Tuesday, January 13, 2009

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

3 comments:

Unknown said...

you're gonna get used to it and go back to Canada and be the rudest girl in school...

Kathleen said...

Ok, I am sorry for not commenting on your blog entries, and I promise I will after school! Argh, I want to read them all now, but it is after 8:00 already. Sorry!!!

Kathleen said...

Eating wizards!!!