Bodrum Weekend!

Let's take a trip to the past... meaning March. The last weekend in March, we went down to the south of Turkey to an amazing city called Bodrum! Bodrum is probably even more modern that Izmir is. It is a sea town and there are no apartments, just really big beautiful houses. It looks a little like a Greek coastal town, because all the buildings are white and Bodrum is right on the sea. 

Our journey started on a bus! Annie and Riad came down from Bursa to spend the night on Friday, and then Saturday morning, we got on the bus to go to Bodrum. The trip took about 4 hours and I spent most of it sleeping. Buses here are nice to you, meaning they give out free water and tea and snacks. It's not that bad, just rather uncomfortable. 

When we got to Bodrum, we were welcomed by the Rotary club who took us down to the seaside where the Rotary was sponsoring a cultural fair. There were people from different countries selling food and souvenirs from their countries to benefit Rotary International. There was a lady from the US selling cookies and all of us Americans had to buy a couple. They were very good! Then, Rotary took us to a castle on the seaside. This castle was built by the Crusaders so it was really old, yet still wonderfully preserved.

I had so much fun wandering around the castle. I really do love castles. After the castle, we headed down to a boat and took pictures on it for fun.

Then we went to stay with our different Rotary families. I stayed with the family of the girl who is coming to District 5060 next year. She took me out that night to meet her friends at Starbucks and see the docks at night. Bodrum is really beautiful!

The next morning, we had a big brunch with the Rotarians and then went to a museum with many models of sailing and fishing boats, as well as a HUGE collection of absolutely beautiful seashells. I forgot my camera so I don't have photos, but they were breathtaking. Then, sadly, we had to say goodbye to Bodrum. We took the bus home to Izmir, where I celebrated Easter with my family. It was probably one of my favorite trips since coming here.

At the castle

America!

Ailem! My family

The awesome American girls

Monica :)

Protests!

Hello. I've finally finished school, so that means I have all my mornings, afternoons and, after dance, my evenings school and obligation free! I'll tell you all about school later. I've got a lot of catching up to do, but today I want to start with something that has been happening here recently. The nationwide protests in Turkey. Now the fact that I'm writing this means that I'm alive. I'm alive and cooped up at home because of the craziness of the protests happening not 30 minutes from my home. 

But this:

is what my city looked like on Saturday. Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in protests of the Turkish government's policies. I'll try to explain.

In the city of Istanbul, there is a place called 'Taksim' and in Taksim there is a park. This park is the only green place left in the center part of Istanbul and Taksim is a well known hang out place for the Turkish people. The government decided that they would demolish this place and build a shopping mall and mosque in its place. This made a lot of people very angry and they organized a peaceful sit-in at the park to protest the demolition. On the morning of the sit-in, police entered the park and began to use tear gas and rubber bullets to attack the protesters. They beat them and tried to drive them out of the park. This action sparked a full blown demonstration by the Istanbul city against the government. The government has also banned the advertisement of alcohol, tried to ban the sale of alcohol within 100 meters of  any school, mosque or government building, has put a ban on any public displays of affection causing protests in Ankara, has pushed for the building of more mosques than are needed and has tried to make the government more religious. This has infuriated modern Turks, who refuse to give up the secular freedoms they have had for the last 80+ years. The protests against the park's demolition turned into nationwide uprisings against injustice. Let me say though, that all the protests started out peacefully. No harm was done until the police attacked the people. In Izmir, government buildings were broken into and I heard that a few were burned.
When this first started, the government put pressure on the new channels and so none of the demonstrations were broadcasted. A few days ago, the new people began to show footage and cover the uprisings because the word spread through social media like wildfire. My facebook is covered with posts about the things going on in cities around the country. The government tried to block the internet but they were unsuccessful. We want the world to be aware of the crimes the Turkish government is committing against its own people.

Now again, I'm home and safe!! I'm not going out there until it calms down a bit and who knows when that will happen. Please educate yourselves and your neighbors about the things happening, and pray that a solution may be found soon!

Monica

Manisa Weekend

The word for this weekend- Hectic. Manisa is a smaller town about 30 minutes from Izmir. Why then, you ask, did we spend a weekend there? Well Manisa is famous for this candy stuff called Mesir Macunu. It contains about 41 different spices and so if you have a head cold the candy will supposedly cure it. It was made for a Sultana by order of the Sultan at the time and it worked. So, they decided that once a year they would throw this candy to the people so that the common person could be cured. So that's why we were in Manisa: to be a part of this once a year tossing. The catch: TONS of people. We arrived Saturday, went to a concert and spent the night in Manisa at Rotarians' houses. Then Sunday morning we had breakfast and then walked in this parade with the Mania Rotaract and ended up in front of the mosque where they threw the candy. The thing was we were supposed to be in the mosque but we weren't and got caught in this mob of people, mostly men, who were all scrambling and pushing each other to get this candy. Thankfully, no one got hurt and the Rotaract kids got us out of there pretty fast. A few of us did end up with candy though, and once we'd all had something to eat we were fine. The day actually ended really well, so I'm not complaining. I'm not sure I'd try that again though. 

