What exactly is Active Future Perfect Continuous?

(Answer, using the verb walk- will have been walking. Passive Past Simple with the verb sell? it was sold )

Two things to say today. Only two. (I'm thinking that if I say that, I won't go off in random directions like I usually do.) First, I met a Calgarian today. Way random, eh? So I'm coming out of the dining hall and a teacher stops me to talk.
Teacher "Are you the American?" (That'd be Emily, attending grade 12 at my school)
Me "No, I'm from Canada."
Teacher "Oh really? Me too. What part?"
Me "Alberta." The warning bell goes.
Teacher "Me too. Calgary, to be exact."
Me "Oh! I'm from Medicine Hat."
Teacher "Okay. It was nice talking to you." We're both already walking in opposite directions to get to class on time.
Me "Yes, it was nice to meet you!"
Cool. Random Canadian teacher at my school talked to me today.

The second thing is that Mr. Wright assigned Unit 1 for homework over Bayram (week-long holiday, yes!) and then gave us class time to work on it. I am painfully reminded of grade 5 when I work on the questions. Anyways, I had to fill in a table with different forms of the verb work. Past; Present; Future; Past, Present, and Future Perfect. All of those in both Simple and Continuous, and then ALL OF THOSE (yes, that's 12 different forms of the verb work) both Active and Passive. Did that make any sense at all? I'll show you the chart when I get home. Anyways, I don't know the difference between active and passive or past, present, and future regular and perfect. So I ask the teacher. He barely knows, and can't describe the differences between some of them. In the end, my Turkish classmates had to explain the different tenses to the two native english-speakers. Lol. Everything else I just know. This sounds right, that doesn't. But the verb tables kill me.

So that's the hilights of the day. I'll mention (even thought that makes three things) that I have an orientation weekend this weekend, so I'll have lots of exciting stuff to tell you (I hope) on Monday. Also, there is no school next week, so I won't have much to say after that. I miss you all, I don't think I've said that. But it's true.

-Maeghan

Ups and Downs

Today was one of those days where all you want to do is stay in bed. I got to school late (traffic, I guess) and thank goodness there is a boy from my class on my bus because he explained to the teacher and I just entered the classroom behind him. Idil was not at school today. During one of the many breaks I was sitting alone at my desk, noticing how much of an outsider I am. Everyone else gets up and goes to talk to someone on the other side of the classroom or out in the hallway or to find a friend from a different class. I have no one to talk to and nothing to start a conversation with, ignoring the fact that I speak a completely different language. And as I'm sitting at my desk, watching the people in the hallway, a girl in the classroom across from me catches my eye. She is also sitting at her desk, but with two friends with her. She grins, says something, and the other girls look at me and laugh. Then one of them (still looking at me) imitates my pose. More laughter. Wow. Mocked by grade 10 girls in a foreign country.



So needless to say, I'm feeling pretty down. Then I finish my book (Snow by Orhan Pamuk) and I'm thinking 'Shoot. Now I'll have nothing to do.' when the teacher (this is Geography) asks me what the weather is like in Canada. After my short description (Hot in the summer, cold in the winter- okay, so I elaborated more than that) I sit back down and the class starts talking. Now Buşra asks me if I would like to go somewhere in İstanbul with all of them. Yes, I would. So on October 6th (some random school holiday) my class is taking me... somewhere. I don't know how this will work or even what exactly is happening, but I will be doing something with my classmates outside of school! Suddenly, I found myself in a very good mood.



-Maeghan

PS. Buşra spins her pen the same way Mitch Canham does.

"Housewife!"

Let's start with "Beef With Broth". I don't think that anyone who would remember that incident reads this, so let me fill you in.
The location- Drama Room
The time- Sometime after supper in mid-November
Mr. Stockton has sent Kumiko to Safeway to buy babyfood. 'Why does he want baby food?' you ask. The answer is that we need a babyfood jar for one of the props for Goodnight Desdemona. Kumiko has returned with a Safeway bag. "Mr. Stockton! They were out of banana. And there wasn't any other fruit baby food either. All that was left was this." (I'll tell you know I do not remember what exact words were used, but you'll forgive me.) Kumiko is holding out a jar of brownish baby food. The label reads "Beef With Broth". Do I even need to tell you how disgusting it looked when we opened it? After many dares and some accidental spillage, I do believe that Jeremy actually ate a spoonful of the stuff. Sick. In truth, there was banana baby food, and Mr. Stockton did eat it. It's a pity he didn't try the other option.
But the reason I'm telling you this story is because today at lunch the Dining Hall served me some sort of soup that brought this incident to mind, and as soon as I though 'beef with broth' I found myself unable to eat my soup.

