Today is my 100th day living in Turkey. It blows my mind how fast these days have gone and that this means that my year is now 1/3 of the way done.
I remember that on my 100th day of kindergarten every kid brought in a bag with 100 somethings (Cheerios, beads, Legos, etc.) We all had to sort our 100 things into piles of 10 and we switched with people until we had 10 piles of 10 different things. In something similar to that, here are 10 lists of 10 things each about various different things from my time here.
Top 10 Things I Love About Turkey:
1. The Food
2. How inexpensive clothes and food are here (perfect for exchange students who don't have much money)
3. How welcoming people are
4. How incredibly beautiful it is
5. My host family
6. How fresh all the food is
7. How much fun the other exchange students here are
8. The weather (this is mostly just where I am because it gets cold in the East, but I'm very down with 60 degree weather in December)
9. Good public transportation
10. The fun and upbeat music
An example of the incredible beauty here.
Top 10 Favorite Turkish Foods:
1. Simit - I love Simit with all of my heart. It is like a bagel except it is entirely covered in sesame seeds and is a little bit denser than a bagel. There are Simit sellers everywhere on the streets and they are the cheapest and best place to buy your Simit (in my opinion).
2. Pide - Meat, cheese, vegetables, or some combination of the three baked onto dough. So incredibly delicious and I always look forward to eating it.
3. Kebab - The kebabs here are so delicious. I've only had it once but everyone raves about them and I can attest to how good they are. (Fun fact: Kebap is the Turkish word that was adapted into English and turned to kebab.)
4. Kumpir: Essentially a baked potatoe except with tons of different options for topping. I like mine with black olives and corn.
5. Börek: Thin layers of pastry dough with meat or spinach in between the layers.
6. Lahmacun: What people call Turkish Pizza. This is meat and some other stuff baked onto lavaş which are basically Turkish tortillas.
7. Dolma: An extremely common food. This is usually peppers stuffed with meat and rice but can also be stuffed eggplant or other vegetables.
8. Turkish Rice - Sounds boring but the rice here has butter on it and is just totally delicious.
9. Köfte - Specifically Çine Köfte. These are meatballs and come in tons of different varieties depending on the region but Çine Köfte were the first ones I had here and I think they are the best.
10. The Bread - This is pretty broad but the bread here is amazing and fresh and you can usually get a loaf for 50 Kuruş (less than 25 cents).
Pide
Top 10 Things I Miss:
1. My family and friends
2. Cross Country and sports in general
3. Prep and having responsibilities in school (I am aware how strange that sounds but it gets boring when you don't have anything like your schoolwork to do)
4. Being independent (I am constantly relying on other people for everything because of the language barrier and I miss being able to do everything for myself)
5. Driving
6. Pre-made foods (I am also aware how strange that sounds but I want to make all these foods for my family here but I can't because I can't just whip out a can of black beans to make quesadillas like I can at home)
7. American and Mexican food
8. My clothes (you can only wear the same 5ish outfits so many times before you get tired of them and start missing your closet with lots of options)
9. Skiing with my dad
10. Chai and cards with my mom
Top 10 Things I Don't Love About Turkey:
1. Fearing for my life every time I cross the street
2. How much students don't care about most of their classes at school
3. Constantly getting stared at and yelled at for being blonde
4. All the stray animals (it just makes me sad)
5. Ayran (all Turks love this drink but I personally think it tastes like death. It is yogurt thinned with water mixed with salt. I am not a fan of milk anyways so salty milk really does not work for me. It gets me a lot of wierd looks when I tell people because everyone loves it so much.
6. Apartments everywhere so there are no long uninterrupted views in the city like at home
7. Constant car horns honking
8. The sketchy sausage (it is a very disturbing color of pink and I avoid it at all costs)
9. Yogurt on everything (I don't particularly want yogurt on my pasta but that's totally normal here)
10. No ice in any drinks here and no free water at restaurants
The sketchy sausage. It's such a wierd color.
Top 10 Most Interesting/Common/My Favorite Questions I've Been Asked:
1. How is _____ celebrated in the US? (Weddings, birthday parties, etc.)
2. Are you bored? (I am asked this at least once everyday at school)
3. Do you have a boyfriend? (This was especially common when I first got here. When I would tell them no, they would always say "Don't worry. We will find you one." To which I just had to say OK and continue on.
4. Do you miss your family/the US? (Asked this on a nearly daily basis too)
5. Do you want more? (Every single meal I eat people are constantly trying to give me more food)
6. What's your favorite kind of music?
7. Do you like Turkish food?
8. Why did you choose Turkey?
9. Have you tried _______ food? (Once my classmates were asking if I had tried some kind of soup made of stomach or something like that and they just said "You should try it. It's disgusting but you should try it." Way to sell it guys!)
10. Have you ever been drunk? (This one just made me laugh because she looked so disappointed when I said I hadn't. People here get all their ideas of American life from movies and TV shows so I think they all assumed that I would have partied as much as the people in those.)
