On Request

Day Four... The uber-expensive museum visit, a sea of greenhouses (not for cold but for hail..) , and Mattie and I swimming in the Turkish Dead Sea (not THE Dead Sea).









Day Three... Mattie and the Dr. Seus tree, John and St. Nick himself, a gorgeous tiled floor, the (drowsy?) chaperone, the Brazilians (also can't leave the house without a flag or three hundred), a telephone booth, and more islands.








Day Two... a waterfall, me as a cactus, some sa-weet columns (yeah.. I didn't think they were that exciting either), the Mexicans who can't leave the house without their flags, a couple of crazy techies admiring the backstage, and some beautifully blue water.







Day one (from the last to the first.. I'm too lazy to rearrange).. the Necropolis, the Girl from Kansas, Crazy Canadian and Abla (Mattie), the God Light, Two Polar Bears and a Floridian

Photos.

I'm lazy..
Mid-trip update.

Me, Mattie, and Carly being a statue in Pamukkale

Sooooo this would be me in Aspestos Theater. Soon afterwards I codirected a small play that had the Korean tourists giving us a standing ovation.

Soo! This would be me and the Brazilian who starred in the play. Isn't she adorable? I wish I was Latina.

Sooo more when I have a stable internet connection.. Just thought I'd wet your appetite!

Loooove yooooouuuuu!
Maeghan

Travel Itenary

So.. Here's what I'll be up to for the next 9 days:

25th January: Istanbul – Pamukkale
Drive to Pamukkale.

26th January: Pamukkale - Antalya
After breakfast, swimming possibilities in Hot Springpool at the Hotel.
Leaving the Hotel to visit the city, Plutonium, Theatre, Bath and Gymnasium.

27th January: Antalya
Full day excursion to Perge- Aspendos , before leaving visit the Old Harbour of Antalya and then continue to the Acropolis of Perge, drive to the City of Aspendos to visit the Agora, The Basilica Fountains, and the Theatre.

28th January: Antalya - Kaş
Drive to Demre where Father Christmas was born , visit the Church of St. Nicholas. Drive to continue to Kekova for a boat tour.

29th January: Kaş - Fethiye
Departure from the hotel, visit Xanthos, later drive to continue to Fethiye, arrival early in the afternoon and visit the Dead Sea. (you can bet that I will be swimming!)

30th January: Fethiye - Bodrum
Tour of Dalyan by boat. Afternoon arrival in Bodrum visit the castle of Bodrum and Yacht Harbour.

31st January: Bodrum – Kuşadası - Izmir
Visit Didyma and then continue to Ephesus Tour visiting the ruins of Ephesus, and The Museum, Virgin Mary. Afternoon drive to Izmir.

01st February: Izmir - Çanakkale
Pergamon Tour, visiting Acropol, Asclepion, Theatre, The Agora and Ancient City of Pergamon.

02nd February ; Çanakkale - Istanbul
The Troy tour, and then crossing Dardanelles by ferryboat and drive to Istanbul Gallipoli to visit the trenches from World War I during the Canakkale War between Turk’s and Anzacs and Allied Powers.

Okay.. does that not sound SUPER packed? I have a feeling that I will want to visit some of these places again and spend more time exploring. I mean.. we cover sooo much in such a little amount of time. If the İstanbul tour was any indication most of the tour will be rush-rush-rush! But I can't wait to see this all. Many of my classmates haven't seen as much of the country as I will see on the two trips (there's one in May that I will go on as well).

See you next month!
-Maeghan

Class 11 -D Skip Day?

So.. between both Emily's class and mine there were 4 people at school today other than us. So I just went to Emily's classes (since Merve went to some other class and my room was *completely* empty) and we of course have gym together anyways.

So we get there before the boys (there were 3 boys from her class at school today) and ask for the soccer ball. The only soccerball. Which forces the boys to play with us. YES. I played soccer. With the scary boys (as in if I'd like my face to stay the way it is I wouldn't play goal with them, although they're nice and go easy on us girls). And it was soooooooooo much fun. Made my day. EASILY. I mean.. we got laughed at alot, but whatever. So Emily and I suck at soccer? We actually broke a sweat in gym class. And interracted with her classmates who usually don't acknowledge her. So it was all in all a great experience. I am just thrilled.. can you tell?

Eeeee!

And then we were going to watch The Goonies in her English class but we couldn't get the computer to work, so we went for a walk. And Sean lent the movie to me so it's all good. I'll watch it tonight.

