Days in Ankara!

I'm still in Ankara and my little vacation still lasts. Those couple of days here have been very thoughtful. I finally can see the real differences between Diyarbakır and Ankara. :) I've started to think more about my doings over here and some plans seem to be more realistic now.

Ankara is a lovely city, although most of the people say that it's boring. Actually it's not, just you have to find right people with who to speak and go out. EVSers over here are very nice. They have been so hospitable, just amazing to think that! Here are 5 people, they  have 2 floors and a big balcony on the roof. Also, Alice has a rabbit who has her own room, but soon she will be put into a cage, because they are expecting another EVS volunteer from Poland and she should get that room. Their house is really lovely, although it's a bit out of the city.

Tomorrow I'll go to one bazaar with them and hopefully will explore Ankara more a bit more. 

Visiting Ankara

'Just wonderful, so wonderful', were my thoughts when I went to sleep yesterday. I arrived in Ankara yesterday and I'm so happy about it. Yesterday was that packing-and-flying day. I found some really cheap tickets to Ankara, but the flights were so silly. Firstly I flied to Istanbul and from there to Ankara. Still it was better that 17h in a bus so in the end I'm quite good with that.

My flights were so strange this time - in my first flight I was sitting next to a girl  who was afraid of flying. When we started to take off, she was shaking and really nervous. So, I tried to calm her down, but as I don't speak Turkish so much, it was hard. Even when we were flying and plane turned, she was again in panic. Luckily, I managed to tell her all the time that everything is okay and there is no problem :). On that time I really felt that I've flied a lot, so for me it was totally okay and I had zero emotions. My next flight was better - it was newer plane and flight was short, approximately 40 minutes. But ofc at the airport I firstly wanted to go to the car park instead of exit (normal me) :D

Today was my 1st full day in here and I visited a castle in Ulus. Although, the castle itself was closed, it was still very nice view from the top (but the stairs were horrible.. there were a lot of them). I'm staying in another EVSers place and we also met some Syrians in our way, they explained us a bit of that situation in Syria and suggested us to go there when the war is over. Hopefully it ends soon!
Tomorrow I'll meet some of my friends over here and will enjoy that holiday what I've!

 That view!!!

 Just suddenly we met some Syrians, so here is one picture with them. Alice, my lovely host, took it :)

18.11

Sunday like any other sunday. We made our project with children again and we only have one day more with them, then the project is over. It already seemed so normal, that almost every weekend we had something to do with them.

After the activities I felt soo pissed off because of some volunteers over here. I just sometimes can't stand that I've that kind of language barrier, that I can't participate so actively in some activities as I would like. For example, today I was like a cleaning lady, who cleaned everything during the activities and after it. Just because I can't speak, I can't explain children some things so well, but I still help them with smaller things :). It was almost okay, but one person really pissed me off today.. just so much drama from small things. Aehhh!

I guess it's normal, but I just can't stand some acting what she does .. so, I went home right away after our activites.

As it was late afternoon, I decided to find a good cafe to sit there and make my mood better. I still can't imagine that I found a very nice and cozy cafe. I think it will be in my list for some next times too :). 

And again, I was surprised how friendly people are. I was just sitting in that cafe, when people started speaking with me and they immidiately recognized that I'm foreigner :D. Sometimes I'm still surprised that they notice that. 

That thing really made my mood better and now I'm waiting my vacation, what starts on tuesday. Now I'm already feeling that I need that, because I have to get away from here for a while. I'm sure that after coming back, I'll be more enthusiastic :) 

On little story in the end as well: 

On friday, I met with one couchsurfer, who is living in Diyarbakır. We planned to go one Blues festival, but when we finally got there, it turned out that it had age limit, what was 24. Hahaaa, so much of our plans then. Ofc I came up with an idea that why people don't use fake ID's , my CSer answered very seriously 'No, you can end up in jail because of that!!! No-no-no..' Those things here are very serious.

Anyway, as we both were under 24, we went to a cafe to just listen live music and speak more. During our walk over there, the police had used pepper gas on the streets. Obviously I didn't recognize it right away. When my Cser asked 'Did you also get pepper gas?', I just answered 'What pepper gas..?!?' and then I felt it, ohhmygod.. there we were, I was literally half-blind because of that gas and I was just walking somewhere. Later I learned that if it gets really bad, you should put lemon into your eyes (I don't know if it really helps.. I didn't try it). 

In that bar, I also managed to say something really funny, so we were laughing all the time. I'm just glad that I can raise others mood so easily! :D 

 Yeap, we wanted to go there.. and the notes about the age limit were written in the section 'please note' .. ofc I didn't look it before going :D

 2 days more!!!!

read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20386073

Small overview of things in here!

It's my 74th day  - time to write about some everyday things over here :). 

People 

People are very friendly and very curious. They are always asking about your life and your plans. Also, they are saying that it's in their culture to be very hospitable. While visiting some family, you can be sure that they are welcoming you as you would be their family member.

