Turkey or Bust

Home Sweet Home

2009-07-28T08:50:00.000-07:00

I'm pleased to inform you all that I'm home safe and sound. My friends showed up at the airport with a giant "Welcome Home Maeghan!" sign and turkeys painted on their chests. This morning I woke my brother up at 8:30 because I was bored. Not sure he appreciated that, but until I start sleeping at normal times again, he'll just have to deal. =D It's good to be home.

Maeghan

Homeward Bound

2009-07-25T00:11:00.000-07:00

It is the morning of my last day in Turkey. I can't lie- I'm really excited to be going home. I feel like I should be sadder about leaving, but I'm not. All I can see are the bagels and 2% milk in my near future...

Oh yeah, and I missed my family & friends too! ;-)

Maeghan

The Black Sea and Rock'n Coke

2009-07-20T01:22:00.000-07:00

The last two days have been quite excellent. On Saturday I went to the Rock'n Coke concert with my host brother. I'll admit that it was not my style of music, but I still had a great time. I think I liked the Turkish band best.

Then on Sunday my whole host family took a trip to the Black Sea where we spent the afternoon swimming, making sandcastles, and doing cartwheels. While I was sitting in the waves, a mussel washed into my lap. I put it in a plastic cup with some sand and some water and it buried itself in the sand! Since this was incredibly exciting, I showed my host family and together we searched for half a dozen more. They're now living in a clear plastic box in my room. We poke at them with a chop stick every now and then. I seriously wish I could take mine home with me. He's completely hidden, save for a small gooey antenna-like extension sticking out of the sand. Every now and then it opens and closes like a mouth!
That's pretty much it here. Six days.

10 Days and Counting...

2009-07-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

So for lack of anything better to do, I'm reading the Lufthansa restrictions on carry-on luggage and I'm finding them way more entertaining than they should be. Favorites include:

Items you cannot bring in your carry-on:
-False weapons
-Fake weapons
Okay, can someone please tell me the difference between a fake weapon and a false weapon? No, really.
-Sharp items
-Blunt items
No sharp items, no blunt items... doesn't that rule out, like, everything? I mean, I even looked it up. The definition of blunt is "Having a dull edge or end; not sharp."

Items you can bring in your carry-on:
-A small camera or pair of binoculars A pair of binoculars.. seriously? Why? So you can spy on the person five rows down? ("Zomg, is he ACTUALLY eating his gross pasta salad with his hands?" I mean, really. ) And, by the way, aren't those a blunt item? Last pair I held was heavy enough to do some damage if used correctly (or incorrectly, depending on how you look at it).
-An appropriate amount of reading material for the journey An "appropriate amount".. so if my book is 800 pages and my flight is only an hour you'll take it away? Or what if it's an over-seas flight (the 7 hour one) and all I bring is a magazine. Are they going to take that away or will they give me more? Plus, what if I'm a really fast reader. How do they know how many books I can get through in 7 hours, huh? Is there a test or something?

Love,
Maeghan

Two Weeks

2009-07-12T09:52:00.001-07:00

Zomg. Two weeks. Let's see. This week I did more Ikea visits, and also met with two of the Turkish students who are back from exchange to the states. On Wednesday I went out to Bahcesehir to visit Gulin (back from Ohio!). She's the same age as me, and I've met her family before (since they hosted Emily). We spent the day hanging out, eatting icecream, and catching a movie. It was really cool to just talk with her. It surprised me how easy it was to hang out with a complete stranger.

Then today I hung out with Burak, who was in Kansas. Yup! That same Kansas that my dear Carly is from. It's really weird to be like "So-and-so and I did this"and have someone else who you've never met before know exactly who you're talking about. It was like, he'd talk about the students who were in Kansas. Even though I'd never met any of them, through Carly's family (who hosted a girl from France) I knew the people he was remembering. Strange. Also, again it was really easy to just hang out, even though we'd never met before. I've decided it's exchange student magic.

It's super hot and humid here. I've completely lost my apetite because of the heat. Thank goodness Turks are very insistent about feeding exchange students like myself!

Maeghan

Twenty Days!

2009-07-06T03:53:00.001-07:00

Nothing exciting is happening here. My host family is renovating their apartment, so we've been mostly occupied by that. Which paint, which tile, which kitchen set from Ikea... You get the idea. But it's been good. In the evenings I'm catching up on Lost. The problem is that my family's two seasons ahead of me, so every now and then I walk into the living room and abruptly turn around, cover my ears, and dash out (which sets them laughing).

Yesterday I made cinnamon buns and this afternoon I made ice cream floats which were a HUGE hit. Tomorrow milkshakes, I think. I wish we had a blender here.

On another note, my computer now holds it's charge for about 10 minutes. I'm kind of curious as to what I did to it. Whatever it is, I'M SORRY COMPUTER!!! PLEASE FORGIVE ME AND WORK AGAIN!!!

Anyway. If you haven't watched it already, look up Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along-Blog and laugh your face off. Then get a glass of water (from the tap, you lucky people!) and find yourself Commentary! The Musical. It'll only take about two hours of your life and you'll be much happier for it.

-Maeghan

The Communists!

2009-07-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

I nearly fell out of a moving van today fleeing the communists!

Carly tells me not to exaggerate. See, there was a protest today in Kadiköy. It was the Communist Party. And it stopped traffic. Which meant my bus randomly pulled over and told everyone to get out. I was with Carly and her third host mother, and together we walked towards Kadiköy to catch a bus to Üsküdar. As we got near, we could see a large group of people marching around with flags, and opted to take a dolmuş. While on this dolmuş (which is essentially a van) I decided to switch seats,, which involved sliding past the door which the driver had left open. Thrilling!

I must admit, the statement was much more epic than the explanation. Carly, Juliana, and Valeria all leave tonight/tomorrow morning. I'm "sleeping" at Carly's house and going to the airport with her. I still find myself trying to make plans involving students who've been gone for a month. I can't imagine when it's only Valerio and I.

Maeghan

Time Flies

2009-06-29T14:24:00.000-07:00

By the end of the week, all the other students will be gone. I cannot believe it. The last week has been all goodbyes.

We've been shopping at the Grand Bazaar and Taksim. We took trips to Sultan Ahmet and Ortakoy (famous, touristy places). Now it's down to packing.

Today Juliana, Carly, and I went to Sile. Sile is a small town located on the coast of the Black Sea. It was two hours from Istanbul by bus. We only spent a couple hours at the beach, but I still managed to get sunburned. Maybe sunscreen doesn't work when mixed with sand.

Oh! Random: We got to the beach and I took my shoes off (so as not to get sand in them) to walk to an empty spot for our towels. I had to do the run from shadow to shadow thing, because the sun had warmed the sand up soooo much. I didn't think it actually got that hot, but my feet are really sore now. I wish I had brought flip flops! Juliana just laughed at me.

Tomorrow is more Grand Bazaar. I swear, if I get called the Spice Girls one more time...
Maeghan

Update

2009-06-26T08:51:00.001-07:00

I moved again. Not much to say. Still have a month. Look for a more informative post when my family has internet again.

Maeghan

The Second Trip Finale!

2009-06-16T03:39:00.001-07:00

Antalya. Home of one hundred bazillion resort hotels, beautifully clear blue water, white sand, and the German tourist. This is where the District Conference took place.

For us exchange students, it was essentially a free all-inclusive vacation save for the morning they woke us up at ten to nine and told us "Oh yeah, you're presenting to Rotary today at 9! No one told you? Don't worry about it. Just make sure you wear your jackets!"

So apart from 20 minutes on stage, introducing ourselves and telling the Rotarians how much we appreciate this program, we ran around drinking free juice (that tasted mysteriously like Tang) and "creating table salt!" (as Carly put it) by jumping into the sea, then running to the pool and jumping in that, then returning to the sea to chase fish. (Thus creating a mixture of NaCl, apparently...)

For those of us who were more ambitious (or more afraid of the sun) there was also a fitness room, an indoor pool, and free wifi in the lobby. Blase and I spent 11 am - 4 pm one day exploring these possibilities while all the other exchange students got baked to a crisp. I too attempted the whole sunbathing thing (not during the hours in which the sun is highest in the sky, which when you listen to doctors is pretty much all day..) after liberally applying spf 45 and 50. All I did was mulitply my freckles. (Which then amused Garet for a good half an hour on the bus ride home as he played "connect the dots" on my arms and shoulders.)

The last night was supposed to be the Gala Dinner, a formal Rotary function to which we had been invited... up until the morning of. In a flurry of disappointment and annoyance (most of us had dragged formal attire across the entire country on the trip, and/or gone out and spent our allowance on something respectable to wear) we decided to have our own prom.

This involved getting all dressed up and eatting at the buffet like every night, then going to the "Disco" to dance to monotonous, brainless music. It was great fun, and we were all pleased with the outcome of a last minute plan.

At one point during the evening, Blase realised he hadn't yet swam in the sea and decided that now was as good a time as any. So Carly and I escorted him down to the beach (after he ran up to his room and changed into his swimming trunks) and convinced the staff there that we were capable of not drowning in the dark (something that should have been much harder to do than it actually was). Blase swam in the Mediterrainean by the light of the moon, and Carly and I waded in up to our knees in our dresses (though the waves hit much higher). It was a night to remember.

I was the only one to leave Antalya unsunburned, and took enormous pleasure in pointing this out every chance I got. Hey, this is a first for me. I don't think there's ever been a time in my life when someone else has sunburned and I didn't too. Or that I've spent a full day on a beach and not sunburned. Or that I've deemed it a day worthy of spf 45 and not sunburned. Or... well, you get the idea.

Antalya was the perfect end to our last trip, and a wonderful chance for us to spend a weekend together before everyone started leaving. Indeed, that was (and probably will be) the last time we were all together. Several students went home in the following week.

Maeghan

A Balloon Ride

2009-06-13T02:21:00.000-07:00

Carly and I asleep at 5:30 am on the way to the balloon ride.

Me about to hand over more money than I've ever spent before in my life.

The hot air balloons waking up!

Our captain, bright eyed and bussy tailed, despite the early hour.

Blase, Carly, and I (the three who went) looking extremely happy and excited to be up in the air.

The view as the sun rose.

The road we would drive down later that day.

A moon and a ballooon.

Me, with the ground far below.

The sunrise.

The valley full of balloons.

Balloons and hoodoos.

They think they're stealthy (like the cruise ship that tried to sneak up on mom and dad), but I know they're there!

We're so high!

The valley of hoodoos.

Landing on a truck!

The guy who jumped on to make us weigh more! There were 3 of them...

Taking the balloons down.

Champaign to cellebrate a successful flight. (Alcohol before breakfast, oh my!)

On the last morning of the trip, Blase, Carly, and I, accompanied by the guide, set out to take an epic balloon ride over the hoodoos in Cappadocia. Though it cost an arm and a leg, we deemed it worth every penny.

We left the hotel at four or five in the morning and headed out to a big empty feild wehere hot air balloons were slowly waking up. We climbed aboard one with a female pilot and set off for an hour-long float around the area.

It's important to note that although hot air balloons may seem peaceful and quiet from the ground, the fire used to heat the air inside the balloon is REALLY loud and often unexpected, since as soon as the deafaning sound stops, you go back to marveling at the beautiful view and forget the fire just in time for it to start up again.

When we landed, after taking about a thousand pictures between the three of us, we were invited to toast to our successful flight and drank champaigne standing in a field of flowers as the air was let out of balloons and they collapsed with a graceful whispering sound all around us. It was epic.

We made it back to the hotel in time to gobble down a quick breakfast before we set out to drive to the Rotary District Conference in Antalya!

-Maeghan

The Second Trip, Part IV

2009-06-09T01:16:00.000-07:00

I warn you, it's reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaally long.

On Thursday all I have pictures of is eatting and the road. It took me a while to realise that that's because we were on our way to Cappadocia! We stopped for lunch in the birthplace of Turkish icecream. It was necessary to try the icecream. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling well, so I only ordered one scoop of vanilla. The guy serving was heartbroken. Didn't I want anything else? How about strawberry? No? Well I had to try the pistachio- it is his favorite. It's not that I don't want it, it's that I don't know that I do. And so a scoop of pistachio was added. I attempted to take my icecream, but no! I should try the almond as well! Won't I take the almond? And another scoop went on. I managed to deter any fruit flavours, but still ended up with four scoops dipped in chocolate sauce and sprinkled with nuts.
In the end he only charged me for the scoop I had ordered, and with a bus full of boys, I had no problem getting rid of my icecream when I had had enough.

