This past week (June 24-27th) all of the YES Abroad students were flown to Washington DC to attend a National Pre-Departure Orientation. We had workshops from early in the morning until late at night, and on one day went to the U.S. State Department building and the embassy of the country that we will be traveling to. After the orientation, students going abroad to the Philippines went to additional workshop, before departing directly for their exchange.
The workshops were very informative and we learned more about culture shock and how to deal with it, (explained as; it's not good, its not bad, it's just different), how to communicate about our own culture and dispel American stereotypes, how to effectively communicate about the YES Abroad Program, and what it means to be a youth ambassador. We had a brief history and outline of the Islamic faith, such as how to pronounce Muslim and Islam correctly, and learned what things will get you sent home from the program such as drugs, driving, hitchhiking and pregnancies being the main ones. We had a discussion about the common stages of homesickness and culture shock, explained by "Allen's chart of sadness". We also had a seminar about the importance of documenting your exchange and journaling for growth, and being a good online citizen, as well as health and safety while abroad, and the support and organizational structures of AFS. Although I was extremely exhausted by the end of the day, I felt a lot more comfortable and prepared for my exchange.
On Thursday, we had a brief morning workshop, before taking a bus to the Turkish embassy. What was really funny was that we had a whole couch bus for only nine people. At the embassy we where met by the second secretary Yunus Emre Açıkgönül and third secretary Üzeyir Başer and had very informative and interesting presentations about Turkish history, economy and foreign policy. It was really fun because there are only seven of us YES Abroaders going to Turkey, so it felt very personal and we could ask a lot of questions. I would have loved to stay and talk for hours over siyah çay (black tea) with embassy officials, but we were on a tight schedule to go back to the U.S. State Department.
The Turkish Embassy was one of the highlights of my week
From left to right: Hana Swift (2012-13 Alum), Rowan Tanner from California, Me from Kentucky, Leah Crowder from Virginia, Priyasha Bhatt from Illinois, Kathryn Fleddermann from New Mexico, Elsa Boyd from Washington state and Jake Sullivan from Texas
At the State Department, we met back up with the other YES Abroad 2014-2015 students and received a congratulatory speech by state department officials. We then got to ask them questions about citizen diplomacy and international relations. Afterwards, we asked more extensive questions to a panel of five experts that focused on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, African Affairs, Near East Affairs, South and Central Asian Affairs, and the Affairs in the Balkan Region (covering all of the regions that YES Abroad students are traveling to). The Turkey group also got the chance to discuss with a public relations specialist on the western Mediterranean region and we where able to talk about the crisis in Syria and Iraq and Turkish reactions to those situations.
The 2014-15 YES abroad class
After the State Department visit we had a brief visit to the Lincoln Memorial and returned to the hotel for more workshops. During the week I learned boatloads of information about Turkey thanks to Hana Swift who went to Turkey with YES in 2012-13. Good luck to all the other class of 2014-15 YES students and shout out to by fellow roommates Yoga, Jack and Aiden for some interesting late night discussions.
Best,
Kyle
P.S. Delta! Delta! Delta!
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