Out of the Frying Pan...

It is Saturday, June 16, at 10:42 P.M. Kansas time.  I am on a plane headed for Munich and from there to Turkey.  You had best grab a bowl of popcorn and make yourself comfortable, because this is going to be a very, very long blog post.

My adventure began on Wednesday.  I can give Wednesday for certain as a starting point because up until that day I had done little to no preparation for my two month stay in Turkey.  Procrastination at its finest, ladies and gentlemen.  Wednesday was a flurry of activity, and sadly mostly a flurry of one of my least favorite activities--shopping.  I began my day by trying on literally every article of clothing I possessed in my closet.  It was horrific and I am unsure of how I survived.  I am convinced that this was, without a doubt, the hardest part of my entire journey. 

However, even once my mom had utterly exhausted the clothing options in our house, my ordeal was not over. I was taken "shopping" because even though I had tried on every piece of clothing I had owned, which had been able to sustain me for an entire year at college, I was apparently woefully unprepared to spend two months in Türkiye Cumhuriyeti.  I needed another pair of jeans and a pair of black shorts and even perhaps a dress, I was told.  And then, once we were at the store, a blouse was added to the list of "things I need"without my knowledge. 

Never before have simple items such as a pair of jeans and black shorts been so hard to find.  We went to several stores, and I was forced to try on even more clothes, but either the clothes looked weird on me or didn't fit.  My small amount of tolerance for trying on clothes and shopping had already been taxed far beyond its limits by the events of the morning, and I was convinced that I would drop dead before we ever made it out of the store.  Somehow, however, we managed to make it out with a new pair of jeans and shorts--but without the dress and blouse.  A partial, hollow victory in the face of the mental anguish I had endured.

We then proceeded back to our home, where the next part of my day was considerably more pleasant.  My dad had made one of my favorite meals, which I have no name for except "red curry wraps."  They are very good and go excellently with dok bok gi, which my dad also made for me.  I was pleased.

I was less pleased when I came to the realization that although I now had all the clothes I needed, they would not magically put themselves into my suitcase.  It was late at night, and I hadn't even begun packing for the  greatest journey I had yet to face.  Luckily for me, I was in the company of Super Mom, so while I stayed out of her way and cleaned my fish bowl (along with writing instructions on how to care for my fish, Ares--DAD IF YOU'RE READING THIS MAKE SURE YOU'VE FED HIM AND TOLD HIM MOMMY LOVES HIM--), she single-handedly packed my suitcase.  After a 1 A.M shower, I then came in and got to pack my "fun case," my bag holding all the goodies to occupy myself on the plane.  And boy, did I pack it.  While watching Thor in the background (I had to see Tom Hiddleston one last time to hopefully stave off the withdrawal that is sure to afflict me), I packed my Nintendo DS, my tablet, Crow, Abraham Lincoln:Vampire Hunter as well as several books on Turkey, my drawing notebook, and, my personal favorite, a coloring book with pretty geometric designs. I then spent several minutes sharpening color pencils to go along with said coloring book, set up my blog, and bid fond farewells to the Internet and my beloved computer.  There might have been tears.  The time now 3:30 A.M., I collapsed into bed, not looking forward to being woken up in one and a half hours.

Moving like a zombie,  I was taken to the airport by my family.  I ate breakfast, and after making my way to my gate was subjected to being stared at like an animal by my family (mostly my mother) from behind the glass.  I also was forced to look like an idiot as I  giggled at the silly texts they were sending me.  My mom learned how to use emoticons.  I was very proud.

The plane ride to D.C. was remarkable in the fact that it was the single most uncomfortable flight I have ever experienced.  It was very small and cramped, only three seats wide.  I was lucky that I had a window seat to myself, and running off of one and a half hours of sleep, all that I wanted to do was take a nap. Normally I never sleep on methods of transportation--mostly because I'm afraid that I'll snore or drool on myself or something equally embarrassing, and partially because I've watched too many movies and I'm still waiting for the time when I magically find myself sitting next to some insanely attractive single guy and we hit it off immediately.  That didn't happen--and neither did my nap.  The one time I try to sleep on an airplane and my legs were cramped and my butt was hurting because I think the seat cushion was stuffed with rocks and shards of glass.  The lengths people go  to to cut down costs these days.