After that we left the mountains, and were back into the open sky. We arrived in Cappadocia in time for supper, then spent time in our rooms. (If anyone is wondering, this time the chaperon was complaining that we had better internet). Since (as I said) I wasn't feeling well, I stayed in while everyone else went out for a walk. Garet, Blase, and Carly returned soon after with a large bottle of coke and a bucket of icecream. We borrowed some spoons and cups from the hotel's restaurant downstairs and made icecream floats before going to bed.

The next day we explored Cappadocia, land of beautiful horses! We didn't see many horses, beautiful or otherwise, but every time we passed a goat or a sheep or a cow, someone would say "Look! A beautiful ho... no wait... Never mind." We did, however, see plenty of houses built into the cliffs and hills, and odd rock formations known to tourists as "ferry chimneys" and me as "hoodoos". Indeed, the guide agreed with me when some of the Americans didn't believe that we had a word for them in English.
After a short photo expedition, we entered The Underground City. Not for the claustrophobic! It was a system of small, winding passages opening into low-roofed rooms with small signs stating in Turkish and English what that particular cave was used for. Here I am in the church.From the underground city we drove to a community of sorts that from what I could tell was entirely churches, kitchens, and monistaries. It was great fun to run around in the buildings and attempt to take decent photos in low light with no flash then run outside and be completely blinded by the blazing sun and attempt to take photos where your subject wasn't a complete shadow. It would probably help if I knew something about photography. But alas, you are stuck with these:
THEN, on our way out we passed the President of Portugal. The Brazilians yelled in Portuguese and ended up with video cameras pointed at them. I shall always wonder what they said...

Now I believe I told you that we had a short bus for this trip. 15 seats for 15 people. It made for a very crowded trip, especially with bus rides that lasted the whole day. Well for the sake of comparison, here's our bus beside a regular tourism bus, like the one we had for the first trip. Get the idea? Anyway, now that you're done laughing, we next visited a town nearby where we ate lunch (and impressed the locals with our Turkish) and were given a tour of a pottery business. Everything was hand-made, and we followed a plate through the different steps taken to create the extremely expensive souveniers in the shop.
As you can see, their home and workshop was partially underground, like most of the buildings in the area. This meant that it was beautifully cool! From there we toured the vastly less exciting jewelry place and then it was off to the "moonlike landscapes" where we were free to explore.

At the end of the day (there's another day dawning! Couldn't help it, sorry...) we returned to the hotel. Blase, Carly, and I signed up for the hot air balloon ride and went to bed early for that.

End Trip Update.
As for my new family, they are wonderful! I have been spending nearly all my time with my host sister. I've been helping her improve her English and she has been teaching me more Turkish. I can now make If clauses and say "I wish..." (and with that, I learned conditional phrasing). This probably doesn't sound that impressive, but I'm happy! She talks in English and I talk in Turkish and we translate what each other is saying and correct any mistakes.
The next update will be the balloon ride! I'm almost done!

Love,
Maeghan

Sorry!

2009-06-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Okay, I know that I laid out this plan on having all my updates done by now, but life has gotten rather interesting. And I'm lazy. But mostly life is interesting! Like I said, I presented to my Rotary Club, in Turkish, which was waaay hard and took a lot of last-minute work. THEN I found out that I'm moving families (long story there..) so I've been packing, and then today was my last day at school so I had gifts to give and people to say goodbye to. And on the saying goodbye note, the other exchange students here are starting to go home, which means trips to the airport (2 hours from my house) to say goodbye to everyone.

Here's the plan:

Tomorrow I move.
Sunday I either hang out with the new family or go to a museum. (or both!)
Monday I make time to blog again for you all.

Deal? Good, because you don't have a choice.

Love,
Maeghan

The Second Trip, Part III

2009-06-02T23:14:00.001-07:00

Sorry that I abandoned you guys for a while there.

So Wednesday! Wednesday was quite the day. From Urfa we left bright and early for Kahta. The town itself is rather unimportant and small, but surrounding it are the Roman Bridge and Mount Nemrut.

But I'm getting ahead of myself here. We drove for a couple hours before the guide had the driver pull over at none other than the Euphrates River. So we hung out for at least 15 minutes skipping stones, wading (well.. I waded, everyone else thought it was too cold and didn't stay in very long), and taking epic photos.

(Garet is just to the left being a boy and trying to make the biggest splash he can...)

Once the long-suffering tour guide had finally herded us all back onto the bus, we continued our trip. For lunch we stopped in some town whose name came from "seven heros" but that I cannot recall. Juliana, Carly and I set off to find a place with both doner and pide. And ended up in a gender segregated restaurant. Ever been in one of those before? Me neither. And when we ordered, the entire floor (women upstairs, men down) watched us. Yeah, we're foreign. Yeah, we speak Turkish. Stop staring, please?

When we had arrived at our hotel, we checked in and quickly changed into our "proper mountain clothing". The guide figured it would be about 10 degrees colder by the time we were on our way back. I merely changed out of my flip flops and grabbed a sweater and my camera. Off we set towards the Roman Bridge:

Of course we're walking past the signs. We're exchange students. That's what we do! Hehe.

The bridge! With 3 pillars! Looks nice, eh? Quaint li'l bridge just minding its business...
Except that it's freaking HUGE. (Yes, that's what she said, har de har har) We reached it and I couldn't believe the size. It looks so innocent and normal sized from far away.
Then, after we had walked across the bridge, a bus picked us up and we went up, up, up! To Mount Nemrut! We took a stop on a hill with ancient stuff on our way, and did a quick "hike" to these.

Here's me with a really old column thing and a huge valley.
Huge valley. Old column thing. For scale, the lower crack in the thing is where my head was.

Okay! Here we're on the way up Mount Nemrut. At this point the bus is still driving us. But I love being above the treeline. It just looks so cool!

What's that? You're cold?! Here, have my sweater. I'm off to run in the snow, anyway. It'll just get in the way! I'm upholding the Canadian stereotype here in Turkey. The guide was terrified when I didn't change into pants before coming.

The Path up to the peak.

The view.

The top! Full of tourists and everything! We made it in time for the sunset and hung out up there for about half an hour. There are large heads on this side and large bodies on the other. Also, there was more snow. But! Sunset-

At that point, we headed around the little hill of scree and took some pictures there before being herded down by security.
That's all for today, folks!

On another note, I presented to my Rotary club last night... in Turkish! So that was really exciting for me. And I'll be moving families in the next week or so, so look forward to hearing about that!

Love,
Maeghan

On a Not Particularly Related Note...

2009-05-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Tell me you aren't dying of laughter after reading that. AND they said AWESOMENESS. Although I wish we were something cooler than Nestea.

The Second Trip, Part II

2009-05-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

Tuesday started out with a short stop at another mosaic museum.

I was particularly fond of the information they gave you about each piece. You could give a test with these! Read the sign and try to draw what they describe:

If your picture looked like this, congratulations! If not, better luck with the next one.Next we found ourselves in Urfa. The city has had many names over the years, and I don't plan to list them all in hopes of someone recognizing one. However if you're wondering what there is to visit in this city by the Euphrates, you could start with the fish pools.

As you can see above, there was a section of the pools that had boats. At 50 kuruş (about 36 cents Canadian) a person, all the exchange students hopped aboard for a turn around the fountain.
Next we were off to visit a cave. But not just any cave, this is the claimed birthplace of the Prophet Abraham. To enter, women had to cover up. This was the first time I have been asked (read: required) to cover my head durning my stay here. Luckily for all of us, we had run into a charismatic scarf-seller by the boats and were well-prepared.After the cave, it was on to the bazaar. It was a bazaar like most bazaars, though with more fabric and metalware stalls than usual. We were given an hour to wander around before we met back at the bus to visit a traditional village.It was here that I remembered my friends back home and how we watched the second Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants movie right before I left. This is totally the area Bridget would have been.

If you can see those houses in the distance, you're looking at a village officially in Syria. Wave hello, everyone!

I suppose I'll end it there, even though that was only one day. Its getting kind of long and adding pictures is not enjoyable. Tomorrow should pull us through to Cappadocia, which will warrant it's own entry on Thursday.

Thanks for reading!
-Maeghan

The Second Trip, Part I

2009-05-25T10:22:00.000-07:00

Oha. There's lots to say, so I'll be telling you about the trip over a couple of entries.

We left Istanbul at 8 pm on Friday night. Our bus turned out to have just enough room for all of us, though our stuff was piled to the ceiling in the back! We drove all night and arrived in Konya the next day.

Konya is famous for the whirling dervishes who originated there. We visited the Mevlana Museum (pictured) and then checked into the hotel.

Day two started bright and early with long drive to Antakya (which you might know as Antioch). We arrived mid-afternoon. It is important to note that Antakya used to belong to Syria. Many years ago it became independant for a short time before joining Turkey. Syria does not recognise this union, and so if you asked a Syrian, I have been to Syria. Check out the lisence plate!

First we visited a mosaic museum. There were mosaics over ten feet tall! They depicted garden scenes and gods and fish and geometric paterns and writing.

After that it was off to the first Christian church, the Church of St. Peter. It was a cave in the hillside with a brick front and only an altar inside. I got dripped on taking this photo! Here's the view from outside the church:Then the guide offered to take us somewhere not on the itenerary. We visited what was once an iron gate. It required a bit of hiking to get to, but there were goats!

This is where I called my Mom from on Mothers' Day!

We checked into our hotel on the edge of town, and settled down for a quiet evening... that was interrupted when a baby bird fell out of its nest on our balcony and chased Garet through our open door into the hotel!

Multiple rescue attempts were made with the chick, and around 10 pm that night, it was back in the nest thanks to us! Although our chaperon had told us it would just get pushed out again, it was still in the nest come morning. We even watched the mother feed it! Hooray!

Monday was Gaziantep. On our way we passed a huge field of poppies and begged the driver to stop for photos.

The special thing about this field is that it's a farm. In Turkey growing poppies for medicinal purposes is legal. Who knew?

Gaziantep had the old market as part of our tour. We checked into the hotel early, and our chaperone was upset to find that Carly's and my room was larger than his. He would leave only to stomp in again several minutes later, look around, glare at us, and stomp back out. Carly took to saying things like "it's still bigger!" when he came in. It became a running joke throughout the trip. From that night on he was able to find something better about our room. Better wifi, bigger bathroom, softer beds, nicer view out the window..

So I suppose I'll stop there for today. It's looking like I'll split the trip into three large entries, although if you thought this one was too big, I can make smaller ones. Just tell me what you want!

-Maeghan

One Step Closer to A Dream

2009-05-24T11:40:00.000-07:00

Anyone who had to sit through Biology with me knows that it's one of my life goals to do the voice-over for an educational film. Today I got closer to this goal than I think I ever will again. Rewind to Friday afternoon.

My host family is of the strange belief that Mexican food cannot be made at home. So I called Carly. A sleepover was set at her house for Saturday night, with us as the chefs.

Saturday Carly, Blase, and Garet are sent by Rotary to a recording studio. I met up with Carly afterward and we created beautiful fajitas together before staying up half the night trading theater stories. Her family loved our food, and the boys actually talked. Amazing!

Sunday morning Carly has to crawl out of bed bright and early to head back to the recording studio. Since nine am seemed a little early to be going home, I tagged along. This turned out to be a good thing, since Amanda was ill and had to cancel. Suddenly I had a rather major part in the recording.

What is this recording, you ask? English listening exam CDs! Mwahahahahaha!
Admittedly I was reading things like "The boy is walking with the dog" and "Henry had to tie his shoe" but I was still over the moon happy.

I promise, promise, promise that I will blog about the trip tomorrow!
-Maeghan

Star Trek

2009-05-22T06:21:00.000-07:00

My family has no internet. I'm sitting in Starbucks with a terribly unaffordable drink. I just saw Star Trek. It was AMAZING. I will tell you all about the trip when we get internet again.

If you have the time and interest to read something completely pointless but brilliant, Carly wrote a lovely story about me during out bus ride home from Antalya. The link is here.

Love,
Maeghan

PS. Did I mention that I loved Star Trek?! Really.

Ooor.. not.

2009-05-15T09:49:00.000-07:00

The internet hates me. I keep trying to upload photos (last three hotels) and it keeps dying. I haven't forgotten you all, I promise!