:) Monica

During the Turkish concert

At the end of the day, we were smiling :D

Denizli/Pamukkale

I'm on a writing kick right now, which is odd considering it's 3am Sunday morning. So I'm going to catch you up on some of the trips we've been doing. So about 5 weeks ago, our group traveled to the Denizli area and we saw some pretty cool stuff. First, we traveled to a town called Aphrodisias which has a lot of really amazing old ruins. The whole area was green and just beautiful. The only downside was it was raining a lot of the time. There was an old stadium where they held races so it's long like the chariot stadium in Ben-Hur. Naturally, we all had to race as well. Torvald won. The next day we went to Hierapolis which is an ancient city where people who had incurable diseases were sent to pass their last days. See there were healing waters where people went to be cured, but people who had diseases that couldn't be cured by the waters were sent away because the people who ran the waters didn't want the people getting healed to lose faith if some were dying. So they sent those incurable people to Hierapolis, and so there are a lot of graves there.
Then, we went to Pamukkale where they have the hot springs. They have a pool that you can swim in, and so we did. The hills of springs is really beautiful! The last place we visited was the ancient city of Laodicea. This city is famous as one of the seven churches mentioned in Revelation. They are in the process of digging it up and preserving it, but they say it will be bigger than Ephesus when completed. The trip made me realize that Turkey is packed full of artifacts and old cities just waiting to be discovered and dug up. It is amazing to think that there is all of this history here and yet a lot of people don't know about it. Hopefully more people will get the chance to see all of this history.
Catching up,
Monica

The gang at Aphrodisias

Hieropolis (complete with graves in the background)

Swimming in the hot springs

On the terrace

Laodicea

Faces in Aphrodisias

The stadium I mentioned.

 I would also like to mention that this is HUGE. Simply enormous 

Statues from Aphrodisias

Oh right, we saw snow. It decided to snow on us on the way to our hotel and so we all had to get out and be in it. It was Felipe's first time seeing snow, but all of us were pretty much screaming with excitement :)

Easter

So Easter Sunday was celebrated just a little differently from all the Easters before. I was in Bodrum with the exchange students both Saturday and Sunday morning and so there wasn't any church or getting up early or anything like that. But, it was fun in a different way. Annie and Riad were staying the night at my house and Annie knew all about Easter, being from the US. We put on summer dresses and at dinner we told my family that it was Easter. They were really intrigued and my sister mentioned that she wanted to dye eggs as I'd told her about that before. We boiled some eggs, but first my family took us out to eat Turkish style waffles. Then, we went back to my house and decorated eggs. It was both Riad's and my family's first Easter and I think they liked it. I was really happy that we got to decorate the eggs and that I had friends to celebrate with :)

Monica

Ice cream, fruit, chocolate.... what more could you want

Annie and I

Riad and my sister

 

 

Top right: My host mom and sister

Bottom: My eggs

All the eggs :)

Letting go

So for any of you who are still reading this, you will have noticed that I haven't posted in a while and mostly that's because I get busy or feel lazy. I'm sorry for that. I've been going through a lot lately: mentally and emotionally and there's a lot that I've discovered about myself and what I believe. It is safe to say that I will not be the same person when I get back to Quincy, Washington. I've had to let go of a lot of 'demons' that have been following me around and that I could never notice until this exchange.

If I had the chance to be in high school again, or the chance to be at my 'age-grade' level, I never would. I'm so thankful that I'm not there. High school is an illusion. You think, and are somewhat told, that it will be one thing. You think that it will define you and make you the person you will be. Actually, high school is just a bunch of hormonal teenagers who don't know anything and try to feel superior because they all believe the lies fed to them about high school. I can't say I wasn't one of those people. I thought it would be different, and it ended up brainwashing my realities. Honestly, high school was terrible. 

I couldn't see it then, I don't think anyone can. You only realize how bad it was until you are away from it, but still carrying your school demons. The demons that tell you what you wanted to hear in high school now can't cope with being in the real world. You have no filter in high school. You say what you want and the adults around you aren't too hard on you because after all, you really don't know who you are; but the world doesn't work like that.

