Ok, it has been forever since my last post, but I promise, I have good reasons as to why I haven't written:

About a month ago, I had my folklore performance with the dance group from Afyon Kocatepe Üniversitesi. It went really well and was enormously fun. At the end of the performance, my teacher, Müharem hoca, wanted me to speak about Türkiye and folklore and such, so I did. Giving a speech in front of a ton of people in a foreign language was so nerve-wracking, but apparently I didn't mess up too badly, because people said afterwards that they could understand me, so that was good.

The next weekend, I went to Eskişehir. Eskişehir is only a little bigger than Afyon, but it has two universities and ton of university students, so there's lots more to do there. There was an exchange student weekend there, but only I and two of my other exchange friends, Amy and Ellen (also from America) went. Still, it was fun. We met members of the Eskişehir Roteract Club (they are like Rotarians, but they are between the ages of 18 and 30), and they showed us around Eskişehir.
On Saturday, we went to Yazılıkaya, which is a place near Eskişehir that was used for religious ceremonies by the Frigs, which dates back to about 3500 BC. Yazılıkaya literally means "writing rock" and that's what it is: this huge rock with writing on it. Around it, there are caves that the Frigs lived in and wells that they dug for water. It was pretty cool.

I came home (back to Afyon) on Sunday, and then on Tuesday morning, I went to Karadeniz (Black Sea) Ereğli, where my friend Ellen lives. I hadn't been to the Karadeniz before and I really wanted to go, so I went to visit her. Ereğli is also really small, but it is right on the Karadeniz, so it is gorgeous. Ellen's house is literally 3 minutes away from the sea, you can see it from her house. I am so jealous. I stayed there for a week and met her family and friends there, which was really fun. I also went into the Karadeniz, so now I have been in every sea in Turkey: The Karadeniz (Black Sea), Ege Denizi (Aegean), and the Akdeniz (Mediterranean).

I stayed in Ereğli for a week. Then, Ellen and I went to Ankara. The big Rotary conference for our district was May 31-June 3, but all of the exchangers had to meet in Ankara on the Tuesday before that. I was in Ankara for two days, and then I went to Antalya for the conference. There were 7 exchange students who went: Amy, Ellen, Rush, and I (from America), and Carol, Gaby, and Emanuel (from Brazil). At the beginning of the year, we were 15 people, but the others havealready finished their years and gone back to their respective countries.

It took 7 hours to get from Ankara to Antalya (we all went together), and we went on Wednesday night, with the result being that we were exhausted by the time we got the conference. We didn't have a lot of time to rest though, because we had to give a performance on Friday! We ended up writing a short skit (in Turkish, yay us!), which we performed in front of about 500 Rotarians. After that, we were basically free, and we took advantage of the gorgeous weather by going to the beach.

When I finally got back to Afyon, I had been gone for two weeks, so it was really nice to see everyone again. Semra and Fettah got back from America (they went there to visit their daughter, Aslı, who is an exchange student in New York) two days ago. So, yesterday, I went to visit them. They went to New York City and Long Island to see Aslı, and they also went to Orlando, Miami, and Key West. They really liked it and Fettah wants to go back, which is really funny, because he was scared to go in the first place!

So that has been my last month, told you I was busy! Now it is June, and I absolutely cannot believe how quickly the time has past. I have exactly one week left in Afyon, and less than a month left in Türkiye, which makes me unbelievably sad. One good thing though: my American family is coming here next week, so that will be cool.

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!

Pictures from my school trip to Alanya and Antalya!!


Alanya

Beach in Alanya

Engin, Gökçe, Tuğba, Seda, Tuğçe, Me, Nesibe,
and Mustafa in Alanya

Damlataş Mağarası

Me, Tuğçe, Nesibe, and Hikmet inside Damlataş
Mağarası

A view of the coast of Alanya

Me and Tuğçe in Alanya

Seda and Tuğba in Alanya

A shot of the city of Alanya along the coast from
the top of the Alanya Kalesi (Alanya Castle)

Alanya

Another picture of Alanya

Türk Bayrağı (The Turkish flag)

Another picture of the coast from Alanya Kalesi

And another picture of the coast

Manavgat Şelalesi (Manavgat Waterfall)

Tuğçe at Manavgat Şelalesi

Aspendos Theatre

Another picture of Aspendos

Aspendos is a really big theatre

Tuğçe and Me at Aspendos

Furkan, Seda, Gökçe, and Mustafa in Aspendos
Theatre

Düden Şelalesi (Düden Waterfall)

Another picture of Düden Şelalesi

Düden Şelalesi is so pretty

View from behind the waterfall at Düden Şelalesi

Another view from behind the waterfall

Can anyone understand this sign? If so, would
you please explain it to me?

