Barbed Wire

So Mattie moved houses today. It was sad. After breakfast (we ate chocolate cake!) we dropped her off at her councellor's apartment building and that was it. Then we went to my school and exchanged my uniform for things that actually fit and I chose a stream. Did I explain how this works already? There are two streams that you can choose from when you start your Tenth Year (as they call it). One is the Science stream where you take biology, chemistry, physics, math, and Turkish; the other stream is Literature where you take Turkish, English, German, math, history, and geography. I chose the second stream, for the Turkish and history. German is going to be a gong show. Can you imagine? I won't know a word they're saying in either language. I think they said I could join another class during that time and learn more English or Turkish. As much as I'd like to learn German (having been presented the oppertunity) I don't think I could handle it. Oh! And they asked me if I needed grades for this year or not. As in, do you need marks or do we not have to worry about it? I said I do not need any marks this year (because I can't transfer credits anyways.. grr) and they told me that in that case I didn't need to bother to write the end of year exams but that I could if I wanted to. No exams! Woot!

So then on the way out someone pointed out that my school has a pool! And we walked across some nice outdoor games courts into another building and low and behold- a full pool! Hooray! This is very, very exciting. Also, my school had brochures. I grabbed one on my way out as well.

After the stop at the school, we visited Melek's brother. He lives in what is essentially a condo on the Asian side of İstanbul. He has two sons who are adorable, and the older one tried on his school uniform to show Günar and Melek. So cute. If I could have I would have told him that he would be melting the young ladies' hearts in Canada, but I don't speak Turkish. And maybe 8 year old girls' hearts don't melt at the sight of little boys in blazers, sweater vests, and ties... But anyways. We brought icecream to their house, and I had some pretty delicious icecream. Turkish icecream is apparently thicker than Canadian icecream (or at least the stuff I'm used to) and so when you try to take a spoonful, it (now this is hard to describe) stretches (?) like cheese does when you take a piece of pizza. Does that make sense? Anyways, it threw me for about one spoonful, but after that it was just delicious dairy product. My host family buys whole milk, so I haven't had my four glasses a day in a week and a half.

On our way home we picked up tights (that's right, the uniform requires tights) and what is now my key to the apartment. Then I had to move all of my things to Mattie's room where I now reside. And that's where it's at. Oh yeah! The fence around the perimeter of my school is topped with barbed wire and there's a security guard and a gate to get in. Exciting. Expect a blog tomorrow. If I don't get lost on the way home...

-Maeghan