And since today is my parents' birthday, I called home (I'm now at -20 kontor.. dang!) and later went on webcam with my parents. Which was really nice. I'd have liked to have talked to my brother too, but the timing was so convinient and besides.. it isn't his birthday yet.

So yeah. That's life here. One of the exchange students, Mattie, is going home next Friday. Rather than going to her 7th host family (9th if you count the two families who she got ready for who never picked her up) she is done. And so she'll be leaving, which will be really, really sad. Mattie is the student I'm closest to (emotionaly, definitely not geographically!) so it'll be wierd for her to not be around.

*sigh* This is all. I leave for a Western Anatolia Tour on Sunday. 9 days of partying with the other students. Our chaperone is one of the Rotex, so we'll pretty much be able to get away with everything (this has me thrilled because an adult would never let me swim in the Dead Sea this time of year... fear of death by getting cold, down to "oh my gosh you need to wear socks in the house!"). I'll probably blog once more before I go, but I can't promise anything.

Love you lots and lots and lots!
-Maeghan (a measurement of awesome!)

My Bus

I told you it was fancy.

JELLYFISH!!!

Woah! So this is post #100, eh? That is somewhat surprising, although I don't actually know why... Today's post is about life in my favorite trans-continental city! (this is a joke, since İstanbul is the only transcontinental city...) I mean, where else do you wake up in Europe and decide "Hey! I feel like seeing a film in Asia today!"

Karakoy... fishers and big red boats! In the background you can sort of see the bridge. The Europe-Asia one.

Anyways! Today. I got up and my host mom said that her friends were meeting so she would drive me to where I was going for the movie, so I got to go back to sleep for another hour. So we drive to Karakoy. I want to be in Kadıköy. Little misunderstanding. (Get an idea of pronunciation from that? "ara" and "adı" are similar enough to cause confusion.. ) BUT luckily, there is a ferry from karakoy to kadıköy so I still get there at the same time I had planned to meet Julaina. Oh, and on the boat I kind of went picture-crazy. I've taken the ferry several times before, but I don't do it frequently enough for it to not be exciting. Heh! I could totally tell that everyone thought I was a tourist, snapping photos, grinning like an idiot, and wearing an İstanbul hoodie.

I like this photo because of the reflection in the glass. I am not very photogenic today, but I'd hate for you to forget what I look like. (Note- Kathle and Laura, check out my bag!) Also you can see my sweater! Sort of..

On a boat in the Golden horn, on my way to the Bosphorus. Asia here I come!

So these are the jellyfish. I didn't even know we had jellyfish! But I looked over the edge (because it just isn't the same to ride *inside* the boat, you have to ride on the deck!) and there they are! These see-through floaty things. I was excited. You can't see them very well here but they were super cool. You will all just have to come and watch the jellyfish with me in İstanbul some day. Can you imagine? "Yeah, I'm taking a trip to İstanbul this holiday!" "Cool, what all are you going to see? The Blue Mosque? Topkapi Palace?" "Naw, I'm going for the jellyfish!!" *stare*

Twilight was... disappointing. I didn't expect it to be better than the book, but from the ads it at least looked decent. I mean, I guess it was okay, but I don't need to see it again. (Unlike Australia, that was good!) The cinematography was cool and artsy but sometimes I felt like it took away from the story. And speaking of story. This film was definitely made for people who had read the books since they definitely left important information out. Like the fact that Alice can't see Bella in her visions?! Hello? I bet anyone who hadn't read the books was asking "If Alice knows the future, how come she doesn't realize that Bella is walking away from her to impending doom?!?!?" Yeah. And Jasper's hair? He's not a mad scientist.. he's a vampire.

And all you Twilight lovers? They absolutely butchered the meadow scene. The whole "So what you're saying is I'm your brand of Heroine?" line? Yeah.. Never happened. It followed the book. Things happened like they were supposed to, and in the right order, but there was nothing in between, so it felt really choppy. Like no lead up to anything, it was just like..

(Plot Spoiler!!! But if you've read the book it's okay.. Linda!)

Bella comes, Edward hates her. Next day he isn't there. Then he is and he's being nice to her. Then the day after that he saves her from the car. Then the day after that is the whole dress-shopping and Edward saves her from creepy men thing. Then she figures it out. Then she confronts him. Then meadow scene. Then she visits their house. Then the baseball game. Then fleeing Laurent. Then she leaves Alice and Jasper and nearly gets killed. Then the hospital. Then prom. Woothappyending.

(Done Plot Spoiling!!!)

