I LOVE IZMIR!!!

*Note: When I say “we” I mean myself and the other Americans with the CLS program, or some of us*

After a pretty uneventful trip and very little sleep, we arrived in Izmir Sunday afternoon. As soon as we stepped out of the airport we felt the heat. Since we had been flying, most of us had on jeans and several layers. We piled ourselves and all of our luggage into a little bus in order to get into the city. It was a sweaty trip into the city, but I loved looking out the windows. It is fantastic being back in Turkey and I realized all of the little things I liked/missed about it. One girl that had never been to Turkey before noticed that there were several lamp stores next to each other on the road and many of us realized that this was something that doesn’t happen in the US. Stores that sell similar things are right next to each other, for example all of the lamp stores are all within a few blocks and all of the furniture stores are on the same road. We were all wondering how people choose which store to go to because there is no way that one store is significantly cheaper than another. This was something that I always found interesting.

We arrived at TÖMER, our language school and filed off the bus into the heat. We went to the cafeteria of the language school to meet our host families. I was placed with a single woman who is 55 years old and a typical Turkish mother. She and her husband divorced a few years ago, but he lives in Izmir too so they see each other frequently, and I have seen him every day since I got here. She has two sons, one of which picked me up from the language school. They are both very kind and I am glad to see them often. My host mom keeps the house very clean, speaks very close, serves lots of food, loves Ataturk, is Muslim, but very liberal about clothing. Izmir is a very liberal place and many girls wear t-shirts and shorts out of the house around the city.Tank tops and t-shirts are not a problem in most of Turkey, but shorts are off limits in most of the country because older men look at the women negatively.We have realized that Izmir is just too hot for that to be the case, so luckily I can wear dresses and shorts every day.

Monday morning I went to TÖMER for orientation and language placement. Monday was busy, fun, and very hot. In the morning we had safety/earthquake training,received our cell phones and took the language placement test. The we took the Language Pledge, which honestly felt as though we were signing our lives away.We signed a pledge that said we would only speak Turkish during the program. It has been a little difficult, but my Turkish has improved a lot because I am not allowed to speak English. After lunch we met our Language Buddies (From now on I am going to refer to them as our “buddies”) for a scavenger hunt around the city. We had to go to a post office, a hair salon, the bus station, the train station, a bookstore, a supermarket and a few other places that I can’t remember. Since we finished early, a bunch of us went to a cafe with our buddies to relax and chat. Our language buddies are supposed to hang out with us, show us around the city, and only speak English. It is great to meet people who are our age and are also university students. My buddy’s name is Melek and she is really sweet. I am really looking forward to hanging out with her more. 

For language class I am in the highest level for the group of us in Izmir, which is an intermediate/advanced level, with 4 other girls. We were split into 4classes because there are 4 teachers and we are at all different levels.Monday-Friday from 9-1 every morning we have class. 2 or 3 afternoons a week we have activities planned such as excursions, a dance class, and a cooking class.We have a few weekend trips to Ephesus, a picnic, and other places around the area, and an overnight trip to Antalya. Our buddies will come with us to the picnic and to Antalya and I am really excited to be with them for these activities.

The heat is incredible. It is over 95 degrees every day, and for someone who has spent the last month in Maine where it was normally 70 degrees, it is awful.The heat is just unbearable, especially because most places do not have air conditioning, including my host family’s apartment. Last night my host mom put a big fan in my room and it was the first night I actually slept through the night. I have been waking up because of the heat, so it was good to sleep through the night.

These past few days have been very exciting. We have explored the city, learned the public transportation system in order to get to language classes alone, eaten lots of delicious Turkish food, and spoken a lot of Turkish. I was worried that I would be a little bored the first week with not many planned activities, but my days have been packed and exciting. Now that I have a Turkish cell phone I can speak with my Turkish friends from Samsun, Istanbul, and Ankara, and I realize how much I miss them. I am excited for free weekends and upcoming trips. It is fantastic being back in Turkey speaking Turkish and I am happy that I have a significant amount of time left :)

Less than 24 hours until departure!

I am currently in Washington DC because of CLS orientation. I arrived super early yesterday morning and was worried that I was going to be really bored all day, but I actually saw a bunch of friends and went to two Smithsonians I had never been to before. We had a welcome session in the evening and then were free for dinner. Since I had woken up at 3:40 that morning and had been unable to nap all day I went right to bed after dinner and slept like a baby.

