First monday after the break

( say hi to BOB , this is my hamster)

   YES , I could not sleep till 4 am yesterday and yes , it was not easy to get up and go to school... I really hate staying up late so much while breaks and then not be able to get up on time , but it happens. Around 3 am in Canada , it was 8 am in Turkey so I listened to the Turkish Radio on my ipod , saying that my city is now having "a bit cold weather" 20 C DEGREES and here we are happy that today was over 0 , thinking " yay its getting warmer!" and going to school with a t-shirt . But seriously the spring is actually coming! As i wrote yesterday , the ducks are back so hopefully it won't be that cold anymore and by the way , today was 2 C degrees :) . 

     Today I decided to take Bob back to my room , Bob is the hamster that Shota gave me for Christmas after me keep saying that I want a hamster , without really meaning it.. I put him to my host fathers computer room as he prefers to make noise every single night , in stead of sleeping. But now I feel like I ignored him way too much for last two weeks.. so I will take him back to my room , after tonight or after I get used to sleep at 10 and get up on time in the morning . First day of school was actually fun for me since I met my friends that I didn't see during march break and could not see for 1 week before March break as I did not go to school for a week cause of being sick :( . I actually still don't understand how can Canadians don't complain about the hospital system here , my host mother and I went to hospital at 730 and that was 3 am in the morning when we finally arrived home but everyone says that is normal in Canada , well it's not normal for a sick Turkish girl to wait. My host mom told me that after 12 i spoke in Turkish till I went back to the car , I don't really remember.. 

    And somehow I got 93 in English exam! I kinda felt proud since I have the highest mark in class and I am Turkish , hehe ~ Today I noticed that I love art actually , I look forward to having double art tomorrow! But unfortunetly double is Science wednesday .. and I have a chemistry test on thursday and Shota is finally coming back from Japan as well! I am happy that I will finally see him after weeks.. Today my friend Urara told me that there are actually international high schools in Japan that accepts exchange students! I told my father about it and all he said was " I don't really want to decide on something without seeing you " , he is right about that .. I was not really planning to do it next year but anyways , who knows , I may end up in Japan in a few years or maybe for university.. Cem wants to go to Arabia or somewhere in Middle East to do his master degree in history in Arabic . I know that sounds weird too , maybe that's in our blood to want weird things.. Now I am supposed to do my chemistry homework , take a shower , have supper and sleep , hoping that tomorrow I won't be this sleepy! I am looking forward to going to Newwaterford this Thursday or Friday to see Shota , my friend Meaghan is also having a party in her house this weekend so I can't wait till it is Friday ! Don't forget the chemistry test on Thursday either Alara..

Video of the day is the song that Cem & Pablo are in love with ;

That's all from me for today

-alara

Istanbul - Turkey

Istanbul (historically Byzantium and Constantinople), is the largest city of Turkey, home to a population of 8,803,468 in 2010. A megacity, it is the nation's cultural, economic, and financial center, ranked as an alpha(-) world city by GaWC in 2010.

Located in the northwest of the country, it lies on the Bosphorus strait and encompasses the natural harbour known as the Golden Horn. Extending both on the European (Thrace) and Asian (Anatolia) sides of the strait, Istanbul is the only city in the world situated on twocontinents. It covers 39 districts of Istanbul province. The greater Istanbul metropolitan area held 18% of Turkey's population in 2010. Its 13.26 million residents rank it third in Europe after those of London and Moscow.

During its long history, Istanbul has served as the capital of the Roman Empire (330–395), the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire (395–1204 and 1261–1453), the Latin Empire (1204–1261), and the Ottoman Empire (1453–1922). When the new Republic of Turkey was proclaimed in 1923 Ankara was chosen as its capital.

