Starting Back!

The first day of Lent is as good a day as any to begin something new...therefore I begin blogging again, and hopefully this time it will stick (inşallah!). I am going to approach my blog from a different point of view, which should make it easier for me to motivate myself to write; I'll treat it almost as an online journal of whatever I feel like putting up, without fretting too much about how my readers find it (sorry!) or editing it a lot. This should make it easier for me to post more often, so I'll try it!

I returned yesterday from my third trip to Cappadocia. I don't know how it ends up that I have been there so many times already, but I am not complaining. What an interesting area! Each time I have been I have seen different things. This trip was for an AFS camp, so I spent most of my time actually in the hotel we were staying at (which was 5 stars and quite wonderful) having sessions with the other AFS girls and the volunteers who planned everything. That was fine, though, because the sessions were really great; we talked about a lot of different subjects revolving around our experiences here: language, culture, host family, etc. It was a good chance to evaluate my progress so far and see what I need to work on throughout my last 4 1/2 months here in Turkey.

Speaking of how much time I have left...it seems like so little! Especially when I think that my hardest months have already passed, the months of adjustment to the language and culture and my host family. Now I am at a decent level of Turkish, have a thorough understanding of Turkish culture, and have a great relationship with my host family. Plus, in a month my real family will be here to visit! I can't wait for that!

Tomorrow I go back to school after almost a month of being away (2 weeks of winter break and a week and a half for this AFS camp). As I pulled out my uniform plaid skirt and polo earlier this evening, the same "back-to-school" anxiety hit me as it always has, ever since first grade. I do, however, feel renewed after this break, like I will be ready to go back and understand more, push myself more, and hopefully bond with my schoolmates better.

I am going to try to post some pictures on this blog tomorrow night! I'm also going to put them on Facebook, so if you are my Facebook friend, feel free to browse through the album that I will (potentially) put up tomorrow night.