Beginnings

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Check out my newest project--I'm a study abroad correspondent for the University of Wisconsin, spending my junior year of college(!) abroad in Varanasi, India.

Nobody Said İt Was Easy

Hello again everybody, İ've decided it's time for another post to write about the past couple weeks here.

I was out of school for 3 weeks, mostly travelling; what a lovely break from school. :) İt started early in May with our exchange student trip to the Black Sea. The Black Sea is really a beautiful place, and it actually reminds me a lot of home. Not the sea part, obviously, but the trees and rivers and lakes are a lot like Wisconsin. There are more mountains there, though. This trip was, how can I say... Different from the other trips we've taken. Looking back we had a lot of fun, but at the time we are all a little (a lot) stressed and on edge. The best thing we saw there was the Sümela Monastery-- it was quite amazing and worth the walk to get there. I'm not going to hash over everything that happened in our five days out of İzmir, but I will relay one memorable memory of the trip, which is when we checked into our final night's lodging in an elementary school dormitory in a tiny town called Hayrat (yes, smaller than Baraboo.) Let's just say we checked out a few hours later after some some tears, some blood, and some hysterical laughter.

I came back to İzmir early early Monday morning, and left for Bodrum with my friend Abby (from Kanada) on Tuesday morning. I had a nice time with her meeting her host family and her friends, attending a Rotary meeting, going dancing, and of course, swimming. Bodrum is definitely a great place for a vacation.

Abby's host dad is the president of his Rotary Club, so he drove us a day early, on Thursday, to Kuşadası for our District 2440 year-end Rotary conference. That was the beginning of our stay in a 5-star all-inclusive resort. Our district must have one of the best conferences ever for exchange students, we really had a lot of fun. Swimming, eating, dancing, typical activities for exchangers. We also got to preform our much-anticipated Turkish folk dance, and we didn't screw it up too badly, if I do say so myself. We all felt pretty emotional at our conference, because although we all have at least a month left here we aren't 100% sure that we will ever all be together again. I'm lucky to stay in İzmir because I'll see my friends up until the very end, but the kids staying in different cities might be hard to see again.

Returning Sunday from Kuşadası, I flew to Istanbul with my host family Tuesday night. We had a good time there visiting their family, and I got to see some more of the beautiful Istanbul such as the Basilica Cistern and the Harem of Topkapı Palace. We spent one night at my host aunt's summer home in Kilyos, but it rained the next day, so we returned to the city. We came back Sunday from that trip, and thus my three week vacation ended.

I know I write this in every post, but really I can't beieve the time. It's already the end of May! Meaning I only have about a month left. Not long ago I thought I could stay here for months, years longer and I would be fine, but as this crazy experience starts to dwindle to a close I am getting more and more excited to get back to my life in Baraboo. I have so much to look forward to there: family and friends and being able to do things like homework and clubs and sports, and looking at and applying to universities.

I have had a really fantastic experience that I will remember fondly for a lifetime, but I guess the whole time it's been in the back of my mind that my life here is only temporary, and eventually I'll have to say my good-byes. I am so afraid to start to say farewell to everyone I've met here, because unlike when I left Baraboo, I don't know how soon I'll be back, or when I'll see them again. You can probably imagine that my emotional state is already not good, haha. My last days here will be tough to say the least.

Casper

Hi again everybody.

Since I have a minute (or a lot of minutes, I'm at school you know) I thought I would write again.

The holiday weekend was a good one, it passed too quickly. I took an interesting daytrip on Satuday with my host family to a city called Ödemiş, we had lunch there and continued on to the historical town of Birgi, which is one of the best preserved villages in this area of Turkey. It has a lot of old houses, the most interesting we visited was the Çakırağa Mansion, built in the 18th century in a different architechtural style than I've seen. The house's rooms are all open-air save for the bedrooms, and there are also very elaborate paintings covering all the interior walls. Next we visited an old mosque in this city, and from there we continued to Gölçük, a little lake up in the mountains/hills where we took a walk and hung out.

(The Mansion)

After school today we exchange students have our first (brace yourself) folk-dancing class to learn the dance we'll be preforming for our district conference. We are actually pretty excited for this. İt's not a Rotary conference if there's not some sort of group dance/ song. And speaking of the conference, it won't the 16th-19th as I previously wrote, it will be the 14th-16th May.

So that's all! I'll write again. Take care.

Lydia

Floating On

Hey everybody, here's the plan for the next few weeks!
Today is the last day of school before tomorrow's holiday, 23 Nisan, National Children's and Sovereignty Day. As I write to you I hear the sounds of our school march playing while the elementary kids disembark to go on a parade. I look forward to the upcoming three day weekend of sleeping in and enjoying the nice weather with my host family, and my host family's family who are visiting from İstanbul.
Next week is unfortunately a full week of school, but I intend to make the most of the afternoons... I am looking forward to Tuesday in particular, some of the other exchangers and I are going to try to go to the clothing bazaar which is supposed to have tons of good stuff for really cheap!
The week after next we leave for our Black Sea trip on Wednesday! The nine of us going are veryyy excited. Exchangers, hotels, airplanes, some fresh air... İt should be great!
The following week we will be having our district conference in Kuşadası, May 16th through the 19th, Sunday-Wednesday, which will be great because again it will mean exchangers, hotels, and missing school! As I understand the 19th and 20th of May are also public holidays here, and since the 21st is a Friday no one will go to school that day, meaning I can have that whole week off. İf you can't tell... I'm about done with school here! İt's really boring, and so long, and the weather is so nice... I just want to be outside all the time!
So that's what's coming up on my agenda, I'm awfully excited for everything. Everybody was right, the last part of your exchange is the best and passes the fastest!
İ'd better run now, but I will keep you posted! I wish you well. :)
Lydia