Kurşunlu Şelalesi (Kurşunlu Waterfall)

Hikmet, Kemal, Murat Can, and Oğuzhan at
Kurşunlu Şelalesi

Eren, Engin, Mustafa, Me, and Nesibe chilling in
Antalya

Kadir, Seda, Mustafa, Tuğba, Fikro, Emre,
Gökhem, and Can

Seda, Tuğba, Gökçe, and Kemal in Antalya

Seda, Tuğba, Tuğçe, Gökçe, and Kemal still in
Antalya

Mustafa, Tuğçe, Nesibe and Me

Me and Nesibe at dinner

Three weekends ago, I went on a school trip to Antalya. Antalya is a city located on the southern coast of Turkey, where it is warm and beautiful. Actually, on Saturday, it was rainy and cold (which, as I found out afterwards, was the weather all over Turkey), but on Sunday, it was gorgeous. The trip was fun, but rather unorganized. It all started on Friday night, when we met at school to wait for the buses. We were told to be at school by 11:00 PM because the buses were going to come at 11:30. That didn't happen. We were all there on time, but the buses weren't. They didn't come until 1 in the morning, and we didn't leave Afyon until 1:30 AM! The whole trip was kind of like that.
The first place we drove to was Alanya, which is a small city near Antalya. Alanya is about 7 hours away from Afyon. We had two buses, I was on the first one, and my bus kept arriving at places way before the second bus did. For example, we arrived in Alanya an hour before the other bus. So while we were waiting for the other people to arrive, we walked along the beach in Alanya and had breakfast. Once the second bus arrived, we visited Alanya Kalesi (Alanya Castle), which is built on top of a cliff and provides a spectacular view of the city as well as of the coast. The next place we went to was Damlataş Mağarası (Damlataş Caverns). It's this ginormous underground cavern filled with stalagmites and stalactites, which was formed between 20,000-15,000 B.C.
The next place we went to was Manavgat Şelalesi (Manavgat Waterfall). It's a small waterfall, but a pretty one. There was a glass blower near the waterfall, who was making glass animals. He was really talented, and I ended up buying a little family of glass penguins from him.
After seeing Manavgat, we went to Aspendos Theater. It was built in about 155 A.D. by the Greeks and has enough room for 15,000 people! It has been beautifully restored and is amazing. We spent some time there, and then we went to Side, which is another town near Antalya. There are a lot of Roman ruins all over Side, among them, an amphitheater and Temple to Apollo, and even though I had been there once before with my host family, it was cool to see them again.

On Sunday, the first place we visited was Düden Şelalesi (Düden Waterfall). It is a somewhat large waterfall park, and is really pretty. We also saw Kurşunlu Şelalesi (Kurşunlu Waterfall), which is smaller than Düden, but just as beautiful. After that, we went to the main city of Antalya and wandered around there for a bit. Sunday afternoon was a good example of how the trip was unorganized: the group got separated into 3 smaller groups, and it took us 2 hours to locate each other, and then we spent another hour just sitting in a park waiting for the buses. So unfortunately, we wasted three hours that could have been spent doing stuff in the city, but whatever. The trip was still fun. The last place we visited before coming back to Afyon was a beach, Konya Altı Plajı (Konya Altı Beach), to be exact. The ocean was freezing, (that would be the Mediterranean, by the way), so I didn't go swimming. But that didn't deter everyone, we had some insane members of our group who dove right in.

On Sunday evening, we were supposed to leave at 7 and then arrive in Afyon at around midnight. However, like the rest of the trip, this was not on time either: we didn't end up leaving until 10:30, and we arrived in Afyon at 3 in the morning on Monday. So that was fun.
But besides the perpetual lateness and unprepared-ness of the trip, I had a good time. The next school trip will be this Sunday, and it is to Pamukkale. I am planning on going on that trip (and the one in May to Çanakkale as well), so I'll let you know about them when I get back!

