Starting last Thursday and ending yesterday, we had our mid stay camp with the other YES students and the NSLI-Y students in Antalya. I always look forward to getting to spend time with the other exchange students, so I was very excited for the camp to start. Of course, we also had to do activities and talk about our exchanges (that is the purpose of orientations after all) but we were given a lot of time to just talk and enjoy each others company.
Our sessions for the orientation ranged from discussing our relationships with our families to answering a series of questions about every part of our exchange to making collages. Most of the activities were good to do and I appreciated the insights they brought me, but they weren't always the most interesting, as orientations tend to be.
A collage I made showing some of my experiences.
One of my favorite activities was getting to read a letter we wrote ourselves and writing another one to read in a few months. When we were at our 6 week camp in Cappadocia, we each wrote a letter to ourselves in which we were supposed to write some goals that we wanted to have accomplished by the time we read the letter and just wrote about our thoughts. Reading that letter that I wrote after just a few weeks here, barely two weeks of school finished was an eye opener for me to realize just how much I've grown up here and how much I've experienced since then. While I hadn't accomplished every goal, I had written down, I realized I had done what I thought was my most important goal. I had written down, "Most of all, I hope you are happy." When I read that, I became so overwhelmed with emotion because I realized that I truly am and that is the most important thing. I have found my place here and I am happy here. Being reminded of where I was helped me so much to realize how far I've come and that I have accomplished so much, even if I still have a lot that I hope to do still.
In between our sessions, we drank lots of tea and coffee, did various "energizers", spent some time walking and playing outside, and just spent time together.
Me and Leah playing on the seesaw at our hotel during one of our breaks.
The volunteers running the orientation also gave us an activity that we all had to do together (none of us are really sure why we had to do it) that ended up being extremely fun. There is a very popular TV show here called Bu Tarz Benim, which means this is my style, which is basically a fashion show where the other contestants pick each other apart and there are usually tears. So we were told to create our own version of Bu Tarz Benim. We weren't very excited at first so we put off any type of planning until about an hour before we were supposed to present, but we somehow pulled off an absolutely hilarious and pretty impressive little show. Everyone dressed up as something different and everyone judged and yelled and laughed. I had so much fun doing it and I'm actually so glad they asked us to.
I was headed to my mom's birthday party and was rocking a sport chic look.
We also got to spend a day sightseeing around Antalya, which was incredible. We visited the ancient city of Perge first. It was built many thousands of years ago, but is amazingly well preserved and is under constant restoration to have even more places available for the public to visit. We toured through the baths, the agora, the main gates of the city, and went around the Main Street of the whole city. It was so easy for me to imagine it as it was back when it was a bustling city and I loved getting to see it all. Our tour guide was very informative and told us a lot about why things were designed they way they were and how the various places used to be, which was absolutely fascinating.
A good view of a large part of the city. You can see where they are restoring one of the towers at the city gates.
Part of the baths and the training grounds.
The Main Street of the city.
I'm so lucky to be here with these girls and I don't know what I would do without them.
The stadium from the city.
The Aydin girls doing our "gang sign". It was supposed to be an A.
Next, we visited a rather oddly constructed (it zigzagged in the middle) but beautiful bridge.
We then headed to a Roman theater built 2000 years ago in Aspendos. The theater was used for both plays and gladiator matches and could seat up to 15000. It was incredibly well preserved and sitting at the top, I could imagine being there to watch the entertainment, crowded in with thousands of other people. It was amazing and probably my favorite stop of the day.
The front of the theater. All of the carving a were so beautiful and still almost perfect.
The whole stadium.
All of the YES kids at the top of the theater.
Next, we headed to a beautiful waterfall. We had a lot of fun climbing over the rocks and feeling the splash of the waterfall.
Me and Jake.
We then headed to Antalya's city center for a little bit of exploring. The seaside and docks were absolutely beautiful and wandering around with my friends was lots of fun.
All in all, I had a fantastic time in Antalya and at our camp. I wish we could all spend more time together because we always have so much fun when we do, but since we don't see each other much, it makes that much more fun when we are together. I was glad for the oppurtunity to reflect on what I've done so far and think about what I want to accomplish in my remaining months here. And I think having a little break away from the routine of my life here was a good thing and I will be refreshed and ready to get back into it now.
As always, thank you for reading my ramblings and thoughts. Here's to 5 more months of them! Have a good week! Hoşçakal!
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