Let's see. Highlights from this trip in no particular order:

1. I made cookies! A double batch that barely fit in the bowl by the time I added all the flour.
2. Carly, Juliana, and I ate in a segregated restaurant.
3. We skipped stones in the Euphrates River.
4. A guy gave me three free scoops of ice cream at the birthtown of dondurma (turkish ice cream).
5. We watched the sunset on Mount Nemrut, and I met some Canadians there!
6. I spent a night at a sketch hotel conveniently located beside the hospital.
7. I covered my head to visit the birthplace of the prophet Abraham.
8. We took a row boat around a famous lake of fish.
9. We nearly died a slow death at the hands of GIANT FREAKING ANTS.
10. I ate at a Pizza Pizza! (Once he was the King of Spain.)
11. I saw the Syrian border from the top of a hill.
12. I got dripped on in the first church of Christianity.
13. I took an epic adventure through Turkish hoodoos and found doors in the cliff wall.
14. Oh! And this all happened on a minibus.

So as you can see, the trip was wonderful. The places we're visiting aren't used to a lot of foreign tourists, so we get a lot of stares, but overall it's been warm welcomes all the way across the country. And everyone loves our cute Istanbul accents! Hehe. Tomorrow we drive to Antalya for the district conference, but first I'm taking a ride in a hot air balloon!

More will follow.
-Maeghan

Hidrellez Festival

2009-05-06T10:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday night I went to the Hidrellez Festival. I don't really feel like paraphrasing what the whole thing is about, so you can click here for full info. In fact, I don't really feel like talking at all, so we'll do this with lots of pictures.

We met near the Blue Mosque and walked down to a park on the coast where the festival was taking place. There were these handy signs everywhere to guide us in the right direction!

The festival is all about wishes! There were many spots and ways in which you could wish for things at the park, and this is the first and most traditional. Each rag or piece of cloth tied to the tree represents someone's wish. Some people wrote on their rags, some people didn't. At the beginning of the festival, it was just this area covered in wishes, but by the end of the night all the trees in the park had stuff hanging off of them.

There were these nets of cloth hanging between trees too, and those were for people to take. You were allowed to rip a section of the fabric off to use on one of the trees. It was rather entertaining, since no one had scissors. I used my keys.

Here I am tying my wish to the tree. Isn't it funny that I'm wearing a scarf to a festival about summer? I can't be Canadian...Here you can see the sunset and the people and the stuff hanging from the trees. There were activities all around based on the idea of making wishes. I spun a wheel of fortune and fed a huge painted pelican. We threw notes in a wishing well and tied cloth to things. After all that we listened to some turkish music and danced and ate really good food. The photos after the sun set are kind of dark, and I was kind of doing a lomo thing minus the part where the photos are cool. I got home around 2 am and still got up in time to get to school. Go me!

Love

Maeghan

Ps. Second trip starts on Friday night. Hilights include Cappadocia and the first church (near Syria!!). It's directly followed by the district conference in Antalya. Weather forcasts for some of the places we're visiting include 55 degree Celcius days. Yes, I'm going to DIE. But at least my icecream will die with me.
I'll be bringing a seperate bag just for sunscreen.

Picnic!

2009-05-01T12:33:00.000-07:00

Today was a national holiday, so my family and three others went on a picnic!

We drove out of town to this little place where we barbecued a whole lot of meat that we bought at one of the malls. Carrefour (the store we went to) is very much like Superstore. It just has the same feel. Sells the same stuff. You know. But! When a guy passed me on roller skates (yes, skates not blades) I was like "Okay, this is the Real Turkish Superstore" and went off giggling to myself for no apparent reason (yet again.) That's where I found this:
Haha. Have you ever seen Clearly Canadian before? Because to any Canadian it clearly isn't. I mean, where's the French? Pfft. Anyway. The picnic-

There were dogs at this place we went to. Two puppies running around and a huge german shepherd who was tied up in the back. Above you see me and the white pup. I think she was the runt. She's smaller than the other one. Everyone loved her.

Here I am with the slightly larger, unloved pup. All the kids were scared of her. Goodness knows why, since she's pretty much harmless. We were playfighting and she'd bite me like she thinks she's a lion but all that it would accomplish was to tickle my hand. It was my job (me being the only one who really liked the dogs) to keep the black puppy away from our group.

So we ate barbecue, played football (soccer), and took photos. All in all it was a good day. We arrived home just before a huge rainstorm, so we managed to stay dry despite the weather predictions. May Day went off without any problems on my end, although there were injuries in the protests in Taksim. I don't think anyone died this year though.

Now my sister and I are trading photographs. Hers are way better than mine, not that that's a surprise. I can't wait for summer holiday when we get to hang out like this every day!

Love, Maeghan

Gorkem, Cats, and a Fortune Teller

2009-04-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

I went with my mother and host sister to a death anniversary. In Turkey they honour the death of a loved one by getting together on the anniversary of their death to pray and eat that person's favorite foods.

We went to Gorkem's aunt's house. They have a cat named Kopuk (which means bubble!). Gorkem does not like cats. This meant that the cat loved her. Hilarity ensued.
In attendance to this gathering was a woman who knew how to read fortunes in coffee grounds. I won't tell you everything, but mine included a dark-haired boy, an ill grandparent, a definite marriage in the family (now I'm excited! She was very sure of this one..), a trip, and getting closer to a friend. It was really, really cool. And much as I am somewhat skeptical, this woman was very impressive. I would recommend having your fortune read if you come to Turkey. It's quite fun!

Love,
Maeghan

Anzac Day at Gallipoli

2009-04-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Shall I start with the facts? I'll start with the facts.

Anzac Day marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The ANZACs had set out to conquer Gallipoli Peninsula and then capture Istanbul, thus allowing them access to the Black Sea. What was supposed to be an easy attack became a stale-mate and the two groups (Turks and Anzacs) fought for months before the Anzacs eventually evacuated. The death tolls were horrific. Over 8000 Australians and 2700 New Zealanders were killed. Over 86ooo Turks were killed.

Yet one of the amazing stories about this battle is how the opposing troops became friends of sorts while not engaged in battle. There are stories of them throwing tins of food across the field to each other. One story is about a wounded Anzac who none of his mates went to retrieve for fear of their own lives. During a cease-fire, a Turkish soldier got up, crossed the field, brought this man to his side's trench, then returned to the Turkish side to continue the war.

They fought side by side, and they died side by side. Now they remember, side by side, at dawn on the 25th of April every year.

*****

We got on the bus at 7 pm Friday night and arrived at Gallipoli at 2:30 am. We had to walk 600m to where the ceremony would take place at 5:30 am.

Many people had been there for hours (we were vehicle 219, if that gives you a hint) and there were sections of grass where you could spread out in a sleeping bag to wait for dawn. It was overwhelming the number of people, and everyone speaking english! Every little thing I heard was intriguing. What's that about a pant leg? You got your sleeping bag wet? He said what? It makes imagining coming home a little more amusing. Unfortunately, you all don't have nearly as amazing accents.

The ceremony included a call to commemoration, a quote from Ataturk*, psalm 23 (which we were all invited to sing along to... led to a lot of mumbling since no one seemed to know the tune (Amazing Grace did a little better)), a prayer, a poem, wreath laying, and two minutes of silence.
After the ceremony (which took place as the sun rose), we walked back to our tour bus to start the lovely 5 hour drive back home. We slept.

Love,
A Very Tired Maeghan

-
*Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives… you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets where they lie side by side here in this country of ours… You the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. Having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.
—Atatürk 1934

Jandarma

2009-04-21T08:51:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I went to see Hannah's art exhibition.
Hannah is from Maine (which Canada will be taking over... some day... when I'm queen...) and has spent her year at school working on this set and her portfolio. Her school is now proudly displaying her pieces, which are intended to (and do!) capture the contrasts in this city. Everything from the old mosques and new skyscrapers to the wealthy shoppers and poor street vendors to the fashionistas and the women in burkas.

So a bunch of us took a bus out to the middle of nowhere, where Hannah lives and goes to school. Actually, it isn't that far (like 45 minutes) but it is "past the forest!"

On our way back into the city, the jandarma (military police) stopped our bus. This is not unusual for the area. Her little suburb/town/whatever is out of Istanbul and thus does not have city police. They have the army. And apparently the army base in this area is very cautious. They had us all get ID out. Hooray for residency permits!

Carly says that when she lived in that suburb/town/whatever the jandarma would come around every so often and ask all the foreigners living there to present themselves with valid identification. How different is that from at home?!

-Maeghan

Picnic in the Park

2009-04-18T12:12:00.000-07:00

Amanda (California) had a birthday party today! But let me start at the beginning.

I got up to find crepes! Delicious, wonderful crepes. So I ate breakfast with my host family. Then Carly came over to hang out while I made (she helped, of course!) cinnamon buns for Amanda's potluck picnic. THEN Blase (Michigan) and Garet (Illinois) came over. Blase is "partitioning" his portable hard drive, so he needed a place to store information for a while. That would be my computer. So while Blase did that Carly, Garet, and I laid around being lazy.

Carly just moved families so she went home when we headed to Amanda's party. Which was fabulous! We went to this long seaside park and just hung out all evening. Amanda brought a safety blanket from her first aid kit for us to use as the blanket...
That didn't attract attention... But anyway, we hung out throwing a football, listening to music, and eating cake/cookies/cinnamon buns. It was great. I met a bunch of Amanda's friends and we all had a fabulous time. We stayed past sunset (gosh, isn't it amazing?) and all the lights came on so we continued to play, this time Monkey in the Middle. Then everyone else headed to a club in Taksim and I returned home to watch a movie. The picnic part, said Amanda, was because she knew I wouldn't come later. How sweet. Heh. And I'm probably the only exchange student in the world known for not partying. It was a perfect day.

-Maeghan

PS. Except for the part where I think I did something to my left thumb and I don't have a mother who would fix it for me at the dinner table.

Wikipode

2009-04-17T12:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in the English wing. We were having a conversation about a section of Turkish history that none of us really knew anything about.
Someone suggested we "wikipedia it".
"Wikipedia isn't a verb!"
"But we use Google as a verb."
"What about just 'wiki'? You could wiki it."
"What would be the past tense of it? Wikipediad?"
"Sounds like a dinosaur..."
"Wikipode?"
"YEAH! Who said it had to be normal anyway? It could be an irregular verb!"
"Wikipedia, will wiki, wikipode"

By now our original topic of conversation was completely forgotten.

Fish Eyes

2009-04-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

We had fish for supper tonight. The kind they just buy from a bucket and stick in a frying pan, still in tact. Needless to say, my vegetarian roots showed through when I could barely look at the poor thing on my plate. My host mom tried to give me more than one but I managed to stop her saying the best thing I could think of- "I'm scared!"

Yes, the fish, in all it's former glory was staring at me with glazed over eyes. I tried to eat the fish, I really did. But there are bones! Thousands of them! Millions, even! And I don't like it when I can still recognize my food.

Note- This paragraph is not for the weak of stomach.
I sort of made it through enough of the fish to make my family happy. That's when I noticed that the eyelid had slid up. So I decided to examine the eyeball. The fish who moments before I had been afraid to touch with the thought of eating, suddenly became the most exciting scientific exploration. I managed to pop the eye out to examine it further. Later I got the socket out and tried to get to the brain, but alas! The skull was too small, and I feared that I would crush it all trying to break in. Darn utensils.

So having removed the eye from my fish, I realized that it looked like a white airsoft pellet. As I was examining it with both disgust and fascination, my host dad made an offer.

"I'll eat it if you do something for me!"

And so, my father made a grand show of eating not one, but two fish eyes in front of me and my younger sister. She has to do 20 math problems that he will write for her tomorrow, and I have to speak to my younger sister in English. Now conversations sound like this:

Me- "Dus alacagam!" I will take a shower.
Dad- "Tamam canim" Okay, sweetie.
Me- "Buket, I'm going to take a shower. Tamam mi?" Okay?
Buket- "Dus aliyorsun" You're taking a shower.
Me- "Evet."

More exciting conversations end up with her and I correcting each other. Hooray for learning!
-Maeghan

Happy Easter Everyone!

2009-04-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

A little fact blog for you today.

Tulips are originally from the area of the world I'm currently in. The flowers are indigenous to Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, and other parts of Central Asia. I know what you're thinking: Well then how did they end up in Western Europe?

The most widely accepted story is that the bulbs were given to the Ambassador for Ferdinand I as a gift from Suleyman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire (that's Turkey, people!) in 1554. Then a botanist named Carolus Clusius met the Ambassador in Vienna (which is not where the ambassador's from.. go figure!) and upon seeing the beautiful flowers decided to take them and make them ridiculously popular (see TULIPMANIA). Thus, Holland has tulips. Tonnes of 'em.

You can all sleep safe now knowing the true origin of the mighty tulip!
-Maeghan

Mama Mia!