Yesterday, I had my fourth birthday cake. My birthday was two weeks ago, on Friday, April 6th, and my friends and family here made it a really special one. The Thursday before, Semra and Fettah had to go to Bodrum because Fettah's mom just had surgery. I was sad because I thought that they weren't going to be in Afyon for my birthday. But on Wednesday night, they had a surprise celebration for me, with a cake and everything. The cake said "İyiki Doğdun (which means happy birthday) Rebeka". And no, my family didn't spell my name incorrectly, the cake place did. This is because in Turkish, "c" is pronounced like "j". So when Turks read my name, they read it as "Rebeja". So, when the cake place heard my name, they just assumed that it was spelled with a "k".

That was my first party. During school on Friday, not only did I receive a lot of surprise gifts from my classmates, but I got another surprise cake as well. When I was waiting in line for lunch, my friend Apo came up to me and started taking me to his classroom. I visit his class all the time during his English lessons, but I couldn't figure out why we were going there during lunch. I kept saying "Apo, nereye gidiyoruz? Yemeğim geliyor..." (Where are we going? My food's coming). It wasn't until after we got there, and I walked into the classroom to see another one of my friends, Mustafa, lighting candles on a cake for me, and their entire class started singing "Happy Birthday" (in both Turkish and English at the same time) that I figured it out. I was so surprised, I am not even an actual member of that class! But I do visit it at least twice a week, so I guess I'm an honorary member...

My third party happened on Friday night. Because Fettah and Semra had to go to Bodrum, I switched families. I am now staying with my counselor, Ender's, sister and her family. Ender and his sister, Dilek, are neighbors (they live two houses apart), so I am kind of staying with both families at once. So now my new host mom's name is Dilek, her husband is İsmail, and they have two daughters: Işıl (who's 7) and Damla (who's 12). Semra and Fettah are going to be doing a lot of travelling during the coming month, but when they come back, sometime in May, I will be going back and finishing my exchange year with them.
Anyway, on Friday, there was a class meeting for Damla's class, so all the parents of her classmates (and some of her classmates as well) came to my house. In the middle of this meeting, Dilek had me come into the living room, where I found my third birthday cake. I also received gifts from my new host family and from the parents at the meeting as well, which was really sweet of them.

Yesterday, my friends gave me a party at place in town called Cafe Paşa. That was where I had my fourth cake. It was going to be a surprise party, but when my friend Merve told me not to plan anything on Saturday, because there was this "thing", I figured it out. It was really nice of them to do that for me, and it was a ton of fun.

Last week I had another surprise; it wasn't a birthday surprise, but a Passover surprise. There is no passover-kosher food to be found in Afyon, and it was just too hard for me to have Passover this year. But one day, my neighbor Fatma invited me over to her house. When I got there, I found that she had made haroset and an entire yeast-free meal for me, which was delicious.

So that's whats been going on with me. Hope everyone had a good Passover or Easter!

I would like to dedicate a post to describing possibly the only thing that I don't like about Afyon: the idiotic rules that exist in my school.

Every student in Türkiye has to wear a uniform to school, starting from when they are in the first grade until they graduate. The uniform isn't what bugs me (I like not having to worry about what I am going to wear every day) it's the other rules that are implemented in addition to the uniform, so that the school can completely decide your appearance for you.

Students are not allowed to wear jewelry, make up, clothes that are not part of the uniform (such as sweaters, but everyone wears them anyway), bright colored socks, or shoes that are not black. And the most important rule of all: no long hair is allowed. If it is long, it had better be in a ponytail or bun or braids, and if you are caught with your hair not tied back, that is grounds for the principal to threaten to cut it for you.

Everyday before school, we line up in the courtyard and then we file into school in nice, straight lines. While we are walking inside, the teachers do a "control", which means that they try to find something wrong with what you are wearing, so they can pull you out of line, make you wait for everyone else to go inside, and then yell at you about why what you are wearing is "inappropriate".

Last Monday, the control was very exciting. It was decided that all of the boys in my class, and half of the rest of boys in the 10th grade, had hair that was too long. So, they were all sent home to get their hair cut. They weren't told to do it after school or anything, they had to do it that instant. So, they all left, and came back after lunch, with brand new really short hair cuts.

Isn't it weird that my school would rather have students miss classes to get hair cuts, instead of just letting them stay and telling them to get their hair cut after school?

So, to all my American high school readers, next time any of you complain that your high school's rules are too strict, try experiencing a Turkish high school's rules instead.

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