What to tell you next? I know! I have a classmate who also reads my blog, and she commented on what I told you all about the national anthem. She also showed me that the words are convienently located in the front of my textbooks. I don't know how exactly I ended up doing it, but I decided I would translate the national anthem using my 6 YTL dictionary. My translation was inaccurate and in some sections complete nonsense. I would share the whole thing with you, but my classmate warned me that making fun of the anthem is a point of contempt (not that I'm purposely making fun of it!) so here is my favorite line in $6 dictionary English.
"Never extinguish my country on to give out smoke most end hearth."
There you have it. I won't be including this in my job application as a translator, that's for sure.
Although my translation of the Canadian national anthem to Turkish was much easier. Less metaphors. Although I forgot to conjugate all of my verbs...

And while I'm talking about this classmate, I'll tell you more. Her name is Idil ans she sits beside me, so I always copy her notes in Grammar class and probably drove her nuts asking "What class is this?" for the first two weeks of school. Anyways, we have a mutual opinion of the school's vice principal. She is a petite ball of wrath who frequently comes into my classroom and yells at us for not wearing our hair up, for wearing jewlery, for wearing sweaters that aren't part of the uniform (my school has hoodies!), for not wearing the uniform, for being too loud, for everything it seems. I am terrified of her. And every morning when we file past all the teachers and they make sure we're acceptably dresses, I find myself scurrying past where she stands. And yet she seemed so nice on the occasions when I found myself talking to her trying to sort out my classes and my books and my uniform.

Lastly, I will again dwell on English class. I've got another example you can set on the shelf next to kicking kittens (refer to September 16th's entry). Today Mr. Wright was trying to explain the meaning of 'housebound'. After several unsuccessful attempts at defining it, he resorted to using an example. "If I shot you in both of your knees, you wouldn't be able to go anywhere, would you? You'd be stuck in your house."
We were doing compound words (with house and home) and Mr. Wright was shushing the class as they tried to match the words in the box to either house or home. When it's nearly quiet the boy behind me says "Housewife!". This was, for some reason, extremely amusing. Another amusing thing in English class was how everyone wanted to attach office to the words from Box A. Tea office, door office, computer office, fire office... I'm laughing.

-Maeghan
PS. From Goodnight Desdemona- What's Alchemy? I can't remember what comes next. I can only remember Swift Mercury and on.

Fear Not The Crimson Flag & My Wedding Dress!

Random title, I know. I don't have much to say today except that as the school bus was taking me home today, I spotted in a store window the dress I want to have for my wedding dress. There are lots of shops here with wedding dresses and grad dresses and the like, so this dress in the window wasn't an unusual sight. But today it caught my eye. It isn't the most beautiful dress I've ever seen, but there's just something about it (and don't get me wrong, it is beautiful). I am absolutely in love with that dress. If I knew how to get there, I would probably go buy it- that's how much I love it.

Anyways, school's good. I bought my English books today. The textbook is boring, but the workbook reminds me of grade 6 "Language Power" or whatever it was called. You know the one I'm talking about. Phonics we liked, the other one we didn't. This workbook is similar to the other one, but I love it because it's simple.

Every Monday before school and Friday after, we sing the national anthem. And people actually sing! Also, there is this very animated lady who conducts us. She does a lot of arm waving and sings loudly and marks the time for the pianist. The Turkish national anthem is pretty sweet. It fills me with a sense of pride, and I'm not even from this country! I will have to learn the words so that I can sing with everyone else (and so that I can put on a show for all of you when I get home!). I find myself humming it all the time because it gets stuck in my head. Like now.

My favorite TV show is on tonight, and I'm afraid that when I learn enough Turkish to understand what's happening I'll be disappointed in it. So although I'm dead tired, I will be staying up to enjoy Aşk-ı Memnu while I still have no idea what's going on.

-Maeghan

Another Weekend

We visited the beach house again this weekend. There wasn't as much to do because it's gotten colder- cold enough that we didn't go to the beach to swim. And it's been raining at night, which means that everything is wet all the time. Anyways, we got some bread from the bread shop across from our house and ripped it up into pieces and put it on cardboard trays and poured milk all over it and put it out for the cats. It was so much fun. There were dozens there. Okay, maybe only A dozen, but it's still a lot. Then after we had chicken for supper, we ripped up more bread and let it soak in whatever the chicken had been soaking in and put that out for the cats.