I arrived in D.C. safely and set about trying to locate my bags.  I followed the signs, this time not making the mistake of attempting to walk all the way to baggage as I had in the Atlanta airport.  That had been a very, very bad mistake.  I felt slightly better about myself when I heard the people behind me loudly discussing the proper way to the baggage claim, and astutely chose not to slow down and follow them there, instead opting to follow a man in front of me who actually looked like he knew what he was doing.

I picked up my bags without incident and found a "Super Shuttle"sign (or was it Speed Shuttle?), following it to a desk and buying myself a ticket to the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel.  A few minutes later I was told to go outside and take a left, which I did and got onto a Super Shuttle.  A smartly-dressed young man sat in front of me, and what I thought was a couple speaking a foreign tongue got in behind me.  Most of the long ride to the hotel was spent trying to decipher what language they were speaking.  I was able to rule out English, German, Turkish, Japanese, Russian, and Latin, but that still left me with quite a bit to work with.  I knew they weren't speaking French the entire time, but I think they were even switching languages because occasionally I would hear a sentence of French before going back to "mystery tongue."  I had ruled out Italian because the words didn't seem Italian to me, but the rhythm and what I thought were French cognates made me put Italian back on the list of possibilities.  As is probably obvious by now, I spent far too much time trying to figure out what language they were speaking. This is probably because they spoke non-stop the entire ride, giving me plenty of data to examine.  Less important than my pitiful attempts at linguistic analysis was the scenery we drove past.  It was quite pretty, and made me wish that I lived somewhere with a bit more greenery.

Driving through D.C. was very enjoyable, for the buildings were beautiful and reminded me of Paris.  Luckily the drivers weren't quite as crazy as they were in Paris, although our driver had his moments.  I was interested to note little differences between Kansas and D.C.--whereas I usually have a 15 second timer to cross the street in Lawrence, there were 45 second ones in D.C. (I later found out that this wasn't always the case--the thin streets that took only five seconds to cross gave you 45, while the wide streets that took quite a bit longer to cross were a much shorter time, maybe 20 or so seconds.  Go figure).

The foreign language man was dropped off first at one hotel, and the woman at another, which confused me because I had thought they were married or something.  The young man (who I later found out was part of the CLS program, although not going to Turkey) and I were taken to the L'Enfant Plaza Hotel.  After tipping the driver, I got my bags and entered the hotel, checking myself in like a boss.  Or just an adult.

I reached my room after standing in the elevator for a minute wondering why it wasn't moving, only to realize that I needed to use my key first.  The numbering on the elevator was odd--it had Lobby, 2, 12, 14, and 15.  I get skipping 13, but the rest confused me so much that I even took a picture of it on my phone for further analysis later. 

I was expecting that perhaps my roommate would be there when I got in, but no one was there. The room was nice although the view wasn't fantastic, only overlooking the pool.  I set my stuff down and called my parents to let them know their darling daughter lived, then decided to take a well-deserved nap.  It was about 2 o'clock, and registration for my orientation was supposed to take place from 4-5:30, with the orientation starting at 6.  I figured I could take a nap for an hour before exploring D.C. a bit, coming back and registering, taking a shower, changing into business casual clothes, and heading to orientation.  At 3, I amended my plan slightly:  I could sleep another hour, register at 4, come back, shower, change, and go to the orientation.  After waking up at 4, I promptly fell back asleep and didn't wake up until 5:38.

Then I flipped out.