Sometimes it's a bit annoying if they are so curious. I'm just feeling bad if they look me strange sometimes (because I haven't eaten so much or I just do something differently). Also, their greetings are different. I'm used to hug all my friends when I see them, but over here people are just shaking hands and giving small kisses (on cheeks of coursee). Even if you say goodbye, then they are doing the same. 

Relationships

Ofc people over here like to ask a lot about your relationships, but they don't speak about it so openly. On the streets you can't see couples kissing, they are just walking normally. Sometimes they are holding hands (but it also happens rarely), and that's all. 

On the other hand, family relations are here very important. Usually youngsters are living together with their family until they are getting married. If people are going out, they are always letting their parents know where they are going and especially girls are going home early. 

Weddings

It happens in villages that parents are organising their daughters marriage (forced marriage). In Diyarbakir it's not so common to have those forced marriages (or maybe I just haven't heard about it over here so much). Also, before getting married, boyfriend is always asking permission from his  girlfriend's father. The weddings are celebrated very widely (for ex. Lise is going to a wedding next week and there should be 500 guests). The party is not so long, it usually lasts until midnight and then the happy couple is going home. What I especially like is that they are all dancing in the weddings. In addition, the weddinggift is always money or gold. Nothing else! They just don't give anything else to the newlyweds. Now imagine how much money and gold the family gets whose wedding Lise is going :D

Houses and streets 

This is the most surprising thing over here. Buildings are usually built side by side and there are very small streets between them. I can say that the quality of the house depends on what part of the city you are living. For example, the house where I'm living is very near to the city center, but the houses in this district are very old. They don't have elevator and every time when you're going up the strairs you have to push the light on. Sometimes it switches off and then it's always very awkward, when I'm in the middle of stairs, trying to go up and find the switch again :D. Also, there are no windows in the corridor and apartments don't have their own letterboxes. There are some newer houses (with elevators :D) in the other part of the city and they also look very modern. Nevertheless, sometimes it feels that the houses have very strange construction. On the outside they seem very normal, but the rooms in the apartments are strange. 

Streets are usually very narrow and full of trash. Although we have trashbins over here (small ones), people are still throwing everything on the ground. 

Some random things too: 

* They have a lot of mosques everywhere and 5 times per day you can hear the invitation for praying (my house is also basically next to the mosque)

* When there are some demonstrations in Diyarbakir, they are BIG. There are police everywhere and they are checking people. In some strange reason, the demonstrations are also usually in front of Sümerpark, the place where we all work :D

All the things what I see here ..

This post will be in Estonian, as I wrote it yesterday.. full of those emotions what I saw.

Niisiis, asi millest rääkida tahtsin juhtus eile ja on mulle siiamaani väga uskumatu. Nimelt, nägin üle pika aja ka teistsugust elu siinmail. 

Peale taaskordset kontoripäeva, mille vältel ma üritasin voltida paberist lillekest (mis mul endiselt ei õnnestunud) läksin ma koju. Kogu action hakkaski just sellega pihta. Meie teine voluneer Lise kutsus mind endaga kaasa ühte peret külastama. Aeg oli juba õhtu ja väljas küllaltki pime. Viimasel ajal on siin aga kella 7 õhtul inimesed teinud rõdude peal kõvat lärmi ja ikka selleks, et näljastreigil olejaid rohkem toetada. Igalpool kolistatakse ja politsei on väljas, laseb õhku pipragaasi ja üritab inimesi talitseda. Igaljuhul eelnevatel päevadel kodus olles sellel ajal, ei tundu asi üldse hull. Eile aga, läksime just sellel ajal välja + üha enam lisas kindlust Lise poolt öeldud sõnad, et me läheme piirkonda, mis on väga vaene. Igaljuhul nii me siis alguses tänavale kõndisime ja sattusime ühe minibussi peale, kus juht lihtsalt sõidutas meid paar kvartalit edasi kohta, kus me pidime algselt jala minema selle pereni. Jubehea pluss on siin aeg-ajalt ikka välismaalane olla, sest me ei pidanud isegi selle minibussi eest maksma. 

Igaljuhul, kui me siis seal 'uues' kohas majadevahel kõndisime .. tundus see ikka megakõhe. Osad enam ei julge teha niipalju lärmi, sest politsei alustas nende inimeste ülespildistamist ja võib neid nüüd hakata arreteerima. Mingil hetkel siis otsustasime võtta takso ja ohhhhmmyygod, mida ma nägin. Taksod on siin ilusad, aga tänaval toimus ikka suur mäss. Teate neid ilutulestikurakette, mis muidu peaks õhus plahvatama, need plahvatasid maapeal ja need hästi pisikesed mingid pauguraketid ka. Ja nii me takso siis sõitis selle kõige keskel ja üks rakett plahvatas pm. meie takso kõrval kohe. 

Ja need politseiautod... wowowoowwww, need on nagu pisikesed tankid, nii ära soomustatud. Need siis olid nende plahvatavate rakettide keskel. Lisaks olid mingid lambikad lõkked lihtsalt keset teed ja inimesed tulid ja viskasid sinna aina kaste juurde, et asi põleks suurema leegiga ikka. Tegelikult olenes, mõnelpool põletati riidekaltse.