Then this morning we did the milk and bread again. There were also two dogs that tried to get in on the free food. One was bold and attempted to aproach the ten hungry cats.. Unsuccessfully. So we fed that one seperately. Then there was another that sort of came and watched but was afraid of everything- cats, cars, loud noises, innocent Canadians aproaching with food. So we had to put the food down sort of away from where we were standing and try to keep the cats from getting too close to the fraidy-dog. This occupied the majority of my morning. Then it was back to loud İstanbul.

Yesterday was a really good day. I was able to converse with my host family and understand them. So much so that Günar pointed it out. Then we had these çokosandviçlar as a celebration. Yes, chocosandwiches. They're pretty excellent. And Melek and I had a lot of fun feeding the cats, and naming them too. I decided to name the regulars and started out with Turkish names, but when I started to run out I called one "Rufus", which had Melek laughing so hard she had to sit down.

Also, and I don't think I've mentioned it, the way people motion for you to come (come= gel, pronounced gal) is different, and I usually stay where I am until they come get me because I just don't recognise it. Every time it seems like they're motioning me away. Just something I thought might me interesting.

-Maeghan

Absolutely Nothing

I've fallen into a routine that involves getting on bus #28 two minutes before it's supposed to pick me up, sitting in a classroom where I don't understand what's being said until either bus #15 or #28 takes me home again. By this time I'm exhausted even though I've done nothing, and after supper with Melek I go to bed.

So basically there's been nothing worth mentioning here, my days have been good overall. It rained on Thursday, and I understand what my classmates were telling me about snow stopping the city.

Today we chose clubs I think. Again, not quite sure what's happening.. But there was this list that included things like: Chess, World Languages, Theatre, Library, Social something, Photography, Travel, National somethingerother, and Jewlery. I think that's all. Regardless. As I understand it the clubs choose you (?) and so I got to express my top three choices (Theatre, Photography, and World Languages- in that order) and I guess eventually I'll find myself in one of those. I've also been asking about the school's swimming team and may see if they'll take me, despite the fact that I'm slow as molassas.

Next week looks to be exactly the same, so don't expect many posts.

-Maeghan

Blake Lively, Snow Days, The OC, and Kicking Kittens.

There is absoloutely no thought going into the organization of this entry. I just feel like sharing with y'all a bunch of random stuff, so here it goes.

Idil (the girl who sits beside me) and I were discussing Gossip Girl. And Blake Lively came up. Apparently the Turkish masses think she's unattractive. "She's ugly. And has bad eyebrows." Lol. *Maeghan looks up a picture of Blake Lively* Sorry, not seeing it.

Buying more textbooks today (well I wasn't, but anyways) I noticed The OC and Mr. Bean's Holiday on the shelves among the other textbooks and learning materials. That's right guys, somewhere in this school people are watching The OC and getting marks for it. Where do I sign up?

Again talking. This time about snow (kar). Apparently if it snows there is almost always a snow day. If it snows. Not if it's -40, not if there are 3 feet, just if it snows. PLEASE SNOW ON ME.

Also, while I'm on the topic of weather, they're predicting rain for tomorrow. How do I know? I watched the weather channel on Sunday... AND UNDERSTOOD IT. Can I have a round of applause please? Thank you, thank you!

And lastly, English class. Specifically English 2, with my American teacher. Last Thursday we did idioms, which in and of itself was amusing, but I especially enjoyed when one boy misread the board. This is the same boy who fixed my phone on the bus. Teacher Benjamin (or Mr. Wright) wrote "A pretty penny" and asked "What's this one mean?" The response- "A little horse". Laughed at that one. Or explaining the meanings of words. Like today... "Teacher Benjamin, what does 'shame' mean?" Burcu and I gave examples, but they were shot down by the teacher, who then proceded to say "...like a shameful act- If I kick kittens, that is a shameful act." ROFL. That's when I pulled out the Turkish-English dictionary.

-Maeghan

PS. I went to watch Savannah's video of Brodie and Connor's Accents, and I can't get the speakers to turn on. = ( That video always makes my day when I watch it. I will need to look into my speaker problem.