Like a plot outline.. So that was my main complaint. Also, though. He sparkled weird. And GAAAH the meadow scene! Also, I would have liked more of my favorite character- Alice. And actually so would John. Heh. So I went with three girls and three guys. I sat beside John and Juliana, but Ju was talking to the other girls in a Spanish-English-Portuguese hybrid thing, so John and I talked. And I got to hear all about how Alice was hot. And Bella too. No "Ah! Edward Cullen!!" which was kind of amusing. I don't really like people in movies anyways, so it's all good.

Oh! But there was this one part where Edward was talking about being able to read minds. He and Bella are in a restaurant after the whole dress-shopping thing. And as he's talking the camera is panning across people at other tables. He's telling Bella what they're thinking of. "Sex. Money. Sex. Cats." And when he says cats ALL OF US lean over and look at John and start laughing! Every one of us!

You see, John loves the cats. All of them. I mean, after 5 months here you think he'd get used to seeing so many all the time but he ALWAYS points them out and stops to pet them and stuff.. and they adore him, which is hilarious. By the way, he read the first book! Hehe! And after the movie we stopped in a book store to look for the second in English.. no luck.

So after the movie we met a couple of the guys who didn't want to see the movie (why ever would that be?) but John and I had to leave because we live in Europe. Dang. So together we took a ferry to Beşiktaş and from there I walked to Taksim to catch my bus home. Hooray for adventure!

Sorry.. I realized that I just wrote A LOT. But I'm also too lazy to go back and shorten it. Heh!

Love you all,

-Maeghan

Ben Annem Bir Melek

Last night my class got together at Sefa’s family’s restaurant. It was sooo much fun. And the food? Delicious. Amazing. Possibly the best food I’ve had since I got to Turkey. (Although Mattie and I did make really good fajitas…) Plus, the simple equation of life here:
Turks + Music = Dance Party

Seriously, how often have you gone to a restaurant and had people stop in the middle of a meal to get up and dance? And yet here it has happened almost every time I’ve gone out to eat. What ridiculous good fun. Everyone sang along to the music all night as we dined on

Pictured: rice, chicken, kofte (Turkish meatball), funky pull-apart bread with assorted dips layed out on the table
Plus: dolma (a green pepper stuffed with rice and meat), fruit, and Turkish pizza (It’s a tortilla with ground meat essentially and I put lettuce, tomatoes, and lemon juice on mine)

Afterwards, most of us took a servis bus back to the school. We didn’t leave until well past midnight, and I planned to take a taxi from the school to my house. My host mom texted me around 11 asking me to text her when I was on my way home so when we left I told her we were on our way to the school. When we arrived she was there to pick me up! At 1 am. I couldn’t stop thanking her. I did not expect her to do that, and had told her earlier that I would take a taxi. When I thanked her for, like, the 100th time, telling her she didn’t need to do it (this was coming into the apartment at quarter to two in the morning) she replied “Of course, I love you.” Awe! So, ben annem bir melek. My mother is an angel. It’s the name of a TV show here, and I always think of her when I see the name because

a) she is one, and
b) Melek is her name

It is very weird because I do not feel like I know my family very well, what with the language barrier (trust me, I may speak some Turkish, but nowhere near enough to really get to know someone) and yet I know that of all the things I will miss coming home, Melek and Güner will be #1 on the list.

Today we had a meeting with Ishil at her office, so this morning Mattie and I went to a shadow puppet show(!) in Taksim (pictured above). It was brilliant. The puppets were so detailed and colourful (even though it was a shadow puppet show!) and it was very well done. One of the puppets was a city person and the other was a town person. The city one kept saying things and the town puppet wouldn’t understand. Conversations were continually like this-

“Do you like music?”

“Pardon me?”
“Do you like music?”
“I don’t understand.”
“Music- do ra me fa so la ti do”
“barosofaleenati?”
Then half of it was puppets dancing to different kinds of music. There was this well-known fiddle piece (you’d recognize it if you heard it but I don't know the name), Swan Lake, some tango, classic Turkish, etc. It was super cute. And the little kids in the audience would get up and dance all the time. Which was adorable.

Tomorrow I may go see Twilight (since it just came out here!) and I’m crossing my fingers that I’ll like it, although I like most movies (much to Laura’s chagrin) so chances are I won’t be wasting my money, and besides! I’m going to see it with one of my favorite Brazilians.

Adios!
-Maeghan

Life. Specifically as Maeghan.