This morning after breakfast we had a session where people from the Department of State who specifically work with the Critical Language Scholarship Program came to speak with us about how the program is growing and more logistics about the program as a whole. Then we had a session where we discussed most of the rules and policies. After a quick break, we had a panel of speakers who spoke to us about their careers and how they use their Turkish skills. The afternoon sessions were definitely my favorite because after lunch we met with our program director who gave us specific logistics about our program in Izmir. We will be going on one overnight trip and I was eager to hear where we are going and I am EXTREMELY happy with the destination because we are going to Antalya!!!! The one place I want to go more than anywhere else in Turkey is Antalya and I was going to try and go on my weekend off, so now it is better because I will go with friends and I don't have to pay! Now I have to figure out where I want to go on my free weekend. We ended that session early so we had a long break and then got to speak to alumni who went on the trip last year, which was very interesting. The final part of the day was to inform us about alumni opportunities and ways to get involved with CLS after the program.

I would have to say that one of my highlights of the day was dinner. We all went to a Malaysian restaurant and got to chat while we ate. I had never eaten Malaysian food before and it was really tasty. The restaurant is pretty close to GW so I want to go back in the fall!

Now I am chilling in my hotel room getting really excited to leave tomorrow!! There is one other CLS group with us at orientation and they are going to Korea. Unfortunately they leave the hotel at 3am because they have a really early flight. Luckily my group leaves the hotel at 1:20 tomorrow so we can sleep in :). I hope all of our travels go well and so long America! Next time I post I will be in Turkey!!

NSLI-Y Turkey Conference Call

Last night I was one of the Alumni on the NSLI-Y Country Specific Call for the participants going to Turkey this summer. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed sharing some of my experiences with high school students who are in the same position I was in 3 years ago. It seems like it was so much longer, but I was first immersed in the Turkish language and culture just 3 years ago at about this same time. 

While on the call I realized a few things. I was giving advice to the students, and that advice I really should follow myself. Here are a few tips that I told the students, which I am going to try and live by this summer:

Don't freak out, everything will be fine. It will all work out in the end.  I am the type of person who is extremely organized and likes to know all of the details before I do something. This is not how it goes when participating in programs like NSLI-Y or CLS because there are numerous unknowns before one arrives in their host country. I will have to wait until I arrive in Izmir to know about weekend plans and when/if I can travel to visit friends.

You get out of it what you put into it. I really want to be a part of my host family. Close relationships with people take work, and I want to spend as much time with my new host family and friends as possible. The more time and effort I put into studying Turkish the more I am going to learn. And my goal from this summer from the beginning has been to get my Turkish down pat and really feel comfortable with the grammar and vocabulary, and that is something I can control with how much effort I put into it.

Spend as little time on the computer and social networks. This is really going to be challenging for me, but for the most part I am going to try and unplug for the summer. I will sign a contract saying I am only going to speak Turkish (unless speaking with my American family or in an emergency pretty much), so I want to do that through the internet as well. I have been toiling over the decision whether or not to take my laptop and after last night I came to the decision that I am not going to take it. I will not be completely disconnected from the world and I will survive without it.

Enjoy and take advantage of everything! I want to take advantage of all of the opportunities I am given because this really is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I know I have received a scholarship from the US Department of State several times, but each time I am in a new city surrounded by new people and am able to do exciting new activities. I cannot wait to be in Izmir to see everything it has to offer! :)

One month until Izmir!

In one month I will be returning to Turkey, but this time I will be going to Izmir! I received the Critical Language Scholarship from the US Department of State, which is a program for undergraduate and graduate college students to intensely study critical foreign languages fully immersed in the language and culture. Izmir is the third largest city in Turkey and is on the Aegean Coast in the south west of Turkey. Last time I was in Turkey, I was with the high school version of the program for a gap year of 10 months in Samsun, so this time I am fully prepared for what I am getting myself into. I will be studying advanced Turkish at the same language institute that I studied at last year, Ankara Üniversitesi TÖMER. I really like how the language institute sets up its language classes and the method it uses. This allowed me to know exactly which level I will be in, but at the same time I have to review a lot of what I learned while in Samsun because I have not used a lot of it this year and it is in the back of my brain. This month, before I go to Turkey, I will spend time reviewing and studying all of the grammar in the beginner and intermediate levels so that I can hit the ground running when I get to Izmir. I am extremely excited to be back in a country that I love surrounded by a wonderful culture and delicious food, but I have a lot of studying to do before then. After my two month program in Izmir, I will spend a few days in Istanbul and about a week in Samsun visiting my former host family and friends. I miss them so much, so this will be a great way to end the summer. Maybe I can visit them one weekend before then, but if not I will see everyone in August!


For those of you who do not know the geography of Turkey I have attached a map for you to see where I talk about. Samsun is in the north on the Black Sea Coast. Izmir is in the west on the Aegean Coast.

