Nothing Much

I slept in until ten today. It was absolutely wonderful. I haven't slept past 9 in two months, and I only got to sleep until 9 once. All the other days were 6:30 at the latest. Then Melek's brother and family came over and we ate brunch. Then shopping, except that I didn't get to shop, Güner and I just sat on a bench for a really long time, so I don't know why we went. Afterwards we came back to the apartment and hung out. Me and Melek's 2 nefews made a sim version of their family, and everyone talked to Doğan (my host brother who's in Mexico on exchange) on MSN with webcam. I got to be the tech savvy one and fix the microphone. Go me.

Tomorrow is the Thanksgiving dinner hosted by Rotary (of course we're celebrating the American Thanksgiving, I've been jokingly bugging people about this) and I don't actually know what I'm going to do about cooking something. Maybe I should give my host family a grocery list?

Oh! I cheered when Fenarbahçe scored a goal against Beşiktaş and my host mother threatened not to feed me. Lol. People like their football teams here.

-Maeghan

The Snow Monster Ate Her

Yes, it's English class again. Yes, it is always the hilight of my week. Between the teacher who mixes up words (successively rather than successfully or petitions instead of polititians), pronouces things funny (Meegin rather than Maeghan, Marotone rather than marathon, entiast rather than enthusiast) and combines words in the best way (most probably maybe class... or okay class now actually...) and the teacher who uses ridiculous examples (anyone remember the kicking kittens one?), will randomly say stuff that doesnt make sense (inserting words in the WOLF middle of sentences) and makes references that only I get (Inconcievable! Anyone seen the Princess Bride? Anyone?) it pretty much rocks. Plus British-English workbooks and recordings, which means words like "heaps" and "rubber" (as in eraser) are used often. Add in a sarcastic friend and it's pretty much set. Today we were coming up with reasons that the girl could have needed a helicopter rescue from the top of a mountain and İdil blames it on the snow monster. Heh. Maeghan bursts out giggling.

Now that that completely messy, hard to follow paragraph is done I'll get on with it. Today durin philosophy class I was unexpectedly filled with the overwhelming urge to sing. Of course I resisted. But I decided I miss set building. Remember the time when everyone stopped what they were doing and started dancing to Grease Lightning? Set building is so much fun. Singing and laughing and using power tools (like the staple gun or the jigsaw!) with my friends. Here there's nothing like that. It would have been fun to just start belting Wicked, but since I have to see my classmates all the time I resisted. Plus, goodness knows with a musical like that stuck in my head, I was destined to hit a wrong note (since I have a range of like, half an octave). Another lifetime mabye. Now here's the news. (Now ELO is stuck in my head! Why, oh cruel world?! Can't I live in peace?)

Sefa randomly attacked (jokingly, one would hope) the people sitting around me. Grabbing their collars and shaking them. Apparently he was demanding their money. The kid's a character. Very amusing, because he does lots of stuff, not just talking, so it's easier to find him funny.

Today I talked to my bus driver. Just because. I went up and sat in the front seats and said "I want to talk in Turkish!" and he said "Okay" so I told him about how much nicer the school busses are here. They wait for you if you're late and they have heating and air conditioning and curtains and individual seats, etc. Although they aren't yellow. He asked me how long I was going to be in Turkey and when I got here and when I was leaving. It was good.

This weekend is the Thanksgiving Dinner with Rotary. I'm making potatoes. Mashed or baked, I haven't decided which. Baked is less effort but bulkier and less traditional. Plus, my family doesn't have a stove. Heh. Problematic? Slightly. I was in the library today looking at a book of Turkish proverbs (that's right gang in the Crowsnest, I will be having a Turkish Proverb day-long competition!). Here are some of my favorites-
"Do not play with fire, it will burn your hand; do not play with a woman, she will burn your home."
"Get news from a child- they do not lie."
"No matter how tall a tree grows it never reaches the sky."
"A man should lose his life rather than his good reputation."
"Wisdom is not in age, it is in the mind."

Love you lots!
Maeghan

PS. Marita, if you're reading, there's a girl on TV right now who looks a lot like you, but with dyed red hair. It's curly-adorable the same way, and her face shape is similar.

Laughing at Myself

What d'you mean "There isn't any water"? In the entire neighbourhood? How could we just run out of water? This Canadian doesn't understand.

Heh. Guess I'll just smell at school tomorrow. Go read today's real entry, I'll stop writing mini entries after-the-fact.

Feed the Birds, Toppins a Bag!