So I'm letting go. I'm getting rid of all the nasty high school demons that I've been unintentionally carrying around. 

1. 'High school was fun.' No it really wasn't. I came into high school from being homeschooled and I had zero social skills. Did that make me different? Yes. Did it make me abnormal? No. But I never realized that. I should have, but instead I tried to fit in (which means I didn't). I nearly gave up what I had always believed in to 'fit in' but thankfully God didn't let me do that. On the outside I was one thing, but on the inside I was a different thing. Looking back today I shouldn't have ever done that. It left to many wounds because almost no one understood me, and nearly all hurt me. 

2. 'It will make you the person you will be.' Yes and no. High school has given me horrible trust issues that I may never get rid of. I don't feel comfortable around people my own age. Honestly, I get along much better with adults. Now, I have to be able to interact with people my own age, of course that's unavoidable. I just wish that people then had listened more. Then again, God's got a plan and there's a reason that's happened and is done. High school is not allowed to define me though. It may have affected the way I see some things, yes. However, it's not allowed to be my only ground to stand on. I have my whole life ahead of me and if all I do is hang on to the doubts from high school, I'll never be able to stand. 

I've messed up a lot, but then who hasn't. Who can say that they've never had a point in their life where they think they could never fix things. Hitting rock bottom is sometimes a good thing. Sure, it's going to be really, really hard to get back out, and maybe you'll lose some friends, trust, your job, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your current lifestyle or your former security. It's the things that you gain from hitting the bottom that will be the best for you. You can gain peace of mind, sanity, your ideals, and more than likely you'll find who you are. It's those things that will make it worth trying to fix everything. You just need to remember what's important and hold on to that as hard as you can. Find people who will be there for you in everything and those are your true friends.

That was really general, but that's what I've actually been going through lately. I'm going to start digging myself out now, which I can assure you won't be easy, but I've got a lot of awesome people who are here for me. I won't be alone; I never am. 

Letting go..... the hardest thing, but it's worth every minute.

God bless,

Monica

100 days

Today I only have 100 days left. Every time I think about leaving Turkey, I start to tear up. It's going to be really hard to leave, and it's crazy to think that I'll miss Izmir this much. I'm going to try to do something new each day I have left. We'll see how far I get haha! 

Monica

Some Photos

So a couple of weeks ago, Luke Grigg came to Izmir for a couple of days. We had a lot of fun and I think he really liked it here (success! haha). We took a trip out to Ephesus and I've got some pictures from that.

The train station

Me and Max

I think Ephesus is my favorite place 

KITTY!!

Queen of the world :D RYE 2012-2013

Monica :)

My Hospital Run-in

So my immune system decided to take a break on Friday. I came down with a small fever that by Saturday morning had turned into a fever of about 103 F. After trying to bring it down all day, at about 5 o'clock my host mom took me to the hospital. They gave me an IV and took an X-ray of my chest to make sure I didn't have an infection in my lungs, and then I sat in the hospital for about an hour hooked up to the IV. IVs feel really funny. There's something about them that makes your arm feel super weird. You can feel the liquid draining into your arm and your arm starts to feel a little useless. The IV did bring my temperature back down to normal so I don't have a fever anymore. Now all I have is a cough, stuffed up head, and pretty cool first time having an IV experience. I figure I'll be back to normal in a couple of days but until then it's movie marathons and mid-day naps for me. :)

Monica

Latin Dancing

So I am happily going to be dancing from now on 2 days a week. On Mondays and Fridays I am going to Latin Dance class for an hour each day. My host sister takes ballet at the same place as I'm now taking Latin, so it works perfectly. I'm so glad to be finally doing some excersise. I'm in the Tango performance which I've been told means I'm one of the best dancers there. They love me! The teacher is really nice and friendly and the kids there have been treating me like a celebrity. My first day there I sat in one of the chairs to watch and the little 11-12 year old girls who weren't dancing  came and formed this circle around me asking questions in English and Turkish. They are really nice and I'm enjoying myself. I think that now, because I understand more Turkish, I'm more comfortable around people. I understand what's going on most of the time and so I don't feel lost or stupid because I get more of what they're saying.
Things are really going to start picking up around here. This weekend I'm going to Sardis, next week we head up to Bursa to ski, and the Rotary programs keep going. In fact, in May I don't have a single weekend open. Time's really going to fly.... hopefully I wont blink. :)
Monica

The Trip to the Police Station.

So today I went to the Police Station..... but it's not what you think. :) I had to go to change my address on my residence permit. Now that I've moved they need to know where I am in case of an emergency. So today I got to sleep in and then went to my mom to the police station. 