Istanbul's historic areas were added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1985. It was named a joint European Capital of Culture for 2010 and the European Capital of Sports for 2012. Istanbul is currently bidding to host the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Lazy Sunday

    Today was all about being lazy , getting up late , eating as much as i could at supper and write my blog .. It was again like 3 pm when i get up and today is the last day of the march break ~ I do not really know how will I get up in the morning to go to school :( Since I did nearly nothing today , I kinda had time to think on my own ,  I decided not to complain about my family's decisions , as I know that I cannot change it , even if I do , it will be all about me forcing my family to spend too much money on my education and life , unnecessarily...
    Before I come here as an exchange student my dream was to go abroad and stuff , now I live in Canada but there are more serious decisions that I have to make for my future .. like , should I go back to my country next year? I don't really know , I don't want to force my family to send me back but I am actually enjoying my life in Canada ... Anyways , it seems like I am going back to my country next year! I really miss everything .. I miss the food , I miss my family and I miss my dog , so much! I did not cry so far , because I miss my family in Canada (yet) but .. today something that I really really did not expect happened , my little sister Tamara wanted to talk to me , after months and when I asked her do you miss me? She asked me ,'do you?' and i said I asked you first and she answered yes , i do miss you because my brother is just so annoying  ~ and everything is just so different without you . This is the main reason why now I am fine with going back to Turkey next year , I will at least be with my family and obviously my dog :) Today I also called my uncle and grandmother in Turkey and as always , my grandmother sounded happy at first but then sounded like she is about to cry and passed the phone back to my uncle , I miss them , I  actually really miss my whole family and everything I have in Turkey ~ so I started being positive! When I go back , I will be living in another city that I have never been to before , again..! As my family moved to Tekirday , near to Corlu which means next year I will not be back to my old school , I will start going to another school in Corlu , everything will be new , agaiiinn.. but I am alright with it , I really learned how to make friends , in Canada , in another country , so I think I will be fine with everything in Turkey! I actually do not know how will I catch up with math and other classes but .. hopefully I will be fine with everything in Turkey as well ... Yesterday Haico promised me to get me a bracelet from China , he has two weeks so we will see how it is gonna be! I am also super excited to go on the Montreal trip in April! I will be missing Shota's birthday but I think the trip is gonna be awesome with Yejin , Sojung and Urara! Yeah , they all are asian.. I can not really help it , they are all around! haha .. I want to share my dogs picture with you guys too , so that you know what I am actually talking about! 

I really miss Sydney! and my other pets ,  

Yeah , you saw all my pets , that I am really missing :(

Video of today is the song that Haico actually liked and tries to sing , whenever he sees me :

That's all for today!

-alara

Just Dance

Whenever all the international students meet , we have 2 songs to dance with , I just wanted to share since EVERY single person on the exchange actually knows the lyrics and the dance of it , wherever we go , whatever the time it is , if someone has the music with them somehow , we , dance .. 

The ducks are back!

  Today I get up around 2 pm and i was again late meeting Haico , which I know actually makes him hate me , slooowwlyy .. insiidee.. haha . Anyways, I went to Center200 to skate with Sojung , Yejin and Haico , also met my friends Victoria and Jessica , after skating like 3 hours , we left the rink and decided to go to the Chinese restaurant downtown , the weather was awesome ( like 4 C ) and we were really enjoying the sun actually ..  On the way to the chinese restaurant , we met Cem and Ching , went to the restaurant all together .. That was a fun day after all , while walking to Cem's house we stopped in the park , sit on the ground watch the lake and the ducks! I was actually super excited about ducks to come back since Shota and I are waiting for them to come back since December! Now he is still in Japan but I sent him a message saying that the ducks are back! I am happy that the weather is finally getting warmer , comparing to Turkey , 4 C is NOTHING , seriously but here when its warmer than 0 C degrees in day time , then it is warm - after having some fun in the park and taking some stupid pictures we went to Cem's house , skyped my mom all together and then go to to last Eagles hockey game of the year in Center200 again .. then the match became too boring for us that Haico and I went to Tims and I forgot my skates there while going to the movies!! If he did not remember that I definitly would just forget it there and wont remember about it at all .. maybe till I go back to Turkey? haha I dont know.. Then we went to the movies , he wanted to watch a movie called "Safe House" which he thought was a horror movie and I insisted on going to the movie called "21 Jump Street" at 10 pm , but he said it would be too late for him to go back home so we got our tickets to Safe house at 930 , after watching the first 10 minutes of the movie , I started to complain and just made him change the movie , since we are in Canada , they dont really care if we change movies and stuff , i do not know why they just do not notice :D Then we went to the movie "21 Jump Street" and that was quite awesome , I really liked the movie actually..