I thought for sure I had ruined everything--that I had managed to make my way to a hotel and check in like a good little responsible person only to oversleep and not be able to go to Turkey.  Flinging my shoes on, I sprinted to the elevator and waited impatiently for it to take me downstairs. I saw the registration table immediately and hurried towards it, relieved to see that people were still sitting there.  I found out that I wasn't even the last person to register, that everything was cool and that I didn't have to change because we were going to wear business casual tomorrow.  After receiving my orientation packet, I went to the second floor where the orientation was going to take place and was the first on there.

The next people to arrive were two guys who were going to Izmir, so we talked a bit as we waited for the others to arrive.  I found out that they were not only holding the orientation for those going to Turkey, but those going to Korea, as well.  I met a bunch of the Korea people and thought that there were only a few Izmir people, but I soon learned that they were quite a bit more of us (twenty-two, as I found out later).  I ended up talking to the Korea people more than I did to the Turkey people, but I didn't do much talking, to be honest.  I stood awkwardly in the corner, drinking very tart lemonade, as what pitiful "small talk" skills I had abandoned me entirely.  Luckily for me, however, we were ushered into the conference room and given a talk about the program.  They wanted to set us loose before it got dark so we could explore the city and they succeeded. I went upstairs to drop my stuff off, still roommate-less.  I left my room and hovered awkwardly by the elevator, trying to find a group to attach myself to and leech off of.  I was in luck when three girls and one boy approached the elevator.  I asked them if they were going to Turkey or Korea, and they said Korea, so perhaps I wasn't as lucky as I had originally thought.  But one girl asked me if I would like to join them, and I figured that even if I wouldn't be bonding with people I would be spending two months with, talking with anybody was better than just sitting by myself in the hotel because I was too afraid to wander the city by myself.  I accepted, and learned that their names were Heather, Jessica, Wesley, and Jess and that with the exception of Jess, who was twenty-eight, they were all undergraduates like me.  Heather declared that she was horrible with names and wouldn't be able to remember mine, and so therefore I was dubbed "Turkey."  Being incredibly fond of nicknames, I didn't mind at all.

Since we were four teenagers plus one adult, we were famished and decided to go for food. We learned that D.C. is apparently not the place for food, and had to walk several blocks before we found China Town.  We looked at a few Chinese restaurants, whose menus all looked pretty much the same, before going back to our original choice and ordering. The food was good, although I wish I had picked something different. Being cheap, I had ordered the sweet and sour pork, and whilst cutting open the first fried pork ball, it popped up and hit my beautiful WWI Memorial shirt, leaving me with a lovely pink stain. 

After dinner, Jess was feeling rather tired, so we walked her back to the hotel.  Then Jessica, Heather, Wesley, and I did an about-face and headed back into town, going to the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, and the WWII and Korean War Memorials.  Sadly I only had my phone with me, but that didn't stop me from taking a bunch of terrible photos anyway.  The monuments were beautiful and it was fun talking to my new friends, who I felt very comfortable with.  They were nice, laid-back, and easy to talk to, and I felt like we had been friends for much longer than a few short hours.  I told them that I wished they weren't going to the wrong country, and Heather told me she would unpack her suitcase and stuff me inside it.  After having so much fun with them, combined with my love of Korean food and the beautiful pictures my brother had shown me of Korea, it was a tempting offer.

We arrived back at the hotel at precisely midnight, my feet aching from all the walking around and both of my heels sporting blisters.  We made plans to meet up for breakfast at 8:20, and I knew that I was continuing to make the smart decision by spending more time with people I was only going to be able to see for two days as opposed to my fellow Turkish students.  But I liked them and decided that I would just have to interact with the Turkish students some other way.  I was mostly just happy that I had proven to myself that I could make friends, and rather easily.  After the awkward pre-orientation small talk, I was doubting my ability to communicate with others.

I went up to my room, sure that if my roommate wasn't there, then at least her stuff would be.  But there was still nothing.  I called my Aunt Christine because she had texted me and told me to, and had a nice conversation with her and Aunt Lisa.  After that I took a shower, because there was no way I was going to bed without one after walking around so much.  I chilled for a bit, then went to bed. 