Okay people! I have been reminded that you all have exams.. So I will continue to write even if it *feels* like talking to a wall. I went to all my classes today except for Turkish and Literature (in those classes I distributed mulitple English tests). In gym Emily and I played table tennis and then watched the boys play soccer (GAH I WANT TO PLAY WITH THEM... but I would probably get killed and/or break my nose on a soccer ball.. or they gym floor) and complained about the fact that we never get to do anything in phys ed. There's a twist, eh? Canada "Gah. Why do we have to have gym class?" Turkey "I want more gym!"
Anyways.. This photo is from English class. Here you see (from left to right) Sefa, Berke, Ben, Serbay, and Sinan. This is their "Jewish Photo". (Note the bored look on Ben's face.. "Not this again, there's nothing Jewish about anything in this class!")


Don't worry.. I don't have a clue what's Jewish about it either.. But that's what they called it, so to each their own I guess. Everyone calls Berke and Ben twins, although I don't see much resemblance. Anyways.. there you have that fun-ness. Today in English, by the way, we played pictionary since there were like.. 10 kids at school today. So Ben has us write on paper phrases or words that would be difficult (but possible) to draw. I was like.. the only person who did it, writing things like "the Bee's Knees!" and "Crocodile Rock!" and "the Apple of my Eye" and "Monkeys like to eat bananas!" and "Party Like it's 1999!". The only one done that I didn't write was what I drew.. "Alienated"
What good fun. Sefa drew "An Elephant's Toe!" (yes, I put ! after most of mine) and his elephant? Well.. it definitely had no ears and a short nose... No one got it. It was hilarious though.

So this is a sunrise as seen from my kitchen balcony. One thing I *do* like about the apartments here is that they're colourful. I mean.. yellow, green, pink, blue... I see 'em all. The best, however, are the tiled ones. I will try and get a picture sometime, but I don't live near any. Some weekend I will take an expedition and get photos of all the things I want to show you. Not this weekend (I am busy), not next (I have a trip!!! Hoorah for seeing more of Turkey!) but maybe the one after? We'll see. I am incredibly lazy. I need to stop putting it off. You can all hold me to it, okay?

Love you all,
-Maeghan

PS. Good luck on all of your exams. İyi şansı!

A Message to Y'all

So.. I feel very alone when no one comments... like I am writing to no one at all (that's what the journal is for) Sooooo. No blog entry for you today!

However I would like to apologise to anyone who read yesterday (although from lack of comments that was no one) because I used "their" instead of "there" in the end of my second-last paragraph. This probably doesn't matter to anyone but me. But it's fixed now so all is good.


-Maeghan

PS. Anyone interested in Turkish may wish to check this site http://www.teachyourselfturkish.com/
I am finding quite straightforward and useful. Start at the beginning though.

Wizards, Rotarians, and Hungry Students- Oh My!

Yesterday I FINALLY made it to a Rotary meeting. It was sort of boring, since I didn't understand much, but the presentation was about a trip to Iran that one of the Rotarians had just made, and since they had pictures and talked relatively slowly, I was able to understand a little.
I left right after the meeting, with a rotarian who lives in Florya (where my school is). He is apparently the youngest in the club, and doesn't go often because he thinks they are boring when they always talk about stuff that they used to do. I find this funny since there are like.. 12 members in the club and I'd estimate none of them above 50. Plus, the club is only, like, 10 years old or something like that, so it's just a baby!

Arzu got the whole class thing sorted out, so now they mark me present even if I'm not there. This way I don't get kicked out of school for never showing up.. although I wouldn't mind not having to go to school, Işıl would kill me. So now I get to spend my time in the FLD again! Hoorah. This means that I get to take part in conversations like this one:
Sean- What is this word? Wizards, right?
Ben- That is clearly wizards.
Alen- (reading) Clay eats berries and wizards...
Me- LIZARDS! (having written that particular section of the test I have some clue as to what they might be talking about)
Sean- Lizards! He eats lizards *laughs for like 5 minutes*
(By the way? No one eats lizards. BRIAN, not Clay, remembers seeing a program on TV once where to survive a woman ate lizards in the desert...)
Sean- (after taking a deep breath) She confuses lizards and wizards. That is friggin' hillarious!

I still plan to go to the exciting classes (Phys. Ed, Philosophy, English, History... afternoon classes in general), but I didn't yesterday because they were writing a listening exam in English and everyone wanted me to help them since Burcu wasn't there. Uh? Yeahno... So I just disappeared to the FLD for the afternoon.. Sorry classmates, but I stapled those tests, I've seen the answer key, and besides- thats not how it's done in Canada.. I'm not stealth enough (never thought you'd hear me admit that, eh?) to succeed. Vildan Teacher would soo catch me. Then we'd all be in trouble.

