Six Months

So as of three days ago... I have been in Turkey for six months! It's pretty crazy. The time has gone so fast, and I know it will only go faster from here on out. It really doesn't feel like I have been here for half of an entire year!
My return to America is scheduled to be sometime between July 1st and 7th, but I am guessing it will be on July 2nd.
I don't like to think about going home! At first I thought about home so much because I just couldn't help it, but now I am so used to living here and I am so happy to be here that thinking about leaving makes me so nervous! I feel like I still have so much to do. Fortunately I still have four months left, but I am finding myself wishing for more time. If I didn't have a big exchange student conference to go to July 9th in Michigan I would probably try to extend my time here, but I think (I know!) the conference will be a lot of fun, too.
I have started to work really hard at learning Turkish. I feel like I was being extremely lazy about it before and I am kicking myself. Now I am making flashcards, studying them during school, and having my little host sister quiz me on them (she's also very helpful to me in that she points out random objects and tells me their Turkish name.) Just today I started reading "Alacakaranlık" ("Twilight") to try an improve myself. It's pretty slow going so far, but with the help of my dictionary and what I remember from reading it in English I think I'll get through it in time.
The weather here has been unusually warm for February. It's quite nice, but a little stormy today.
Well, that's a basic update. I will try to put up more photos soon, now that I have figured out how (or rather, now that I know I can use the school's computer to do it.)
I hope you are all well at home! Take care,
<3 Lydia

-A Creative Title-

Merhaba again everybody,
Look at me, blogging multiple times in one month!
I am here at school; my class is taking a 3 period exam so I decided it would be a good time for me to burn the photos from my trip to CDs, and figured I would try to post some photos (not ripped from my friends' Facebook pages!) from Istanbul. I think I got a picture up of every big attraction we saw.
As you may or may not know, I switched host families last Saturday, not because I had problems with the last one, but just to experience Turkish life from a new perspective. My new family is great! I have a host mom and dad, and two host sisters ages 16 & 10 who are really nice. It was so hard for me to leave my last host family, though, since I had gotten so used to living with them in the past five months. Fortunately I only moved to an apartment building four or five blocks away, so I will still be able to see them frequently. (Actually, I bumped into my host parents jogging last night!)
The next Rotary trip on the horizon is one to Bursa, a city about 5 hours north of here, in March. My exchange friend Savannah lives there, and we all look forward to visiting her! Bursa is well-known for it's mountain, Uludağ, which is well-known for skiing. I hope we will get to do some of that while we're there, but who knows what the weather will be like.
Well, I will keep this post short and write again soon, and hopefully put up some more photos.
Until I write again, take care!
XOXOXO
Lydia

Istanbul Pictures

Group Amish photo on Pierre Loti Hill

The three columns at the Hippodrome

Emma and I make friends wherever we go

Savannah and I at Topkapı Palace overlooking the Strait

Jeffy and I in the Rahmi Koç Museum

Europe (left) and Asia (right) as seen from the Maiden's Tower

Exchangers outside Aya Sofya

Interior of the Blue Mosque

Shopping! -Please note the Timberlands keeping my feet nice and dry :)-

Some colorful lamps in the Grand Bazaar

A gate leading to the Bosphorous at Dolmabahçe Palace

Alex and Jeff in Miniatürk

Boat ride on the Bosphorous

Topkapı Palace

The sunset outside the Spice Market

My buddy Emma and I outside the Blue Mosque

Me! in the Aya Sofya

The Spice Market

Istanbul!

Hello again family & friends,

Well, after a lovely two week semester break, things are back to normal and I am back in school. The highlight of my holiday was the Rotary trip to Istanbul. It was orignially supposed to to be the first week of the break, but because of the bad weather in Istanbul (snow and ice) we pushed it back a week.

We left Tuesday night from the bus terminal in İzmir. 20 minutes outside the city, and it started to snow! I felt just like I was in Wisconsin. It was pretty slow-going the whole way, but we didn't arrive any later than we should have. The bus ride took roughly... 8 hours? Without any sleep. Not as bad as the Kapadokya bus ride, and I had a lot more energy the next day. We took a ferry in the middle of the night and had fun being in the snow, but we were glad when it had stopped by Wednesday afternoon. (We were cold!)

Our first day in the city, we checked into our hotel and then we went to the famous Grand Bazaar (in the words of our tour guide, "The Grand Bazaar: it's very grand.") and the Spice Market. The Grand Bazaar has thousands of shops, and it's definitely a fun place to see, although it's a little (a lot! Haha) touristy. You get to haggle with the shopkeepers there, which is a fun time. The spice market was enjoyable, too; all the vendors give you samples and let you smell their spices and teas. (Thanks to exchange student Abby for this picture; I took it from her Facebook page.)

The next day, Thursday, we went to see many more of the famous city sights: Topkapı Palace, the Aya Sofya, The Blue Mosque (Sultan Ahmet Mosque), and the Hippodrome. This was one of my favorite days of the trip. Istanbul has so much history, it's definitely a place I think everyone should see at least once in their life. (Again, thanks to Abby for the Blue Mosque photo.)

On our third day we saw Dolmabahçe Palace, which is the palace built after Topkapı Palace, it looks more like a typical European palace. If you know what the palace of Versailles looks like, it looks similar to that inside. The palace is gorgeous, and has a great view-- it's located right on the Bosphorous. After the palace we went to the Maiden's Tower, a tower located on a tiny island in the Bosphorous. (Again, Abby.)

On Saturday we went to Miniatürk, a very odd little museum! It's like a mini-golf course without the golf-- all the famous sights of Turkey are built in miniature and diplayed in a park. Next we went to the Rahmi Koç Museum, a huge technology with all kinds of different displays-- from old cars, to trains, to boats, to computers, to washing machines. Rahmi Koç is one of the richest men in Turkey, and this museum is a huge display of his collections.

Our final day in Istanbul we took a boat tour of the Bosphorous. We had hoped to go on a longer boat tour that would take us all the way to the Black Sea, but the rainy weather didn't allow us to, so we took the shorter tour instead. We were still able to see all the famous sights from the Strait though, and it was an enjoyable ride. Afterwards, we had some time to kill before boarding our bus, so we went to Cevahir Mall, the 2nd largest mall in Europe (or so our guide told us.)

We boarded the bus to go back to İzmir around 10PM and arrived home at 6 the next morning, exhausted. It was a great trip, and I really hope I am able to visit Istanbul again someday! Although I am happy I'm not spending my year there-- it's too huge, the traffic is bad, and just seeing all the buses makes me afraid I would get lost.

Well that's a summary of the trip! I started to add pictures to this post, but it won't let me anymore. Check out my Facebook page if you want to see more photos. (Thanks Alex, for this Aya Sofya picture.)

Like I said, things are back to normal. I am supposed to be switching host families tomorrow (just for a change, to see Turkey from a different perspective), so wish me luck with that! The next trip coming up is one to Bursa/Uludağ in March, but I will try to write before then. :)

Until next time, take care,

Lydia