Hello again everybody!

Here is my March update:

Last Wednesday was a bayram (holiday) dedicated to the doctors of Türkiye, so it was Fettah's (my host father) day.

About two weeks ago, there was a Turkish folklore festival in Afyon, which I participated in. I didn't dance, but every group had a sign with the group name and where they were from on it, and I got to be the sign holder for the Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi group. I also wore traditional Turkish clothing, which was really cool. The AKÜ group came in second, which was a little disappointing, but last week they had another competition (this time in Denizli), and they came in first!

After the competition, I joined the university folklore group. So now I have folklore three times a week: Tuesdays and Sundays with the university group and Thursdays with the community group. The university group practices at a campus outside of the city, so I take a dolmuş (mini bus) to get there. Thanks to folklore, I have now mastered the public transportation system of Afyon: it isn't very complicated, we only have dolmuşes here. But I have also learned how to use the subway in Ankara, the ferries in İzmir (the city is located on the water, so you take ferries everywhere), and the subway in İstanbul. I feel accomplished.

This past week in Edebiyat (Literature class) my teacher asked me to write a short paragraph about the beginning of America. So I did, and the exciting thing is that I wrote it in Turkish! I am putting it here because it is the first school thing that I have written in Turkish and I am proud of it:

Amerika İngiltere'nin kolonisidir. Ama, biz bizim bağımsızlığımızı istedik. İngiltere ve Amerika'nın arasında savaş vardı. 1776'da bir kongre vardı. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, ve başka adamlar gittiler. Onlar nasıl yeni bir ülkeyi başlatmak istediklerini konuştular. Thomas Jefferson bağımsızlık bildirgesini yazdı ve herkes imzaladı. George Washington savaşı kazandı ve Amerika kendi ülkesi oldu.

It says: America was a British colony but we wanted our independence. There was a war between the American colonies and England. In 1776, a congress was organized. Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and other men went to this congress. They discussed how to start a new country. Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, George Washington won the war, and America became an independent country.

Not bad for someone who's only lived in Turkey for 6 and a half months, huh?

At the end of the month, there is a school trip to Antalya for 3 days. It should be really fun. If nothing else, it will be warm there which will be a nice change: it has been between 0 and -3 degrees here in Afyon for the past few days, which has not been so much fun.

Happy Birthday Mom! And Happy St. Patrick's Day tomorrow everyone!

Here are some pictures from the folklore competition:

One of the elementary school groups at the

folklore competition

A different university group at the competition

My friend Merve and Me in traditional

Afyon costumes

Merve and Ahmet in traditional

Afyon costumes