Friends

I have really settled into school now and I have made some really lovely friends. We are managing to have pretty good conversations, they know more English than I realised. They are a couple of years younger than me but to be honest there is no difference between us. They are really great people and I know that I have made some friends for life. It makes me sad to think that I have to go in a couple of weeks when I'm just really starting to making fantastic friends. The other day I took my camera to school and the girls in my class loved it. They took turns taking photos of each other and we had a great time. Although not all of them liked having their photo taken and some were sick and at home.

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My Weekend

I just had a very long but a great weekend. On Saturday I went to my little sister's academy like I do most Saturdays. This is where she does painting, piano and ballet. I've joined her painting class, the other kids are about 7. I left the academy early to meet up with two very nice boys, one is an AFS volunteer who is from Çanakkale. We walked over to a park where he had organised a pillow fight. I played for the first round but then I decided to sit out and watch. We also looked at the big wooden horse that they have in Çanakkale. It is in the Morabbin Park on the waterfront, the horse was made for the 2004 movie 'Troy'.

Me in front of the wooden horse

The Pillow Fight

Then we went to the Çanakkale Naval Museum. We got there a bit late so we had to look around everything quite quickly. It was really cool, there is little museum with things from WW1, like bullets and flags. There was a section for the Gallipoli Campaign. There were Australian badges found in the ground at Gallipoli. There was also a boat you go on that has a presentation about 18th March. It was in Turkish so I didn't understand what they were saying but there was a video showing the ships and the mines so I got the general gist of what happened. There is also a fortress. It was built my Sultan Mehmet in the 15th century. Around the grounds are mines and cannons on display from WW1.

Some bullets found at Gallipoli and a British flag that was taken by the Turkish

The Fortress

Afterwards we met up with my host family whose Harley Davidson friends had ridden Çanakkale from Istanbul for the weekend. We all went out for dinner, they are really lovely people and very funny. On Sunday we went to say goodbye to them but we ended up going for a ride with them, halfway to Istanbul. It was a lot of fun, I quite like being on the back of a motorbike. By the end of the weekend I was very tired but I had had a lot of fun.

More Istanbul

Spent 3 days shopping in Istanbul, Very exhausted by the end of it and also a bit short of money. I bought lots of clothes. On Sunday we went to the bazaar near where we stayed in Istanbul. Everything was really cheap so I bought even more clothes.

The bazaar

It was raining for most of the weekend, so I didn't really get the chance to take many photos. It stopped raining on Sunday but it was really foggy. I took a few photos they're a bit hard to see because of the fog, sorry. The buildings are really tall, everything in Istanbul is massive.

Istanbul

I am in Istanbul for a few days over the weekend. We arrived late last night, it is about a 3-4 hour drive from Canakkale. On our way to Istanbul we stopped in a town called Tekirdağ. It is really famous in Turkey for its amazing meatballs. So we stopped and had some for dinner, they were really nice.

Today we went to Istinye Park which is a HUGE shopping mall. It has nearly 300 stores and is very easy to get lost in. We were there for about 8 hours and now I am very tired. I did a lot of shopping, I bought a few things from H&M and few other stores that we don't have in New Zealand. The prices were quite cheap so I didn't actually spend that much money.

The Shopping Mall

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My days shopping

Turkey

Life in Turkey has been great, I have been settling into life here and trying some new things. Last weekend I went for a ride on the back of my host fathers Harley, it was very cool. I might have to save up and buy myself a motorbike.

School is good, I sometimes go to different English classes so they can practice speaking English, they are really good. I've been to most of the classes at the school and the kids are really funny. At school there is a canteen with lots of different lollies and things. The woman who works at the canteen knows I don't speak Turkish so she tells me how much things are by holding up her fingers. My friend Elifcan bought me this chocolate treat the other day. It comes in a small tube (like a toothpaste tube) and is filled with chocolate- like Nutella. You suck it out of the tube, it tastes really nice!

Nutella in a tube

My First Week in Turkey

Time has gone so quickly, I have already been here a week and it has been one of the greatest weeks of my life. I can't believe I only have 5 weeks left. Here are a few photos from my first week in Çanakkale, Turkey.

A few pictures from 18th March fireworks display and torchlight march

Sorry they're not very good, I couldn't keep the camera still.

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The 18th March is an extremely important day, it is like the Turkish version of ANZAC Day. Everyone is out celebrating Turkey and WW1 and remembering the lives that were tragically lost.

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My host sister, Mira and I at the beach near our house

My host family's dog, Cadi

The beach near our house

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.