At precisely 8:20 I met the others for breakfast at the American Grill inside the hotel.  We had been given $10 vouchers by the CLS program, which was enough to buy us...a bagel or a yogurt parfait, and that was about it unless you wanted to pay with your own money.  I was displeased, but since we were running short on time I just got the parfait.  At 9 o'clock we went back to the conference room for another talk about the program, during which I had the hardest time staying awake than perhaps any other time in my life.  Which confused me, since I had been wide-awake during breakfast.  Afterwards we were finally split into Korea and Turkey groups, and I moved off to the room where Turkey was meeting after bidding farewell to my friends.  One of the Turkey girls who had seemed friendly towards me was sitting at a table, so I sat with her and we were soon joined by other students.  I was awkward at first and didn't talk much, finding out that everyone at my table was either a Masters or a pH.D student.  Although everyone was nice and seemed willing to include me, I just didn't feel as comfortable or like I was clicking with them the way I had with my Korea friends. The people at my table just had so many more experiences than me. I've only taken two classes towards my major, and yet they were working towards the highest honors in their field.  Many of them had been abroad repeatedly and spoke many languages, although some seemed as new to Turkish as I, which was slightly reassuring. 

We had three guest speakers talk to us, and I found their talks very enjoyable. There was an energetic lobbyist for Turkey, a woman who worked for the Foreign Service (a career path I am considering), and a Turkish-American lawyer working with ethnic litigation (I can only imagine how hard that job must be), who was very funny and invited us all to get drunk at his summer home in Turkey.  This was funny, but also reminded me of just how young I seemed in comparison to the rest of the group, who all looked to be over twenty-one. 

After the talks was lunch, and I finally warmed up and started talking to the others. They were all very nice, but I was still lacking the connection I had to my Korea friends.  Our program director, Leslie, talked to us then about specific parts of our program.  We were given information about our host family (how many members were in the family, their address, the family name, and that was it).  I found out that I had three members in my family, which put me in the minority. Many people had only one or two people, and I was pleased that I had a legit host "family" to stay with.  We somehow finished an hour early and I followed my fellow Turkish students to Starbucks, where we sat outside and looked up our addresses on the iPhone map app.  Some people lived only three minutes walking distance from the Tömer Institute, and I was unhappy to find that not only was I fifty minutes walking distance from my classes, but that if I wished to go by foot I would have to swim there.  Yes, I'm pretty sure that I might have to take a ferry to class everyday.  I was actually pretty unhappy about that and the possibility of having to take two methods of transportation to get to class--I am incredibly cheap and the thought of having to pay for going to class and coming home while others just had to step outside was galling to me.  I knew that they'd increased the stipend to cover people having to take two methods of transportation, but I was still mad that I would have to be spending money where they didn't and would have more to spend on souvenirs.  I thought that it would be more fair for just the ones having to take more transportation to get more money, but what could I do?  I eventually got used to the idea, and some of my fears were alleviated when one girl, who had studied abroad in Turkey through CLS before, told me that my host family was supposed to take me to class on the first day so I wouldn't have to listen to directions in Turkish to some place I had never been using public transportation I had never taken.  We returned to our conference room, and next got to ask questions of the CLS alumni.  I'm not sure if I was still just thinking about paying for the ferry fair, but for some reason, where I had been excited earlier, the alumni talk actually made me very, very nervous.  Surprisingly, I wasn't so nervous about talking to my host family but talking to my language partner.  I'm bad enough at small talk in English and I really didn't want to spend at least two hours a week with some person who I might not even click with trying to make small talk in Turkish.  Luckily for me the two groups came together once again in the original conference room and were subjected to a boring talk about alumni activities, which gave me time to rethink my negativity.  That done, we were all packed onto a bus and told we were headed to a Malaysian restaurant for dinner.  I sat next to one of the CLS alumni and made decent stabs at small talk.

