What I've Been Up To

Today makes 2 weeks since İ've been in my home in the US, and boy, has it been a busy 2 weeks. Also, İ'd like to apologize in advance for any errors in my spelling or puncuation. I'm hardly into my exchange and İ can already feel my English slipping. That, and Turkish keyboards are really weird.

To sum everything up:

On September 2nd, my parents and İ went to Minneapolis and stayed in a hotel. At around 7 in the morning on the 3rd, İ got on a plane to New York City. Once İ got to New York, İ made my way from the JFK airport to the hotel that the Pre-Departure Orientation (PDO) was held at. İ loved PDO; we got tons of useful information and meeting other exchangers was incredible. 

September 4th was the (first) big day. PDO finished up and we all got ready to take our international flights to our host countries. I, along with other exchange students going to Turkey, were lucky. We only had to wait until 2 pm to leave the hotel. Students going to Portugal and a few other countries didn't leave the hotel until around 7 or 8 pm. 

There are 17 students from the US in Turkey right now; 2 (myself and another girl) on the regular AFS program. The other 15 are here on NSLİ-Y or YES Abroad, which are two scholarship programs. The 17 of us, along with our chaperone, waited at JFK for around 3 hours until our plane left.

The plane ride. Was. LONG. İ couldn't sleep, so to say İ was tired when we landed in Paris at 1 am my time is an understatement. However, we had no time to rest. Not even 10 minutes after we made it through security and got to our gate, we were boarding a plane to İstanbul. While we were at the airport in France, we ran into two students from France who were also making their way to İstanbul. So that was fun.

İ couldn't sleep on the 2 1/2 hour plane ride to İstanbul either. Yay for being sleep deprived! When we landed in İstanbul, we collected our luggage, met AFS-Turkey volunteers, and waited for a shuttlebus to take us to the hotel where our next orientation, or Survival Camp, was held. While we waited, most of us exchanged some of our money for Turkish liras. 

Survival camp was a blast. When we got there, us exchange students got our room keys and gaggled together at a table, drinking Turkish coffee (kahve) or Turkish tea (çay). We also played a few games while we waited for the rest of the students to get to Survival Camp. Once everyone got there, we had some orientation stuff, then FİNALLY we got to go to bed around 11 pm, or 3 pm my time.

The following day, September 6th, we did mostly orientation stuff, but we also had a talent show of sorts in the evening, where we did things that we thought portrayed our home countries. Most of the students played a song and taught us a traditional dance to go with it. The other normal AFS student and İ sang "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train since a "traditional" American dream is to become a famous singer. Everyone made us promise to sing again at the next camp in October.

On the 7th, we all gathered our few belongings and got ready to go to our host cities. Most of us flew, but a few students went by bus, and the students staying in İstanbul just stood by and watched. İ think they later got a bus somewhere to meet their host families. 

Honestly, İ was scared out of my mind. We had a late start getting to the airport, so we had to rush to get through security and to our gates on time. Going to Antalya was just one of the French students and myself, and waiting at our gate was intense since neither of us knew what anyone was saying. İ thought we were going to miss our flight. Fortunately we didn't and both too soon and not soon enough, we were on our way to Antalya. 

About an hour later, our plane touched down in Antalya, and we collected our bags and made our way out of the airport where AFS volunteers were waiting. Right away the other student was whisked away with his family, but my family got stuck in traffic so İ had to wait a few minutes.

When my family got there, we hugged, kissed each other's cheeks, and made our way to a mall to eat and shop before going home. At home, İ unpacked and just hung out with my family. İt was great.

İ've spent my time just hanging out at home or going out with either my brother or sister. We've watched all 3 Lord of the Rings movies (never again), Fight Club, and Captain America in the time that İ've been here, which makes more movies that İ've watched all summer. From the evening on the 11th to late afternoon on the 14th, İ was in a village about two hours away from Antalya. The village is where my brother and sister's dad used to live. The heat during the day was ungodly, and at night it was super cold, much colder than a summer/early fall night in Minnesota. We left the village on the 14th, visited Annem's parents, then we went home. 

Monday the 15th, school started for everyone except for most of us exchange students. AFS-Turkey is having trouble getting pur residence permits or something, which means that we can get registered for school. 

Last night my sister and her friend, who was staying with us for the past week or so, left to go back to university. Today, İ repacked my stuff (which took less that 20 minutes. Perks of being an exchange student) and went with my brother to meet hıs girlfriend and girl friend, and later his other friend showed up. İ ended up straying off seaside with the other friend, who speaks English really well. The friend and İ ended up meeting Annem at her work before going to our respective homes. Once İ got home, dinner was made, we ate, we sat at the table (my stomach still hurts from laughing. İt's nearly impossible to teach Turkish speakers the "th" sound), and İ finished packing. Now İ'm sitting at my cousin's house, using on of their laptops to type this. Tomorrow, my family and İ will move into our new apartment.

Everything so far has been going just swimmingly, and İ couldn't have asked for a better host family. Hopefully everything continues to go well!

Gürüşürüz!

-Anika