Gaah. Next hour is lunch. I have to buy my lunch (and y'all know how often I venture into the cafeteria...) which I hate. Since I'm not going to class though, I can buy it right at the end and eat it during 5th period.
You see, people here don't stand in line, they don't wait their turn, they basically act in a way that would seem impolite in Canada. And here it's just part of the culture. So you have a counter, with a large window, much like the caf. in Hat High. Now imagine a group of students. Instead of grudgingly getting in line, they all just crowd in front of this window (and if they're prep boys they shove each other.. usually into innoccent exchange students) holding out their money and calling to the staff what they want. I use calling rather than shouting because they aren't that loud. Anyways. For people like Emily and I, this means we don't get our food until the end of lunch anyways, since we will stand there politely as other students walk up, demand their food, and leave.

It's really quite funny in a way, since Turks are very friendly and polite. But don't come between them and their food... whether it's in the caf, at BK in the mall, or from the icecream window...

Maeghan,
Looking forward to her döner-hamburger thing <3

Avustralya, Gondolas, and İstanbul ve Kedileri

Today was a great day. Mattie and I hung out, just the two of us. It was really good because we got to rant and complain about everything that had been annoying us, then enjoy a day being goofy. The day started with me doing my hair (insert gasp here). I know! I've gotten soooo lazy here, I almost never wear it down. Actually? I didn't today either. But I did curl sections. Anyways. I got to Taksim before Mattie so I met her in the Metro station. While I was waiting I was examining the transportation maps, and decided that today was the day we should ride the "eggs" as Mattie and I refer to them as.

So, as soon as Mattie arrived and agreed to my excellent plan, we set off to buy some snacks (breakfast in my case.. mmm! Simit!) at Simit Sarayı and then walked to the gondola station closest to Taksim. We couldn't figure out how to pay, and the guy eventually came out of his little booth and we asked and he said "You can't pay here. You pay on the other side." This was waaay confusing, so we left and walked over to the other side. This time we went through a park, rather than past the giant disco ball (not that I didn't *try* and convince Mattie that we should go the weird route..). This was a very pleasant park, so we stopped and ate half of our snacks. Then, back up the other hill (the reason there are gondolas in the first place is because people are too lazy to go down into a valley and then back up the next hill to get to Taksim) to the station there. This time there was definitely a place to pay, and we gladly did so to get to ride the best form of transportation in İstanbul! We took picutres and ate cookies on the ride over.

Then we went back to Taksim and I bought Turkish CDs and then the sweater I really wanted. It's a white hoodie that says "İstanbul ve kedileri" on it, which means İstanbul and the cats (since cat was one of the first words I learned, I HAD to have it). I loved it so much that when I tried it on and it fit, instead of taking it off I had the lady at the counter cut the tag out to beep it through, and just wore it all day. Hehe.

While we were in Mavi Jeans we saw a huge protest (people here are not happy about Palestine), so when the coast was clear, we booked it down a side street and used this obscure metro entrance.. Where we saw another beautiful mosaic on the wall and decided that since we were there, we may as well get a photo or two! This amused the security guard to no end. Then the metro to Şişli where we saw "Avustralya". It was in English with Turkish subtitles, like James Bond was. AND like in James Bond, we missed important/exciting/touching lines because someone spoke in a foreign language and we didn't understand the subtitles.
"Hmm.. I think he said something about waiting?" "Yeah.. and 'sing' was in there.."

Oh! And we were the only ones in the theater with any emotions. Through the first half of the movie we were laughing and laughing (when Nicole Kiddman stuck out her tongue? hahahaha) and the rest of the theater was silent. Then, the second half we cried pretty much the entire time. There was an intermission again, but at this theater the seats didn't recline. = (

Altogether, it was a good day in İstanbul. Narrowly missed a protest, successfully spoke in Turkish on multiple occasions (including asking a giant eggplant if I could take a photo with him), and spent time with one of my closest friends here.

-Maeghan

Page 100..

So my VP told me today that I have to go to my classes. This means that I spend all day sitting there, completely bored, knowing that I would be 1000x more productive and happy in the English Department. By lunch I had read the first 100 pages of my Turkish-English dictionary. At this rate it will take me about 3 days to get through the English to Turkish section.
I wrote down words that I thought would be useful and/or fun to use. Highlights include-
archenemy- baş düşman
brainwash- beyin yıkamak
cadaver- ceset (When transporting a cadaver..!)
diabolic- seytanca
dinosaur- dinozor
fizzle- vızlamak
And that's where I stopped.. Today's program is brought to you by "The Letter F"

Oh! and my personal favorite?
cannibal- yamyam
Because it's obviously the sound one would make as it ate you.. You have to adopt a Turkish accent to get it just right. The A is like.. the sound at the beginning of the word awful.
*I am picturing my friends sitting in our hallway at lunch, giggling and saying "yamyamyamyam..."*

So after finding such excellent words I was in a better mood and talked with my friends sort of. I drive myself nuts not having anything to say to them. It's ridiculous. I don't understand how IIII can have NOTHING to say...