I was excited to try Malaysian food, since I was completely unfamiliar with it.  One girl said that it was like Chinese food, but after trying it for myself I would compare it much more closely with Thai food.  Since I'm a fan of Thai food, this was a very good thing.  Once more I sat with my Korea friends, joined by a another Korean student and his Korean friend who was visiting.  One of their friends came over and took a picture of us, and I felt like I was photo-bombing them with just my presence.  It was fun, however, so I didn't care too much.  The food was excellent, and the portions kept coming (we didn't have to order, CLS having made the decision for us).  We started out with some sort of fried pastry that was filled with potatoes and something else that made the potatoes red.   I wish I knew their name, because they were delicious.  Next came some sort of quesedilla--type bread cut into triangles along with beef and potatoes in a broth that reminded me of the beef curry I'd had at Baan Thai.  It was also very good.  Next came a stir-fry, and although I was sure that the dessert was next and the meal was almost over, next came a noodle dish with eggs, carrots, and shrimp, which I also liked.  Then came dessert, more of the triangle bread with some sort of sweet bean paste filling. Surely the meal was done now, I concluded.  But no, we got two desserts:  this time sticky rice with mango and some sort of white sauce.  I had had this exact dish at Baan Thai, and I love it.  The entire meal was outstanding and I wish I knew all the dishes I consumed. 

My poor friends had to get up at 2:30 A.M. to go to Korea, so they thought it was best if they went back to the hotel and got some sleep.  I bid them a sad farewell after promising to add them on facebook and keep them updated.  Heather was from Oklahoma, so she said maybe it would be possible for us to meet up sometime.  I was almost invited out with some of the Turkey people, but when they found out I was nineteen the offer was apologetically retracted because I assume that alcohol was going to be involved.  I didn't mind because I wanted a quiet night to prepare myself for my trip to Turkey the next day.  I picked out an outfit to wear, packed up my bags, talked to my parents for a while and spent as much time on facebook as I could.  I went to bed late, setting my alarm for 10.  I got up and took a shower, then checked myself out of the hotel at 12.  I met some of the students from Turkey and we stored our bags, then took the elevator down to the Metro.  My dad had told me about a restaurant called Roti that I was eager to try, but since it wasn't open I had Five Guys instead.  I sat with the Turkish students and discovered that some of them were in fact undergraduates.  Feeling better now that I had found people close to my own age, we spent a nice time chatting.  A girl mentioned that we could check in on our phones and change our seats to window seats, and all of us immediately whipped out our phones and madly tried to log into United.com.  I discovered that I had quite an undesirable seat in the middle of the middle row of the plane. Sadly there were no window or aisle seats open, but I changed my seat to a B so that I could at least be on the left side of the plane and be capable of glancing out the window if I so chose.  Then we were all crammed onto a bus headed back to Dulles Airport.  This part was not fun--even with a huge group to follow, Dulles is very big and very crowded and going through security was quite stressful and an experience I don't look forward to repeating anytime soon.  We waited for over an hour during which I bid yet another goodbye to the Internet and facebook (and reading an online graphic novel I found that took place in the Ottoman Empire).

I found my seat, 42 B, and after a little difficulty getting my second carry-on bag to fit (my dad had told me that you could check two bags on international flights but WRONG you can only check one), I sat down between a man and a woman, no CLS student in sight.  I immediately got busy doing all the important things: making a playlist from the music the plane provided and checking out the movies.  I was quite impressed with the selection, my options including Captain America, Iron Man, Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows, all three Lord of the Rings movies, Men in Black, Young Frankenstein, Lawrence of Arabia, and many other excellent choices.  The only thing that made me raise my eyebrows was the fact that "Beverly Hills Chihuahua" was included under the category "Classics."

