Turkish Delight

It seems I have some
catching up to do.

Welcome to my blog. Although I have a travbuddy.com blog, I decided to get one that you don't have to create an account to see. So, here it is. This is where I will be writing about my 6 months abroad. I'm currently in Izmir, Turkey. I will be here until February 7, when I arrive in Vienna for my studies. I can't guarantee that I will be writing here everyday, but I can guarantee that I will try to not make it boring. =D So without further ado.....


I've been in Izmir for 3 days now. My trip was....long. I left Brownsville Tuesday but didn't arrive in Turkey until Friday. So, what happened in between, say you? Well, here's my condensed version-

What went right:
- I had an entire row to myself on an overnight international flight. Oh yes, it was wonderful.
- British Airways gives you free wine. It was tasty.
- The hotel was surprisingly OK. The reviews I'd read led me to believe otherwise.
- People kept getting my heavy luggage down from the overhead compartment for me.
- I watched 2 movies and one Flight of the Conchords episode. So I wasn't bored.
- Employees everywhere were just really nice to me.

What went wrong:
- My DVD drive on my computer broke. So I brought Lost Season 1 and can now do nothing with it.
- I forgot my watch.
- I lost about 28 British pounds somewhere between the airport and hotel. Yes, GBP. Do the math. It sucks.
- My toothpaste exploded in my luggage.
- I watched 2 movies and one Flight of the Conchords episode. So I didn't sleep.

So there you go. My trip. One final good thing was that Tuğçe, my host sister, instantly recognized me at the airport. Also, she was genuinely as excited to see me as her emails implied, and the rest of the night her neighbors, friends, and family were calling to see if I'd arrived. I felt like a celebrity. =)

After eating dinner for about 3 hours, we went to sleep and prepared for the next couple days. Those days entailed a visit to Ephesus, the Virgin Mary's house and Kuşadası on Saturday and wandering around Izmir on Sunday. What I learned is this: Turkey is beautiful. And Turkish people are some of the nicest, sweetest people I've ever met. I felt like family the first night I was there. They bought me new bed covers, bought me slippers, and made me a scarf. They compete with their friends, who have a Canadian trainee in their home as well, over whose trainee learns Turkish quicker (I win. For now. =) ). They make me try every single thing in the table. Her dad took half a day from work to pick me up from the airport, and her mom took a half day to cook dinner for me. They told me they would throw a party for me when I leave. It's easy to love them, and so, I do. =) (Don't worry, mom, they aren't replacing you. =D My heart is just getting bigger.)

Anyway, I'm not sure yet what I'm doing about pictures. I'm still figuring this blog out, but I think posting 50 pictures everytime I do something would be overkill. So we'll see. In the meantime, I've posted a few of my favorites. =)