Ankara Trip, Changes, and lots of Luck

Hey guys! 

So, last Wednesday/Thursday our group of exchange students, along with 1700 other school age kids, took charter buses to Ankara, which is the Capital of Turkey, to visit the memorial for Atatürk. We started off on Wednesday leaving Istanbul at 11:30pm. We drove through the night, but stopped every couple hours to eat (Honestly, who wants to eat a sandwich at 2am? Not me, that's who) and stretch our legs a little. The trip time is only 7 hours in total, but with stops we made it to Ankara by 9am. Here are some pictures from the trip: 

   

This was just a fraction of the people that went with us on our trip. Actually, some kids approached us while we were waiting to enter into the facility and were asking all these questions. But only in Turkish. So I had to use a majority of the Turkish I had in order to communicate with them. They were asking questions like, "What is your name?", "Where are you from?", "How do you like Turkey?", etc. They were all so nice! 

Walking to the burial site of Atatürk 

The outside of the burial site

Our whole group

2 other Americans, Annalise and Hailey

Dramatic shot of Luis

Daffne tried for a dramatic shot too..

Hahaha Charlène! 

Our only adorable Family picture

The Tomb of Atatürk 

Really cool landscape they had outside

After we left the Memoral, we went to the Turkish House of Parliament.

Love this quote from Atatürk 

Gabi (Brazil) and Charlène (France) posing with some artifacts 

Love the view from this window at Parliament 

A Rotary Youth Exchange committee member, Hana, Daffne, and Charlène 

The infamous "Foreign 5" 

I took a selfie with the guy who was serving refreshments on our charter bus. We all called him, "Kanka" which means either "Brother" or "Dude" depending when you use it. 

Daffne and I 

Then Charlène and I took a selfie with Kanka later on the way home.

Hana slept over at my house because we got home so late from Ankara that she couldn't have gone back to European side. 

This brings me to Friday. 

So since Hana and I didn't really sleep a lot during the trip, we got to stay home from school on Friday. We got up around 9am and had breakfast. But around 11:30am we left home and walked to downtown Kadiköy. We stopped and had lunch at this Döner resturant, went shopping, and I sort of had a "why not" moment and got my hair cut on a whim. I ended up getting 4 inches cut off (and I got layers too)! But I haven't even told you the best part. I got my hair washed, with shampoo AND CONDITIONER, cut, blow dried, straightened, and the hairdresser even put some fruity oil in my hair to make it stronger all for 7TL (which translates to $3.50)!!! Can you believe it? Such a good price for all the stuff they did for my hair. But I will admit I was a little scared because this was the first haircut I'd gotten without my mom. So since I was a little panicky, Hana held my hand almost the whole time... So embarrassing. And my hairdresser guy just kept saying "Panic yok, panic yok" which means something like "Don't panic". Here is where I got my hair cut at:

Afterwards, Hana went back home to European side and I went to my host cousin Naz' 9th birthday party! She is so adorable, I can barely stand it :) I saw this as a great opportunity to use my Turkish, so I just kept saying everything I knew and I even made some full sentences/phrases! The only bad part was that my host cousin Sebastian, the inbound from Mexico, isn't picking up on Turkish very fast. So I tried to speak with him in Turkish (example: I asked him "makarna istiyorsun" which isn't a full sentence, but it means something along the lines of "Do you want pasta" and he looked at me and said "Anlamıyourum" which means "I don't understand") but that was a lost cause. Instead, we spoke in 1/3 English, 1/3 Spanish, and 1/3 Turkish. It was pretty difficult. 

Saturday, I had turkish class again. Here is about how I felt walking into class:

Today we had a new teacher and he was MUCH better than our regular one. His English was better, he taught off the book, and even gave us the wifi password. 

Charlène and I 

After class Charlène, Hailey, Camila, and I went to this open air market in Besiktas. I got a new wallet for 10TL, so I consider the day successful :) we passed by this alley way on our way to the Pazar and I just had to take a picture! 

Sunday

Turkish class again. Which means more snapchat selfies. 

But this morning Julia and I got so lucky! So Daffne told us to meet her at the Kadiköy metrobus station at 8:45am. Julia and I both arrived at 8:50am and Daffne wasn't there because she left without us. But as we were walking to the place where you scan your card to pay for the metrobus, we stumbled upon 50 TL just laying on the ground. We both just stared at it and then at each other wondering if this was real life or not. We looked to see if there was anyone around that could have dropped it and there was absolutely no one. So we decided it was a gift from Allah and we would spend it on our lunch today (usually, everyone goes to the supermarket Migros for food during the break but they don't have real food there only chips, soda, and other snacks. But there is a cafe in the same building as our course so we are there instead). We both ordered Mante, which is a pasta filled with meat covered in Yogurt sauce, and cola to drink. It was so refreshing to actually eat real food for a change. All I can say is THANK YOU ALLAH! :) 

Our meal from Allah

After the course, Julia and I took the ferry home to Asia and went our separate ways. But before we got on the ferry, we explored this outdoor photography exhibit. I loved it! 

    

Istanbul seaside, one of my favorite places :) We took pictures here before boarding the ferry for Asia.

Thanks again for reading. 

Maggie