My Fishy Enounter

 

Okay I really like fish, which is good considering I'm in a sea town. But I have never ever had fish served to me like this:

Yep! That is a whole fish; head, eyes, brain.. the whole nine yards. The good thing was that this presentation didn't stop me from eating most of the fish. I got to the eyes and just couldn't do it. It was like they were staring at me pleading with me not to eat them. However, my host family made me eat the fish brain. My host sister showed me how to get that part of the head and then she just sucked the brain out of the fish's head. Needless to say, I could not simply suck the brain out, so I scraped it out with my knife. I have to say it was good!(once you got past the fact that you were eating a brain)

Gotta love the food here!

Monica



Mary's House!

              Today is Sunday and I woke up at about 6 or so (it was still dark) to the sound of the louder than usual call to prayer. I have no idea why it was louder, but I have not heard it that early before. I'm getting used to hearing the call to prayer and it sounds nothing like I had imagined it would sound like (but I don't know what that was). For anyone who doesn't know, the call to prayer is a call (sounding a lot like someone saying 'ai yi yi' a bunch of time with different tones) for Muslims to pray to Mecca. You can hear it everywhere because there are mosques everywhere. I usually hear it right after lunch and after school gets out and again around 7 o'clock. Now, I haven't actually seen what people are supossed to do when they hear this. My host mom informed me that not many people actually do what their supossed to anymore. But, the call still sounds 5 times each day.
             My host family had a beautiful long dining table that they never eat at...until this morning, when a friend of my host mom had breakfast with us. I thought it was nice to eat at the dining table instead of the little table in the kitchen. Anyways, I love Turkish breakfasts. There is usually a TON of bread and jam and cheese. We also had olives, tomatos and cucumbers in olive oil and mint, and, of course, tea. The bread here is simply divine and there are so many different kinds: bread with cheese in it, bread with sesame seeds, plain bread, bread with tomatos...you get the idea. I'm getting used to the cheese. It is very different from American cheese, but I don't know why. I keep trying to figure it out, but I haven't been successful.
              After breakfast, we drove to Kuşadası. It is right near the sea and very beautiful. There where two cruise ships in the harbor so Kuşadası appeared to be a tourist town.



After that, my host family decided to take me past Ephasus and up to Mary's house. I only caught a glimpse of Ephasus and it looks spectacular!! Mary's house is the place where Mary, the mother of Christ, is believed to have spent her last years. There is a little chapel there and right outside the chapel, you can light a candle and make a wish.

Serim and I lighting our candles

My candle (and all the other ones)

In front of Mary's house

This wall is under the house and you can tie

a piece of cloth or ribbon on it to make a wish.

I guess wishes made here are supossed to come true.

                So overall, it was a very good day! Tomorrow I get (well okay more like have to) go to school tomorrow, so it's back to the routine.

Monica :)

 

Tenses and Driving and Pancakes...Oh my!
 

So today I discovered why the kids in my class have touble with the differance between the present simple tense and the present continuous tense. The tenses are just one single tense in Turkish! For example: if you say he is making- you say yapıyor. If you say he makes- you also say yapıyor. The word is the same for both tenses. I thought this was the most simple thing in the world, but once I saw it from their perspective, it got a lot trickier. However, it makes the Turkish present tense very easy for me to understand. :D I am trying to learn tenses, verb forms, and sentence structure now, because what good is it to know a bunch of words and not be able to make a simple sentence with them? It's easier than I thought it would be but it's still a very difficult language.

Now to driving. After being here a week, I have learned there is only one rule when it comes to driving: drive where ever there's a space. Turkish people drive on the left just like in the U.S but there are very few rules. People can talk on their cell phones, they rarely wear their seatbelts and while most vehicles stop at stop lights, some still don't, especially if the vehicle is a taxi. Cars absolutly never stop for pedestrians, so crossing the street is sort of like a hit and miss game. You have to watch traffic very carefully and when there's a gap RUN!!! There is a really busy main road right in front of our apartment so it's very, very noisy. I think I can say that I'm getting used to it though, considering the sound no longer wakes me up at 6:30. It's crazy...but I love it! :)

One last thing: I made pancakes for my host mom and Serim(my host sister) today. They loved them! True, they were made from a mix, but they still tasted very much like pancakes. I'm starting to get used to the food here, but it is a daily thing and each day I get more and more accoustomed to the differents spices and herbs.

