struggled to direct him with my terrible Turkish, he started chanting “SPEAK
TURKISH CHELSEA”, in the rhythm of England’s Chelsea soccer team’s chant.
Later he stopped at a gas station and bought himself cigarettes and some
chocolate for me, explaining that he couldn’t handle me without a cigarette.
Finally, with 35 liras to pay, I arrived home. The ride was completely worth
35 liras, I had a half hour conversation with an enjoyable guy in Turkish.
And there was no English to rely on, because he didn’t know any. :) Everyone
going on exchange will find out that having English as a first language
sucks, because even the other exchange students from different countries are
learning English well, but we are just getting worse at our own language
from having to use simple English all the time haha. With this being said,
it is definitely still possible to learn the language, in the last month
mine has definitely improved, because I remembered learning a new language
is a huge part of why I am here and have been trying really hard.
Altogether, I have had difficult times here, but almost every difficult
thing came with hilarity and was not impossible to handle. I have learned a
lot about the way languages form culture and personalities, and have
realized so much about my own country and language from experiencing
another. I am so grateful for this opportunity, and am so glad I am in
Istanbul. Talk to you all in another three months. :)
April
24, 2012
I apologize for my lack of journals, you can either blame me or a large
starbucks coffee that was dumped on my computer making it so I do not have a
computer. I am finally got myself to an internet cafe so complete things
like the RYE journal. Although I do repeatedly replay the starbucks coffee
falling on my computer over in slow motion in my head while cringing, it has
brought some things. I am getting more sleep at night time instead of
staying up on my computer , and I am watching more turkish television
downstairs with my Turkish family.
Anyways, considering I am paying for my time spent on this computer, I
will shortly summarize my wonderful last few months spent in Turkey.
December was definitely a landmark in my exchange and just for my life in
general. Although the first month is really wonderful because you are seeing
everything for the first time and kind of starstruck, December was much
better for me. I was completely exhausted constantly, but I had finally
figured out how to completely become independent and was holding
conversations in Turkish. My close exchange friend and I decided to take a
turkish class in a different part of the city after school, so we would take
a bus from school everyday and then go home in the evening. This made us
really start using our turkish more because the class level we got into was
all taught in turkish and most of it was just for talking practice. It was
mostly enjoyable though because we really got to know our way around and
this certain part of the city, and it is definitely where I come now the
most and where I will miss the most. I loved this class so much because it
was made up of probably around ten of us all from different countries and
different age groups, discussing topics in turkish. I learned so much about
different cultures in a language that was so new to me, but I was able to
understand and communicate my point, which is such a rewarding feeling. It
is so much more rewarding than just traveling to a different country and
sight seeing, in my opinion.
I have definitely learned here how much human connection is the reason I
like coming to other countries. Of course it is nice seeing beautiful
places, but being able to learn a different language and really understand
someone's personality through their language is so cool and beautiful, and
it is definitely the reason I will continue to travel.
January and Febuary were more related with exchange fun and Rotary life.
In January I moved houses multiple times, which was interesting but
exhausting and pretty confusing haha, but if I wasn’t already someone that
just goes with the flow, I really am now. I was at one house for only a week
,when Rotary found out I was sleeping on a couch while living with a single
woman and her son was coming home for a university break and the three of us
were going to share a one room apartment. Although that one was a little
confusing (why am I the exchange student getting the super weird house
situations? etc haha), I did get some good turkish practice from late night
chats with the single woman. Honestly, most of my difficulties here have
made for the most interesting learning opportunities. The family I am in now
is so great and I have a really realy good connection with our bakici, which
means looker and is the person that makes the food and watches my little
brother when the parents aren’t home etc. She is one of my favorite people,
I enjoy my time with her so much and will really miss her when I go home. In
the end of January I went on a tour to southern parts of Turkey with Rotary
which was very enjoyable. The weather was really cold, but the places were
still all so beautiful and the time spent with the people was constantly
fun. Turkey is such a beautiful country; honestly, if you are someone who
likes traveling for sightseeing and history, its a really good choice for
you. Pammukkale was the coolest place I have ever been by far. In Febuary I
honestly can’t remember exact details other than I was just going out in the
city a lot with friends. We made one street performer friend from Canada
that was traveling the world this year, and he was here for Febuary, so a
few of my friends and me enjoyed exploring with him and learning about his
travels. I definitely learned how possible it is to travel if you want to
from him. He is on ly 18 and just goes by street performing and meeting
people on the way. If you want to travel, you can.
March and April have been filled with really working on my Turkish and
just exploring the city. It might sound funny to say exploring the city
since I have been here for so long already, but the first few months I
didn’t have complete freedom how I do now, and honestly even if I lived in
Istanbul for nine years, there would be places I hadn’t gone. I have been
taking lots of photos lately now that the weather is finally nice, and
really am just loving life as cheesy as it sounds . I am just thankful to
be here. In about two weeks my family comes here which will be super weird
feeling, but really awesome at the same time. There are so many places I go
or things I do that I think “I wish my sister was here” or “I wish she could
see this”, and now she will be able to see some! After my family leaves we
have another Rotary trip which I am not sure if I am going on yet or not,
then we have a district confernce for a week in another city, an d then in
June I am planning to travel a little bit around Turkey and maybe in Europe
with some friends, and thhhhhhhhhhen I go home :o. Crazy. Although, I will
miss it a lot here, I have a lot to distract me in America, and I am ready
to come back to Turkey without a program and host families, to live on my
own. I’m excited to go to Univeristy next year and become more prepared to
travel and learn more languages etc .Thank you so much for this opportunity
Rotary. |
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