Yesterday I picked up my residency permit at the police station. Fun stuff. Afterwards, we all headed to Taksim (when do we not head to Taksim?) where İşil bought seeds from a man, and we fed the pigeons. See photo.

Carlea and I went and found the book store we like, then headed to her house in Asia where we ate rice and chatted about things like The X-Files and cute Canadian actors. All in all it was a good day. On my way home I had to go back through Taksim (since it is the only place I know how to take a bus to my house from) and decided to take some photos for y'all. Taksims square is sort of like the Time Square of İstanbul. At least that's how I like to think of it. And since I've never been to New York, it's probably not very accurate, but it's busy and very tourist-y and there are huge light-up signs and street vendors and stores where the cheapest item of clothing you can find is 59.99 YTL (yes they do that thing where it's not quite 60 so you don't have to feel bad, only it's worse because there are no 1 cent coins, so you don't even get the penny back). I love it. There are also cool stores like the book shop Carlea and I like. I am seriously insisting that anyone who's ever in İstanbul go. Not even kidding. They have a huge selection of english books (dangerous when you're a poor exchange student addicted to novels!) and stepping into the store is like... I don't know. But I adore it. Then there's the trolley. It runs straight down the center of the cobblestone street. AND it's red. Pictures are worth a thousand words. I don't entirely understand how the whole paying thing works and where it stops, so I haven't tried to ride it yet, but since I go to Taksim like once a week, I'm sure I'll get around to it.

-Maeghan

Wow.

I just got handed not one, not two, but three packages that my host mom picked up from the Post Office for me! *gleee!!!*
Now go read my other post for today.

Teachers' Day

Phew! Where to start? Today was Teachers' Day, so there was this assembly after lunch in the theater. It started out with singing the national anthem, which I now know most of the words to. Then some little kids performed and although I have no idea what they were saying they were adorable!

I can't remember all the acts, but at one point the English teachers put on a play about globalization in Turkish. Again, I didn't know what anyone was saying, but it was funny anyways. Plus, all the students were laughing their pants off. Afterwards, İdil asked me if I liked it and I told her I did but that I couldn't understand it and she said "Neither could we!" Heh. Nice try English department.

A group of four students put on this dance thing that I adored. Also, the teachers sang and played instruments and one petite woman in an absolutely adorable outfit sang some song that everyone knew, and even though she wasn't amazing, everyone loved it and she was having fun. It was great.

At the end it was really peppy, upbeat, and fun- and nothing like what I'd see in Canada. Just as I was thinking "gee, next thing you know this'll morph into a dance party!" Please Don't Stop the Music or whatever the song's called came on and the four students who danced earlier got on stage and dragged teachers up there and invited everyone to dance with them. I was grinning like a complete idiot. Not very many people danced though, so pretty soon we all had to return to class. Our last class was English, and for part of the class students got up and acted like teachers, and even though I didn't entirely understand what they were saying, it was fun to watch.

On the bus home from school some of the little kids were talking to me in English and Turkish and some jerks behind me were making fun of us. Grr. I'd like to see how you feel in a foreign country being made fun of by people five years younger than you. But I just ignored them. At one point the boy sitting beside me (the one who was trying to teach me Turkish a month ago) drew a picture on the foggy window. Two stick people, one tall and one short, holding hands. He then labelled the little one "Ben" and the bigger one "Sen". "You" and "Me". Awwww!

After school I accidentally wished my host grandmother a 'good morning!' rather than a 'good evening'. Heh. My bad.

-Maeghan

A Power Outage and A Pair of Scissors

So yesterday I wrote my Turkish language test... 93%. I know. I rock. After class.. I don't remember what I did after class.

Anyways, when I got home as I came into the apartment building it started raining (good timing, eh?) and as I was taking my shoes off in the door to our apartment I saw lightning through the hall window. The sky was turning purple and green, waay sweet. So I call my host family, saying "Look, look!" (but in Turkish of course) and the take one look and start running around the house turning appliances and lights off. Twenty seconds later, all of Halkalı goes dark.
Well, I don't actually know if it was all of Halkalı, but whatever. We lost power! For like, 4 hours. It was fun. We ate by candle light, and since everything here is gas powered (hot water tank, stove) we just went about our lives same as ever, except that the TV was off.

Oh! I went to Kanyon with Juliana, Garet, and Blase. That's what I did after class.

Today I went to Taksim after breakfast and wandered around for an hour before taking a bus to İstineye and coming home again. Heh. I bought flowers for my host family, and I think they liked that.

After showering I cut my hair (here's where those scissors come in). Tomorrow I may need Emily to even out the back, but I think it looks fine, and Güner likes it. That's all.

-Maeghan