Photo Timeline

Yesterday, I went to the airport with Sydney and her parents to see her off on her way to Australia! I'm so excited for her, I just can't wait to hear all about her adventure (If you also want to see how she's doing, her blog URL is on the side bar on the right side of my blog). 

Kind of on a random note, but I was going through all the pictures I have on my phone from this last year with all the Inbounds and Outbounds. I started laughing so hard, that I almost cried. So, I thought I'd share a few of them with you! 

This is some of us, plus Madisson (one of last year's Outbounds).

Linda, Sydney, and I at the April Cinference

Zuzia and Bryant took my phone at the April Conference and took selfies :) I miss them so much! 

This is from an impromptu picnic Zuzia, Sophie, Kenzie, and I went on one time.

Haha this is from my 18th birthday, when Sophie and Sydney bought me a piñata and we took it to the park to have a photoshoot with it before we destroyed it. 

This is just ONE of the 1000+ selfies Bruno took on my phone over the year

One of the candid pictures of Sophie and Sydney that was taken at my goodbye party!

Por, Bruno, Sydney, and I went out for breakfast together. Gosh, I miss them a lot.

Taco Bell: Nicole's favorite place

And this brings me up to the present day! Of course, there were so so so many other pictures I could have posted, but you'd be here all night if I did :) 

Sincerely,

Maggie 

So much change so little time

Hey Everyone! 

Recently, I've been experiencing a lot of change in my life and I'm not quite sure how to feel about it all happening at once. So, I decided to write about it, hoping it will help me organize my thoughts. 

The biggest change would have to be that my two best friends in the entire world left/ are leaving within the same week. Bruno went home to Brazil on Tuesday, and Sophie leaves Saturday for her year in Denmark. Last Monday (August 4th), all of us (Sydney, Nicole, Sophie, Bruno, and I) got together at Sydney's pond to have a "Going Home" dinner for Bruno. Here is a picture of us that night: 

Then that next morning, Sophie and I went to the Fort Wayne Airport to say goodbye to Bruno. I'll admit that I did tear up a little bit. Afterwards, Sophie took me to her Grandma's house for some homemade Bulgarian food, which was amazing by the way. But as I was leaving to go home, all my emotions changed. I didn't cry all day or anything, I just became numb. I was trying to block out all the feelings of sadness, and the many urges to cry, by pretending that I didn't miss my best friend. {And this is for you Sydney:} But as one of my favorite authors John Green said in his book "The Fault in our Stars", Pain Demands to be Felt. So as the days went on, I started feeling worse and worse. I'd reached the point of just needing a good cry to release all the bottled up emotion I'd been holding on to. So today, I was driving to Sophie's house so we could carpool together to go volunteering, and as I was driving out to her house in the country, all these sad country songs came on, such as "It won't be like this for long" by Darius Rucker and "Don't forget to remember me" by Carrie Underwood. And with each one I became even more sad than before. Then all the emotion I'd been holding back hit me at once, like a ton of bricks. I started crying so uncontrollably that I had to stop driving and finally face what I'd been holding back all this time. But I'll admit, the worst part about crying for me is that once I start crying, I'll cry about everything sad in my life. So I'd say I probably sat in the middle of that country road for a solid 10 minutes before I was able to pull myself together enough to be able to drive the rest of the way to Sophie's house. But once I got there, Sophie gave me a goodbye present which consisted of some coffee filters (because I have no filter in my personality haha), a "Horton hears a Who" book with a message written inside from Sophie, and some candy. It was a very thoughtful gift that I'll definitely use over this next year. Have an amazing year Soph, I can't wait to hear all about it!

But the more I think about Sophie leaving, the more I realize that this exchange brought us so close as friends before ever leaving for our separate host countries, that it must have so many other great things in store for the both of us over this next year apart. 

On a lighter note, several new exchange students have arrived recently to start their exchanges in Indiana! First is Sydney's exchange student Estelle, who is with a program called CHI from Switzerland, then Sergio, who is with Rotary from Peru, and finally Sophie's exchange student Orsi, who is also with Rotary from Hungary! They all are such nice people, I just know they will have an awesome year on exchange! 

Writing this really helped me start to organize my feelings towards everything changing in my life. I hope this post has shown to you all that foreign exchange is much more than just going to another country for a year. There is a price you pay for leaving your heart in many different places. But in the end, I wouldn't  trade that feeling for anything in the world. Rotary has given me this valueable  gift of knowing and loving people from all over the world, and that can never be repayed. 

Thanks for reading, 

Maggie 

Odds and Ends of the last week

Hello Everyone, 

Sorry I'm a little late posting this week, but I, nevertheless, have a lot to catch you up on! 

First, I'll start off with Sophie's goodbye party. Sophie is one of my best friends. Not a day goes by that I don't either talk to her, hang out with her, or both. This year apart will be so difficult without my best friend. But I know she'll have a great year in Denmark! 

Here is Bruno at Sophie's party in front of  a really huge Danish Flag, painted by Sophie's sister. 