The foreigner's department at the police station is one of the most interesting places I've been in. There's people from all different countries: people who are moving to Turkey to be with their spouses, students coming to study at university, families moving here for work and people just traveling. I met a man from Pakistan today who was coming here to be with his wife. It's so cool just to say I met someone from there. I also sat next to a woman who was using her i-pad in Chinese! I know how people type in that language now. Anyways, you also see many different passports. The Pakistan ones are green, there's a Russian one that's red, the Turkish one is red, the USA one is blue etc... I love seeing all these different things and people and knowing that there's countries from all over the world represented in one room. 

So school started up again on Monday and taking the metro is not as bad as I thought it would be. I just have to remember to get on the right side at the metro to take the one that goes all the way to my station.... that and get up at 7. However, starting school felt good. I'm back with my friends and it's really good. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

Monica

I MOVED!!

Putting that in normal print just didn't set the mood right. So yes as the title suggests I have moved to my second host family. 

Sorry it's so big but it's hard to read otherwise. So I was living in the little redish pinkish spot called Konak and now I've moved to the live green space called Bornova. Believe it or not that's 40 minutes by public transportation. So I'm commuting to school now. Yay :D I'm not near the sea anymore, but I should see it when I go to school in the mornings. I've also moved from an apartment to a house which is rather weird. I was really getting used to the apartment thing.

My family here is really nice. My host mom doesn't really know English so my Turkish is going to hopefully pick up fast! I am forced to be around it and that's probably really good for me. I have a little sister again in this house but she's 10 this time. She's really sweet and nice and really loves dogs. She's got the names of the ones around our house. My host dad knows a lot of English but he still talks to me in Turkish a bunch and is helping me get it down.
Well yesterday 4 of us exchanges decided to go ice skating. The rink is only about 30 minutes away from my house so it was easy to get there, and turns out it's only 5 lira for 45 minutes of skating! (That's a little less than 3 dollars) It was awesome, but I am really sore today. Hopefully I can go a lot and get better at skating. I only fell twice yesterday so I think that's a good thing.

Max!

Heloisa, me, and Felipe

Felipe, me, and Max

Me!

The whole gang

We had a lot of fun and decided this was something we want to do more often. :)

In other news, there was a huge thunder and lightning storm that decided to start at 6am this morning and that included rain that sounded like hail. It's rainy season haha. It's supposed to rain tomorrow and Sunday too. Let's hope I don't get flooded out :P

That's all for now,

Monica 

Semester Break!

Well I have some time to kill mostly because I'm now on semester break from now until February 10th. Two blissful weeks of no school! This is the only really long vacation the school gives, so hopefully it will be enjoyable. So I figured I should catch you all up on what I've been doing.
First of all, last week I got two amazing packages. One from my parents, and one from one of my best friends: Caitlin Silk. My parents had some stuff for my family in it and a few things for me too. Caitlin's box had a bunch of amazing candies: candy canes, chocolate, chips and also a copy of the most recent town paper. Oh also she sent me a pair of fuzzy slippers so I have a very comfortable pair of house shoes (which I think makes my host mom happy because I wear them).

Caitlin's box

My parent's box

My host mom and sister with their presents

My parents sent this little furry creature. His name is Rousseau, Russ for short, to go with the Voltaire named cat at home.  

I am also moving host families during this break. I am moving on Monday the 4th of February to a house that's about 40 minutes away by metro. Actually I'm moving from one end of the metro to the other. I'll be taking the metro to school every morning so no more lazy sleeping in for me. I've met my second family several times and I really like them. They are really nice, but I'm going to be forced to step up my Turkish (not that that's a bad thing). Speaking of my Turkish, I have reached that happy point where I understand almost everything people say to me. I just need to improve my speaking ability, but I can definitely speak enough to get around really easily. I was able to point someone in the street towards their hotel the other day :D

I got a chance to meet some other exchange students yesterday! The group from the Istanbul district is going on a tour of a bunch of places around Turkey and yesterday they were in Izmir. So we all met up and formed this huge group of foreign people. We were about 33 or so people which is a crazy amount of people to do things with. There were 7 other Americans, lots of Mexicans and Brazilians, and a few people from Taiwan, Colombia and then the Turkish Rotex kids. We just crashed at a cafe and got to know each other. I already knew a few people from when our group went to Istanbul, but it was nice to meet the others. Annie is also here for the weekend because today is her birthday and we're also on break, so she's staying in Manisa with Shannon. It's nice to have her here because we haven't seen her in over a month!

I've got to go now, but I'll keep you all updated

Monica