Me, Victoria (my host mom), one American?Mexican, and 6 Brazilians (one not pictured) went a bit south to the great beach town; CESME. I had so much fun this last weekend, oh and you have no idea how much i needed this trip out of istanbul, if only it could have lasted more than 3 days!!! 

Look at the Water. It is so clear, even when we were really far out, you could see your whole body underwater. but the see was so sulty, it really hurt my lips. Cesme has 4 of the best beaches in Turkey, (so I counted when i looked for best beaches in Turkey in my travil book.) and i got to go to 2 of them!  

This isn't the Beach area but I thought it made a nice picture. 

The Beautiful City of Cesme.  

This the view from my school, looking out to the bridge... oh and over the bridge, that's the Asian side of Istanbul 

A bunch of the Exchanges at a picnic in the park. I was a beautiful day, and the park was a lot of fun... oh and we even made some turkish friends (they were about 8 years old!). We were playing the stick game (you have to spin around 15 times looking at the stick you are holding, and then drop it and try to jump over it) but anyways all the Turkish people were laughing at us, but then these kids wanted to try to I got to explain the rules to them... it was so cute, we got the almost that whole side of the park to join in.....  

On the Road

On the road agian...... Whats the rest of that song?? oh well, This is on the bus going to Ankara! at about 6.15 AM....

after trying to sleep on a bus for 6hours, this is what i woke up to! pretty good deal I think!  

KAITLYN

Yup That's my name on a huge thing of bread!!! I went to Ankara two weeks ago and because I am just so darn special, well they surprised me with my own thing of bread! only 0.75 YTL (about $0.50) pretty cool huhhh???

No need for words.... 

This was a picture taken of the wall that was made in the 1400's to keep the city safe! We got to walk all the way around it up on the high walls with hundreds of stairs.... and all i could think of was 'I wonder how many people die every year from falling off these walls!!!!'  

Well here was another party that I got... They all planned it without me knowing.... and the whole weekend i was sad because I didnt get a Birthday Cake! but they had saved the birthday cake for when i got back on monday, and then they all surprized me at my own house!!!! The did a great job! and I was so happy!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAPPY BIRTHDAY, HAPPY BIRHTDAY TO MEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks to the exchange students who when to the club with me for my Birthday! it was fun! and I got to get a cute dress for it too!  

For Turkish news go to.....

Hey Everyone''' just wanted to let everyone know that Im doing really well and having a lot of fun, Im trying to plan some trips to other places in Turkey for my last few months here' Im not sure if I'll be able to go on the big trip to the south/east of Turkey that Rotary had planned. Some things have been going on over here with the Kurdish party (pkk) which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and the European Union. A few busses have been blown up here in Istanbul by this group but the heavy protests have so far been in the south and east of Turkey. If you would like to check out any turkish news go to this website--> www.turkishdailynews.com.tr For turkish news in English. Oh and the picture is of me and the two other exchange students that go to my school, Do you like the uniforms??? HAHAHA Take care ya' all.... Kisses Kaitlyn

OMG! These next three pictures are of the kids at my school! I do go to some of my classes, but if there is a class that i dont like or they are having a test, then i go down to the first floor and help with the English classes of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th grades! They are really really cute kids, but oh my word are they little monsters! But they do have a way of just making you laugh so you cant stay mad at them for too long. and they love to teach you Turkish words!  

Aren't these girls sweet! Ok these ones are pretty cute, and are so good in class!  

This is a picture of another Exchange student at my school and a little 1st grader 

This was just a beautiful sun-set in Kadikoy(the asia side) looking over to the Europe side of Istanbul 

This was taken in Taksim, where I think you can get the Best Doner for pretty cheap! Doner is a huge thing of beef rosted on this things by the fire and then the guy cuts very thin slices off and put them onto bread. You can then put salad and topings along with french fries on your sandwhich! ummmm ummm good!!!! 

This was just a cool picture that I took as i was walking from Ulus down to Ortakoy.  

You Know You're in İstanbul When.....

You know you're in İstanbul when....

1. You're out dinning and you have to hold on to your glass if its less than half full otherwise the 'last sip police' will come and take it away.

2. You go to a cafe and there are always 4 servers assigned to your table. one to set the table, one to take your order, one to empty the ashtray, and one to simply keep on asking if you are finished.

3. Everyone begging tells you in English that they have 5 children!

4. Stoplights are just decoration.

5. You think you've lost your hearing if you dont hear any honking car horns.

6. You cross a road only to see that the cars are now coming faster to make sure you get out of the way.

7. The lines on the road aren't lane lines but seems to be just artwork, because there are 3 or 4 cars all next to each other when only two lanes should be there.

8. The Mini-buses doesn't stop to pick you up or drop you off, you've got to jump on and off.

9. You have to go to 5 different parts of Istanbul just to get 5 things because each area of İstanbul has 25shops selling the exact same thing!

and #10. You know you are in İstanbul when, you go out to eat or go over to someone's house and they've got bags and bags of salt, sugar, and coffee; but toilet paper.... HAHA Nice try!