2009-04-10T11:48:00.000-07:00

Watching Mama Mia with my host family after trying to teach my younger host sister to cartwheel. Anyway. This movie is ridiculous. But I love it. Spontaneous singing and dancing. So my style. Meanwhile my host family is watching the screen with guarded expressions kind of like "What is happening..."
Heh.
-Maeghan

PS. I gave a small speech in front of my whole school today half in Turkish half in English. I got laughed at. Fun stuff.

PPS. I mentioned this film is ridiculous, right?

I Win

2009-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Today Carly and I went to pay for our second trip. After that we went to Eminönü where I bought a pair of flats (black and white, though not as cool as my old ones) for 15 TL. Yes! I won the bet with my host family. Haha!

Also, I splurged (oh jeez..) and got myself a Besiktas jersey! I'd show you a photo of me in it, but Carly has my camera. Minor mix-up there, but I'll see her Saturday so it's no big deal.
Yeah, so I have this jersey. It's black and white vertical stripes, it has a "3" on the back, as well as "CANADIA" which is my nickname here. All in all, I adore it. My host family? Not so much. They're Fenerbahçe. Which is my other team. I support two (I know, scandalous!) but Fenerbahçe's colours aren't as nice on me. Navy blue and yellow stripes. I though about buying one of those since the colours of my soccer jerseys, in order of years are: Yellow, blue, yellow, blue, yellow. But I can't afford both and I have this one now.

So! It was a good day. Sunny. Hot. Uncomfortably hot, considdering I couldn't wear shorts and a tank top like I wanted (it's spring to these people, and I hate walking around in clothes that scream TOURIST!) so I was boiling. Carly (Kansas) was making fun of me. I suppose it's fair since I spent all winter making fun of everyone else. But oh goodness! This summer is going to kiiiiiiiilll me. Suddenly I'm not as excited for July.

-Maeghan

The Last Week

2009-04-07T08:28:00.001-07:00

I feel bad for abandoning you all for a week, but I don't have much to say. School is fine. It's a pain in the butt to get to everyday but I knew that when I moved.

This weekend was pretty good, Saturday night we slept over at Juliana's house. Her mom was out of town and told her she could have all the girls over if she wanted. So we made pasta (I was a taste-tester), watched tv, played truth or dare, and eventually slept. On Sunday Carly and I explored Çengelköy, which really doesn't have anything. Except a view of the Bosphorus Bridge and AMAZING icecream.

Did I mention it was warm and sunny this weekend?

We wouldn't have stayed long, except that one of the other student's host mothers called Carly. This woman's son is on exchange to Kansas and just spent a weekend at Carly's real family's home. I feel a bit more confident in my Turkish now, since Carly ended up shoving the phone at me to figure out what she wanted. I think that being in my new house has really helped my understanding. My new family talks to each other all the time, so I hear how the language should sound all the time now. Anyways, this lady met us in Çengelköy to say hello (I suppose while you're on the other continent you may as well see someone, right?). Then she invited us to stay with them some weekend. They apparently have a guest house we're welcome to use.

It's moments like these that remind you about why the travel guides call Turks so hospitable and kind. Here we are, two girls she's never met before, and she already wants to have us over and cook us supper.

As an apology for keeping you in the blue..

Love,
Maeghan

PS. I have a bet with my host family. My old flats are more than dead, nothing short of duct tape could save them now. I've yet to find duct tape here, so I'm forced to the alternative option- buy new shoes. Unfortunately for me, I'm cheap. BUT I'm determined to find a pair for 15 TL or less. My host family claims this is impossible. I'm out to prove them wrong.
If I succeed by the end of the week, my sister said she'd buy me a second pair. If I can't, I have to dance for all of them. Failure is obviously not an option. Wish me luck!

PPS. To everyone on the New York trip- Have a GREATAMAZINGWONDERFULAWESOMEWICKED time.
To everyone everywhere else- Enjoy your Easter break and make millions of painted eggs and eat lots of chocolate for me. Especially the Cadbury cream eggs.. Mmm.

Miniaturk!

2009-03-31T01:38:00.000-07:00

Miniaturk was quite the place. We all managed to get in as students. Hooray! The prices are interesting. A regular ticket is 5 TL, a student is 3, but a tourist is 10! So we saved quite a bit proving we're not foreign.
Most people took a couple of hours to wander through. There were sites from all over Turkey, specifically in Istanbul, and Ottoman sites that aren't located in modern Turkey. Blase, Carly, and I took close to four hours exploring. Imagine, if you will, all the tourist destinations you've so enjoyed as waist-high models all conveniently located in one park. It was hard to squelch the urge to pull a Calvin and imagine myself as a dinosaur/monster attacking the peaceful Galatasaray High School... but willpower prevailed and I didn't destroy anything.

This is the church in Taksim that Carly, Mattie, and I like so much.

The Blue Mosque with it's extensive gardens and the Bosphorus Bridge in the background.

The airport! Haha!

Pamukkale, the calcium cliffs I visited during the first tour.

Aspendos, where we performed our play.

Cool, eh? There were so many, but I won't bore you with my 300+ photos.. you can just visit me and go yourself!

Love,
Maeghan

Galata Tower, 5 Lira Pants, and A Hotel Rooftop

2009-03-29T10:27:00.000-07:00

Today was the time change. Curse the world. Plus, I was ridiculously tired from staying up late for the last two nights and walking so much yesterday. Well I dragged myself out of bed to find out that instead of having two hours until I had to be in Taksim I had only one. Aka? It was impossible. So I call up Carly, who had also been struck by the time change, and we decided to just be late and make our own way. So we lazily set off for Galata Tower and the Alley of Cheap Clothing in Taksim.

Carly on the stairs half-way up. There's more than you can see...

Galata Tower was gorgeous! It's on a hill. The ferry stops at the bottom. Carly and I, being explorers and in a good mood, decided to walk. We reached the tower (hard to miss) and went inside. No student discount unfortunately, but the view was well worth it. Istanbul, as far as the eye can see!

When we were sure we'd seen all we wanted to, we headed back down and strolled to Taksim. Strolled being used only because the hill wasn't as steep. There we took advantage of the cheap clothing. Tables and tables of shirts and jeans with huge "5 TL" and "10 TL" signs. You have to check to make sure that there are no holes, stains, weird seams in whatever you're buying but it isn't hard to find things.

Doesn't mean they'll be good things... Hannah bought the pants in the end, although I think Blase left the tight shirt behind. Needless to say we were getting some pretty interresting looks from other shoppers. Both Hannah's pants and mine (which were not so vibrant) were 5 lira. That's $3.71 Canadian. Hahaha! Fabulous!

Then, since Carly's family is coming at the end of April, we wandered over to Sultan Ahmet to check out hotels. Try and find a hotel for less than 100 USD a night in a popular tourist district.. However in doing so, a hotel owner invited us up to the roof of his building where we had an amazing view of the Blue Mosque and the Ayasophia. It was the kind of hotel we were afraid to step into for fear of not matching the dress code (which in my Les Mis shirt and jeans I definitely did not), but the man seemed more than happy to show us, and we pretty much went photo crazy on the roof of this ridiculously expensive hotel.
Ayasophia
Blue Mosque

After hunting down a dozen hotels in the area we walked back to Eminonu where we caught a ferry home. And I could collapse from exhaustion. It didn't seem like it at the time, but we walked quite far. Tomorrow is Miniaturk, where I will see everything I've seen here in Turkey at waist height. I can't wait!

Love,
Maeghan

Karışık CD

2009-03-28T12:50:00.000-07:00

I saw Avenue Q. It was hilarious! And in Turkish, which made it even funnier. Mix Tape was sung as "Karışık CD" which had me laughing hysterically. From what I was understanding (yes, I know a little Turkish) some of the content was toned down slightly, but still! Excellent. Harika. Süper!

Today I went to Carly's house and we made cookies and cinnamon buns. Her host parents came home (don't worry, we got permission before I came) to discover a kitchen full of baking. (I think they like me!) I took some cookies home and asked my host mom if Carly could come to our house next weekend so we could make more.
Have I mentioned that cinnamon buns are minorly addicting to make? Look out world! I'm taking you over with cinnamon-y goodness.

-Maeghan

Cinnamon Buns!

2009-03-26T04:29:00.001-07:00

Nothing new has really happened in the last week, so I don't have much to say. Just thought I'd update to remind you that I'm still here. Don't forget me!
I stayed home today and did my laundry and made cinnamon buns! Hoorah! They're really, really, really good. I mean, they're cinnamon buns.
Tomorrow is Avenue Q, so I'm very excited for that. It doesn't start until 9pm though, so I'm going to go crazy waiting all day!

Love,
Maeghan

PS. I hope you've been making yourself cookies Dad. If I come home and find that there's dough still in the freezer I'll be sad.

A Castle!

2009-03-22T08:05:00.000-07:00

Today I visited a castle. Just because I can. There were only four of us who went to the castle, but it was fun. The view was amazing! I want to go back on a non-rainy day. Although the rain meant that there was no one else there except us, which I always like.

The Ferry.

The Second Bridge.
Note the fact where my camera got rained on.. Again. The poor thing is on it's last leg, I'm afraid. It pretty much gives up on me at the first sign of dampness.A castle wall!

Juliana (Brazil) and I by the seaside.

Random Photos

2009-03-21T07:40:00.000-07:00

Turkish Monopoly! Look.. Tarabya is my Rotary Club. I was super excited when I realised the board was covered in places here in Istanbul.

See those flowers and that grass and the Hos Geldin? All Emily and me. There's more, but a photo only holds so much. Note the wilted flower? That was a joke. But they put it up anyways.

Our own personal raincloud...

Dolphins, Waiters, and the Most Beautiful Girl in the World

2009-03-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

Dolphins! We have dolphins in the Bosphorus! Who knew? I sure didn't... until I saw them this morning on my way to school! How cool is that? I saw about half a dozen, it was amazing. So, with something like that to start my day off, how could it not be good?
Exactly.

I went out to eat with my host family tonight and the entire way there my younger sister went on about how she was the most, most, most, most, most, most, most, most beautiful! We made fun of her the whole way...

At the restaurant, I suppose I looked ridiculous because the waiter came over and showed me how I was supposed to eat my food... what's wrong with a little creativity? I mean, his way was easier, but still...

Maeghan

Ps. Dad? There is no Q in Turkish... We hop straight from the p to the r. Le gasp!

Avenue Q

2009-03-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

So.. guess what's playing in Istanbul at the end of the month? Guess who got tickets to go see it? YEEEEEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!! I am seeing Avenue Q on March 27 with Blase (Michigan) and Carly (Kansas). *takes a moment to grin at the tickets in her lap*

Minor adventure trying to find the ticket place. But you all know how these stories go. Let's just say I spend an extra hour and a half riding buses too far. But I got my tickets, so who cares?

Beyond Thrilled,
Maeghan

Ps. It's in Turkish... this could be interesting...

Transcontinental Life

2009-03-17T10:08:00.000-07:00

Gah. Okay. Going to school on another continent may sound sweet, but it is a MAJOR pain in the butt. Let's see. It took two hours to get to school. It would take me that long to go to school in Lethbridge back home... Anyways. I walked, took a minibus, two metrobuses, and a taxi to get there. On the way home? A train, a ferry, and a minibus (and more walking, of course). Talk about a loong way to go.

School itself was uneventful. I did nothing all day. As usual. Everyone thinks I should change schools. There's another Istek school near my house (that my sister goes to). My friends at school, my family, my sister's friends, even my principal (!) thinks that I should switch schools. It's crazy. But I carry a little bit of school spirit, something you don't see in Turkey. I can't just abandon my school! My friends are there, and it's my school.

But I signed up for this, so I'll stick with it.. at least for a while. I'll leave you with a photo of the "giant yellow ball" in Kadikoy.

Important exchange student note #273:
When trying to figure out where you are, always look for important landmarks.. like mysteriously suspended round yellow things that you can sort of see over the tops of those buildings over there...

This is the first time I've ever been close to it.. It is really large. It doesn't look like it from the photo, but I swear it is! I think it might be a weather balloon.. who knows?

-Maeghan

Chicken Dessert and Canadian Breakfast

2009-03-15T01:29:00.000-07:00

My host family took me out for doner last night (!) and for dessert we ate this pudding thing that is made of really thin strings of chicken.. I know, right? Weird. It's actually pretty good, but I only ate a little bit.
This morning I made pancakes, since, well, what else is Canadian? I probably could have eaten all of them. They were delicious (if I do say so myself)! We're off to do.. something this afternoon. I just wanted to tell you about the odd chicken thing..