Final Post

I have been back in the US for 4 months now and my time here has been interesting so far. I am happy to be back and familiar with everything, but I really miss Turkey and Samsun.

The last few weeks I was in Turkey were very hectic and the first few weeks when I got back were the same which is why I didn't post anything. My last days in Samsun were filled with end of school events, celebrations, host family commitments and trying to say goodbye to friends. The last week I was in Turkey I travelled around with the other Americans and our AFS leader. There were sleepless nights where we travelled and every day was filled with touring and excursions. To sum it up we went to Izmir, Ephesus, Aphrodesias, Kuşadası, Pammukale, and our last day was spent in Istanbul. It was a great decision that we toured the last week because it was a week where we were in limbo; we finished up our year and got all of our last thoughts sorted out before we came home. It was filled with excitement and emotions to say the least.

Now that I have started college and have been here for a while, I can truly compare and contrast my experiences. There are some aspects of my life that I really appreciate about being in the US and in college, but there are others that I really miss about being in Turkey. Since this post is about Turkey and Samsun I am only going to focus on the parts that I miss.

One of the most obvious differences is çay and everything surrounding it. I drank it at least twice every day, if not more and I definitely had caffeine withdrawals when I got back. I went to a Turkish restaurant last week and when I had to pay for çay after my meal I was a somewhat surprised and little disappointed. 

I also miss the sound of the ezan or call to prayer going off. Since I never heard it in the morning and it didn't wake me up it, it never bothered me in the morning. Hearing the ezan always reminded me that I was in Turkey and here it is so quiet. I met up with a Turkish guy last week and it was interesting how we contrasted the call to prayer to the church bells on Sunday.

In Turkey, when ordering ice cream at a stand off the street, you say the price you want to pay and the scooper gives you a certain amount of ice cream based on the price. I miss ordering like that because sometimes I just want a little ice cream for not that much money, but I end up paying more and getting more than I want.

Some other things that I love are the fact that guys dance. Since they are brought up dancing at parties and events, many people not only have rhythm, but they can really move. They don’t just jump up and down, fist pump, or wiggle awkwardly as many males do here. Obviously this is not true for all Americans or all Turks, or even a majority, but just a cultural generalization from what I can see.

I miss the big breakfasts I had with my host family on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Sometimes we would go to a friend’s house or have friends over, but we always had something special to eat on the weekends. I also miss visiting relatives and neighbors in the evenings. Although I did not get much sleep and often just wanted to stay home, it was a big cultural difference for me and I miss visiting in the evenings. I see friends all the time now that I am living in a dorm again, but it isn’t the same.

I miss seeing all elementary, middle, and high school students walking around in uniforms during the day. All public schools, and private for that matter, have uniforms that are unique to each school. During the school day students are seen all around town in their uniforms and it is something unique to Turkey that I definitely got used to.

One last comment now. Talking about differences, there is one tiny difference which was actually somewhat difficult for me to get used to. The light switch for the bathroom in Turkey is outside the bathroom on the wall. This does not seem like a big thing, but I constantly forgot to shut off the light when exiting the bathroom in the US and I would hit the wall outside the door expecting the switch to be there. Good times haha

I have been wanting to post this last post for a while, but as you can imagine, life has been crazy lately. I finally sat down and made myself finish the last post. I learned a lot about the Turkish language, culture, people, music and every other aspect of life, as well as a lot about myself. This year has shaped me in more ways than I realize; I discover that every day. I hope to go back to Turkey soon and keep studying the language and also visit my host family and friends because I miss them dearly. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it :).

Izmir!

Two weekends ago I went on my school trip to Izmir with most of my classmates, and a lot of friends from other classes. It was a fun-filled weekend with very little sleep.

On Thursday May 12th, I boarded a bus from my school with 48 other AALers and 5 teachers, for a 16 hour bus ride through the night to Izmir. All week, while I was complaining about how the bus ride was going to be terrible after about 5 hours, my friends told me differently and said that the bus was going to be the best part! I can say that the first 5-7 hours were really fun, but after that we all got tired and had troubles sleeping. I sat with my friend who ended up being a great pillow, and from past experiences this year with busses, I slept pretty well compared to everyone else. We made lots of stops to go to the restroom, no worries there.

on the bus with some of my girls :)

In the morning we got out at a restaurant to have breakfast and then continued on to Izmir. We toured the city on the bus and took pictures out the windows. We stopped and had free time to go shopping a little and eat lunch. I know that most of you will be surprised, as I was, to hear that I ate at KFC for lunch. As there is no KFC in Samsun, my classmates wanted to take full advantage of the opportunity, and while I refuse to eat American fast food while in Turkey, I made an exception to stay with my friends.

