Hi! I’ve never blogged before, but the occasion has arisen because I am doing the Turkish Language and Culture Program (TLCP) at Boğaziçi University (pronounced Bo-ahz-itch-ee, with the stress on Bo) in Istanbul, Turkey, from Thursday, June 18, to Wednesday, August 5. I received an Undergraduate Language Grant (ULG) from Northwestern to help cover the costs of the program, and the Office of Undergraduate Research (which sponsors the ULG) offered to set a blog up for me and other ULG recipients. If not for this, I never would’ve decided to blog. But I’m excited to share my adventure with friends and family back home, and to learn something from personal reflection! For more information on why I’ve chosen to spend my summer this way, you can check out the bio section. J
I can’t believe it – I leave for Turkey today! My direct flight from Chicago O’Hare to Istanbul leaves at 10:15pm. Even though it’s just an 11-hour flight, I will land in Turkey at 5pm on Monday because Istanbul is 8 hours ahead of Chicago. I’ve been to Turkey many times before – my dad is Turkish, so we went every other summer until I was 11 – but I’ve never flown direct from the States, and I’ve never flown by myself. I’m apprehensive, but I’m also lucky because my aunt and uncle will meet me at the airport in Istanbul. (Most of my dad’s family lives in that city.)
I’m apprehensive for other reasons, too. I don’t know a lot about the TLCP – I don’t know if the students are mostly college-aged or a mix of college kids and “regular” adults, I know I’ll live in a dorm on campus but I don’t know if I’ll have a roommate, I don’t know how far I’ll have to walk from my dorm to classes, I don’t know what time I’ll start and end classes each day, etc. etc. But I will figure all that out when I get there! I’ll spend Monday night and all of Tuesday at my aunt’s house, Wednesday I will move into the dorm, and Thursday the program will start.
I’m also apprehensive about leaving my boyfriend, friends, and family for so long. What makes this experience especially hard is that, although I’ll be back in the States for two weeks in August, I will spend September 2 to December 15 in Seville, Spain, for fall study abroad! I obviously love traveling and learning languages, and I’m very excited that my dreams are coming true. But back-to-back summer and fall study abroad kind of just fell into place, and if I could go back a few years, I would plan things out differently. But I will make the most of these experiences as they come to me! Also, this is a good time to explain the title of my blog – the bear refers to a little polar bear stuffed animal named George that my boyfriend, Will, gave me. George is a Coca Cola bear but I’m not promoting Coca Cola, haha, I just think he’s adorable. He fits in my purse, and I’m bringing him with me to combat homesickness. He’ll be appearing in many pictures, I’m sure! I was inspired by the little dog that appears in my banner picture – my brother brought him along on my family’s last trip to Turkey, and he made everything better. J
A final reflection before I wrap this up – just last summer, I heard about an acquaintance two years older than I am who was doing a summer Mandarin language immersion program (in the States, unlike my current program, but he still had to leave friends and family for 2 months). All I could think to myself was, This is it. This is all I want to do with my summer. A language immersion program. I am so lucky that I was able to make my dream come true. But a tricky thing about dreams is that from a distance, all the details are fuzzy. When I wished so strongly to do a summer language immersion program, I couldn’t clearly see all the things I mentioned above that are making me apprehensive. But I think that’s a good thing – if I had known how anxious I’ve been feeling (at times) over the past few weeks, maybe I wouldn’t have applied. Lesson: Sometimes it’s good to forget about details and just look at the big picture. And remembering how I felt hearing about that acquaintance last summer makes me more excited than ever to set out on my adventure!