Photo Expedition!

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

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

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.

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!

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!

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

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