Anyways, that was my day.

-Megatron

PS. If I were an animal, based on looks, what would I be? Please help! My class thinks I'm a goldfish! Tell me it isn't true.

On the Languages Note..

Today I impressed Jimena (our lovely Mexican) by telling her, when she pulled a banana out of her bag, that "Los monos les gustan comer los platanos y los oves!" and then later "El oso polar teine una lengua violeta". *Obviously* I must know more spanish than I let on if I know these completely random sentences... Or not. So I started to sing! And I sang "De Que Color es la Piel de Dios?" which Jimena KNEW! Hoorah. Fun stuff. Unfortunately that really is all I can remember. Oh! And "Me podria decir como se llega al castillo?"

-Maeghan

PS. In order the spanish sentences mean "Monkeys like to eat bananas and grapes!" "The polar bear has a purple tongue." "What colour is the skin of God" is the song, and "Can someone please tell me the way to the castle?" <3 Te amo! Adios.

Oh the Joys of Being Confused

Did I mention that now when I try to speak in spanish it comes out turkish? So when I think "Okay, today I will just practice saying my name and age in spanish" it comes out "Merhaba! Benim adım... wait! NO. Merhaba..NOOOO. Hola. *phew* Hola, benim..hayir..no! Hola yo me llamo Maeghan. Tengo on altı.. I MEAN diez y... uno dos tres quatro cinco sies... dies y sies anos. *sigh of relief* Tamam. NO! Aaarrrrggh!"

İdil has decided that I can speak spanglurkish from now on. English, Spanish, and Turkish. Senorita? You are going to have a heck of a time with me in your 30 class. Maybe I should take 10 again...

-M

Mr. Blue Sky Please Tell Us Why You Had to Hide Away for Soooo Long!

The sun was visible today! And although I still really miss Beautiful Big Blue Albertan skies, this was nice. Sooo! Before I was going to write to you about what it's like at private school in Turkey but now I'm going to share pictures!

YES. Maeghan took a walk. In the sun! <3

First we have this video! You get to hear me laugh partway through because as I was filming it, a guy walking by me in the other direction taked to me and thought that it was hillarious that I was filming a building.. (although I was actually doing it for the call to prayer). Anyways as I just said, this is the call to prayer that happens multiple times a day. When I leave my window open it wakes me up because all the camılar (pronounced jamilar, sort of.. means mosques) have towers with speakers that basically announce to the entire city through song that it's time for worship. It was really cool for about the first week. Then it got annoying (at like.. 5 am in the summer? not what I want to hear). Now I don't even notice it. During Şeker Bayram they showed the guy singing it (at the Topkapi Palace) every night on TV, announcing that the hours of fasting were officially over.

So this one is where I currently live. The balcony to the immediate left of the door is off of our kitchen. First floor love! Less stairs (although that means less exercise..)

Ever wonder what it means to be a hero? Here's Atatürk, known and loved by EVERY Turk in existence. This is the statue in the park closest to my house. Basically (if I haven't filled you in already) he took this country and created what it is today. I have yet to be in a public building without a photo or a statue of him in there somewhere.

Okay.. what have we here? A streetside COVERED in rows of billboards. Tonnes of billboards. Also, you can see the sidewalk. I don't know if I've said, but sidewalks here are mostly bricks. And people have laid these bricks. Hundreds and hundreds all over the city. Makes me appreciate having somewhere to walk just a little more.

Here is the mosque from a little further away. Look at how pretty it is! And it is one of the newest mosques I've seen. It's a big one, too. I know that you've probably seen photos or postcards of the Blue Mosque or the Ayı Sophia but not all mosques are actually that large. Most are smaller than this with only one dome and one tower. The towers have a special name I think.. I just don't know it. You also get a view of our green grass.


My walk is ending, because the sun is going down. = (
But! Where did all the traffic go? I thought this was İstanbul!? You also get a hint of a sunset against the apartments . And you can see the sidewalk again.





Lastly, my old apartment. After carelessly ignoring a sign I couldn't read that probably said something along the lines of "Please keep off of the grass" I snuck up to the side of the building ninja style and snapped some shots before I realized a kid was staring at me from a first floor window.. so I casually walked back to the path and then not so stealthily got stuck trying to open a gate... Rofl. I am so me.

