Home Sweet Home

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

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

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...

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

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!

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!

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