Love
Maeghan

My New Family

2009-03-14T05:54:00.000-07:00

I'm writing you now from Asia. I am living on a new continent. How cool is that?!
So anyways. Life is good. I got unpacked in record time, and my new family is great. My host mother is going to teach me how to cook Turkish food, which I'm really excited for. I have a little sister, and I've always wanted a little sister (not that I don't love my little brother too...) and I have another big sister (yes, I'm counting Sophie).

I share a room with my older sister Gorkem (and I'm using my laptop again which means no Turkish letters for you!). Our apartments have a swimming pool, which I'm excited for. Our internet is really fast which has me over the moon happy. I forgot that internet could be this fast!

Can't think of anything else right now, we'll see how things go.

Love
Maeghan

Children, Mexican Food, and Anticipation

2009-03-13T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday in gym class we played this odd game that's a little like dodgeball but not.. It's kind of hard to explain. But really fun for a small number of people. We played outside, since the sun was shining!
When our classmates got bored Emily and I passed a volleyball back and forth. Which was fun. Until a small child decided to steal the ball. So I chased after him, caught him and he was freaked out and dropped the ball. I told him not to steal our ball and Emily and I went back to playing. All was good until the kid came back and stole it again. This time he ran into the elementary school and disappeared. ARGH. So we lost one of the school's balls to a kid half my height. Do we honestly look that foreign?
So I hate children. When you don't speak the same language as them they get really annoying really quickly. I noticed this on the bus as well. Whereas usually I would love kids, I find myself wishing they could just turn around, sit straight, and be quiet on the way to school.

Yesterday I also went to a Rotary meeting. Usually they're on Mondays but this week was a joint meeting. It was kind of boring. And I felt like a bad exchange student because here I am, 6 months into the exchange, and I still don't speak enough Turkish to follow everything. So there I was, wallowing in self-pity (I know, bad Maeghan!) and this one guy decided to talk to me. He told me what was going on and summed up what the speaker was saying. It was very nice of him. I really appreciated it.

After the meeting my Rotary club president and her husband drove me home. Somehow the conversation ended up on Mexican food and our mutual love for it (maybe we passed a restaraunt?). So Aslı has invited me for a sleepover at her house and we can eat Mexican. I'm going to make fajitas again. Hopefully they turn out as well as last time!

Tomorrow morning my new host family is picking me up. I'm very excited but also nervous. I know it will be good, it's just that I'm really lucky to have such a great host family already. Lots of students here have had problems with families so I'm extra greatful to Melek and Güner for taking such good care of me. Here's to a new chapter in my exchange- my next blog will be written on a different continent!

Love,
-Maeghan

The Bus Blues

2009-03-11T09:02:00.000-07:00

I would like to offer a sincere thanks to the junior high boys on my service bus, from the bottom of my sarcastic little heart. Because I mean, nothing's more fun than making fun of a foreigner. Especially if you happen to be that foreigner. With a major headache. I know being laughed at sure make my day!

Usually I don't let it get to me, but today I found their laughter upsetting. It seems like when they get bored they think "Hmm.. I know! Let's play 20 questions with the foreigner. Hopefully we can make her feel like an idiot. Maybe she'll use the wrong word again!" When I speak in English they give me heck for not knowing Turkish, and when I speak in Turkish they say "We know English, hocam." And no matter what I say or do, they laugh. Talk to them, ignore them, try to explain in English, look up words in Turkish... Because I'm just sooo funny. Some days it seems like they're really just curious, some days (like today) it seems like they just feel like getting a laugh. Congrats! You laughed. As did everyone else sitting around me. Can you just leave me alone to listen to Thoroughly Modern Mille in peace?

At least I have two more days before I never have to ride that bus again.
Who needs a hat? Who needs a shoe? And who needs you, Mr. Whoever-You-Are?!
-Maeghan

PS. The name of this blog entry comes from a song my friends and I wrote while waiting for our (very) late bus once upon a time in The Hat.

Photo Expedition!

2009-03-09T11:14:00.000-07:00

School ended with me feeling decidedly pleasant. I had finished a chapter in my book (and annoyed my classmates in the process, I'm sure!) and the sun was shining in a beautifully blue sky.
Deeming the light "nice", I went on a photo-taking rampage of my neighbourhood, having been partially guilted into it by Brennan. Here are some of the "better" ones.

The small store by my house. I would have taken a closer photo, but the guy was definitely giving me a "What do you think you're doing?" look..

A mosque, a taxi, and political banners.
(it's election time!)

Hey look! A random hole in my sidewalk. How surprisingly normal in İstanbul.

Apartments! Imagine that.

Bilboards and empty space!

Airplane!

Let's see.. sky and concrete buildings. Note the pastel-coloured balconies.

More apartments.

Aren't these pretty?! Okay, I actually have nicer photos but the cool thing about this one is the ladybug near the top who I didn't even notice until I looked through these. This is the first ladybug I've seen in Turkey!

This is the same bush as outside of my house (in Canada). The same cursed bush that gives you nice rashes on your arms when you have to reach in to fetch a stray soccer ball... small world.

Carly loves the sky here. She says "It has so much character!" Since her photos are so nice I decided to attempt photos of the clouds...

That fancy design on the buildings? Tiles. Like the size you would use to tile a shower wall.. If you would ever tile your shower wall.. It's crazy!

It was out a bus window- be nice.

Hope you're happy... Enjoy the photos- I move this weekend!

-Maeghan

İdil İçin

2009-03-08T12:02:00.000-07:00

This is a mini dedication to İdil, who was immediatly attacked when she signed on msn.
What does this mean? This? This, this, this, this?
And she patiently put up with all the words my dictionary didn't have (user error, as usual) that I came across reading today.
O kız seviyorum. Çok. (I love that girl. Lots.)

-Maeghan

The Lion, The Witch, and the Headache

2009-03-08T08:42:00.001-07:00

75 minutes later and I proudly announce to my host family "I finished 3 pages!"
I know.. it's really, really hard. One sentence will be really easy and I'll think "Hey, I'm doing it! I'm understanding!" and then the next will have me saying "There's no way I'll get through this." then back to the positive with the next sentence, only to be followed by a never-in-a-million-years feeling with the next.

The first three pages of my book are now covered in my mad scribbles. And my head hurts.
I figure that I can finish this book in a month if I work on it every day. So there's my goal. I plan to finish this book by April 8.

My host mother had to put up with my questions all morning, since some words go together and that means I can't find the second one in the dictionary and I get all worried and read her the sentence and then she has to explain to me in Turkish. This is good because I'm learning the words as ideas and not as translations. At least, I think it's good. I'm remembering those ones better. I'm finding it difficult to figure out who is the subject of the sentences sometimes, because of the sentence structure. (I must sound ridiculous. Translation- "After saying good night to the professor, the boys went up the stairs. Did the boys go up or did the professor go up?") But overall, I'm feeling optimistic about this.

-The Little Foreigner That Could
(I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.)

Rain. Surpirse, surprise.

2009-03-07T07:59:00.000-08:00

Yup. It rained again today. I went to Bahçeşehir to hang out with Emily. We were going to walk around buuuut the weather hates us. So we just went to her house and watched a movie instead.

My host mother (living up to her name yet again) was an angel and drove me to Bahçeşehir. This means that instead of 2 hours on various busses (since there is no direct route from my house, I have to travel 45 minutes in the opposite direction to find a bus to Emily's city) I just hopped in the car and was there in 15 minutes.

I did pass through a book store on my way (funny how these things happen...) and bought "The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe" in Turkish. High expectations, but I really wanted to try to read a book and for some reason this one stood out in my mind. We'll see how it goes.

-Maeghan

Freak Snowstorm? Hit me!

2009-03-05T08:45:00.000-08:00

Yup, so it went back to overcast. Can't get to greedy apparently. The world likes to torture me. I just need something that isn't rain and clouds. Clouds and rain.
I am going nuts.

Oh yeah. Reason for blogging today. Life is always interresting being a native English speaker. You get asked things like "Sorry, Maeghan are you busy? No? What is a human cannonball?"
Yup, it really happened. And all I want to know is:
Why do these kids need to know what a human cannonball is? Are they recruiting for the circus? Will this be on the ÖSS? The TOEFL?
Because it wasn't a student who asked me this, oh no. It was one of the teachers.

*shakes head*
-Maeghan

Ps. Actually? I wouldn't put it past the TOEFL. They kind of seem evil. You should see their vocabulary list. I couldn't define all of them.

Sunshine!

2009-03-04T07:40:00.000-08:00

There is something about 14 degree weather and beautiful blue skies that just lifts the spirits. I was more or less blissful on the way home from school, sun shining down on me, no need for a sweater, and English music on the radio. I felt at home.
BUUUT. Little boy on the bus decided to sit beside me. This would be fine if:
a) he knew how to sit still for like, 30 seconds
b) he didn't insist on closing the curtain on my beautiful sun
c) he could stop letting out screeches at even intervals
Gaaaaaah. Anyways. European music- sweet! All the singers had these subtle accents that screamed of coolness that I, as a North American, will never truly be able to reach.
So all in all, a good day. Hello Mr. Sun!

-Maeghan

Learning

2009-03-02T10:40:00.001-08:00

Today was a day to explore. I spent the day reading wikipedia and encyclopedias and looking at pictures in Turkish books and (wait for it..) working through an entire chapter on genetics in a science book (in English, silly!). Aren't you proud of me?
So today I read about Sigmund Freud, Florence Nightingale, Colorado, Turkish artifacts, and genetics. (Fun stuff!)
Then I got home and found a message from Blase (Michigan). He has been so kind as to share with us all a piece of his Turkish Grammar book (where can I get one of those?!):

Turkish Lesson #307

Verb Modification - Causative Tense

ölmek = "to die"

öldürmek = "to kill"

öldürtmek = "to have someone killed"

Higher-order causation is grammatically possible, but stilted:

öldürttürmek = "to get someone to have someone killed",

Or to get someone else to hire a hitman.

öldürttürtmek = "to get someone to get someone to have someone killed",

or to get someone else to contact an agency to have them hire the hitman.

Yeah. The gray is where Blase felt inclined to add his translation, I think.

I am going to die. Türkçe beni öldürecek. (Turkish is going to kill me.)

So that's all for today. Now that I'm done probably breaking a copywrite I'll leave before the authorities catch me!

-Maeghan

For Cassandra

2009-02-28T02:45:00.000-08:00

Here's a regular weekend breakfast at my house. Very Turkish.

This is "reçel". Yes it translates to jam. No I don't consider them the same thing.

Orange Reçel (My Favorite!)
I ate this entire thing with breakfast this morning.

Peach Reçel
(supposedly...)

Er.. That Fruit.. That's Freakish-Looking?
I don't know what this one is. It's almost spicy, and the fruit is queer.

Nothing

2009-02-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yup, updating you that I did nothing today.
Have a good weekend!
Love from Turkey

-Maeghan

PS. Check out Carly's blog
-------------->>>>
Her descriptions of the trip are hillarious and her photos are way better than mine.
Also? I'm mentioned enough that it's worth reading. (to anyone saying "but I don't even know her...")

Guilt and Taiwan

2009-02-25T07:13:00.001-08:00

Wednesday schedules this semester are waaay lame. I went to first period then hung out all day in the Foreign Language Department, with the intent of going to the last two classes (okay.. I know that that's less than half of my classes.. but come on! Math? Literature? Ugh. I almost hung out with Jimena's class for a lesson, but they wanted me to dance x_x)

In predictable FLD style, I was more or less doing nothing all day.. up until about 5 minutes before the class I wanted to go to. So I missed philosophy. Which had me sort of sad, because I like that class.

But anyways. I finish what I'm doing in philosophy and have half an hour left before my last class. Nothing to do. About ten minutes before THAT bell, one of the teachers approaches me asking if I can go do the photocopying (The Photocopy Man wasn't there today- I got to work the stupid machine by myself. Saved me time AND I didn't have to wait for thirty other assignments to be copied first!). It needed to be done before four today. Except that I said no. I have never said no before. I always accept their jobs. So I felt really, really guilty.

But the thing was, my class was seeing a presentation by a girl from Taiwan and I really wanted to go. And I did! And it was lots of fun. By the end I no longer felt bad about not doing the photocopying. It isn't my job anyways... (but still.. I feel obligated to help)

This girl (Vikki? I don't know how she spells her name..) is part of a program through AIESAC called "Meet My Friends" and she and a bunch of other university students go around the world presenting about their countries. She is absolutely adorable! And she talks about typhoons the way we talk about "big snow" (blizzards? hehe). It was hillarious! There are two more days of presentation from her and then maybe we'll also get to see the girl from Poland or the guy from Italy?! One can hope.