Also, Sophie sent me these quotes on Pinterest that perfectly describe our friendship, and I thought I share them. 

The next day Sophie, Nicole, Bruno, and I went to this bookstore downtown called Hyde Brothers Books. It is in this old house that was renovated into a book store. Sophie and I agreed that even if we spent all day there looking at books, we still wouldn't be able to see everything they had! Here is Sophie at the book store: 

Also, while on the subject on books, Bruno, Sophie, and I went to another book store today called Any Other Book. It is closing down so everything is 80% off. Sophie got a three book series written in Danish and I got all these books for $11.00!

Anyway, after going to Hyde Brothers Books, we headed to Butler, Indiana for Sydney's goodbye party. Her party was at her Pond, which is about 15 minutes away from Butler. Here is a picture of Sophie and I at the party: 

{Don't mind the Canadian Flag, it's a long story haha}

Her party was really fun! We played Cornhole, fed the fish, and made Apple Pudgy Pies in the Bonfire. You will be missed Sydney. Hope you have a fun year in Australia!

Also, here are some funny posts I saw about foreign exchange students:

Thank you all so much for reading! 

Sincerely, Maggie  

Calvin College CSRYE Conference!

Hi Everyone! 

Over this past weekend was my last Rotary Conference until I leave for Turkey. It's so difficult to believe that this part of my journey is over just as the next part, the actual exchange, is beginning. 

Some of the best parts of the conference would have to be the pin exchange, going dancing both nights with my fellow Outbounds, and being able to ask the Rebound, who went to my city in Turkey, any questions I had about exchange. 

The Pin exchange was so crazy, I could barely tell what was going on half of the time. Basically, every Inbound, Outbound,  and Rebound brings pins that they've made or bought that represent their home country. Then, they would give away those pins for other ones that represent other countries. Later, you would put all the pins you got at the exchange on your Rotary jacket. Here is a picture of my jacket after the conference: 

And if you think I have a lot of pins on my jacket now, just wait until the end of my exchange! 

{By the way, the weight of all those pins on my jacket have already broken one coat hanger. Causality count:1}

Thank you for reading,

Maggie

Fourth of July, Friends, and Guarantee Forms

Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great Fourth of July weekend celebrating with family and friends. I had such an awesome time hanging out with my friends, Sydney (outbound to Australia) and Bruno (inbound from Brazil) at Sydney's pond and later, for fireworks, at her aunts lake house. 

{Above are some of the spectacular photos Sydney took of the fireworks!}

Overall it was such a great day, I couldn't imagine spending it with anybody else! 

Also, as you may have guessed from the title, I received my guarantee form from Turkey! What the guarantee form tells me is my Host Rotary Club and the High School I'll be attending in Turkey. My Host Rotary Club is the Istanbul Rotary Club. And I've found out that there is another girl, who is from California, that will also be hosted by my club! She is so sweet, I just know we'll get along great together. My school is Eyuboglu High School. Here is a picture of my school:

There are so many fun clubs I'm planning on joining, I'll barely have time to sleep! 

My goodbye party is in a few days, and our final conference is this weekend too. Can't believe how fast time is flying. But as everyday passes, I know I'm getting closer and closer to my life in Istanbul.

Best wishes, Maggie

Saying Goodbye...

It is getting towards the end of this phase of my exchange, the phase of being the Outbound. I absolutely dread saying goodbye to those who meant so much to me and really impacted my life over this last year, those people being the Inbounds and my fellow Outbounds. Just the thought of being away from them for an entire year makes me feel sick to my stomach. It will be difficult for me not to communicate with my best friends on a daily basis. I mean, c'mon, I basically see Sophie, outbound to Denmark, and Bruno, inbound from Brazil, every other day if not everyday. And when we are apart, I'll still get text messages from them as if we aren't apart at all. But I know that this exchange is the best thing for all of us, and I don't doubt that we will pick up where we left off as soon as we meet again after the exchange.

A few days ago was Juna's, inbound from Belgium, goodbye party. Several of us went to the party to give her one last hug and say goodbye. Here is our whole group from the party:

{From Left to Right: Sydney, outbound to Australia, Sophie, outbound to Denmark, Me, Juna, inbound from Belgium, Zuzia, inbound from Poland, Austin, a friend of Juna and I's, and Bruno, inbound from Brazil.}

Now tomorrow is Zuzia's goodbye party, and I am already feeling sad about her leaving! I just really don't like goodbyes. I love this whole group of exchange students so much, I feel like I'm losing a part of my family when they leave. But I know that what is to come, meaning my year abroad in Turkey, is also going to be a life changing time for me too. 

I only have 50 days or so until I leave for the amazing city of Istanbul, Turkey! Where has the time gone? It feels just like yesterday I was filling out the mile long application and worrying about whether or not I turned all my documents in on time. Now I am more concerned with learning Turkish. The app that I've found to work the best is one called "Memrise". It associates pictures with words to help you learn the language. Here is a example from today:

 Thanks again for reading!

Maggie

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