School

I have settled into living in Turkey and I have started school and have been there for few days. It is very different form my school in NZ. I go to Çanakkale Koleji, it's a nice school, it is really big but there aren't that many students. The school is for all ages (years 1-13). I'm in a class with about 20-25 other students, I am a couple of years older than them. They do a lot more subjects than what I am used to, and the classes are a lot harder. So far I have done biology, physics, English, English speaking, Turkish, history, geography, maths and this afternoon I had German. The classes can get a bit boring because I don't understand what is happening, I try and guess what the teacher is talking about but I rarely guess right. I have made some friends at school, they are really nice and they know quite a bit of English which is good, but we still find it a little difficult to communicate.

At school they have a zoo. It's a little area where there are goats, roosters, hens, ducks and peacocks. I find it a little odd having a zoo at school but it is actually quite cool.

Some pictures of my school and the zoo.

School is longer in Turkey, in NZ I would normally finish at about 3.20pm but here we finish about an hour later. They also have more periods a day than I'm used to, they have about 8 periods a day with breaks in between each period. At school we get lunch given to us, we get a tray and it is dished up for us, in NZ I bring my own lunch to school each day. I catch the school bus to school and home. It's not what I would call a bus, it is more like a mini-van with automatic doors. I catch it with my host sister Mira and the other kids that live near us. The other kids are a lot younger but they are very entertaining and cute. They try and teach me Turkish words and they all get very excited and yell "EVET" (yes) when I get the words right. So far I have learnt the Turkish words for couch, tea and light, I can also say "my name is Heather". Getting the bus is the best part of the day.