-Maeghan

No! Say Something Logical!

2009-02-24T07:44:00.000-08:00

English today was.. near unbearable. We played a game. Boys against girls.
How do I explain to you the way the boys behaved? Hmm.. think 7 Kyles on one team, and a girl (who would probably be me back home) insisting they shut up and play the game correctly... Needless to say this ended with me (only understanding parts of what was being said, in English and in Turkish.. some of their accents!) hitting my head against the desk repeatedly, silently begging "shut up shut up shut up".

The rest of the day was extremely boring. Not even worth mentioning. (and yet I do anyways?) I hung out in the English Department since the library was locked. No reading National Geographic in Turkish today.

Actually! At one point (hehehe) Sean got up from his crossword to look something up on the computer, and I randomly filled in letters while he wasn't looking. As far as I can tell he hadn't realized and was still working on it by the time I left..
It's just that he gets so serious about them! And he does one every day. I've been fantasizing about it doing this for a couple months now. Rather unsatisfying, actually.

-Maeghan

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Not Playing at Decent Times

2009-02-22T10:51:00.000-08:00

Well.. okay, it isn't that curious. But it was slightly disappointing. So I make it all the way over to Asia to catch a movie that isn't playing at the time we thought it was. BOO. So what is the obvious line of action for a Brazilian, an American, and this Canadian? Try on fancy clothes in all the stores in the mall. Really really fun until you fall in love with something way out of your price range. (60 YTL for a shirt? I think not.. 400 YTL for a dress? I was too afraid to touch that one.)

We tried on fun stuff (the Ryan Gosling dress- looked like it could have been worn in The Notebook), crazy stuff (silver leggings that screamed.. well, I'm not sure what exactly they were screaming, I couldn't hear them over our hysterical laughter, but think superhero wannabe meets bad sci-fi movie budget), gorgeous stuff (formal dresses! need I say more?), and the most dangerous- regular everyday stuff.

The last led to me buying a black t-shirt that says:

All

Your
Basic

Belong

Which I know makes no sense, but I love it anyways. I'm resisting the urge to skip school tomorrow just to wear that shirt.

OH! While in the mall I ran into my future host sister. Never met before. Which was fabulous and exciting, except that after the last store I had decided I needed to wear my hair in a side ponytail until the next store.. Nice.

Today overall was really good. I felt so much like me. I don't know if that makes sense, but being here I'm not quite focusing on myself or.. I don't know how to describe it. It's like I just remembered a part of who I am that was missing? I can't explain. But it felt great. I was happy and full and really good. I'll end the nonsense.

Love you all!
-Maeghan

Skating

2009-02-20T12:16:00.000-08:00

We went skating today! Yes, I skipped school. For the first time this year. For the first time ever, actually. It was rather liberating.
It was a going-away party for Jessica. She's a short-term so she's going home to Brazil (just in time for Carnival). We went skating in Bakırköy (closer to my house, yay!) and ate icecream and tried on really expensive clothes.
I was the one dragging people around the rink.. hooray for still being able to stand on skates. But it felt like just as I had finally remembered how and actually started to skate skate, time was up and they kicked us off the rink. Boo.

-Maeghan

Er.. Memory Loss

2009-02-19T08:03:00.000-08:00

I had something to say, I swear!
Okay... um.. the school wants Emily and Jimena and I to make a video of ourselves to send to the school board. This'll be interresting. I'm going to start filming my part tomorrow-
"Hi, I'm Maeghan Jerry from Canada. This year I'm attending İstek Bilge Kağan as an exchange student with Rotary. I love my school and my classmates are really great. That's why I'm here in Bakırköy on a Friday afternoon skating (yup, SKIPPED), while they're all writing another öss practice exam."
Okay.. maybe not the last bit.

Anyways, I recieved a package today from Janine and I was ridiculously happy. At first I was like "what is this thing blocking my door?" but then when I realized what it was I couldn't help but jump up and down with excitement.

Oh! I've started talking.. differently. Like, instead of saying "I don't get it" I say "I don't understand." (which happens to be the english translation of what I would say in turkish). Little things like that.

Television

2009-02-17T10:02:00.001-08:00

So I've been thinking about telling you all about the TV for a while now, but I just haven't gotten around to it until now.

The television is on ALL THE TIME, which was really weird for me at first since I don't watch TV. We watch like, every soap opera there is (Turkish soap operas, mind you) and news over supper. After school my host grandmother watches this match-making show.. mildly entertaining when they dance. But anyways. The thing that really makes it good is the fact that my grandmother also talks to the television.

Oh! And so there is this TV show that we catch weekends over breakfast (and by breakfast I mean 10- 11 am) and it recaps EVERYTHING we watched the night before on TV. Seriously? Waste of my life. Why not just watch the recap? Or why not replace the recap with like.. infomercials- at least you'd make money.

The news station we watch "Star Haber" uses the Pirates of the Caribbean theme sometimes in the background of their news clips (I guess it's epic-sounding or something...) I've learned lots of important words like "earthquake", "marine", and "riot" by watching the news. And I've noticed that I see some sort of riot on tv almost every night. I sort of re-realized this tonight. I've become desensitized apparently.

Tonight while watching the news there was this clip on the "Sea Soldiers" who are off to Sumaria to go and fight pirates (?). Anyways, it's a touching families-saying-goodbye-to-their-sons/husbands/fathers thing, and as the young men board the boat and it leaves the docks it's in slow-motion. And my host grandmother comments that gee, "the boat isn't moving very fast is it?" ROFL. Melek and I cracked up.

Sorry for the kind of helter-skelter lack of format. I'm kind of distracted by my sadness at Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. Even though I've seen it before. I just feel so bad for him!

Oh goodness! Look at my wrist- time to go!
Maeghan

More Photos

2009-02-16T10:58:00.000-08:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24758538@N04/
My photo stream.
Check it out if you're bored.

Paper Flowers and German Class

2009-02-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

I spent all but last period working for the English Department. It was nice because I definitely didn't wake up until around 4th period and had I been sitting in class I would have fallen asleep. All day I made paper flowers! We're decorating the stage for Spring Festival (which is like.. still a month away) which means we'll need a lot. Of course, being OCD I only got 13 flowers done today, but they're also really big and I wasn't working as hard as I could have been (numerous air guitar solos interrupted my cutting... that's what you get for sticking an exchange student in a room alone with her iPod..).

BUT. By the end of the day I was done with cutting out petals for a while and so I went to 8th period. Which happened to be German. Sefa was handing out the worksheet and he gave me one. Then he got to the back of the room and I thought he said something like "we don't have enough!" I don't know. So I tried to give mine back, but he told me I should work and the teacher (she's so cute!) came up to me and was like (in English, even cuter!) "You should learn German, your last test was not very good!" Hehehehe. So I wrote down what everyone else wrote down and sort of followed along. Kind of.

Our first activity was to choose which "Adjektive" didn't fit with the others.
Number five was: chic, modern, elegant, French
My immediate reaction (since all of these words are almost identical in German, I understood it!) was "Uh... they all go together." But of course, they think French does not go with chic, elegant, and modern. Whatever!

So I'm off to google language tool to figure out what the heck my homework says.
Love you!
-Maeghan

Nobody Loves Canada (Cold Feet)

2009-02-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day of outbound orientation and here that means they were choosing their countries. Which means that Rotary wanted all of us to try and advertise. Which is a great idea, except that everyone comes with a country already in mind.

Sooo. I was all alone, every other table having at least 5 inbounds and half a dozen outbounds. AND I was freakishly red. And let's face it- Canada is not seen as a party country.

We introduced ourselves to the parents after we hung out with the inbounds over lunch and then the outbounds introduced themselves and said what country they wanted to go to.
America
Brazil
Mexico
Italy
Australia
Germany
Thailand
We didn't even have anyone there from the last four... Ouch. So after that bitter disappointment (I feel like a bad Canadian!) and a bus full of Canadian jokes back to İstanbul, 8 of us went paintballing!

Done laughing yet? Because I definitely DID manage to hit one person, and capture the flag! SO THERE. Also? I only got hit once. Hahaha. Actually? I had more fun picking up the paintballs that hadn't burst and throwing them at people.. but whatever.

Fun as it was, this left me wet, cold, and on a different continent from the one I live on by the time it got dark. My shoes won't be dry in time for school tomorrow. So going home pretty much sucked. AND I couldn't find a dolmuş ("pirate taxi" as they're known in English?) to Taksim so I decided to walk. AND when I got on my bus there were no more seats. AND I was carrying a whole bunch of books on Canada. But the thought of the döner I had bought before boarding the bus kept me happy, and it was well worth the wait. I won't start on my love for döner... maybe another blog.

However, there was a group of like.. 8 boys on the bus, and they were talking about me. (YES, I DO UNDERSTAND YOU.) Me in my red blazer and Canada shirt and carrying a Canada bag and (I had forgotten..) a temporary "I <3 Canada" tattoo on my cheek. Talk about subtle. Everyone else is in like.. dark blues, blacks, browns- then there's "Canadia" as I have been nicknamed.

Speaking of this nickname, the person who gave it to me called me while I was walking to Taksim because he wanted to make sure I'd made it back to Europe okay. Aw.

Sooo, there ya go! And happy belated Valentine's Day. I love you all!
-Maeghan

Friday the Thirteenth

2009-02-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

It's the weekend- you have permission to do a happy dance.

M

Oof Yaa!

2009-02-12T07:50:00.000-08:00

My brain is like, so fried. I was reading a book in Turkish today in the library. By the end of the first page I was thinking at about half my normal speed, and half way through the second I gave up and read more Sherlock Holmes. Those two pages took me two classes. How slow is that?! Over an hour to read a page and a half. After reading a story in English I went back to the Turkish books. I found one with lots of pictures and read the captions (short, sweet, and to the point!). The worst is when you see a word and you know you know what it means but cannot for the life of you remember. It kills.

Maeghan

Today Was Good

2009-02-11T08:24:00.000-08:00

School was school, a little boring, but fairly bearable. I read a collection of murder mysteries while my friends slaved away in math class. Then in philosophy I read "The Hounds of Baskerville" rewritten for people with a 2000 word vocabulary. Well... it is a foreign language here. But gosh are books funny. Yesterday I read a science fiction that had me giggling like a maniac (actually, planning out my Valentine's Day story did too..).

On the bus home from school I really noticed things. My glasses were cleaner or I was more awake or something, but I just observed things. I don't know. It was neat.

-Maeghan

Benim Turk Peri Masalım!

2009-02-10T07:42:00.000-08:00

(Translation can be found at the bottom)

Bir varmış bir yokmuş, çok uzak bir krallıkta, güzel bir genç kız yaşardı. Bu kızın adı Kathleen'de.

Kathleen'in doğru ve iyi bir kalbı vardı. Ama on yaşından sonra talıhsizlikle uğraştı. Tipik bir peri masalının içindeki gibi, Kathleen'in babası öldü ve Kathleen günahkar üvey aile ile yaşmalıydı.

Yıllar sonra, Kathleen hala üvey aileyle yaşmaktaydı. Onlar Kathleen'e karşı zalimdi. Kathleen'in üvey kız kardeşleri Kathleen'den nefret etti çünkü o onların en güzeliydi. O zaman Kathleen onsekiz yaşındaydı Kralın balosu vardı. Krallıktaki tüm kızlar davetliydı. Kathleen'in üvey annesi prensin Kathleen'e aşık olmasını istemedi yani balo günü Kathleen'i bodruma kilitledi. Kathleen çok üzgündü çünkü güzel elbiseler görmek istedi. Ağladı, ve onun gözyaşları Peri Tanrı Anne Janine'i çağırdı!

Janine sihirbazlıkla at arabası ve sevimli elbise yaptı. En güzel armağanı bir çift cam ayakkabıydı.
"Dikkat!" dedi Janine. "Gece yarıs her şey gözden kaybolacak!"
"Tamam. Gece yarıs eve döneceğim" dedi Kathleen.
"Unutma."
Balo başladiltan sonra, Kathleen geldi. Prens Kathleen'in geldiğini gördü ve ansızın ona sırılsızlam aşık oldu. Prens ve Kathleen tüm gece dans etti. Kathleen birdenbire Janine'nin uyarısını anımsadı. Sat onikiyi vurduğunda.

"Of yaa!" dedi Kathleen. "Gitmeliyim!" dedi prense.
"Bekle! Lütfen. Senin adın ne?" diye bağırdı ama Kathleen çoktan gitmişti.
Kathleen yiderken ayakkabısının tekini kaybetti.

