İ'm finally here!

Hey

! İ'm finally in Ankara! İts been a long week!

First my flights...oh boy... the first one from Green bay to Detroit was delayed about an hour and a half because a air conditioning truck had hit the plane. They rescheduled all the rest of my flights in case i missed the next one. The only problem was that my next flights were with Nancy, who was attending the orientation with me...on the 45 minute flight, İ sat next to a "bigger" man who smelled very bad. needless to say, İ couldn't wait to get off. So İ was in my blazer and on the way to my next flight, running- no, no, no-sprinting so İ cold hopefully make it. Luckily, I did...barely. So İ walk onto the plane, very sweaty because İ was in my blazer, and just a total mess. I walk back about 3 normal plane lengths (the jet is HUGE!!!!) and find my seat. 24 C...next to Nancy- wait that's definitely not Nancy. It's a very cute boy. "Hey" he says as I sit down. I'm winded but İ say hey back. We're just sitting there and he's listening to his iPod and his head begins to bob as he falls asleep before the plane even takes off. So I start looking around for Nancy, but I can't even see the whole plane so its useless. "Please fasten your seat belts". Cute boy is still asleep and I wasn't about to wake him. Then he jolted up, took off his head phones and began talking to me. His name is Wesley and he's from Holland. He was in California because his family lives there while he goes to school in Holland. And...he's 23...ugh! So we end up talking, playing games (the have really cool TV things) and watching movies together. We didn't sleep the whole 7 hours but it was very fun! At the airport in Amsterdam, we swapped e-mails and he showed me where to go, after a long hug and kiss on the cheek. Then I found Nancy and we sat together on the next flight, next to a man from Turkey, who told us İstanbul was the best. Then I fell asleep, out of pure exhaustion. The next flight I also fell asleep. Ha HaHa... So we get to Ankara where we're greeted by my counselor, Nancy's mom and sister, and two rotex boys. They grab our luggage and we walk out to the car where the club president is standing. He gives me flowers and we take lotsa pictures together (after a day of not showering, brushing my teeth, or putting on make up-ugh!) Then we go to the college...wow...

Nancy goes with her family and I have to go with the rotex boys. It was one of the scariest moments driving in my life! It was even scarier than riding with Jess! lol...There are stop lights and everything but very few. There's also no speed limit and no "non-passing zones". OH! And my personal favorite, a constant sound of horns!So we're on a one-way street and Nancy's car (whose following us) is no where behind us. so we just stop, right in the middle. Then, after a couple minutes, we just begin backing up... cars, taxıs, buses, and trucks all swerve around and beep and flip us off but we just keep on backing and backing until we see them at a water stand getting water for Nancy. Finally after that scary experience, we arrive at the collage. Orientation was nothing special but the people were very nice. And I met Rana! Rana is my first host sister who is leaving for Muskegon Michigan on the 19th of August. She blonde with blue eyes and pale skin. Very fun and outgoing and nice. I also met Artun, my second host brother (he's going to Minnesota) and he's Rana's boyfriend! lol...strange. But he plays the piano so he's gonna leave me music and there's a piano in my second house! Yes!

In one of the meetings, we had to talk about ourselves for 5 minutes so I said I like to sing and dance and ride horses, blah blah blah...then one of the main men of rotary asked me to sing phantom of the Opera...oh boy! so i did...Think of Me...ugh! they all loved it though and insisted that İ sang in the talent show that night...which was supposed to be only outbounds (there's 28 of them!) so then they decided to make the 6 inbounds perform also. Nancy and I decide she will play the violin while İ sing Amazing Grace. So that night we did it and it was really good. Then they gave us a mini- belly dance lesson. When I say we, I mean all the inbounds, boys and girls. Let's just say, I'm going to get lessons here! The rest of the conference was blah blah blah- except the part about trips...theres a like 4 or 5 but I only want to go on 2 or 3...the one to Kapedokia which is a major Christian town. Of course the big trip to Izmir Istanbul and such. and then possibly the one the Dyarbıkür, which is as far east as we can go...but we'll see.

So then I meet both my first and second host families because they are here for a class too! Both are very nice and we go out to eat at a very popular Turkish restaurant after the orientation camp. Of course İbraham (Artun's dad) pays for everything and İ eat so much İ'm gonna burst so I know I'll gain at least 20 pounds here! lol... but ıt was very nice and very fun!

Unfortunately, ıts very late (1:30 am) and ı have to get up early tomorrow so I can go meet some of Artun's rock band frıends so I have to go! I miss you all very much and wıll let you know more about my tıme here sometime this week!

Lots of Love from Türkiye!
Em,
Emmy,
Er-Dogg,
Emily



P.S. The toilets here are SOOOOOOOO weird.
1. They don't swirl either clockwise or counter clockwise...İt just sucks it down ( like a camper toilet)
2. The büdays are so weird and I didn't know how to turn it on until yesterday! lol...
3. Yes, they use toilet paper, not just the büdays!
4. The don't have normal flushing spots...like ours you pull down on this thing and on other ones you push in the middle of the back rest...different...
5.I saw the squatting toilets...gross!

Oh and one more strange thing...the light switch for their bath rooms are on the wall outside the bathroom... the first time i went in the dark! everyone thought ıt was pretty funny!