My School Schedule

I don't have much to say today, except that I feel like I'm fitting in more. It's just a feeling, I don't know what exactly has progressed, but still. It's there. And today someone wrote the timetable on the board so I actually know when I have each class. Here it goes:
Monday.
1.Geography
2. Turkish (as in grammar)
3. Sociology
4. History
5. Geometry
6. Math
7. History
8. English

Tuesday.
1. Math
2. Math
3. Literature (as in reading comp.)
4. Literature
5. Turkish
6. "Trafik" (which I think is essentially drivers ed without the car)
7. German
8. English 2 (I have two English teachers)

Wednesday.
1. Literature
2. Geometry
3. Turkish
4. Turkish
5. Math
6. History
7. Geography
8. History

Thursday.
1. German
2. Religion
3. Phys Ed
4. Phys Ed
5. Turkish
6. Literature
7. Philosophy
8. English 2

Friday.
1. History
2. History
3. Math
4. Sociology
5. Geometry
6. Philosophy
7. English
8. Guidance (which sounds like it's basically CALM)

Today my math teacher let me go to the library during class, where I basically practiced my Turkish words for the whole period. I think that if he lets me I'll do that every day. Geometry too if I can. At least until I understand what people are saying. So there really is nothing new here.

-Maeghan

The Underground, A Ferry, and A Lot Of Walking

So yesterday I met up with several other exchange students and cruised İstanbul. It was pretty sweet. So I head over to the Vapour (ferry station) at Beşiktaş and Amanda (California) finds me then spots Eve (Australia) with two boys- Jimmer (Mexico) and Blaze (Michigain). Now that we're obviously all foreign, Derek (Brazil) spots us and comes to join us. Eve says that we're meeting Garet (Illinois) at Taksin and so we're about to head to the Metro when some tourist comes up to us and says something along the lines of "You guys look like you know what you're doing. Can you help me find this?" *holds out a travel guide (one I have at home)* Eve starts giving directions and Jimmer asks "Where are you from?" Mexico. Of course this is really exciting for Jimmer and he pulls a Mexican flag out of his bag and has Amanda take a picture of them.

Because we're headed in that direction anyways, and Jimmer is now deep in coversation- en espanol- with this fellow, we decide to just take him to the pallace-thing he was looking for. We took some pictures by the gates (because we're exchange students and that's what we do) and then said good-bye to the tourist and headed to the underground! So the subway really wasn't that exciting. It only took like 3 minutes. Then we waited for Garet and when he came we went and ate some food from this set of food stands. I didn't have anything (having just had breakfast).

Then we wandered back to Beşiktaş and to the vapour. Took the ferry to Asia. Wandered around Kadiköy. Eve took us to this sweet Cafe that's entrance is on this hugely busy street in Kadiköy, yet it was nearly empty. Good find, Eve! I will most definitely be going back there. So we had something to drink and hung out and talked and then headed back out onto the street to find a book store. Jimmer and I each bought ourselves dictionaries. We did some window shopping, and then Eve and Jimmer and Blaze had to go. Amanda, Derek, Garet and I made our way through the streets, talking and examining the menues in fast food restaraunts. Like McDonalds and KFC. We ended up eatting at McDonalds, just because we could. I just had icecream. All the fast food was way more expensive here.

When we finally decided to head home, Amanda and Derek headed for the buses (they both live on the Asian side) and Garet and I took the ferry back to Europe where my host mom picked me up. It was by far the best day I've had since I got here. I was losing my voice by the end of the day. It appears that I need to get my vocal chords back into shape after two weeks of minimal use. Lol.

-Maeghan

Philosophy Class Got Me Thinking

Today I have decided I will attempt to capture the way people at my school interact. This is sort of hard. I noticed it almost right away, but there have been so many other things to say that I just haven't gotten around to it, but here I go...

Everybody seems closer- friendlier- here. It's not uncommon to see people holding hands. In fact on my first day of school I thought one boy had four girlfriends. And that they all knew and didn't care... No. Holding hands is normal here. In fact, when people take me places (the lunch room, gym class, my classroom, etc) they grab my hand or my wrist or they put a hand on my back and steer me. Some friends greet each other with a kiss on each cheek. Boys, girls, students, and teachers all do. Not that the teacher came around and kissed all of us- but on the first day of school when we were assembling you would see some students find their favorite teacher and greet them this way.

It's fun to watch groups of students. They tease each other in cute ways. I often see friends rearrange another's hair (move the ponytail from the right shoulder to the left) as they walk by. It seems like they stand closer together too. To the point where peoples toes sometimes overlap. Hugging is common. And boys hugging each other here is totally okay and even common.

It seems like there isn't much of a touch barrier. People hug lots, and touch each others faces (I know I've had my cheek pinched half a dozen times). Boys and girls absent-mindedly play with each other's hair. I watched today as one of the boys in my class strolled up to a group and as he was talking randomly started twirling a piece of a girl's hair around his finger and it was like neither really noticed he was doing it.

