Kurban Bayramı

October 4^th to 5^th was Kurban Bayramı, the Feast of the Sacrifices, an Islamic holiday which honor's Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his only son to prove his faith. You can read more about the history and religious side of the holiday here. 

Mother's childhood home in Ortaklar

 

The day before Bayram we drove out to a small village outside of Aydın call Ortaklar to stay at my host mother’s childhood home during the holiday. After arriving in Ortaklar, we visited the cemetery to pay our respects to relatives. The quaint village life of Ortaklar was very different from the hustle and bustle of city life and the countryside was very relaxing. It reminded me a little of home since it seems like every farmer owns a Massey-Ferguson 240 tractor which is the same tractor I have. I love the smell of diesel fumes in the morning.

 

Ortaklar

 

Early on the first day of the holiday we had a sheep delivered to the house and was sacrificed. I will spare you the details but I will tell you that it was very gruesome to watch for the first time. After we sacrificed the sheep the work started. We skinned the sheep, butchered the meat, cleaned out the stomach to cook and skinned the head to boil. During the holiday I had some of the best food I’ve ever had as well as some of the worst like işkembe, which is basically boiled sheep stomach with absolutely no flavor to it. Thought the day children visited wishing a happy Bayram and we gave them candy and money in return.

Our sacrifice or kurban in Turkish

kurban eti (sacrifice meat)

On the second day of the holiday we visited friends and family and delivered meat to them. Every house we visited offered almost the same thing; a piece of candy or chocolate, kolonya (a lemon based hand cleanser) and some kind of dessert. Older family members usual gave money to children who kiss the hands of elders to show respect and I made a few lira by kissing a few hands.
 

Bayram money

 

I hope everyone had a great Bayram and to all the other YES student abroad I hope you had just as much of a good experience as I did. It seemed like everyone in Morocco had a great time from their sometimes very graphic pictures.   

Best,
Kyle

Talking Turkey

So I’ve been in Turkey for a little over two weeks now and I’ve loved every minute of it! Turkey has been so kind to me with wonderful food, people’s hospitality and the amazing scenery, I’m blessed to be in such a wonderful country. Some first impressions I had when I arrived is that everyone is willing to help you even if they didn’t speak English, everyone I meet greets me with a big smile and a hug, the culture here is much more “touchy felly” compared to the US, Turks are bottomless pits at the dinner table, how extremely hot it is and Turkish driver are completely insane!     

The Turkey crew awaiting departure at JFK 

I left the United States on September 4^th after a day of pre-departure information, tips, etc. from AFS volunteers and was basically a quick review of what every YES student learned at are program wide PDO back in June. Along with me and the 6 other YES students, eight NSLI-Y students and two regular AFS students traveled with me to Turkey. We flew from New York out of JFK to Paris and from Paris on to İstanbul arriving in Turkey on September 5^th, all very exhausted from are travels. Once we landed we took a quick bus ride just outside İstanbul to a city called Selimpaşa. After catching up on some sleep, we meet the other AFS student studying in Turkey from all parts of the globe. Students from France, Belgium, Germany, Thailand, Hungary and the United States were represented at are survival camp. Everyone was incredibly nice to me and I was glad I got to meet them. After three days in Selimpaşa, regular AFS student left to go to their respective host cities while the scholarship students (YES and NSLI-Y) stayed behind for extra language training. We had a months worth of Turkish lesson in only nine days. Although it was boring at times, the class was very fun and we learned Turkish yet had fun at the same time thanks to are awesome teacher or should I say iyi öğretmen in Turkish. After our stay in Selimpaşa was over we all went our separate ways and traveled to our host cities. Three YES students; Elsa, Jake and Rowan, flew to Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey and four YES students; Priya, Kathryn, Leah and me, traveled to Aydın. The NSLI-Y students traveled to İzmir on the western coast of Turkey.

View of the Sea of Marmara from the hotel in Selimpaşa

The Belgians showing their national pride at the talent show

Turkish class in Selimpaşa

When we arrived in Aydın we meet are host families as soon as we stepped of the train. The first few days with my host family was very exciting because I got to know them better and got to learn more about Turkish customs and culture firsthand. Since the Ministry of Education messed up are paperwork, every exchange student in Turkey was not able to go to school for the first week of school. I spent most of my free time sitting at home watching Turkish soap operas, reading my book the Strain, which I highly recommend you to read, and studying Turkish.  

I finally started school this week and although I was very confused my first day and still a little confused about what kind of work/assignments I should be doing during class. Although I was disoriented my first day, it was very fun to meet new people and make new friends. Hopefully as the year progresses I will become more accustom to how school works in Turkey and what I should be doing.

My school is Aydın Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi, ATAL for short, and I’ve noticed a lot of differences between the education systems in Turkey and the United States. In Turkey, students stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers more from classroom to classroom. Another difference is that each student choose what classes they want to focus on such as science track students focus mainly on science and math while language track students will focus on English, German and literature. There are four different types of coarse tracks a Turkish highschooler can take; math, science, language and Turkish studies.

My new school Aydın Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi

So far I am enjoying my experience in Turkey so far. I love my new family, my new school and new classmates. I hope as the year progresses I will acclimate to the culture that surrounds me and quickly assimilate. I will also try update my blog more regularly as my year progresses. Thanks for reading!

Best,
Kyle