in Izmir

KFC lunch :P

After lunch we got back on the bus and rode about an hour and a half to Kuşadası, a touristy town where we would be staying. We got some time to rest, take showers and relax before we walked to a castle down town. Dinner at the hotel followed and then free time around town. During free time of the trip I spent time mostly with 7 of my girl friends as we all liked to go shopping and walk around. Therefore that evening was spent with my girls walking around and singing karaoke. If you ask almost any student that went on the trip, the best part was back at the hotel after check-in when we hung out in the rooms with our friends. The teachers made no restrictions so girls and guys hung out in the same room until they went to bed.

walking around :)

The next morning we went to the House of Virgin Mary. We walked through, lit candles and prayed, drank holy water, and made wishes with paper :).

most of the group :)

After that we went to Efes (Ephesus) which was amazing! It is an area of old ruins. The only bad part was that it was really hot and I got a little sunburnt :/.

a library

my classmates who went on the trip... 11E <3 

After a great buffet lunch we went to Saint John’s Aniti and an old mosque. Then we drove back to Kuşadası, the town where our hotel was, and went on a boat ride around the Aegean Sea.

We went back to our hotel to have dinner and rest. Then we went our to tour the town again, sang more karaoke, and visited starbucks! After checking in that night I watched Eurovision with a large group of my friends.

The next morning, after checking out of the hotel and driving about an hour, we had almost 4 hours of shopping time at a very large shopping center. I got some new clothes and took advantage of the sales :). Around 3:30 we got back on the bus and started our drive to Samsun. That night I actually slept a good amount compared to a lot of other people. I got off the bus at 5:30am, walked home, fell asleep in the clothes I was wearing, and slept until TÖMER.

It was a fantastic weekend, and I had a blast spending time with my friends. It turns out that the 16 hour bus ride wasn’t as bad as I expected. I slept more than anyone else on the trip. How fortunate for me! I had never been on a school trip before and this was a great first one!

Summary of April

April was probably my host hectic month in Samsun so far. There was so much going on that I had no time to update my blog. Therefore please accept my apologies

On the night of April 1st I took the night bus to Ankara with my American Samsunites. We spent the morning of my 19th birthday planning trees wth the US Embassy in Ankara. We met the ambassador and got to do community service. It was great giving back to the earth on my birthday. In the afternoon we walked around a little before dinner. As I am here in Turkey on a scholarship from the US State Department, we have some special requirements as well as many benefits, one of them being having diplomat mentors to talk to about working in the foreign service. The woman who is in charge of us while we are in Turkey, Stefanie, invited us to her house for a potluck of American food to meet all of our mentors. It was great having foods that we have been longing for so long such as chilli, lasagna, garlic bread, cucpakes, girl scout thin mint ice cream, and root beer. It truly felt as if we had traveled back to the US for the evening, which was very culturally confusing, but very enjoyable. All 4 of us realized to a small extent what we will go through when we return back to the US in June. The next day walked around the city, went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch (which made me realize that I will never have Chinese food in Turkey again :P) and then returned back to Samsun later that evening.

cupcakes for my 19th birthday!

Lena and Cemre planting trees!

With the Abassador

On Friday April 15th my family came to visit me from the US over my brother’s April vacation. It was amazing to see them after so long, especially in Samsun. We spent our time in Samsun wakling around, touring, meeting my friends and family, and spending time together. We also went to Ankara for 2 days and they went to Capadoccia for 2 days, without me as I had school, to tour and see the sites. I took my brother to school one day with me and then we had lunch with my class, which was great. All of my classmates wanted to meet my family so it was great to finally introduce them.

My class with Greg

One of the best experiences was dinner at my house one Saturday night. It was a confusing at first since my family doesn’t know Turkish and my host family doesn’t know English, but as time went on things got more relaxed. It was truly enjoyable because my family got to experience traditional Turkish culture and see what I encounter all the time while being with people that are so special to me.

Family and Host Family

Family, Host Family, Sam's Host family and relatives

In the month of April all scattered around I also went to neighbor’s and relatives’ houses multiple times a week. My host mom wants to introduce me to her friends since she talks about me too them, so I went along with her and my host sisters quite often. I also rolled a lot of dolmas (stuffed grape leaves) which you can see pictures below

I participated in a TÖMER knowledge competition against other non-Turks. And went on a picnic with the language school.

The last weekend of April I went to another SamsunSpor soccer game

All of us at the game :)

Sam's host sister