Students are also much more respectful, although it feels very relaxed. We are allowed to call our teachers by their first names if we say Teacher first (or we can call them Mr. or Miss), although I don't know any of my teachers' first or last names. Or what subject they teach, for that matter. We stand up when a teacher enters the room. And even though everyone has cell phones, I have yet to see someone take theirs out in class. That's right guys. At my school, people obey the 'no cell phones' policy. (Pick your jaw up off the floor.)

All in all, I am in love with the social interactions here. Everyone wonders why I just watch people in the hallways during breaks, and half of it is just how cute they all are.

-Maeghan

Sol. Sol. Sol, Sağ, Sol.

Physical Education. That's right guys. Last January I was thrilled because I was done with phys ed forever! Yes! Well.. it wasn't meant to be. Although gym class here is rather amusing...

No one had their gym clothes today, thank goodness. Or else who knows what they would have done with me. But we get into the gymnasium (I didn't even know we had one, although we have a pool, so I should have assumed they'd have a gym too) and split into boys and girls. Oh! The other Literature Stream 11th Year class was with us too. And then from there we split into classes and then ordered ourselves within the girls of class 11 TM D from tallest to shortest (I was fourth in line! Go me!). Then every other student stepped to the left and up one so that we were in pairs then sets of pairs got into pairs so that by the time we were done we were in lines of four. Then we rotated and started marching. Not kidding. Then we marched in different directions and rotated 90 degrees and sometimes 180 degrees and the teacher was saying "Sol, sol, sol-sağ-sol. Sol, sol, uç, dört, beş, altı!" That's when we turn. And it was ridiculous. We did that for like, 15 minutes and then everyone went and sat in some bleachers and we watched as 8 guys decided they wanted to play basketball. And they played shirts and uniforms (this took me a long time to figure out.. I was like- Why did he take off his polo? Why isn't the teacher scolding him for not wearing his uniform? lol) and it was a group of boys from my class vs. a group from the other class. And the rest of us just talked. Apparently we go swimming "after two weeks". I don't know if they mean every other week or every third week. So I will just have to ask all the time. And also, I don't know when I next have gym, thus when to bring my gym clothes. Whatever. Yet again someone told the teacher that I don't speak Turkish, so it'll all be fine.

Oh! And as for why we don't do anything- apparently the teachers get sick of hearing the students complain and so they let them do what they want. This is common, says İbike.

PS. I got a phone today and couldn't figure out how to work it so I handed it to one of my classmates who takes the same bus as me and he changed it to English for me! This made me so happy, you don't even know. It turns out the reason I couldn't do anything is because you have to hit "unlock" and then * to unlock the screen... I didn't even know you could change the language! Heh. Also, phone numbers here start with 0 and then have 3 numbers and then another 3 numbers and then instead of writing the last 4 numbers together they split them into 2 and 2. Did that make sense? Let's look at an example- o123.454.32.10

Traffic, The School Bus, And Shell

So there isn't much to say about Shell, except that it's here. AND there's a guy directing traffic to the different gas pumps. That's how busy it is. Which leads me into traffic. The driving here is crazy fun to watch. People switch lanes without having room to and sometimes you end up four or five cars across on a 3 lane road. Plus people always drive fast and have to break suddenly (due to merging) and it makes for a good time. And then there's the whole line thing. To get out of the airport parking lot there are three pass-holder gates and two pay-to-get-through gates. People sort of position their cars facing one of the gates and if that line isn't going fast enough for them they back up and head to another lane. People do a lot of backing up here. Also if the line looks too long people just drive beside it for a while and then sort of point the front of their car toward the gate and merge into the traffic.

When you have to park, you sort of stop by the side of the road and turn your blinkers on. Who cares that your vehicle blocked three cars parked in designated parking spots? You'll only be a minute. Then the cars in traffic have to do their crazy merging so that they can get around you.

There are gates and security guards to get into apartment parking lots (and some of the apartment groups have swimming pools!! Not that this is related, but it's cool. I'm jealous.) And speed bumps everywhere.

The school bus I ride is like the short bus version of the Totem buses we get for long field trips. And we have to slow down to a near standstill to get over the speed bumps. Sometimes the bus stalls trying to get over them, we go so slowly. And then the driver has to back up (lol) and change gears. To get over a speed bump!! And these aren't any bigger than Canadian speed bumps, as far as I can tell. Meanwhile all of the cars and regular busses hit them at their regular speed, no problem. I find it very amusing and have to try not to laugh. Back to that Crazy Canadian thing.

