Oo! A foreigner! (And a super long entry!)

Hey guys, guess what! Blogger is unbocked! Hooray! I haven't been on the computer since Friday night, so I have lots to say. Bare with me. It really is long. But I added pictures as incentives to read.

After class on Sunday Mattie and Carley and I decided that we wanted to see the new James Bond movie. So we did. (That's one thing I love about being here. We just sort of get together and someone says they want to do something, so we do. No long term plans that maybe we can all get together on this day a week from now, it's just like- Sweet, let's go.) We walked to Kanyon, a mall beside Metrocity. Also, somewhere beside these two HUGE malls is another one, but I've never been. Why you need three huge malls in a row I have no idea. But whatever. Kanyon was really cool because it's partially outdoors. Note the picture (yes, my hair is blowing in the wind)->
That is me looking extremely touristy. Like I said, we just decide that we feel like doing stuff and go, so I hadn't been planning to actually go out like that. But anyways, I'll continue my story.

The theater was sweet. Way fancy, and multiple floors. You choose where in the theater you want to sit when you buy your tickets. We were in D 13-15. The theater itself was huge. I've never seen a bigger screen in my life. And the seats reclined. And there was an intermission! We were in the middle of some intense action (actually, there was never a point in the movie where there wasn't action...) and it just stopped. We were quite confused. Anyways, there was an intermission. And the first James Bond movie I ever saw I saw in a theater in Turkey. Epic.

Monday was like a rememberance day for Atatürk, who died however many years ago on November the 10th. We held this ceremony in the morning and a whole bunch of students layed flowers in front of his picture. I have never heard them sing the nation anthem louder or with more pride. It was great. Emily came home with me after school because my host mom was driving us both to the busses to Ankara.

Rotary took all the exchange students as well as hundreds of kids from schools all over the city to the capital to see the Atatürk Masoleum and parliament buildings. We got on the busses at midnight and drove to Ankara over night. We were required to wear our school uniforms and Rotary jackets.

They divided us onto three busses and the girls sitting behind Eve and I on the bus talked to us (in Turkish) until around 3:30 am when we finally said we should sleep now and talk later. Half an hour later the bus stopped for a bathroom break that lasted for ever. All the busses stopped and everyone got out to stretch. It was probably about -5 degrees outside, which meant that almost all the exchange students thought it was really cold. John from Florida had on several sweaters and a scarf and was freezing. I had on my school skirt and a hoodie and was like, "Hmm, it's a little chilly, eh?" Insert about a dozen Canadian jokes here.

All the students wanted to meet us exchange students and take pictures with us and know where we were from and what school we go to and which team we support and what we think of Turkey and if we speak Turkish. It was crazy. One minute one of them would be asking you your name, and the next there would be a mob of twenty of them surrounding you, content to just listen and stare. And of course when we got back on the bus there was no end to the talking. They were disappointed when I didn't understand them. I wanted to be like- "I'm a teenager, it's 4.30 am, and you're talking to me in a foreign language- can you blame me?" It was kind of cute though.

<- Taken after the crowds thinned and I was able to dig my camera out in relative peace. Note the number of students still standing there snapping photos? There are more to the left and behind me.

We arrived.. gosh. I can't remember what time we arrived in Ankara. But we did arrive. And the first stop was the New Parliament building. Not hugely exciting, although very grand. They have orange chairs. And there is no picture of Atatürk in the room, because he requested it be that way. It's probably the only public room in all of Turkey without a picture of him. He didn't want it to affect the decisions made in there. Interesting. There is a quote of his on the wall though, something about democracy.

Then it was on to the Masoleum. It was quite interresting. There is a museum attached, and it was in there that I read that he was actually burried and that the big chunk of marble (or whatever it was) that we had taken a picture by earlier didn't actually contain him. He had recieved a traditional burrial somewhere on the premisis. I also saw random things like his shaving set and some of his clothes. It's amazing how much these people love him and how much he did for the country. It's quite inspiring to see their devotion.

The entire time we were there kids would approach us in groups and want photos. It got the the point where by the end of the day Mattie and I just sat on the step and when someone came towards us with a camera we just motioned for them to sit in between us. It was getting annoying to be so interresting. I pity celebs. I would go nuts.

This photo is of a bunch of us on the walkway that leads to the Masoleum-y part. From left to right- Amanda, California; Emily, Colorado; Carley, Kansas; Eduardo, Mexico; Erick, Mexico; Eve, Australia; John, Florida; Fernanda, Brazil; Valerio, Brazil; Jimena, Mexico; and Blase, Michigan.

We ate lunch near the busses and then headed to the old parliament buildings, but by this point I was absolutely exhausted. Everything looked like museum stuff, and the kids were still talking to me in Turkish. It was a relief to get on the bus and go home. They played Spiderman 3 on the bus, dubbed in Turkish, which made it somehow exciting. I realized just how pathetic Peter Parker really is. The ride home took for every, and I couldn't quite get to sleep.

We stopped around 10 because the bus we were on was going directly to the kids school, not the location our parents had been told to pick us up at. So the five of us on our bus waited about 20 minutes for another bus to come. This one was full of Rotarians. This meant that I was half an hour late in arriving, and I was getting a ride home with Emily's family. I felt terrible for keeping them waiting, but they weren't too concerned. In fact, on the way home, they offered for me to stay the night, which I accepted because I live in a different municipality than them and didn't want them to have to drive further than necessary.

Unfortunately, this also meant that we had to go to school the next day. Rotary was expecting us to, but I wasn't planning on it, considdering that by the time we crawled into bed, I had been up for 41 hours straight, almost all of them spent conversing in Turkish (although at school on Monday, it wasn't too bad). I got to go to school in the same clothes I had worn all week and without having brushed my teeth since Monday night.

Needless to say, Emily and I spent all day in the library, first sleeping on encyclopedias, then reading said encyclopedias. I also read a book of short stories by Edgar Allen Poe. Creepy guy. He seems obsessed with building people into walls. It was as I was reading a story about a guy hearing screams as he read about hearing screams that I heard screams. (Gee that was confusing to put into words) There was some announcement on the intercom and it was followed by screams. Emily and I couldn't tell if they were from excitement or fright. It was really eirie too, because everything echoes down the halls because there is no carpet and nothing on the walls. It's all tiles. We got really nervous, but no one else in the library paid it any attention.

<- Emily, Mattie, and I. You can see our breath!

When I got home my host grandmother Güner was waiting for me and gave me a big hug and a kiss on each cheek. It was so great to be back. I didn't know how to say anything more complicated, so I just said "Aah. Evim." My home. And she was really really happy. She was asking me if I thought of this as home, and if I liked it here. She kissed me again and called me "canım" (a term of endearment) before she walked away happily to fix me tea like every day after school. Later when my host mom got home she told her what I had said.

This weekend I'm thinking of doing absolutely nothing. It'd be a nice break. Although I know that I'll probably end up in Taksim or Kadiköy or who-knows-where just because everyone else will want to do stuff. Sorry for writing soo much. I'll leave you now to go on with your life. If this took you as long to read as it took me to write, you must be feeling exhausted.

-Maeghan

PS. I don't think I've emphasized just how obsessed those kids were. Just know it was ridiculous.