Turkish Classes, New Friends, and Everything in Between

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. The good news is that I've been too busy to post. That is a good thing, really! I've found ways to keep myself busy. =D
Turkish classes started last Saturday. Thank goodness; I figure now my Turkish should pick up. I have two teachers: one teaches conversational Turkish and the other teaches grammer and vocab. The first teacher speakes no English at all which is very good. I understand most of what she is teaching, so that's already really good. The grammer is getting easier to understand mostly because there are no exceptions. If you add -lar to a word to make it plural, that's the way it ALWAYS is. No random, nonsensical exceptions (the more I learn about Turkish grammer, the more I see that English grammer is rediculously complicated). It's still hard to form sentences because everything is backwards, but it helps to not worry about exceptions.
After Turkish classes, the other exchange students and I spend the rest of the day hanging out. We'll go get something to eat, or bring stuff for a picnic, and then basicly sit around and talk, or walk around looking at shops. It's so much fun to all hang out together. No one knows and exchange student better than another exchange student.
I made a cake for my host family last weekend. I've started to realize that I really like cooking and being in the kitchen. I've also realized that metric units are much easier to memorize than U.S units. Honestly 280g of flour is easier to remember than 2 1/3 cups. I made a white cake and it turned out pretty well.

 I think we finished it in less than a week.

Above are pictures from my class trip to the zoo. We spent probably 2 hours wandering through this huge zoo. Since it was the middle of the week, we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. I loved it! The last time I went to the zoo was probably when I was 7 or so. There were no panda bears which was a tad disapointing, but there were a bunch of other really cool animals to make up for the lack of pandas. Funny thing: they had horses in the zoo. I had to stop myself from laughing because everyone was excited to see the horses, and I kept thinking 'what are horses doing in a zoo?' I guess it's because I'm from the country where you see horses way more often. Ahhh gotta love city people!

 





  

This is a picture of most of the people in my class. There's 16 of us total, 8 boys and 8 girls. As you can tell, we have a uniform. I don't hate the uniform, but I'm not sure I really love it either. Eh, at least I don't have to worry about what to wear in the mornings.

I don't think I can say enough about these people. They completely accepted me from the start of my exchange here, and they have become like my family here. I mean for them to accept me right away is not something I had expected. They never judged, they were just curious about me, my hometown, and my life in the U.S. I have been SO blessed with my class. They are a great example of the hospitality of Turkish people! They think I'm really cute and sweet, and I love being seen that way. I don't have to be the super smart nerd here, I can just be me. It takes a lot of pressure off.  

One final note: I really hate all you Quincy people who are getting snow! Okay I don't hate you, but I wish that snow was something you could send across the continents. Sadly, this dream will not be realized. :( SO ENJOY YOUR 4+ INCHES OF SNOW!! (and know that I'm really jealous) :D

 

Monica