-Maeghan

Die Party ist aus.

Can someone who knows German please do my homework for me? That's right guys. German class. My teacher kept making sympathetic faces at me once she learned I don't speak Turkish or German. At least she wasn't upset that I didn't do any of the class work she assigned.

So here was today's schedule:
1. German
2. Turkish
3. Geometry
4. Literature
5. Recess
6. Geometry
7. Lunch
8. Trigonometry
9. English
10. History

So I told you about German.. Let's see. Turkish. Didn't get anything. The teacher was asking the class what they learned last year. Geometry. Took notes. In Turkish. Mostly I drew the diagrams because he read his notes out and I could not write a word of what he said. Literature- another handout, I just followed along as my classmates read outloud. No idea what it was about. Recess... A random 25 minute break. I went outside. As if the 10 minutes in between each class isn't enough.. And we don't even have to move rooms. You just sit there. Or I do. Everyone else rushes into the hallway and talks really, really loudly until the teachers herd them back into their rooms. Then more geometry. Then lunch in the dinning room, same as yesterday. Then trig. And I knew some of the stuff he was teaching, despite it being in Turkish. Go me. We were learning about the CAST rule thing. Although in Turkish they don't call it that.. Obviously. Then English with a different teacher. His name is Mr. Wright and he's from Colerado.

Then, during the break following that class I asked Mr. Wright how to say please in Turkish and pulled out my notebook of Turkish words I should probably know and wrote it down (lütfen) and some of my classmates saw and started adding to it and correcting my spelling and having me repeat words and by the time my history teacher came in half the class was crowded around my desk (the other half having noticed him and sat down). Then the history teacher asked what was going on and I heard a chorus of Maeghan blah blah blah Canada blah blah Türkçe bilmiyor (getting used to hearing that- the class tells all my teachers). And so my history teacher didn't give me a handout and said I didn't have to do his class or something? And then the girl who sits beside me, Dilan, spent the entire class adding to my vocabulary list and getting me to say stuff and every now and then someone else would add something and at one point the whole class was saying things like su, soda, coka-cola... I was like- I know what Coke is, thanks. And then another girl who reminds me of Ange passed notes to me.. in front of the history teacher, who didn't care! And was asking me things like, where did you learn Spanish (they saw my spanish-turkish comparisons in my notebook) and stuff like that. And at one point she had written "omg." And I was like- Does that mean what I think it means? Does she know what it means? Anyways. The girls who sit around me seem to have sort of adopted me.

I have started to compare people to people back home.. Like the girl who reminds me of Ange. Or the kid who is definitely a Dallas. Or the teacher who's like Miss Lorenz. Or the Janine in the hallway. Or the girl who looks like Leirin. The Linda sitting beside me. It's wierd. And then there's that guy who isn't in my class but has a habit of wandering into my classroom during break (to talk to the Dallas-like kid) who has an uncanny resemblance to Chad Michael Murray. Odd, I know, but whenever I see him I think 'A Cinderella Story'. Of course this kid is Turkish, so they aren't twins or anything, but the face shape and hair are the same. I actually started laughing when I figured out who he looked like. Crazy Canadian kid giggling to herself alone in a classroom. That's right. You wish you were that cool.

-Maeghan

Ohmygosh-theytalkfast.

First day of school today. Oh my gosh. Possibly the most frightening day of my life. There are so many students and the school is confusing and of course- everything's in Turkish. We had two assemblies this morning. I think they may have been on rules and dress codes, but I've no idea. My class is relitively small- I'd say about 20 kids. And they're all 17 and 18. Apparently 11th year Canada and 11th year Turkey don't line up age-wise.

So my first period teacher talked through all but five minutes of class. Then for some reason he started talking to me and I didn't know what he was saying so some girl behind me who the VP introduced me to before school says something and the teacher switches to English and asks me how I expect to learn math if I don't know what he's saying. (My first though in response- this is math class?) I wanted to cry. Then another teacher who I think might have been teaching history or geography called on me to answer a question, which of course I did not know the answer to. I said "Türkçe bilmiyorum" which means I don't know Turkish. She repeats it and says something else and the class laughs and then she asks me some sentence with a word that sounds like Rotary in it and so I nod. Then she continues to speak in Turkish and people are saying stuff and laughing and although they probably weren't laughing at me, I wanted to cry again.

