Happy May everyone!

Three weeks ago, I went to Adana, which is a city in the southern part of Turkey. I went with my counselor, Ender, his wife, Deniz, and their two daughters, Ezgi and Öykü. Ender's family (which is also my host mom Dilek's family, because Ender and Dilek are siblings) lives in Adana, so we went to visit them. Adana is a gorgeous city. There are palm trees and flowers everywhere and it's so warm!
We stayed with Ender's parents, Cavit and Yıldız. Cavit (his father) is amazingly funny and Yıldız is such a good cook. When she first heard that I was a vegetarian, she said "Does that mean that she won't eat Adana kebab?" That is an impossible thing for the people of Adana to comprehend, because Adana kebabs are famous. When we told her that no, I don't eat Adana kebab, she said "oh, ok, I will just make chicken and fish then." Then we told her that I don't eat chicken or fish either, and then she made me amazing veggie foods, including delicious humus. I also met Ender and Dilek's older brother Ali, his wife Nurdan, and their sons Tayfun and Uğur. They are all really nice, so meeting them was cool.

There is an American military base in Adana and there is also a pazar (bazaar) which is called the American Pazar because lots of stuff comes from the base and is sold there. We went to the pazar and I found American food like macaroni and cheese, hot chocolate, and Hershey's kisses. These are not found anywhere else in Turkey, so it was really exciting. I didn't realize how much I missed this food until I saw it again.

One day during the trip, I went with Ender, Deniz, Ezgi, and Öykü to Antakya. Antakya is about the farthest south you can go in Turkey, without crossing over into Syria, and is about 3 hours from Adana. Besides being a really pretty Mediterranean city, it is famous for having an archaeology museum and a really really old church. Just how old? Really old, in fact this church is considered to be the first church ever in the whole world. So visiting that was a really neat experience.
I have an exchange friend, Geoff, who lives in İskenderun, which about half an hour from Antakya. He ended up being in Antakya the same day that I was there, so we got to see each other, and he showed me around the city (he goes there a lot because it is really close to where he lives), so that was cool.

Last weekend, I went to Manisa and İzmir. My host mom, Dilek, had a work conference in Manisa, so we all (my host father, İsmail, and my two host sisters Damla and Işıl, and I) went with her. On Saturday, the 5th, there was a protest in Manisa against the Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the current Turkish government. I marched in the protest with my host family and about 60,000 other people. It was a really interesting experience.
Manisa is only about 20 minutes from İzmir, so we went there as well. İzmir is my second favorite city in Turkey (İstanbul is my first), so seeing the city again was wonderful. Unfortunately, all my exchange student friends who live in İzmir were on a trip to the Karadeniz (Black Sea) that weekend, so I didn't get to see them, but the trip was fun anyway.

Yesterday, I went on a picnic. One of the senior level classes went, and they invited me, so I was only too happy to go with them. There are a lot of parks in Afyon, and we went to one called Turgut Özal Parkı, and spent the day there. A lot of people must have had the same idea we did, because the park was really crowded. We had a barbecue, played jump rope, and just had an all around good time.

This Sunday, I have a folklore performance with the university group. We are performing seven different dances, and I am in two of them: Trakya (which is from the European part of Turkey) and Doğu (from the eastern side). We have been practicing every day for the past two weeks, so hopefully we will do well.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry to keep you all waiting so long for this update, as you can see, I've been busy!