Tuesday, September 9, 2008

Die Party ist aus.

Can someone who knows German please do my homework for me? That's right guys. German class. My teacher kept making sympathetic faces at me once she learned I don't speak Turkish or German. At least she wasn't upset that I didn't do any of the class work she assigned.

So here was today's schedule:
1. German
2. Turkish
3. Geometry
4. Literature
5. Recess
6. Geometry
7. Lunch
8. Trigonometry
9. English
10. History

So I told you about German.. Let's see. Turkish. Didn't get anything. The teacher was asking the class what they learned last year. Geometry. Took notes. In Turkish. Mostly I drew the diagrams because he read his notes out and I could not write a word of what he said. Literature- another handout, I just followed along as my classmates read outloud. No idea what it was about. Recess... A random 25 minute break. I went outside. As if the 10 minutes in between each class isn't enough.. And we don't even have to move rooms. You just sit there. Or I do. Everyone else rushes into the hallway and talks really, really loudly until the teachers herd them back into their rooms. Then more geometry. Then lunch in the dinning room, same as yesterday. Then trig. And I knew some of the stuff he was teaching, despite it being in Turkish. Go me. We were learning about the CAST rule thing. Although in Turkish they don't call it that.. Obviously. Then English with a different teacher. His name is Mr. Wright and he's from Colerado.

Then, during the break following that class I asked Mr. Wright how to say please in Turkish and pulled out my notebook of Turkish words I should probably know and wrote it down (lütfen) and some of my classmates saw and started adding to it and correcting my spelling and having me repeat words and by the time my history teacher came in half the class was crowded around my desk (the other half having noticed him and sat down). Then the history teacher asked what was going on and I heard a chorus of Maeghan blah blah blah Canada blah blah Türkçe bilmiyor (getting used to hearing that- the class tells all my teachers). And so my history teacher didn't give me a handout and said I didn't have to do his class or something? And then the girl who sits beside me, Dilan, spent the entire class adding to my vocabulary list and getting me to say stuff and every now and then someone else would add something and at one point the whole class was saying things like su, soda, coka-cola... I was like- I know what Coke is, thanks. And then another girl who reminds me of Ange passed notes to me.. in front of the history teacher, who didn't care! And was asking me things like, where did you learn Spanish (they saw my spanish-turkish comparisons in my notebook) and stuff like that. And at one point she had written "omg." And I was like- Does that mean what I think it means? Does she know what it means? Anyways. The girls who sit around me seem to have sort of adopted me.

I have started to compare people to people back home.. Like the girl who reminds me of Ange. Or the kid who is definitely a Dallas. Or the teacher who's like Miss Lorenz. Or the Janine in the hallway. Or the girl who looks like Leirin. The Linda sitting beside me. It's wierd. And then there's that guy who isn't in my class but has a habit of wandering into my classroom during break (to talk to the Dallas-like kid) who has an uncanny resemblance to Chad Michael Murray. Odd, I know, but whenever I see him I think 'A Cinderella Story'. Of course this kid is Turkish, so they aren't twins or anything, but the face shape and hair are the same. I actually started laughing when I figured out who he looked like. Crazy Canadian kid giggling to herself alone in a classroom. That's right. You wish you were that cool.

-Maeghan

15 comments:

Paul Jerry said...

Sounds like day 2 was a bit better. How was the Rotary meeting?

Dad

Paul Jerry said...

You're on your way Princess.
Sounds like the Turkish people are amazingly welcoming and helpful.
Mom

laura said...

I wish that was MY schedule!!! In English, though. I think if I was in your situation, I would want to crawl into a hole and die. You, however happen to be amazing. Really, really, really amazing.

By the way, that is SO funny about that Dallas-looking guy and the guys who comes to talk to him, because that sounds like Dallas and Kyle! Not like I want to make think about that or anything, but you know.

And it is so weird to think that people in Turkey look like people here! I can't imagine that!

And also, how long are your classes?! If you have a 25 minute recess, lunch AND ten minute breaks in between, that pretty much takes up the whole day doesn't it? And you have about four times as many classes as we do...

Sorry for making such a long comment... You don't have to read it all. But I guess if you're here already you would have read it. Or maybe not. I don't know. Sorry.

Linda said...

Haha, I would offer to help you with the German...but uh, looking at my previous comments...on the other hand my parents know Germany vaguely (they studied at university there) so perhaps they may know some things...

Haha I love the half-class chorus of sentence in Turkish...and the 3 words understood from it xD Well I'm glad you've found some people to adopt you (heh..friendly people anyways.)

Eek..Dallas. Well at least there's no calls of "Jerry" right? (Is that what he calls you? I don't remember...with him and Kyle it's always something that involves the last name...) I'm interested in the Turkish Linda. I'm sure she doesn't suffer from such horrible ADD and spill out all of the distractedness and garbled German onto your blog comments.

That's the movie I thought of when you said Chad Michael Murray!

You are definitely the coolest one there and don't those others wish they were you. Go Maeghan!

Rowan said...

Awe Maeghan, you should feel love.
And the Chad Michael Murray thing is kind of adorable.

You're teachers make me a little angry though... Then again, so does my typing.

Kathleen said...

Ah ha ha ha! I am glad you're having a better time!

Maeghan said...

Today was even better! All my teachers were like "You aren't required to do this." and so I didn't get any homework or worksheets or handouts and just studied my Turkish all day. And people randomly say hi to me and stuff. AND during breaks people stop by and add to my vocabulary list just randomly.

My history teacher (through a student translator) was asking me all these questions today about what I thought about Turkey and how my Turkish was coming and what I thought about Turkish people. For the last one I said bilmiyorum (I don't know) and so he said that I should expect to be asked that next week. So I asked for the words for "loud, but nice."

The students are soo loud. During break I can't hear the girl beside me.

No one calls me Jerry, but all my teachers call me Elizabeth until I correct them. I'm sure everyone wonders why I tell them to call me Maeghan because a teacher has yet to read my first name when taking attendance.

Lastly, the Rotary meeting was good. I met another exchange student, from now on reffered to as Illinois. Guess where he's from! And the speaker was Ghandi's granddaughter, I believe...

After the meeting we asked Aslı about our allowance (she had told us to remind her) and she says "Oh yes!" and pulls out a roll of money and hands us each a 100 YTL bill. I was like.. woah. Cash? So now I need to go to the bank.

Maeghan said...

Oh! And so now that I have two US friends and call them by their state, they call me Alberta..

This leads to singing "Her name is Alberta, she lives in Vancouver.." You know how it goes.

Jayden said...

Hey. Are you sitting right beside anyone in class? Here, I do, and I just copy their notes. It really helps cause then i can get use to the dutch spelling and stuff, and its a reference for later when you can understand it.

Kathleen said...

OH MY GOSH!! GANDHI'S GRANDDAUGHTER?!?!?!?

Linda said...

that's awesome that people are so nice!

Ghandi's granddaughter? Wow, that's awesome.

So soon I'll be off to Alberta! ... I mean Vancouver! haha...yeah.

Maeghan said...

Exactly. And now it gets stuck in my head all the time.

Linda said...

haha very nice.
another thing sockpuppet maeghan can't do--sing along to Avenue Q with me...althoug I will imagine it. I'm crazy enough to be able to do that..

Maeghan said...

Lol. Well puppets do fit with the Avenue Q thing.

Linda said...

true!