Lunch was okay. After the history teacher apparently told the class that I was an exchange student (thank goodness) people introduced themselves and one girl took me down to the caffeteria where I ate some rice and potatoes and bread and meat of some sort and some pudding-like substance for dessert. There was another class after lunch in which I had no idea what was being said and then I had English! And the teacher was very nice and when she found out I was from Canada and that my first language is English she asked me a whole bunch of questions and afterwards told me that I could ask her anything and that I was very brave to be on exchange. She also told me the name of one of the other English teachers at the school who apparently moved to Turkey from Canada about 10 years ago.

Because today was the first day we got out early, which made this my last class of the day, so the teacher also had another student help me find my bus. I am the last stop on the bus route, apparently, and obviously I made it home. The bell at my school is Für Elise, which is kind of interesting, but it makes me miss my piano. So that was my scary first day at school.

-Maeghan

Barbed Wire

So Mattie moved houses today. It was sad. After breakfast (we ate chocolate cake!) we dropped her off at her councellor's apartment building and that was it. Then we went to my school and exchanged my uniform for things that actually fit and I chose a stream. Did I explain how this works already? There are two streams that you can choose from when you start your Tenth Year (as they call it). One is the Science stream where you take biology, chemistry, physics, math, and Turkish; the other stream is Literature where you take Turkish, English, German, math, history, and geography. I chose the second stream, for the Turkish and history. German is going to be a gong show. Can you imagine? I won't know a word they're saying in either language. I think they said I could join another class during that time and learn more English or Turkish. As much as I'd like to learn German (having been presented the oppertunity) I don't think I could handle it. Oh! And they asked me if I needed grades for this year or not. As in, do you need marks or do we not have to worry about it? I said I do not need any marks this year (because I can't transfer credits anyways.. grr) and they told me that in that case I didn't need to bother to write the end of year exams but that I could if I wanted to. No exams! Woot!

So then on the way out someone pointed out that my school has a pool! And we walked across some nice outdoor games courts into another building and low and behold- a full pool! Hooray! This is very, very exciting. Also, my school had brochures. I grabbed one on my way out as well.

After the stop at the school, we visited Melek's brother. He lives in what is essentially a condo on the Asian side of İstanbul. He has two sons who are adorable, and the older one tried on his school uniform to show Günar and Melek. So cute. If I could have I would have told him that he would be melting the young ladies' hearts in Canada, but I don't speak Turkish. And maybe 8 year old girls' hearts don't melt at the sight of little boys in blazers, sweater vests, and ties... But anyways. We brought icecream to their house, and I had some pretty delicious icecream. Turkish icecream is apparently thicker than Canadian icecream (or at least the stuff I'm used to) and so when you try to take a spoonful, it (now this is hard to describe) stretches (?) like cheese does when you take a piece of pizza. Does that make sense? Anyways, it threw me for about one spoonful, but after that it was just delicious dairy product. My host family buys whole milk, so I haven't had my four glasses a day in a week and a half.

On our way home we picked up tights (that's right, the uniform requires tights) and what is now my key to the apartment. Then I had to move all of my things to Mattie's room where I now reside. And that's where it's at. Oh yeah! The fence around the perimeter of my school is topped with barbed wire and there's a security guard and a gate to get in. Exciting. Expect a blog tomorrow. If I don't get lost on the way home...

-Maeghan

The Grand Bazaar

I don't even know what to say! Total sensory overload. There is so much of everything. People and cars and merchandise and noise and things to see and old buildings and new ones and I don't have any idea of where to start! Let's see.

Melek took us to İstanbul's version of "downtown" which was new stores in old buildings and street vendors and cobblestones and C-trains all in the same place. Mattie and I bought quite a few postcards from booths along the street. Then we enter a building and I think "mall". Not quite. I am in the Grand Bazaar, and Günar motions for me to hold my purse to me, which I do for the entire night. There are SO many people crowded into the covered marken that I didn't have time to really look around because I was afraid of losing Melek in the crowd. But basically she winds this crazy path through the halls of this building until I have no idea what direction is where we came from and we exit into an outdoor market, more touristy than the one I visited last weekend. We strolled around and bought envolopes and baked potatoes and some sort of candy on a stick and had a grand time.

But oh! The indoor section was crazy! There was barely room for another person and everyone was moving and going about their business and if you were in their way it was like a game of chicken and whoever ducked out first must be a tourist. And the vendors were talking to everyone and anyone and some would offer me things in Türkçe but some would offer me things in English and everyone was talking. You would walk by a store and if your eyes lingered too long on any one item someone was trying to sell it to you and if you were bold enough (or stupid enough, in my case) to point at something- good luck! I would love to go back when I'm fluent in Turkish, but until then I would fear death by overeager sales people.

