I think if you
were to ask an exchange student what the best part of their exchange
year was, it would probably be an event that involved other exchange
students. Being with other people who understand your
situation, who are having nearly the same difficulties
and struggles as you, and who can communicate with easily
is very nice. Also, exchange students are probably the most fun
people in the world (if you don't believe me, consult Urban
Dictionary, "Foreign Exchange Student: Most awesome person
you will ever meet. . ."). Last Thursday, the fourth I
believe, I got an email saying that my Rotary district was having our
second Orientation meeting over the weekend, and that the next day
Riad and I would be travelling to Izmir to meet with the rest of the
exchange students. Yay!!!
So, Friday morning
I had to go into school for the first two hours, then I got to leave
at 11 to be able to go to the bus station that afternoon. Riad
came over to my house, and we traveled together to the bus
station then we found our bus and were off to Izmir. The bus
ride was about 5 or 6 hours long, but we did a combination of sleep,
attempt to speak Turkish to the man working and handing out snacks on
the bus, and be cute and foreign (haha). We finally made it to Izmir
around 7 or 8 o'clock. We met with one of the Rotarians in
Izmir who took me to another Rotarians' house and Riad to his house
for the night. After dropping my things off at Zeynep's house,
I met her son, Emre, and another exchange student from South Africa,
Tove, for dinner. I actually was just waiting by the sea in
Izmir for Emre to find me, just like an innocent little American girl
and Emre attacked me from the back, and I didn't even react, I just
turned around and said "Hey! It's you!" I think I need to
work on this, I took a self defense course with my Girl Scout Troop
way back when, I need to remember what I learned just in case... Anways,
Tove has been in Turkey for eight or nine months now, so I was able
to laugh at her exchange stories and Emre's exchange stories from
when he was in Brazil. After dinner and dessert, Tove went to her
host parent's house and Emre and I returned to his house where we
ended up watching TV while he got mad at me for knowing nothing about
American Pop Culture. Right before I went to bed, Emre asked me
if I wanted to watch a movie, so we ended up staying up past the wee
hours of the morning watching movies. When you're young and an
exchange student, pulling all nighters doesn't have much of an effect
on you.
Saturday morning I
got to meet up with the rest of the exchange students! It'd
been two or three weeks since I'd seen these kids, and they get to
see each other a lot because they all live in Izmir, so it was really
nice for Riad and I to see our friends again. We all got on a
bus and drove for about an hour to Kuşadası. On the way
there we stopped at a museum with statues (that moved and had eye
lashes... yikes!) that showed what life was like in a Turkish village
through the 50's, 60's and part of the 70's. It was neat to be
able to see all of these scenes; it was a lot different from the
American 50's, 60's and 70's, but I couldn't get over the strangely
life like beings that were churning butter or sharpening knives. It
was a little creepy. After the museum we arrived at our hotel
where we had an orientation meeting about dealing with our problems.
We wrote the bad and the good parts of our exchanges on a piece
of paper, then we got a random paper with bads and goods and we gave
the person advise for how to deal with the problem. It was nice
to hear everyone's struggles because it assured us that we were all
having similar problems and that we're not doing anything wrong; it's
normal to have a few bumps here and there.
After our first
orientation, we were able to go down to the beach, yes Ohioans, I
said the beach, we went to the beach in October. My Brazilian
friend and I just walked along the beach talking and taking photos.
I don't like swimming, especially in salt water, so I was glad
Felipe hung out with me. After our fun time at the beach, we
had to return to the hotel and go to another orientation about theft
and crimes and how to avoid them or react if in a bad situation. The
Rotarians made everything sound very scary, and I understand that
they have to tell us these things, but scaring us seems like a
strange approach to that. I feel like I should be aware of the
dangers, not scared of them. I don't know, that's just my own
opinion.
After
this orientation meeting, we all packed up on our
little bus again and were off to the city center for dinner and
window shopping. Dinner was very fun with all of the exchange
students laughing and talking about our countries and schools. I
showed everyone I could lick my elbow. Everyone was
impressed; I'm such an impressive person. I represent America
well. :) After our fun shopping and eating, we again
returned to the hotel and all of the exchange students gathered in
one of the rooms to talk. We had some funny conversations, but
also some serious ones. I was so glad that all 15-ish of us
could all gather in a room and talk. I hope we remain this
close throughout the year. We ended the evening with all of us
singing our national anthems, and I realized how deep and emotional
America's is. It was a really fun night, but my Canadian
roommate and I returned to our room and talked politics at like 1am,
then we were afraid our room was haunted and didn't get to sleep
until about 2:30. As I said, when you're a young exchange
student, you can cope with very little sleep.
The next morning
we all gathered our flags and packed up in our little bus to go to
Mother Mary's house. We got to walk through her home and then
put a wish on the wall (see the pictures to understand). I
walked on the same ground as Jesus! We then continued on
our little journey to Ephesus. It was hard to imagine
that this city has been around for thousands and thousands of years,
and America has been known for just over 500 years. People had
been walking around the same ground that I was walking on that long
ago; it's so hard for me to perceive time and just plain
crazy for me to think about. We got many group pictures with
our flags over the weekend and we even met a few fellow Americans,
even one who graduated from OSU! It's such a small world. I
had a great weekend with my Exchange friends, but Riad and I had to
catch the bus home at 6. I ended up sleeping the whole entire
bus ride because I had only had like 6 hours of sleep over the past
two days. We finally returned to Bursa after midnight, and I was
happy to be home and able to sleep in my bed. At the end of
this week I get to go on another Rotary Trip to Kapadokya, which I'm
really looking forward to and I will be sure to tell you all about
that in about a week when I get back!
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