Top 10 Favorite Desserts/Drinks:
1. Turkish Coffee
2. Baklava
3. Mozaik Pasta - this is chocolate cake with tons of cookies in it and it is amazing
4. Künefe - this is a little wierd tasting but I like it. It is shredded wheat with a layer of cheese in the middle soaked in a sugary syrup with some type of nut on top.
5. Güllaç - thin layers of dough folded and piled on top of each other soaked in milk and rose water with walnuts and pomegranates on top
6. Boza - this drink is apparently only served in winter so I just recently tried it but it is made from fermented wheat and is served with cinnamon and chickpeas on top. Sounds wierd but it's actually really good.
7. Turkish tea - I don't think I have gone a single day since coming here that I haven't had at least one cup of tea
8. Aşüre - tastes kind of like oatmeal although it very much is not and has pomegranates and cinnamon on top
9. Tulumba - kind of like a churro, these are bite sized pieces of fried dough that are soaked in a sugary syrup
10. Cevizli sucuk - various nuts strung on a string and then dipped in thickened grape juice until it drys in the shape of a sausage. Just be careful when you eat this; it's very hard.
Mozaik Pasta
Top 10 Most Used Turkish Words For Me:
1. Evet - yes
2. Hayır - no
3. Anlamadım - I don't understand
4. Bilmiyorum - I don't know
5. Çok güzel - translates as very beautiful but is used in tons of situations as very nice or very good
6. Seviyorum - I like it
7. Yorgunum - I'm tired
8. Tekrar - Repeat (I have to ask for people to repeat them selves constantly because I won't understand it the first time)
9. Nasılsın - How are you?
10. Günaydın - Good morning
10 Things You Might Not Know About Turkey:
1. Like Russia, Turkey is also partially in Europe and partially in Asia
2. Istanbul is the only city in the world to be in 2 continents. The Bosphorus Strait divides the city between Asia and Europe
3. It is believed that Noah's Ark landed on Mt. Ararat in Eastern Turkey
4. St. Nicholas was born in Turkey
5. Turkey's real name is The Republic of Turkey
6. Despite a 98% Muslim population in Turkey, Atatürk banned the wearing of hijab in the country. This isn't enforced but I've heard that you are still not allowed to wear them if you work in the government.
7. The Turkish alphabet has 29 letters. It is missing x, q, and w from the English alphabet but has six accented letters: ü, ö, ı, ğ, ş, and ç.
8. Turkey shares borders with 8 countries: Greece, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Armenia, and Georgia.
9. The currency in Turkey is the Turkish Lira. Currently, one Lira is equal to 2.3 dollars.
10. The ancient city of Troy was located in modern day Turkey.
10 Things That I Am Looking Forward To in My Next 200ish Days:
1. Visiting Antalya with the other YES and NSLIY kids for our Mid-Stay Orientation in February
2. Going to Istanbul with my school in May
3. Getting better at Turkish to a point where I am hopefully somewhat fluent
4. Eating more delicious Turkish food!
5. Getting to start volunteering regularly
6. Exploring my city even more
7. Sharing my American culture with more people
8. Learning to cook some of my favorite foods so I can make them for my friends and family once I'm home
9. Hopefully visiting Ephesus and Pamukkale
10. Getting to celebrate my birthday here
10 of My Favorite Memories From My First 100 Days:
1. Looking out over Istanbul as my plane came into land and the moment that I stepped out of the airport into what was my new home.
2. Swimming in the Meditteranean Sea with my host sisters
3. Visiting Cappadocia and getting to see things in person that I had only seen pictures of before
4. All the dance parties I have had with Leah and Priya in our liason's car on the way to various activities
5. Making Thanksgiving dinner with Leah while we danced and sung to my music
6. Every time that I have been able to accomplish something, no matter how small, using Turkish
7. Attending a Turkish wedding and dancing with my family
8. The day my class threw a party for me and everyone brought different foods
9. Going olive picking and getting to talk with the other exchange students during that
10. Going to dinner with my host parents for their wedding anniversary and watching everyone dance to the music
100 things for 100 days here. It's so hard to wrap my mind around how quickly these days have gone and that about 200 days from now, I will be back in the States. These first 100 days have been the craziest adventure of my life. I've laughed more than I ever thought was possible, I've cried, I've smiled even when it's the last thing I wanted to do, and I've been so happy I couldn't wipe the smile off my face if I tried. I have grown so much since I arrived here and I wouldn't change this experience for the world. Things haven't always been easy and sometimes I've wanted nothing more than to go home. But when I really think about it, this has been the most amazing experience for me and I am so glad that I've gotten to experience so many amazing things.
Thank you so much for following my crazy adventures and endless ramblings these last 100 days and I hope you will continue to follow them for my next 200. Have a wonderful week wherever you are and if you are taking finals this week, good luck! Hoşçakal!
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