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