Host Family: The Karaçizmelis

I CANT BELIEVE IT! I finally got my host family! I received an email from my host sister, Irem, and here is the email (It was too good to summarize) she sent me:

"Hi Maggie,

I'm your host sister :) It was very nice reading your letter and we are glad to be your host family :)   This is my mom's e-mail address. Actually she wanted to write this but her English is still not great :) Let me tell you about us a little. My mom is 50 years old. Her name is Zehra (but some people use her second name, Fatosh) She doesn't work. She spends her time trying to learn English, which is a great thing to do at that age. She is a great cook. You'll love her food if you like Middle Eastern cuisine. As to my father, his name is Rifki. He is a 59 year-old banker. Unfortunately he doesn't speak any English. He loves football (soccer) and politics. He can literally talk about these two the whole day if you want him to. He and my mother are married for 30 years. 

I also have an older sister. Her name is Enise. She is 30 years old and married. She went to Japan in 2002 as an exchange student. Right now she is a landscape architect. And her husband is an architect. They met at uni :) And me... My name is Irem. I am 24 years old. I work at a gaming company. I am the content editor of two websites: didigames.com and gamesforgirls.com. But I will quit soon and move to San Francisco to do MA in International Studies at USF on August 12. So if you come here around that time, I would love to meet you in person but if you can't, we can skype :) 

So that's us :) We have a big family. I have 4 aunts and 5 cousins and we all love hanging out with each other. We live in a massive city, Istanbul. It was the capital of two empires: ottoman and eastern roman, so it's historically quite rich. It is also the only city that connects two continents: Asia and Europe. Well, we live on the Asian side but you can go to the European side in half an hour with a ferry. I used to go there everyday because my uni was there. The city is exciting, it's hard to get bored, really. 15 million people live here. Sometimes it can be overwhelming but if you know how to handle the traffic you can always stay away from stress. We mostly use public transport. We do have a car but we generally use it to go to our summer house that is 90 minutes away from the city. Our house is pretty central. 

So we look forward to meeting you. When do you think you can come? 

Please send our regards to your family.

Best,
The Karaçizmelis"

The most challenging part about the exchange is that since I won't have any host siblings living at home, I'll basically be an only child! This will be quite the change, considering that I have three brothers. But I am absolutely BEYOND excited to meet my family and start this amazing adventure in an equally amazing city. 

Alkis (Turkish for "Cheers"), 

Maggie