So there you have it folks! A mini-adventure in the setting sun around a pretty boring İstanbul neighbourhood. This walk made my week. <3

-Maeghan

PS? Some of my friends came randomly to the FLD during one of the breaks to talk to me and ask me if I was coming to class. Aw! So I went and was extremely bored (sıkıcı hehe!) as they studied for exams. "Always this ridiculous obsession with love!" I was going to say studying rather than love but then it reminded me of Moulin Rogue and plus, it's not ridiculous. Their exams are intense.

Gaah.

Today has been increadibly boring. I am sitting in the Foreign Lanugages Department in 8th period and WHEN CAN TODAY BE OVER?!?!?! I just want to do something. This morning was good because I was working on tests.. proofreading, stapling, and recording marks. Yes, a monkey could do it (well maybe not the proofreading) but it was something at least. Then, after lunch, I went to my class to see my friends who were not very friendly. This was disheartening and since I am pretty much the most boring person in Turkey (language barrier kind of takes away your personality) I had nothing to say. So I slunk back to the FLD and wrote a grade 12 exam. Not as in took the exam, I made it. Hooray for fast typing skills. Now I have nothing to do and it is STILL cloudy and rainy and unpleasant. If it would just snow already I could get a day off of school. Or better yet, the sun could come out!

Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun
Please shine down on me.
Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun
Hiding behind a tree.
This little yabancı is asking you
To please come out so I can play with you
Oh Mr. Sun, Sun, Mr. Golden Sun
Please shine down on me!

-Maeghan

The Sun Didn't Come Out...

But I had a good day anyways!

Yesterday I made a sim version of my family (we look nothing like us) and a sim version of my house (because I was worried I had forgotten it) and was generally lazy. Hoorah.

Today I started off the morning ranting to Emily about how people don't move out of the way. I'm walking with my shoulder practically pressed against the wall and the group of three people don't shift to let me through, so I end up basically shoulder-checked into a door. Sweet. Thank you. I like you too. But really? It's like that all the time. People here don't move like we do. Walking on the sidewalk? Short of stepping onto the street and getting run over by a taxi I CANNOT MOVE FURTHER OVER so let go of your girlfriend's hand and walk behind her for two paces! Jeez. Life in the fast lane. From now on I'm going to be agressive with my inevitable walking-into-people. Like, instead of just brushing shoulders, pushing back with that shoulder. Grr! Attack of the angry Canadian! Hehe. Or not...

Anyways! Once this very serious rant was out of the way, we had a great time doing nothing. Well.. Emily did stuff. All day. I had to sit and stare at the wall. Why? Because whenever Arzu gives us a one-person job Emily jumps on it before I can blink. I mean, I'm happy that she's so keen to do stuff, but I'd like to have something to do too. Then at the end of days like these she gives me a minilecture about being productive and asking if there are things that can be done, etc. Um.. thanks, tips. You could maybe not insist on doing EVERYTHING, even if it's handed to me.

Like we helped (well, actually, Emily did. I just sat there for moral support through most of it *rolls eyes*) a girl who applying for an exchange to the USA through YES fill out her application. Originally Arzu hands it to me and we sit down, Emily slides the papers over to look at them and before I know it she's taken the pen out of my hands and starts writing what the girl is saying. Sweet nectar! Arrg! This was going to be a positive entry. Right.

So there's one part where a teacher who knows the student well is supposed to answer questions about stuff. How they know the student, some of their strengths and weaknesses, etc. And Arzu calls Sean over "Are you doing anything? Great. I need you to do this letter of recomendation thing for Selin. I've gotta run, my Preps are writing an exam."

Sean being Sean, he is sarcastic and pretends to be annoyed to have to do this. We all sit down to write this recomendation letter all about a girl we've known for ten minutes. We ended up writing it as Arzu, since she actually knows the girl (putting I've known this student for ten minutes because she needs a teacher to fill this out! isn't exactly complimentary) and just made up stuff based on what the girl told us. Heh. It was so funny. BSing in the English department. Probably the best part of my day.

Lastly, sitting in my bus, waiting for it to leave, I look out my window and see a kid in the other bus (he's about 5, and in kindergarten) with his face pressed up against the glass making faces. He sees me and stops, his nose squished, mouth a big O and tongue mid-lick. I broke down in laughter, very akward in a bus full of people who don't know why you're laughing.

Oh! And I received my birthday package from my family.

-Maeghan xxoo

Bowling, Birthdays, and Byes

Mattie and Me Bowling... Got Some Odd Looks!