I also saw a mosque, though I'm not sure which one it was. It was huge! And we weren't able to go in because Melek and Mattie and I were all wearing sleeveless shirts. At the door they had a basket of what I assume are headscarves for tourists to borrow when they wish to enter, so that wouldn't have been a problem. I will get to see inside eventually- I am here for a year.

Well it's 2:30 am here and I am exhausted, so if I think of more to write, I'll post tomorrow.

-Maeghan

It's A Short One This Time.

So I'm watching TV (suprise, suprise) and some of the characters are like, ten year old kids. So It flips from the adults (after one girl casts a spell on another). I know. Kid shows! And it flips to the kids walking down the school hallway.
Me- Hey! Those are my school colours.
Their shirts even look like the little kid uniforms I saw.
*camera changes angle*
Oh my gosh! That's my school logo! MATTIE! MY UNIFORM IS ON TV!!!
Mattie- That's great Maeghan.

It was seriously exciting.

-Maeghan

Everything

Okay. Life here is desperately boring. Mattie and I spend all day in the apartment while Melek works. We have no imagination and end up doing the same thing every day. Thus far I've watched a lot of MTV and football. There is this one soap opera that we've been watching with Melek all evening and I am dying to know what is happening. There are a lot of soap opera gorgeous people and one of the plots involves a picture in the paper of some of the main characters eatting out. Everyone who sees it is upset. I don't understand at all. Then there's this guy who beat his kid. And I think the wife might take the kid and leave.. Who knows? Anyways, Mattie said she'd buy me the box set when I leave Turkey so I can figure out what all of this is about.

Did I tell you all that YouTube is blocked by the Turkish government? Mattie and I wanted to look up a music video we saw on TV and couldn't view it. Lame. So basically we decided to play sims instead and made this freakishly eccentric family with a ridiculous house. Then we made sims of ourselves. They adopted a kid dressed in a panda suit.. only ın sims. Tomorrow we should do something more productive.

I used your strategy, Dad, and we're switching my clothes on Saturday, I think. I also still need shoes for school (and maybe white tights) and Mattie and I want to find postcards to send home. It's half us just wanting to get out of the apartment, really. It's so small and very hot and even just to go to the garden in between this apartment and the next one would be good.

There are stray animals everywhere here. I can see at least one dog (köpek) out my window all the time. They're so thin! I feel terrible and want to go feed them, but I'm afraid that a) I'll lock myself out of the apartment, b) I'll get bitten and die from rabies, or c) Someone will talk to me in Turkish. I know the last fear is weird, but I don't want to speak to a stranger in a foreign country when I don't know what they're saying. There were more cats (kedi) near the beach house, and they wandered through the yard all the time. On Saturday night we had chicken wings for supper and Melek left the bones out in the garden for the cats to have. When I watch people walk by them it's like they don't even notice, which is probably true. I wonder if anyone keeps them as pets, or if this is uncommon. I would think it would be with the number of apartment buildings here. I've yet to see an animal on a leash.

So now you know nearly everything I've contemplated over the last few days. Hopefully I'll have something interesting to write soon. The reason I'm posting so much is because I have nothing to do. Comment and tell me if you want less.

-Maeghan

Oops.

So this fashion show has made me realize how huge the clothes they deemed "right" really are. Like, it's painful. I really really hope that gym class is gender seperated because I'm going to lose my pants if I try to run. Yes, it's that bad. And I have no vocabulary to explain this to my host mom. And yet even if I could , I would feel terrible if we had to go back to the school to switch them. Okay. Let me try to explain the size of my stuff. Savannah. My sweater (the class one, not the gym one) would fit your brother. In length and width. My gym clothes. Worse. Okay Dad. Josh would fit into my gym clothes. Not kidding. I could sew my pants into footie pyjamas without having to add any fabric to them. And that's when they're sitting above my waist. Even the long-sleeve shirt is too big. I just realized that I have to tuck my shirts in (gosh am I slow) which means that the skirt's waist is too large. The only thing that fits is my gym shirt. I may cry. How do I explain this all to my host mom? And how do I tell her that I need to buy shoes for school too? And how did I ever agree to all of these clothes? Everyone was nodding and saying stuff in Turkish and so maybe I just nodded and smiled along with them. WHY?!?! This is saddening to the extreme. I was so excited. Now I'm crushed. Someone help me. Do I need tights? What colour? What I really need is a translator.

-Maeghan