"Tatlı Nektar!" dedi prens ve kathleen'in ayakkabısını kaldırdı. "Ben bu ayakkabının sahibini bulacağım! Bulmalıyım!"

Böylece prens krallık araştırmaya başladı. Her evde kızlar ayakkabıyı denedi ama hiç kimseye uymuyordu. Ne zaman prens Kathleen'in üvey ailesinin evi, üvey annesi Kathleen'i bodruma kilitledi. Ama prens gördü ve birkerede bildi- bu kız onun aşkın!

Ayakkabı Kathleen denedi, ve onlar (Kathleen ve onun prensi) evlendı. Tabii, onlar mutlulukla ozamandan sonra yaşardılar. BITTI!

My Turkish Fairytale

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, lived a beautiful maiden. This girl's name was Kathleen. Kathleen had a good and true heart. But from when she was ten years old, misfortune plagued her. In typical fairytale fashion, (Yes, I actually wrote that) her father died and Kathleen had to live with her evil step family. Years later, Kathleen still lived with her step family. They were cruel to Kathleen. Kathleen's step-sisters hated her because she was more beautiful than they were. When Kathleen was 18 years old, the King hosted a ball. All the girls in the kingdom were invited. Kathleen's step mother did not want the prince to fall in love with Kathleen. So, on the day of the ball, she locked Kathleen in the cellar. Kathleen was very sad because she wanted to see the beautiful dresses. Kathleen cried, and her tears called Fairy Godmother Janine. With magic Janine created a carriage (litterally horse-car in Turkish) and a lovely dress. The best gift of all was a pair of glass shoes.
"I warn you!" said Janine, "At midnight everything will disappear."
"Okay, at midnight I will return home," said Kathleen.
"Do not forget."

Kathleen arrived after the ball had started. The prince saw Kathleen enter. (This is where I put "The prince got on Kathleen as a third party watched" Idil corrected that... I'm still learning, obviously) And he fell head-over-heels in love with her right away. The prince and Kathleen danced all night. Suddenly Kathleen remembered Janine's warning as the clock chimed 12. "Oof ya!" said Kathleen.
"I have to go!" she said to the prince.
"Wait! Please, what is your name?" cried the prince, but Kathleen was already gone.
Kathleen dropped a shoe as she left.
"Sweet Nectar!" said the prince and he picked up Kathleen's shoe. "I will find the owner of this shoe! I must!"

Thus the prince searched the kingdom. At every house girls tried on the shoe but none of them fit. When the prince arrived at Kathleen's step family's house, her step mother locked her in the cellar again. But the prince saw and knew right away- This was the girl he loved! The shoe fit Kathleen and they (Kathleen and the prince) got married. Of course, they lived happily from then on. THE END!

So, what do you think? It took me literally all afternoon, but it gave me something to do. So, what I would like from all you readers are characters. Give me a character and I will write a grand Valentine's Day story that I shall title "Spectacular Spectacular!" and post in Turkish and English on my blog to celebrate that excellent day (since all of us exchange students are grounded this weekend). So, any character. You could say yourself, or a fairytale character, or even just a name or small discription of something/someone. I don't care. I promise I'll work as many of them in as I can, and this will be my project for the week.

Seninim,
Yours,
Maeghan

15 Photos Because I Love You

2009-02-09T08:25:00.000-08:00

I'm not quite bored enough to start blogging yet. So enjoy the photos!
(How The Other Half Lives just came on in shuffle.. I miss theatre!)

Me and Tinkerbell (aka Jael from Mexico) in the Temple of Apollo. It was HUGE. Like, ridiculously. You kind of just stood there with your mouth open for like a full minute without taking anything in. To be able to build something like that. *phew* I'm tired just thinking about it!

"OUR MUSEUM IS NOT UNDER THE WATER"
Well thanks, Tips! One of those bursting into hysterical laughter for no obvious reason moments. I mean.. one tends to notice when they find themselves underwater... lack of oxygen and all.

Me in the city of Troy. Hooray for the Les Mis shirt! Soon after this we made a video of us running through the city crying "The Greeks are coming, the Greeks are coming!"

Hooray for off-season and an empty tourist site.

No.. I don't know what they are. Or what they're for. But they sure are pretty, aren't they?

Me attempting artsy photography..

Well anyways! Evil eyes. Its amazing I haven't bought a hundred already. I absolutely love them. And they come in so many different styles. I myself own.. a pair of earrings, two necklaces, two bracelets, and a plain glass one that I plan to do something with some day. Some were gifts, okay? (Although I'll admit- I'm addicted. ) Oh! And two pins for my blazer.

I suppose you may want to see some ruins or something.. This is the library at Ephesus. It is HUGE. This is one of the best-preserved things I saw. Quite humbling, really.

Lego needs to check it's copyrights. This stone is older than plastic. No one else understood why I was laughing so hard.. I seem to get that a lot here.

A beautiful sunset in Bodrum. It was beautiful, I swear! Some of us just don't know how to work our cameras. Anyways. The whole sky looked like it was on fire and that made the water look like it was on fire. Plus there's a law there that you have to paint your house white. Which means all the houses looked orange and pink in the light.. Anyways. It was really cool.

Well.. you gotta admire the honesty. And the oxymoron. (I always think of Charlie Brown- Good Grief!)

A peacock and a chicken.. interesting pair. And you can't tell, but they're standing under a tree that I think was a cherry tree.. with the pretty sakura blossoms or whatever they're called. It was a very funny sight. I decided they were in love.

Not a clear photo (bus window!).. but they're gathering olives. You put the sheet down and then just shake the tree. When you're done you fold up the sheet with the olives inside and ta-da!

Me at Troy. Obviously this is not the original horse, but still entertaining. Actually, Troy was one of the coolest sets of ruins we visited. It still had walls and stuff. Not just random pillars. Although it had some of those too.

From the gift stall at The House of Mary. This one had me cracking up. And getting strange looks from Asian tourists.. Really, am I the only one who finds it funny? I almost bought some just for fun, but it was expensive.

The sweet dog who reminded me of my own. It was the spots on the nose I think. This dog like, followed us around after that.. Turks don't really touch the animals. "They're dirty."

One of the many engraved stones randomly skewed across this country. I don't remember which site this one is from. But flowers seemed to be a common theme.

I love you!

-Maeghan

Frustration

2009-02-06T06:22:00.000-08:00

I will not miss trying to cook in someone else's kitchen using ingredients that aren't the same as the ones I'm used to.

-M

After the Trip

2009-02-06T02:17:00.000-08:00

So the trip went well. The night we stayed in Izmir we got to hang out with the exchange students there, which was really cool. Bodrum was really pretty. There's a law there that you have to paint your house white. I'm sure you can imagine.

By the end of the trip all the ruins looked the same. I feel bad because at the beginning I was sooo excited and snapping photos of everything, carefully figuring out exactly what angle I wanted and zooming and stuff... by the end I didn't even look at my screen for most of the photos. I just sort of held the camera in the right direction and pressed the button. I did really like Troy, but mostly since we went around making videos of ourselves running through the city crying "The Greeks are coming!"
Oh the joys of not traveling during tourist season. One of my favorite visits was to the Church of St. John, which wasn't actually part of the trip. Over lunch the day we were in that town I just asked the tour guide if I could go and half a dozen of us went and took photos.

Mattie stayed with my host family until she left. So the last three days have been us running around like crazy trying to tie up all the loose ends. On Tuesday I discovered that the airline office that I'm supposed to go to to book my ticket does not exist. This left me very stressed for a couple of days, but last night (or really very early this morning) I picked up a card at the airport so I know what number to call. It's all good. We went to a hamam that was really nice, but sort of expensive. It was neat, and also kind of gross. They scrub off soo much dead skin it's disgusting to look at. But then afterwards you feel so good. I've never been that clean in my life!

Wednesday Mattie and I met a friend of hers and we went to the Grand Bazaar. The woman we went with knew some of the shop keepers, so that made it more fun. One of the best parts though, was walking through the entrance to The Old Bazaar (it's expanded over the years) and seeing the date. People were walking through that exact doorway before the Americas had been 'discovered'. Wow.

Yesterday all the exchange students got together in Ortaköy to say goodbye to Mattie. We ended up in a Mado, taking up the entire top floor and ordering nothing but icecream, fondu, and waffles. Last night was a mad repacking of Mattie's suitcases because her travel agent booked her only one piece of checked luggage. That was interresting. But we did it and got to the airport by 3am and said our goodbyes.

So now with only three days left of holiday my grand plan is to sleep.
Sweet Dreams,
Maeghan

On Request

2009-01-29T10:21:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-28T11:39:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-24T11:42:00.000-08:00

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?

2009-01-22T09:49:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-20T08:23:00.000-08:00

I told you it was fancy.

JELLYFISH!!!

2009-01-18T09:57:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-17T11:04:00.000-08:00

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.

2009-01-15T10:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-14T09:02:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-13T01:24:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-10T09:31:00.000-08:00

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..

2009-01-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

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..

2009-01-08T08:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-07T10:22:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-07T08:51:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-01-06T05:40:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-05T09:02:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-03T09:04:00.000-08:00

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

2009-01-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-01T05:53:00.000-08:00

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

İstanbul + Snow = Charlie Chaplin Style Fun

2008-12-30T07:54:00.000-08:00

So.. we got like, 1 cm of snow last night. This wreaked havoc on the city. And made my ride to school the best morning ever. I saw busses stopped with passengers getting out to push, taxis spinning their wheels in the snow, cars abandoned by the side of the road, vehicles unable to get up a hill about as steep as.. oh wait, it wasn't steep at all! And, of course, people bundled up like the michelin man. Everyone on my bus is getting annoyed because we're super late and the traffic is terrible... and I can't help but giggle insanely in the back of the bus.

Fastforward to third period. I have spent all morning in the Foreign Langauges Department, proofreading. Now I head to my classroom where I present each classmate with a Canada flag, a Canada pencil, and a candy cane. Then, I go to sit down and İdil and Merve and Melis come in with a cupcake with a candle in it and everyone starts singing Happy Birthday to me! Awww! And they all kissed me on the cheeks, so cute!

Good day. Also? My host mommy this morning wished me "Happy birthday!" in English.. and she doesn't speak English! Aw! Seni seviyorum!

-Maeghan

Snow Update

2008-12-29T08:57:00.000-08:00

My host mom and I just had a snowball fight... inside the house!
When she came in she had a huge snowball in her hands, which she proceeded to brake chunks off of and throw at me. I then scraped it up off the floor and threw it back. She shoved snow in my face. I put snow down her coat. I love my host family.

Oh! And when I said my mom doesn't like snow in the house, my host mom shrugged and said "Snow is water, clean water."

-M

Turkish Words

2008-12-29T08:12:00.000-08:00

So.. went to my afternoon classes today. I talked to my friends and randomly read my dictionary, which is how I descovered these GREAT words-

uçuşmak- to fly in a swarm

when I read the definition of this one I broke down laughing.

mıymıntı- slow, lazy and exasperatingly passive.

Hehe, how often do they use this word? exasperatingly passive.

bunamak- to become weak-minded with age.

There are my excellent Turkish words. And now for an update... IT IS SNOWING.

My conversation with my host grandmother-

Me: SNOW!

Her: Snow.

Me: SNOW!!

Her: It's snowing?

Me: Yes! It is snowing. SNOW!

Her: Ah, snow.

-Maeghanwho'ssixteentomorrow.

Rotary Christmas Party

2008-12-27T09:58:00.000-08:00

Oof ya! Where to start? At the begining, I guess. Bah. I don't want to write. Let's see. Christmas was good, but I was really disappointed when my host grandmother, instead of cooking with me like I thought we had agreed to on Christmas Eve, plunked herself down in front of the TV all day. I kept coming out and being like- "try this!" and "what do you think?" but she just sort of would nod and move so she could see the TV. It really hurt.

BUT! On a more pleasant note I talked to my family both on webcam and on the phone. Then, as a Christmas present to myself I called Janine and we talked for like, half an hour. The begining of the conversation went like this-
Me: "Hey! Merry Christmas!"
Janine: "Merry Christmas!... is this... Maeghan?"
Me: "Yup!"
Janine: "But aren't you in Turkey?"
Me: "Yup, Merry Christmas!"
Janine: "Are you serious?"
Me: "Yup, how are you?"
Janine: "But doesn't this cost like, a lot?"
Me: "It's my Christmas present to myself!"
And it was the best Christmas present I've ever recieved.