İlkbahar (Spring)

--A Summary of the Past Few Weeks--

Bursa trip: Was so great! We got there Friday evening, met our host families (Turkish people are really great hosts; every exchange student always gets such a welcoming family when we go away for the weekend), slept, got up and took a city tour Saturday (Bursa has a lot of history), and then, the highlight of the trip for everybody, went to Uludağ! The skiing was so fantastic! We were all so sad when dusk came and they closed the lift, we all could've continued for a few more hours I think. The weather was perfect for both touring the city and skiing-- not too hot, not to cold. Monday we had a brunch with the Rotarians and returned to İzmir.

Denizli trip: Also amazing! We left Saturday morning, arrived in Denizli 3.5 hours later, took a tour of a rug factory (handmade rugs; it's quite impressive to watch the women who weave them) and then went to a village for a bit, and had dinner. The next day we drove the 25km. or so to Pamukkale where we saw the "cotton falls" and ancient city. We saw a 3,000 year old ampitheater and swam in this really neat pool-- the water was crystal clear, warm, and bubbly (like club soda, really!) and oh, it had ancient ruins submerged in it. After swimming we hiked down the white terraces. The weather was again perfect for this trip-- I even got a little sunburned!
This trip was also good because my friend Savannah, who lives in Bursa, got to spend the night at my house Friday and Sunday night. I also recently found out we will be on the same flight from İstanbul to Chicago returning home (we plan to dry each other's tears, and eat our first American meals together, haha.) Really though, it will be nice to have someone to pass the time with on the 11 hour flight back to the USA.

Easter: As you may have guessed, is not widely celebrated in Turkey. On Saturday I dyed eggs with my host sisters, and on Sunday we went to a family brunch where the mothers hid the eggs for us "kids" to find. My host mom said, "Okay Lydia, you can explain the tradition, why people color the eggs and hide them."
"Well actually... I have no idea." I decided it was better to not even bring the Easter bunny into this. Honestly, how do you explain such a thing? So I had a good Easter, probably better than a lot I've had in American, considering I haven't dyed eggs in about 5 years!

School: İs becoming more and more impossible as the weather gets nicer. I officially don't need a coat in the daytime.

Karadeniz: I am quite excited for the last "big" Rotary trip to the Black Sea, May 5th--9th. We are flying to Trabzon on the Northeastern-ish coast. I think it wii be a great trip.

Other: Time is just passing really fast. So fast. I go to school, hang out with my host sisters and host family, see the other exchange students, try to be outside whenever I can-- things are really good here. But there is something about, again, the weather here, that makes me think of home a lot. Yesterday sitting outside at the brunch I closed my eyes and with the sun on my face and the quietness in the "countryside" it felt just like home, home in Wisconsin. I am so used to being away now. I don't miss it. But I do miss it. Going home is going to be really bizarre. I look forward to it and I dread it; it's like the reverse of what I felt when I came here.
Well, I'm not overly concerned with it yet. I've still got months left here.
I will try to write soon and put up a photo or too!
Until then, take care!
Lydia

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

Lydia Lydia How Come You Understand?

Okay, so as I promised here is another post to update, since I haven't written in a month.
But first-- an explanation for the title of this post: well my blog titles are always really boring, so I decided to try a little harder, except I didn't try very hard, I only had the song "Lydia" by Dean Friedman in my head, which, if you are unaware, is the song I am named after (Dean Friedman has a very high, nasal-ly type voice, as well) and so I borrowed from that song.
Moving right along,
Well it is the middle of January already! The first month of the year always goes so fast.
We had a lovely time in Bodrum (was it really so long ago that I wrote?!) and I stayed with a nice couple of orthodonists as my host family for the night. They invited me back in warmed weather (Bodrum is pretty quiet in the winter!) and I hope I can take them up on that offer.
Christmas and New Years were quite nice, you can read the post below this one for more details about my December holidays.
Two things coming up to look forward to this month: semester break, and Istanbul trip!
This is the last week of school before we break up for semester holiday (I'm looking forward to some sleeping in, of course) for two weeks, and there is a Rotary trip to Istanbul from the 26th until the 31st this month that I am very excited for! We will be hitting a lot of the main sites in Istanbul then.
Life continues to be very normal here. The weather is nice, but a little chilly (50s) and cloudy today. They say it will be very cold during semester holiday, although being from Wisconsin I'm not sure how seriously I should take that threat. I could use some snow, though. :)
The time has really just flown here... In a few days I wıll be exactly halfway through my exchange!
So that's a brief update... I don't know what else to say! I guess I will just finish this now and I will write more (hopefully) soon and try and be better at blogging...
I really miss everyone from home! It's so hard to be away sometimes. But I know I don't have too much longer here, so I will enjoy the time I do have.
Until then, I send my best to everyone, and thanks for reading ((what little I have to offer you here!))
Happy January
XOXOXO
Lydia