Do you feel like you were there now?

Today was hard. We had to say goodbye to Eve, since most of us won't see her during the week (darn Rotary and their YOU MUST GO TO SCHOOL OR ELSE policy). She's going home this week. Those Australians. Seeing her finish her year reminded me that my time here will end too, and reminded me that at some point we will all be doing that. Saying goodbye.

But to say goodbye proper, we all got together and went bowling! It was wonderfully wonderful. Originally we planned to go to Miniaturk but since the weather was gross we decided that an indoor activity would be more fun. So bowling! It was overpriced (like everything) but well worth it. First we exchanged secret santa gifts and then Eve dumped a bunch of stuff on us that she didn't want to take home. We danced and laughed and hung out and everyone sang happy birthday to Juliana and me. Mattie and I bought Juliana a minicake before we all got together, and she was very happy.

After that we all got jumbled and lost and sort of broke into two groups. The group I was with (and Eve!) went to a small restaurant-like thing and ate cheap food (woot!). Then Carly, Mattie, and I decided we wanted to see Australia (since Carly is buying me popcorn at the movies for a Christmas present) and headed to the theater.. to find the times not compatible with my "Little Apartment In The Suburbs" (I was ripping off Little House on the Prairie but it really doesn't sound the same...). So we headed to a different mall (how Turks need as many malls as they build I have no idea!) where it was playing even later. Defeated, wet, and missing Eve already, we headed our seperate ways. What a sad way to end what had been a good day.

It gets hard here. I don't really write about it (if you were talking to people you never got to saw would you complain or would you fill them in on everything that excites you?) but sometimes I just want to be somewhere else. İstanbul is a hard city to live in, especially if you live in an area like mine. The fact that a four 'o clock movie is too late really demonstrates how much time I have to put into travel. Calculating when to take busses gets really confusing. I took a 7 am bus this morning and got to Taksim by 8. The 7:20 bus usually gets me there closer to 9:15. All because of traffic. A twenty minute difference in leaving times but over an hour in arriving times! It boggles my mind. So going home I pretty much have to go at 4:30 because any later and traffic makes the trip waaay longer. When visiting friends for the day can involve up to 4 hours travel time you suddenly become more reluctant to go out.

I want to end this on a happy note, but I'm kind of sad today. Tomorrow will be better, though. I will make sure of it!

-Maeghan

Nothing Much

Just a short hello!
School is school. Life is life. Eve is leaving! = '( This weekend we are saying goodbye... I am going to cry.
However on a happier note, New Year's Eve was like.. "Make Fun Of Canada" Day in the English department. That's right. All those American teachers (okay.. three) picking on an innocent Canadian exchange student's country. Where was Janice (the Calgarian) when I needed her?
Today I was complaining about Hatchet, a book I really disliked. The excerpt I was reading (Emily and I made quizzes today) was about him deciding to eat berries. Idiot. Those are bird berries. We all know he's going to get sick. I said this. Emily replies that she wouldn't know which berries were good to eat and which weren't if she was stranded in the wilderness. Not everyone is Canadian. Rofl. These are honestly the comments that fill my days as an exchange student. We always tease each other about our countries and our cultures, regardless of truth. It can get pretty hilarious. Us Canadians and our wild berries!

-Maeghan

I Was In 2009 Before You!

Yes, I'm immature. Yes, it doesn't matter. But I will fully brag about it anyways. I was in 2009 how many hours earlier? 9. I get nine more hours in 2009 than you do. Bet you're jealous.

Anyways.. on to the festivities. Like I promised you all before I left... I ate turkey in Turkey on New Years which is like Christmas. Anyone remember me telling you I'd do it? Ta-da!!

School was one long party, as we didn't have any classes nor did we have to wear uniforms. We hung out and danced and ate food. It was good. Then, after school we headed over to Asia to my host uncle and aunt's house where we ate a nice dinner and watched tv until midnight. Oh! And we played bingo! Not only did I manage to lose every single round, but I also got to call out the numbers once! This was very exciting because I knew all of them. Except that my host grandmother needed them repeated to her every single time. This made everyone really annoyed by the end of that round. I would announce something like "kirk iki" (42) and she would say what and everyone would say "kirk iki anne! Dinle!" (42 mom, listen!). So I only ended up calling for one round.

We also exchanged gifts, and I gave everyone a card on which I attempted to write messages in Turkish. No one asked what I meant, so I think they were all correct. About 15 minutes after midnight I went to bed, because I'm getting another cold. Jeez!

Happy New Year everyone, Hoş Geldiniz 2009!

-Maeghan