Monica

Back to being a new kid

 

Well I have now started school. It is so vastly different from the U.S.!! Let me explain.

School starts at 8:45 and goes until 4:40; just about 9 hours. The classes are 40 minutes long; there are 9 classes each day. I am in one room with my fellow 15 classmates and the teachers come to the room for each class. The classes are not the same from day to day. For example, Monday I did not have math class, but Tuesday I did, and then again Wednesday I did not. I am what they call a "language student." This means that I have lots of language classes: English, Turkish, Literature (in English and Turkish) Geography, Philosophy, Sociology, and even 2 hours of German(in Turkish) a week. Then I have 2 hours of math a week, because the other students in my class have to prep for the college entrance test. I am currently in the 11th grade, but the kids in the class are all my age. We get 10 minutes between classes for socializing between the classes. The English teachers expect to participate and do the work, but the Turkish teachers tell me I don't have to do anything because I will not be taking exams for those class. SO I just sit through the Turkish classes and listen. It is rather boring, but at the same time, I am learning sounds and pronunciation. I don't speak Turkish and I know a limited number of words. The kids in my class give me a new word every couple of minutes and so I have a long list of new words in my binder for school. However, everytime I do say a word, they exclaim and appaud even if it's as simple as 'thank you.' They say my pronunciation is better than the pronunciation of people who have been here for years. =D
I am going to a private school. Well okay almost all the schools in Izmir are private schools, so it's normal. However, it is really strict. No cell phones, no drinking anything during class, no chewing gum, no wearing make-up or jewelry, and of course we have to wear our uniforms at all times. I don't really mind all the rules because I love my class. People here are very comfortable in their own skin. They have no personal space and are so very friendly. They accepted me right away and after 3 days, they treat me like I belong in the class. One guy said that they like me and don't think of me as a foreginer. It is so nice!! The kids all speak English and about 4 or more classes of my day are in English. Did I mention they are nice? I almost cannnot believe how nice and considerate they are. I have never ever experianced such kindness and acceptance.
There is another thing. There are Turkish flags EVERYWHERE!!! At school, at the bazar, on the balconies of homes, and strung though the streets. There is so much national pride here; they love their counry and are definitely not afraid to show it.
There is so much more, but it will have to wait for another post.

 

 

'Til then, here is a photo of my first swim in the Mediterranean Sea!!

Monica

 

Across the Alps to the Sea

 

Wow I cannot believe I am here in Turkey!! It has been a crazy and packed 2 days here and I am in love with this country.

My flights were crazy and long! It was so hard to say goodbye to my family, but at the same time I was ready to head off. Thankfully when I got into the security line, the really nice guy in front of my started talking to me about where I was going so I didn't have a chance to think about leaving. I sat at the gate to my plane for 2.5 hours because we had gotten to the airport 4 hours early! Okay...flying is not as terrifying as I had thought because I'm still alive. When we got to Chicago, I got off the one plane and about 5 minutes later I got on the flight to Munich. That plane was huge and nice, but the entire 8 hour flight, I could only sleep for about 1 hour. It was very hard to get comfortable in the small sitting space. We got to Munich about an hour ahead of schedule, leaving me with a 3 hour layover. Thankfully, Torvald(an exchange student from Portland) and Samantha(a very nice and helpful lady from Chicago) were with me so we had fun walking through the airport and bemoning how expensive everything was. Samantha had a lot of information about Turkey, because she had been there before so she helped calm all the nerves that had started to surface. I was exhaused at that point though because I had only had about 3 hours of sleep, including the sleep from the night before I left. The flight to Izmir was very bumpy and they had very good food. We flew over the Alps and it was clear enough that you could see them through the little wispy clouds. Those mountians are the most beautiful mountains I have ever seen, and they went on for hundreds of miles!!
We landed in Izmir and it was so hot and humid. I was not expecting that! I met my host mom and sister and then Rotary sat us(Torvald and I and our host families) down and went over some courtisies and important things. Then my host family took me to my new home. I love it!! There is a balcony that overlooks the Mediterranean Sea. I can look at the sea when ever I want and it's simply crazy!! I am so blessed to be here but right now it's almost like I am in a trance and none of this is real. I am so tired though and hope that my sleep will even itself out soon.
I'll catch up on my first couple of days later but school starts tomorrow, and I need my sleep. :)