My First Week of School (AKA What the Heck is Happening?)

          Merhaba! I hope that everyone has had a good week. A lot has happened since my last post. Last Thursday, the other exchange students here in Aydin and I went shopping at the Forums, which is basically our mall. It was a lot of fun to see everyone again and to talk with them about our experiences so far. We also went to Burger King and I got to eat some chicken nuggets that helped to make me crave American food a little less. I finally gave my host family the gifts I brought for them on Thursday night and it was wonderful to see how happy they made them. They loved looking at the pictures of Albuquerque in the book I brought and I loved telling them about my home. I also think I made my host father into the only Lobos fan in Turkey. Thursday night was also the first time that I really began to feel comfortable in my new home. We celebrated my oldest host sister's birthday and I felt very happy and comfortable as we sang and shared the cake. On Friday, I got to swim in the beautiful pool of our apartment complex. I went with one of my host sisters and really enjoyed it, although the pool itself was very cold so I mostly sat on the side. The rest of the day I worked on Turkish and hung out with my family until the evening when I called my parents for the first time since I got here. I started crying when I first saw them because it made me miss them more to be able to see them, but after I got over that, it was really nice to get to talk to them and I ended up talking with them for over an hour.
          Saturday and Sunday were very relaxed days for me and I just stayed home, studied some Turkish, and watching TV and hanging out with my sisters. On Saturday night, they made pizza and chicken nuggets for dinner as a surprise for me and it was such a wonderful surprise. Getting to eat American food was nice, but it also really made me appreciate them for doing something like that for me.
          Monday was the day that we were all hoping to start school, but they still didn't have our papers so I stayed home again. My sister and I went to the city center and shopped for awhile and I got my school uniform. After, we went to my school and I got the news that I would be starting school the next day. My host sister invited me to hang out with her and her friends so we walked around for awhile. We took the bus home and let me just tell you, Turkish buses are pretty terrifying. It was incredibly bumpy and we stopped very often, so if you aren't sitting, which I wasn't for part of the time, you are being thrown around and have to hold on very tight.

The street in front of my apartment when it rained one day last week. 

The mountains that make me feel so content when I look outside because it's just like at home. 

Ice cream from our shopping adventure to the Forum. This was strawberry ice cream and it was so unbelievably good. 

The fountains in the center of the Forum. 

The super pretty cups that my family serves Turkish coffee in. 

A super beautiful sunset last weekend. It reminds me of Albuquerque so much with the mountains and the beautiful colors and the clouds. 

          Tuesday was the big day for me. Now, I have never, ever been the new student. Every time I have started at a new school, everyone else has been new too. And then you added the fact that I can't speak Turkish and I look very different from everyone else in school and I was scared out of my mind. I put on my uniform and took the short walk to school with my host sister and walked up the stairs to my classroom. As soon as I walked in, everyone came over and said hello and was so excited to meet me. The rest of that day passed in a blur of people telling me their names, me immediately forgetting them, walking up and down the stairs more times than I can count, being hopelessly confused as teachers taught in rapid turkish, and feeling like I was going to melt in the beastly hot classroom with no air conditioning. The rest of the week passed in much the same way although it has finally started to cool off a little bit so I don't feel like I am melting all the time. I actually thought it was pretty hilarious because as soon as it got a little colder, everyone was wearing sweaters and jackets and saying how cold it was while I was just savoring not sweating for a little while. I think I have started to make some friends and all the kids in my class have been helping me to work on learning Turkish by teaching me words during class.

Me in my uniform before my first day. 

The view of the courtyard where we hang out during breaks from a window in my classroom. 

          Because I want this blog to be an honest representation of my year abroad, now I'll talk about the hard stuff. I was very homesick for most of this week, like to the point where I was barely keeping from crying and I really seriously though about how much I would like to go home. I was homesick because I couldn't understand anything that was happening here and I just felt completely alone here. Meanwhile, it was spirit week at home and so I knew that I was missing out on fun times at home and I kept seeing pictures while I was alone here. I got less and less homesick as the week went on, but there is still a little nagging sadness for me even now.
          This weekend, I have relaxed at home, hung out with my sisters and parents, and worked on Turkish. I think I am learning Turkish slowly but surely, but it is very frustrating for me to have so many thoughts in my head that I can not actually express because I don't know how.
           And now a list of other random things that happened that I haven't already written about and then some pictures:
1. I have fallen in love with pide, basically bread with meat and cheese baked onto it, which is good because it's eaten very often for lunch during school.
2. Breakfast is my favorite meal here because I get cheese, bread with honey, and some other delicious food like omeletes, pancakes, or French toast.
3. You can buy a full meal and drink for around 3 dollars here.
4. If you order kola at a restaurant, you can expect any soda, not necessarily a Coke.
5. Seedless grapes aren't a thing here and it scared me so bad the first time I ate a grape and their was something hard in it.
6. I have gotten so used to the call to prayer that it no longer wakes me up when it goes off in the mornings.
7. If the teacher doesn't care, students will sleep or have conversations while the teacher lectures.
8. My entertainment during lessons this week was watching people do double takes when they saw me as they walked by the classroom. One boy almost walked into the bathroom door because he was staring at me for so long.
9. It felt like fall yesterday for the first time because it was overcast and somewhat cold and it made me so happy.
10. My classmates are always so impressed when I use even super basic Turkish because they seem to think I know nothing. They were really surprised when I knew the word for 12.

A photo of me with my host sisters that was taken my first night here. 

It was Color Day at my school on Thursday so I wore this headband to support from afar. 

Some weirdly pink meat that was in a sandwich I had for lunch one day this week. 

That's all I can think of for now. I'm going to try to get into the habit of posting every Sunday but we will see how that goes. I don't know if I will be able to post next Sunday because it is Bayram next weekend and I am not sure what we will be doing. Also if you have any questions you'd like me to answer or specific things you'd like me to talk about in my next post, leave me a comment below. I also love any comment, so feel free to leave comments. Wish me luck for my next week of school! I hope you have a good week too! Görüşürüz!