Time Flies

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

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!

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

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

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!

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

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