Update

hey Everyone..... Im doing pretty good this week! The weather over here was so perfect last week! but yesterday it got really cold again and even snowed!!! We had our big Rotary country Fair the other day (its where all the inbounds come and set up tables and put all their countries stuff on them and then the kids who want to be exchange students pick what country they want to go to. pretty fun. the istanbul district only had 16 students!!! when they all came to the camp they were asked where they might like to go, and all but 2 said America. so when the 'team America' (the Rotary inbounds from the US) got there, we were told to play it low, and try to get the kids to go to different countries. in the end 6 are going to America, 5 to Mexico, 2 to Japan, 1 to Brazil, 1 to Germany, and 1 to Australia. I wasn't as fun as my country fair was, but maybe thats because I didnt have that excitement of not knowing where I was going to go. Alright, Ive got to go get dressed now, Its my friends Birthday today~ well tomorrow, but we are having a get together today! kisses to everyone! I love you lots and lonts, and Ill be home in just a few months!
~Kaitlyn

A Red HOT V-Day Gift

I am so sorry that it has been such a long time. I know I have gotten a few emails saying 'Kaitlyn you should really update your blog!'. SO you know who you are, and I hope you are happy now! So the day after Valentines day... guess what happened! (oh and dont think too much into it because I am fine now!) well, I will just tell the story! so anyways... I had to go to Taksim that night (by myself!!!!-thanks all you exchange people!!!) to order a cake for Steves Birthday (an American exchange student) so I was ordering a cake when a protest broke out--(well there are always protests going on but this one got a little out of controle, and moved to the area I was at)--so I waited for it to move not really watching what was taking place--(after you have seen a few of these its just best not to watch it or get too bothered by it). so after it moved down the other way, I stepped out of the cake shop, when my eyes started burning and I kept thinking my nose was bleeding! I had to walk into a bookstore so I could pull myself together. But nothing got better, I was like crying and I didnt know what happened. The shop guy was passing out water to the people in the store, thats when I relized it wasnt just me that was feeling this way. I asked around to see what happened and I guess a bunch of pepper spray was used in the protest. and it was all over in the air still. I had walked out of that cake shop right away, which was so dumb! Well Im fine now but just to let you all know, if you havent ever been sprayed with pepper spray you are very lucky because It really really sucks and isnt a very nice valentines gift! I love you all, I hope you had a great ValentinesDay! XOXOXO

Canakkale

Thank God, I got away from Istanbul for a while! This past week I have been in Canakkale, about 7 hours by bus from Istanbul. Canakkale is a small beach town, with lots of Summer houses and Cafes. The place was almost totally empty, but because i went with my teacher from school, she took me around and showed me all the best spots and I got to meet a bunch of cool people. I had fun and it was so nice just to get out of Istanbul, for the first time. It was really funny because on the way there we took the bus during the day so i could see everything, well we pasted so many summer houses and every time a saw one with normal siding on it, I would get all excited and point it out to my teacher saying that it had American Siding!!! I even got to see farms and tractors!!!! sorry, got a bit over excited there about some siding and tractors, but hey its been a lot time for me! Canakkale reminded me a lot of Dulth. It was so darn COLD for one thing, and that was all due to the wind and the sea. Dulth sits on a Great lake, which makes it get lots of wind and lots of snow, same with Canakkale, its right on the open Sea, which makes it so windy and cold. All the better though to go inside by the fire and drink Turkish coffee or tea.... though in the summer Canakkale is the perfect place to spend your days.

The TROY Horse

The pictures above and to the left are pictures of the Troy horse used in the movie 'Troy'. The remains of the realy Troy horse of still in troy, as are the remains of the city. Troy is only a few miles from Cannakkale, and well, a real disapointment to most people, as the guid book also states. In Troy there is also a remake of the Troy horse where you can climb inside and take a look around. but thats about it because there isnt really anything left to the city. These pictures however are of the REAL make of the Troy horse for the movie, Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom really touched this horse!!! ahhh that is so cool! Well thats about it. I had fun on my little Vacation, or as the Europeans call is, Holiday. I hope you all take care. Love from Istanbul... Kaitlyn

For anyone who has been keeping up with me, I am always talking about my tecaher! well this is Victoria. Here we are by the Sea, in Canakkale. Victoria lived in Canakkale for a few years before moving to Istanbul this last year. She took me around her city and showed me so cool stuff. I'm going to come back to Canakkale with her this summer, because it will be much nicer with more things to do. Kisses Kaitlyn

A Very Merry Christmas

I Hope you all are having a wonderful winter back in Minnesota... as for snow, well there hasn't been much yet; a few dustings but nothing that lasted tell the next morning. Though we have had one snow day! It was the funnies snow day i have ever heard of because there was no snow on the ground!!!! It started snowing a bit on a sunday night, Istanbul then called for all the schools in the city to be closed for Monday. When I woke up on Monday there was no sign that it had even snowed!! The roads were fine and the sun was shining!!! It ened up being a perfectly good day.
Well I have been getting ready for Christmas this last week. I went to my teacher's house and we put up a Christmas Tree and decorated the whole house! To the left is a picture of her mother-in-law (my Turkish Grandmother!), Can you guess what she is dressed up as????!!!! She is so cute! Well i hope you all have a very Merry Christmas... As for me, I am dreaming of a white Christmas!!!!! kisses Kaitlyn 

Rotary Youth Exchange Students

This is a picture of 17 out of the 26 exchange students in Istanbul with two other Rotary exchange students from other cities in Turkey. However there have been two Exchange Students that have gone home now. 

Inside the Masque

If you look closely you can see the people praying in the front of the masque; only men are allowed to go up there. Women must pray in the back of the masque that is covered so you can not see them. This is because it is thought that the men thoughs would be pulled away from praying to their God. 

Inside a Masque

This picture was taken inside a masque. In almost all of the masques, women must cover their heads with these head scarves. When you go to visit a masque there is often times a handful of scarves there for visiters outside. You must also take off your shoes before entering the building, which makes the most popular masques (like the Blue Masque) have a strong smell of FEET!!! YUCK!