5,545 Miles From Here, There Is a City Called İzmir

As promised, this entry will contain information about where I'm going.

Türkiye
Capital City: Ankara
Population: 73,914,000
Area: 302,535 square miles (roughly the size of Texas)
Official Language: Turkish
Government: Parliamentary Republic
Major Religion: Islam (99%)
Monetary Unit: New Turkish Lira
Time Difference: 8 hours later than Wisconsin :D
Modern Turkey was founded in 1923 under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Turkey has quite a long history that I won't go into (right now), but if you're interested in learning more about the country, some good websites to look at are:

• CIA World Factbook: Turkey

• US Dept. of State: Turkey

• Wikipedia: Turkey

İzmir, Türkiye
İzmir is a city of more 2.5 million people located on the coast of the Aegean Sea (see the map above.) It is the 3rd most populated city in the country, behind Istanbul and Ankara. Like Turkey, İzmir has a long history. Many different empires claimed the city in its past (including the Hittite, the Lydian, the Persian, the Roman, the Byzantine, and the Ottoman empires.)

More info on Izmir

Konak, İzmir

İzmir is composed of ten metropolitan districts (Balçova, Bornova, Buca, Çigli, Gaziemir, Güzelbahçe, Karsiyaka, Konak, Menemen, and Narlidere), and I will staying in the Konak district. It is the capital district of the city, and the largest in terms of population.

More info on Konak district

Alsancak

Konak is made up of many different neighborhoods, one of which is Alsancak, where I'll be living with my host family. Alsancak is in the historic part of the city, and runs along the Gulf of İzmir.

More info on Alsancak

Rotary District 2440
Turkey is split into three districts; I will be staying in the mid-sized district on the Western side of the country. There will be ten other students in this district, with eight of us staying in İzmir. Of the eleven of us, eight are from America, and there is one each from Canada, Mexico, and Brazil.My Host Family

I've been in contact with my host family since early March. I will have a host mother and father, and a host sister who is about two years younger than me. I have been e-mailing with my sister in French as she does not speak English and we both speak a decent amount of French. My host parents speak English, although I have only spoken with my sister. I would have an older host brother as well, but he will in Florida on exchange while I'm in Turkey. They have a 10 year-old tortoise named Porche, and live in an apartment.


İzmir Özel Türk Koleji

I will be going to a Turkish high school while on exchange, the name of which is İzmir Özel Türk Koleji. From what I understand, it is a private school that has 200-300 students. Uniforms are a requirement. The school appears to have many clubs/activites, some sports, and is one of the few schools in the city that has a band! I'll be in the 12th grade. Here is the school's website if you'd like to click around and look at photos (it's all in Turkish though, and I haven't had too much luck translating!)

Phew! That was a lot of information! I'm still waiting for my Turkish visa, but I think it should come any day now. The consulate has all the papers and an official notice from the school I'll be going to, so everything should be in order. As soon as the visa comes I'll be able to find out my departure date, get my flight itinerary, and I'll be off! On a somewhat unrelated note, I recently found out our first orientation camp will be held at Hotel Lydia near Sardes (capital of ancient kingdom of Lydia.) I think it's been destiny all along that I'm going Turkey! :D

Until next time,
Lydia

Hoşgeldiniz! or Welcome!

Hi! Thanks for taking time to read my blog. Let me take a moment to tell you what this is all about.

Who am I?
My name is Lydia Greve, and I am from Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Why do I have a blog?
I will be spending my junior year of high school overseas in İzmir, Turkey, and I created this blog as an easy way to update people back in Wisconsin about what I've been up to in Turkey.
What program am I a part of?
I am an exchange student with Rotary Youth Exchange. Rotary Youth Exchange is an impressive program that has been operating since 1929.
How did I become an exchange student?
If you are hoping to become an RYE exchange student, you will fill out a 14+ page application that includes information about your family, school, medical/ dental history, and more. You must be accepted by a sponsor club in or near your hometown. Then, you must be accepted by your Rotary district, which is basically a grouping of many Rotary clubs in an area. You will go through district interviews, where you will meet with Rotarians who will decide if you are fit for the program. Rotary districts can only send out about as many students as they take in, so depending on your area, interviews can be competitive. Mine were not.
I began the application in September, had my interview in November, and found out my country information in January. It was a long process, but it is entirely worth it.
Why Turkey?
Part of the Rotary application was ranking all the countries an exchange is possible with, from the one I'd most like to go to, to the one I'd least like to go to. It was a tough process ranking 36 countries like that, but my top five choices were: Croatia, Turkey, Norway, Finland, and South Africa. In the end, it is up Rotary where a student is placed. When I found out I was going to Turkey I was thrilled-- and to this day I'm thrilled! I wouldn't want to go anywhere else. I was hoping to go somewhere very different from Wisconsin, to a place I didn't know very much about. I suppose one of the shallow reasons I listed Turkey so high was because it is similar to Greece, where I really wanted to go at the time. I was also curious about the country's religion, Islam, and the long history the country has. In short, why Turkey? Because it's amazing!
If you're curious, I think the last country I listed was Australia, only because I'm interested in learning new languages.
When do I leave?
I'm supposed to be in Turkey by August 20th, so I'll hopefully leave a few days before then. Right now I'm waiting for my Turkish visa. It's taking a fair amount of time to get, but I'm just trying to be patient!

Well, I think that's a decent explanation of how I got to this point. In my next post I will tell you more about Turkey, İzmir, my host family & school, and then I'll leave you alone until I actually get to Turkey. :)
Hoşça kalın! Good-bye!
Until next time,
Lydia