On Friday Rotary took us to a show at some hotel in Taksim. Emily and I left from school, and had quite a time trying to get there in time. I don't feel like going into detail (sooo lazy) but as you know the busses hate me...

The show itself was excellent! We all had a great time. I tried Raka, which is gross. It tastes like black licorice, which I hate. Anyways! The show included dancing from different areas in Turkey, some bellydancers, including a woman who is apparently the best in the country, and a guy who sang songs from each of our countries. It was really funny. He was looking around (there were other tables with tourists, and each table had flags from the countries of the people sitting there) and naming the different countries he saw- "Nepal, China, Italy, Korea, India.."-took one look at ours... Turkey, USA, Canada, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, and South Africa and he simply said "The UN". We burst out laughing. He sang a song from every country in attendance, and often had people sing along, very embarrasing when you're the only one, although there were two other women from Canada at a different table, but they were not singing very loud at all. I met them after the show, and they're from Edmonton. Small world. Every Canadian I've met so far has been from Alberta.

Rotary gave us Christmas presents... we each got a rug! How cool is that? And it's mine, Mom. (*wink* I know you wouldn't take my rug, although you'll have fun working around the colour...)

Today I was in Taksim, shopping like crazy. Mattie and I met up to pay for our first Rotary trip. And finding that tour agency's office was crazy. The street sign was taken down, so we got all mixed up looking for the right street. Then the numbers on all the buldings were the OLD numbers, everything had been renumbered.. but they hadn't changed them on the buildings? THEN after an entire street helps us (not even kidding, we had a barber, a hotel person, a shop owner, and a delivery guy helping us look for apartment 34) the place was closed. And they don't have their times displayed anywhere, not on their signs, not on the sheets they gave us, not on their website.. Grrrr! We were really pissed off. I mean, those trips are expensive, and you don't want to be carrying around large sums of money all day. Plus, this means we have to make the trip again, and Taksim isn't exactly close to my house.

After we left Apartment 34 we decided to go shopping. I had lots to buy, because the exchange students and my class are both doing Secret Santas, so I had lots of fun trying to figure out what to buy people. Then! I saw these adorable scarves and thought, "well, I have to do it sooner or later!" so I bought gifts for people, but I'm too cheap to mail them, so I'll just bring stuff home this summer.

Over supper I got to watch some protests that I had witnessed earlier today on the news. Always fun to know that you were there when the police came... not. Thank goodness for random churches! Mattie and I hung out in one of those for a while, then booked it to Leven when the coast was clear. I like Taksim as well as the next person, but I don't want to be around when you see three seperate sets of Riot Police on your way down İstiklal street.

We'll see if I can upload a video.. or two.. or three!

-Maeghan

PS. I hope you love me.. these took over three hours to upload.

Garet the Christmas Angel

2008-12-24T10:50:00.000-08:00

I love Garet. I am buying him a waffle (because he loves them) and an angel of some sort that he can sew on his blazer because he has saved Christmas. He convinced Işıl to let us have Christmas off which means that I'm staying home and baking cookies with my host grandmother. Yay bonding! So basically, I worship the ground he walks on, and get a Christmas.

-Maeghan

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-24T09:11:00.000-08:00

So here I am, Christmas Eve. I don't know how tomorrow is going to be, but I know that school today was really fun. Emily and I were really busy, and we played some great music today in the Foreign Languages Department. The teachers are really cool, and Alen has offered to lend me season one of Flight of the Conchords (yes!) so that is exciting.

I'm feeling a little down because Rotary (renamed The Grinch) emailed us saying that we have to go to school tomorrow, and the email wasn't exactly polite, and kind of made some of us cry and all of us upset. Soooo we'll see how tomorrow plays out. Friday is a party. Whatever.

Merry merry merry Christmas, I love you all, and hope you're doing süper!

-Maeghan

PS. Cumpleanos feliz, Savvy!

A Rotary Christmas Ball

2008-12-21T06:39:00.001-08:00

The Rotary Ball was great fun! Mattie, Meara and I were at the Aslı Clan table. So basically, it was just like şeker bayram. We ate really good food, drank wine (well, I didn't.. it tastes like medicine, at least the dessert wine did *_*), danced, and opened Christmas presents.

<--Me, Mattie, and Meara surrounding Aslı, my adorable, loveable Rotary Club president. As always, my hair has decided to misbehave right when the cameras come out.

The meal was intense! I had three forks.. and a dessert fork. Um.. Work your way in, right? Not that anyone would have cared, but still.

There was a live performer, and people would sing along to songs they knew or get up and dance when they felt like it. It was very cute. There were songs where EVERYONE was singing along with the chorus. At one point, a whole bunch of people were dancing in couples, and Mattie and I (having surveyed the scene) got up and danced with each other. All the Rotarians laughed and thought we were adorable. Hehe.

I should mention getting to the meeting. Actually, I should just post a photo.

That is the Bosphorus Bridge. The main one. And that line of white lights? That's what we're part of. By the time I took this photo, I was almost an hour late for the meeting. And we still had to cross that traffic-jam of a bridge! It's been raining lots, and that made traffic TERRIBLE. But I got to do the arriving late, descending the staircase to everyone looking at you thing... Akward. I don't advise it.

After the party ended, Aslı and her adorable husband dropped me off at my host uncle's house, where I stayed the night (they lived like, seven minutes from the hotel the ball was at). And upon arriving, Lutfiye invited them to stay for tea. At 2 am. And they did! Only Turks...

I'll leave you with one last picture- Mattie and Myself, neither of us looking particularly wonderful, but it's still cute. You can't see it in the picture, but Mattie has a total "Barbie Ponytail" as she calls it. Her councellor invited her to get their hair done together. It was super cute!

-Maeghan.

For Kathle

2008-12-20T05:50:00.000-08:00

Dedicated to my dear friend Kathleen... he was almost Rambo. A mass grave on the Gallipoli Peninsula that I visited breifly over Şeker Bayram (in October.. I'm lazy, okay?)

-Maeghan

Perfection (Dedicated to 15)

2008-12-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Today. *aahh* Today. It was, for lack of a better word, perfect. And I'm coming to realize that maybe perfect is more of a mindset than a measurement. That maybe I've been too focused on things that can be measured and compared and not on feelings and points of view. So, although almost nothing today went as planned, I name it "Maeghan's First Perfect Day!" Note the first, suggesting that there will be many more to come. So let's start with the description!

This morning I woke up and thought "Melek won't let me stay home, will she?" and as I rolled out of bed at 6:30 am and tried to see through already watery eyes, I noticed how blue the world outside of my window was. The sun was shining and my thoughts became pleasant. I turned on some ELO (because ELO = Happy) and got ready for school. I made it out of the apartment early. Yay! Then, I cheerily greeted my bus driver (who is actually quite a nice man, and I really like him- I'm giving him something for Christmas!) and we went to school. At school I was given a candy by one of the English teachers, and Emily and I marked some tests (I love marking!) and tallied up scores. Then, Arzu (head of the second language department) came in and asked "I need your help today, we've got lots to do!" (Best words on the planet!!) and set us up making bulletin board designs for New Year's and just in general.

Then, other English teachers are talking and ask, "You guys were interrested in helping with kindergarten, right?" Of course!! "Good, because Alen has a conflict in his new schedule." Yes. Emily and I got to teach our own Kindergarten class. Gong show! But soooo much fun. "You have to be really enthusiastic," Ester told us. I can do enthusiastic. I can do big and outgoing and energetic. In fact, it's hard not to all the time. Especially on days like today.
These children love everyone. We introduced ourselves in English, talking like robots (lol) and then asked them about the weather (with lots of hand gestures). Then we sang songs with them for half an hour. It didn't work out at all like we had hoped, but it was soooo much fun. Kids would randomly come up and hug you, and suddenly half the class would be surrounding you in this giant hug. None of them stood taller than my waist. Awww!

After that interresting class, Emily and I worked on the bulletin board, and made a christmas tree out of paper chains. We also made a bunch of presents. Soo cute! And so addicting. I could have made pretty looking gifts all afternoon, but I resisted because we had more work to do! After that board was more or less done, we started on another with the title "Quench Your Thirst For Knowledge". We had cups and straws and made a giant Coke can. And of course to make it accurate I just had to buy a coke so that we could examine the can more closely. That's just how things work, you know ;D . So we worked on that bulletin board for the rest of the afternoon. I'll have to take pictures on Monday for you! They look sooooooo good! I'm so proud. And all the teachers loved them, I heard "Good job, girls" about a million times today in English and Turkish.

After school, on the bus home my little friend and I had a conversation. Starting with me saying "Yay! It's the weekend!" We talked about PS2s, computers, Canada, Turkish TV, age, and of course, Spiderman. Then, some of the boys from about 8th grade decided to talk to me and him. They asked questions like How old are you? (to which I answered 16, because really? Less than two weeks. And plus, I haven't felt 15 in a long time. Sorry 15. You never got your fair run. I'll dedicate this entry to you to make it up..) and What year were you born in? (Bin doksan yuz doksan iki! Woot! Into the thousands in Turkish!) and Do you play sports?... You get the idea. I caused great commotion on the bus when they asked me which football team I support. "Beşiktaş veya Fenarbahçe" I said. "No! Galatasaray!" Said one boy, to which I replied (in Turkish) "No. Galatasaray is bad." This was followed by a roar of laughter and arguments about how good or bad that team is. Also, one of the little girls looked upset and when I asked her what was wrong she told me that was her team and started spewing all these facts about how many goals it had beat each team by and what place it was in the league right now and stuff... Crazy. They asked me why I support two teams, and I told them about how my host mom won't feed me if I support Fenarbahçe. They spent quite a while trying to figure out how to say "boyfriend" in English. I never bothered to tell them that I knew what they were talking about. Lol. They clued in after a while that I understood them when they were asking each other how to say things (although this happend when they were past the boyfriend topic). After that they gave me heck when I talked in English, and insisted on hearing my Turkish. It was really, really good. I got laughed at a lot, but in a good way. I mean, I laughed at myself lots too. Like they asked me where I live and I told them Halkalı. As soon as the words left my lips I was struck by the stupidity of this- I was on the Halkalı bus... it was a given.

When I got home, I told Güner that I was going to call Mattie about the Rotary Ball tomorrow night. She asked me what I was wearing, and I told her that's why I was calling Mattie. "You don't have a dress?" She asked. I told her I have two, and need to decide which to wear. Then she insisted on seeing both and after loving both, told me which to wear. Then she asked about shoes, which she also fawned over. Then jewelery, and she went through my bracelets, earrings, and necklaces. Basically, she did everything I was calling Mattie about, and more. I know exactly what I'll wear tomorrow night. It was soo cute! And I loved doing something with my grandmother.

I blew a bunch of kontor calling Mattie anyways, but we had a good talk and laughed about our Enchanted Forests (I'm saying good-bye to it as soon as I finish this blog! *cry*). So there you have Maeghan's First Perfect Day. The kindergarteners didn't listen, my eyes kept watering and itching all day, I sneezed all the time, everything reminded me of The Game (ahaha you jsut lost!), I think I'm allergic to the glue we used, and the kids on my bus laughed at me all the way home. Yesterday I would have never defined this as perfect, but this mindset is my new goal. If I accomplish anything here, I want to take today's perspective and apply it to the rest of my life. I just feel so good.

Xoxo
-Meticulous Maeghan
(as Emily has named me)

Day 100

2008-12-18T04:50:00.000-08:00

Yes. It really has been that long. Can you believe it? It feels really wierd to think that I'm almost 1/3 through my exchange. Like, where did all that time go? And what exactly have I accomplished yet? Not much, it feels like.

Oh! And how did I celebrate this momentous occassion? Stay home sick and sleep until noon, then after some breakfast, take a nap. Seriously? How lame is that. I was going to party! Well, actually no. But I was going to be happy all day and go to gym class and be interviewed by some grade 9 girls (I feel so bad for not being there today!!!) and write the 20 years later of If Romeo and Juliet Didn't Kill Themselves. And decorate a Christmas tree. A real, not made of wire, more than two feet tall, requires water, wonderful-smelling Christmas tree! But no. I'm at home, lonely, with zero energy. Boo.

-Maeghan

PS. You are allowed to comment, you know. I don't care if it's just "You lost the game!" (haha! You just lost the game!) or "There was this french guy with a really cute accent," or "Wicked Awesome? You've got to be kidding." or ANYTHING. You can say anything. You could tell me about your Christmas tree or what sweater you wore today or how much it snowed last night or what your math teacher assigned for homework. I don't care, but I love comments.