The Orientation Weekend

So I'm quite a ways behind on my blog. I'll be telling you what's been happening in stages. Welcome to stage 1- The orientation weekend.

So even though I didn't have to go to school on Friday, I still had to get up bright and early. Melek drove me to some place in Beşiktaş where I met up with all of the other exchange students living on the European side. We got on a bus and drove to the Asian side and picked up the rest of 'em there. Then the bus took us all to some 'resort hotel' just outside of İstanbul where we were staying for the weekend. We got assigned rooms, ate some lunch, and then the meetings began. I can't tell you exactly what was said the first day, it's combined with the second in my mind. I do recall that we all introduced ourselves and talked a little about how our stay had been so far.

Saturday morning was all about the rules. No drinking, driving, dating, or drugs. Go to school or else. School is a huge priority here and they gave us the "This is not a year-long holiday" speech that I got in Canada before I left. I won't lie- school is boring. But I still enjoy being there and seeing my classmates (litereally seeing. I don't talk very much here. Contain your disbelief- it's true). My chem teacher still hasn't figured out that I don't speak Turkish. Heh.

Anyways, after the rules we played some games. "My name is Maeghan and I like apples." During the free time we had (in between sessions and meal time and before bed) everyone got to know each other and I love our group. We are pretty much awesome. On Saturday night Garet and Mattie and I went swimming in the hotel's pool after convincing half a dozen adults that we would not get a cold from going swimming.

On Sunday we packed up and set off for a tour of some famous sites in İstanbul. We saw the Blue Mosque, the Topkapi Pallace, the Ayisofia, and the underground cistern. It was quite the day. I suprisingly don't have a lot to say about it. The Blue Mosque is no longer completely blue inside, although it is still absolutely spectacular. The Topkapi pallace has quite a few interesting exhibits inside and took up most of our day. The Ayisofia is huge and beautiful. The underground cistern is way cool, and has this wishing column thing. I really enjoyed all of the places, but the best part was just spending time with all the other exchange students. Goodness knows I'll see those places again before I come home. My camera was dead, so I don't have any pictures (sorry!).

I have to tell you this. Eve (Australia) and I are the only two exchange students with no one else from our countries in İstanbul. This means that we have to be extra patriotic. When we were in the Ayisofia one of the patterns in one of the chambers had maple leaf-like shapes. I imediately pointed to it and told everyone "Canada's been here!". Lol.

Sunday evening we performed a talent show at my club's meeting. It was a lot of fun. Many people did individual performances, but we also did one big group one. We put together a song, and it included stuff from each of our countries, as well as a few lines from a song by Turkey's 'Megastar' Tarkan. It was pretty excellent. We got two words in and the entire crowd was laughing.

During the weekend, Aslı invited me to join her family, Mattie, and Meara on holiday over Bayram. I agreed and so on Sunday night when I got home I had to pack for the trip because we were leaving the next morning. It turned out that Melek was also moving during Bayram, so I had to pack up ALL of my stuff so that it could be moved. AND because I had wanted to have information about the orientation weekend in my quarterly report I had to finish that up and send it in as well. Crazy night.

So I guess that's it for stage 1. Tune in tomorrow for Stage 2- Bayram.

-Maeghan