I selected Captain America as my first choice, and got out my coloring book.  I picked a design and a lovely Loki-inspired palette of gold, green, and black, and I am very pleased with the result.  About an hour into the movie dinner was served, an option of chicken, vegetable, or the last remaining beef meal.  Under normal circumstances, I would have felt guilty taking the last beef, but I figured it was Providence that allowed me to have my favorite meat, and with YOLO (for my aunts reading this, that means "You Only Live Once") ringing in my head, I took that last beef meal and I'm glad I did. The beef, mashed potatoes, and vegetables weren't all that great, but the salad, bread, and brownie was actually pretty good.  While I was eating, I paused my movie and the older woman beside me began to talk to me.  She asked what movie I was watching, and when I replied "Captain America,"she said "I love that movie!"  For someone who is currently obsessed with the Avengers, complimenting anything Marvel-related, especially Captain America and Iron Man, is an excellent way to make your way into my good graces.  She got even cooler after that, when I found out that she had a daughter who is a linguist pursuing her pH.D at Georgetown.  I believe she had two other sons as well, one of whom might be studying literature, which is also cool.  We talked for over an hour about my study abroad and her children and it was very nice.  I was pleased once more with my ability to talk to strangers and felt a surge of confidence.  I wasn't even feeling nervous about meeting my host family.  I could "handle it." Eventually, though, she started watching Iron Man (I said she was cool, didn't I?) and I went back to Captain America and my coloring book.  When Captain America was done I watched all the scenes in War Horse with Tom Hiddleston in it, then switched over to Iron Man myself.  I finished my coloring page and began typing this blog post and watch Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.  Breakfast was served (just a croissant and a few pieces of melon, which I didn't eat because I hate melon).  And after what seemed like much, much less than eight hours (for I could have stayed up there for several more movies and been as happy as a clam), we landed.  I said goodbye to my new friend, who said that she hoped that she would see me again and that whenever she saw a Sarah she would think of me.  I told her I would keep an eye out for her daughter when I started to run in linguistics circles.   But she was a very nice woman and I'm glad I met her.  All in all, this was, by far, the best flight I have ever experienced.  It was much better than the cramped Air France flight that only offered one movie, and better than my flight returning from England where my TV screen was the only one that broke.  The selection of movies was awesome and I had way more stuff than I knew what to do with.  I kind of wish the flight could have been direct to Izmir just so I could stay on it longer. 

We touched down in Munich at 7:47 A.M., which continued my tradition of always arriving in Europe at around 8 A.M.  Luckily for me, however, Munich was not our final destination and my dad wasn't there to make us walk around until 6 P.M. so we could "get over" jet lag and turn me into a snarling rage monster ready to snap at whoever looked at me the wrong way (never mind that this method was completely effective; I still hate him for it).  It was cool to be in Germany for the first time since I was a fetus.  And although I'd expected to see signs half in German and half in English, I was surprised at how many were just in English and how few were just in German.  If it wasn't for the fact that I was sweating in the airport and that it smelt like cigarette smoke (despite the glass "smoke zone" that was completely failing to hold in the smoke), I might have thought I was in America. 

We're waiting now at gate H26 for our flight to take us to Izmir.  We have a five-hour layover.  We checked for Wifi and apparently there is some--but to get thirty minutes of free Wifi you have to give them your cell number so they will text you the pin and I don't know if that will cost me, so this will probably be posted later.  I think it's quite annoying for them to tease you with Wifi like that, especially only a measly half hour, but whatever.  I didn't sleep at all on the flight so I think I'll try to take the opportunity to nap a bit now before I get to Izmir and have to meet my host family.  I'm still not particularly nervous; in fact right now I'm mostly just anxious to find out what my access to Wifi will be like.  Which is foolish because I don't want to be tethered to my computer while I'm in Turkey, but it would be nice to at least be able to upload these posts in a semi-timely manner and Skype my family. 

Well, I guess that's pretty much it.  Nothing really to write about until I arrive in Turkey.  Excited to see how it goes!  Hope everyone is doing well and not missing me too much.

Ciao! <3

P.S.  Apologies for any mistakes or just ramblingness!  This tablet doesn't have spell-check and my editing skills are not their best after having not slept for who-knows-how-long =w=;;