Oh, kui me lõpuks siis jõudsime selle perekonnakoduni, see oli lihtsalt nii hea tunne lõpuks sellest lärmist majja saada. Kuid, need majad .. see on juba omamoodi asi (kirjutan sellest järgmises postituses täpsemalt). Perekond keda me väisasime oli väga vaene ja seda sõna otseses mõttes. Sellegipoolest, on nad ikka endiselt vägavägavägaväga külalislahked ja rääkisid meiega palju juttu. Aga osad asjad lihtsalt ei ole õiged - nt sain teada, et pereisa vahistati ca. 6 aastat tagasi, kuna tal pidid väidetavalt mingid sidemed PKK-ga olema .. ja nüüd ta peab iga kuu käima allkirja andmas, et ta ikka endiselt siin linnas on. 

Ja tänaval olukord vahepeal muutus rahulikumaks, aga siis ohhhmygod, another police car .. ja see on üks suurimaid mida ma siin näinud olen. Rohkem peaksin ütlema, et see tundus küll tanki moodi. See oli selline üleni valge, peal oli kirjutatud Polis ja mingi number. Aga selle tanki peal keerles koguaeg mingi kahur .. hiljem sain teada, et see oli veekahur, et kui inimesed liiga mässama hakkavad, siis neile suunatakse veejuga peale. Igaljuhul selline suur massiivne auto sõitis vähemalt neli-viis korda edasi ja tagasi tänaval... 

- ilmselgelt näha, et ma olen seda mingite emotsioonide ajel kirjutanud ja tegelikult juhtus paljugi veel, aga ma jõuan sellest kindlasti veel kirjutada.

 

It's time to travel!

After the YE everything seems so calm.. the busy times are over for some time :). We are all making some traveling plans in here. Ago went to Romania for 2 weeks.. and she just told me this on Monday. Started like 'I'll go home tomorrow..' and I thought firstly that she is speaking about our home in here, but she explained that no, she is going to Romania. I was so surprised that I just starred her almost 2 minutes, and only thing what I said was like ... 'wooowwww, so soon.' Yeah, she bought tickets on Monday and flied yesterday's evening. Hopefully she is already at home and enjoying her 2 weeks over there. 

My coordinator is going to Lithuania and he is also visiting Latvia and maybe Estonia too. Ayeaaahhhh, I really hope that he goes there.. it would be supernice!! :) At least, I kept telling him that it's only 4h from Riga to Tallinn by bus. Okay, actually it's 4,5h.. but still Estonia is so close to Latvia and when he is already going there, then .. why not to visit Estoniaaaa! :)

I also made my traveling plans, but I'm not going out of Turkey. I'm just flying to another city. I just decided to go to Ankara and I'm also planning to visit  Eskişehir and maybe Istanbul again. It's kind of funny to think that I'll fly to another city, but it's still in Turkey. At least, I'm saving time, A LOT of time. So, between 20th till 28th of Nov I'm also out ofDiyarbakır. Also, couple of seconds ago, I came up with this idea that I should visit my friends in Greece too... but that's just an expromt idea. 

 Just googled   Eskişehir and this picture came up. Hope that this city is really like this!! :)

I found it today and I'm still listening it!

Reduce, reuse, recycle!

12 days have passed and I haven't written here nothing... well, it has a pretty good reason :)

I haven't written here anything because we had a youth exchange (on 3rd till 10th of November). It was on the topic of reduce, reuse, recycle. So, there we were..  When we packed things for that, ohhh mygod, that feeling :). Somehow I got that deja-vu feeling, because it reminded me times when I was organising General Assamble meetings in ESCU.

When we finally arrived there (with a small car, what was full of everything) we just had around 2h time till the first participants (Lithuanians) arrived. All the other participants arrived around 10 pm in the evening. They also got lost while coming from the airport to the venue. 

I can say that eventually we managed to organize it well, although somewhere in the middle of YE all the participants got so tired, but luckily it was on the days when we went to Hasankeyf or Diyarbakir. In the workshops everybody were working and we made some funny energizers to them as well. Also, every group had their own workshop, what they facilitated.

In this YE, we had people from Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Germany, Lithuania and Turkey. The biggest groups were from Romania and Hungary .. and as participants from Romania also spoke Hungarian then I heard Hungarian A LOT during the YE. Now I can remember even couple of words in Hungarian.

On 10th of Nov, most of the participants left at 8 am. After the YE, one Hungarian girl and our Bulgarian participants decided to stay in Diyarbakir for couple of days more. Hungarian girl left today and Bulgarians will leave on Wednesday. So, we have guests again, wohhoo! :)

 When we started .. first games 

 Let's play a game - 'I've never..'

 Tested our group, if they can finish all the tasks in 50 minutes

 Evenings were full of dancing.. over here, everybody are trying to learn a Bulgarian dance

Hasankeyf - amazing with it's caves 

Probably the only group picture what was made together with everybody :)