Sojung & Yejin

Melissa , Yejin , Sojung & Fernanda

Sojung & I 

Haico & I 

Video of the day : obsession is still present 

 - I love this song -

I decided to turn this into my diary!

Since this is my blog , I just decided to turn this blog into my diary from today, right now! Here I go ; what I did today ..

March 16th , 2012

  For last 1 week , I know that next year I will be back to Turkey , back to my routine and everything which gives me headache when I get up in the morning .. but somehow today was different , last night I talked to Paris and he recommended me to go to the Greek Restaurant in Sydney and try the food there , hoping there would be something Turkish . Around 3 pm , I met my friend Haico and went to the restaurant , seriously hoping there will be something good to eat ! With no racist feelings really!

 Then when we sat inside the woman asked me what we wanted and I told her that I am Turkish and I want something that they think close to our food in Turkey and unexpectedly,  she acted colder than she was when I first entered after finding out that I am Turkish! Anyways let's not turn this into a racist thing haha , after having our food there , we payed like 50$ at total which I did not really find worth eating that food ... Before I leave the woman asked me which city I am from , and I said Istanbul and she said ah Constantinapolis , and I said we say Istanbul for last 2.000 years , Constantinapolis is the old old name and she said Its not old , Its just Greek since it was once ours .. Which again made my racist feelings to come out , one more time.. I do not really think that I will ever visit that restaurant again , in my life..

 After our adventure in the restaurant , we went to the movies to see the movie 'A thousand words' which was pretty good and then I left Haico all alone , my host mother and grand-host-mother drove me to my Korean friend , Yejin's house to have some Korean food! She was kind of sad since the people she invited did not show up but then we invited some people over and had some kimchi , bulgogi and noodles! That was pretty fun to talk with Yejin , Sojung , Masataka and Yuuki , to see that two japanese guys are actually getting on really well with Korean girls haha! That is so fun to see my friends together and trying to speak in Turkish with me! To be honest I just find the Korean girls successful at pronouncing Turkish words since Japanese guys do not even have the letters l and r separetly .. anyways , after having some cake , my host mother again picked me up from Yejin's which i know was not a happy drive for her unfortunetly, picking her student from north Sydney and driving back to Sydney again..

  I could not skype my mother when I came home as it is already morning in Turkey , I talked to Shota for a bit which makes me happy , to hear from him finally since he went back to Japan . I am actually really excited to see him when he comes back next tuesday! Now I know how it is like to miss someone .. It is 2 am already! I better sleep !

Video of the day , the song that I am obsessed with recently!

That's all from me for today~

Alara Cetin

My best friend here is also Turkish

I met so many people since my arrival to Sydney but my best friend here is Cem and he is Turkish as well , it must be something to do with the language i guess .. But I can't help it , i would probably be fine without him in Canada too but he is the one who listened to my problems and tried to get me through all of them!~ Sometimes you just need to speak to someone that knows your language , your culture and knows what would actually happen to you in the present situation if you were Turkey and Cem is the only person that I really need to talk with sometimes and spend some time with.. In Turkish we say  " Turkun Turk'ten baska dostu yoktur" that means the Turk does not have any friends other than other Turks , it is not that I say that is totally true but sometimes we just say it to each other when we know or just feel it that we would not be able to talk about that thing with someone else..