Merhaba herkese!
In the last months in Izmir, summer arrived. Now we have really high temperatures but it does not seem to change daily life so much, the people in Izmir are used to it.
I am right now coming back from the bayram – holidays – we have in June. Me and two other volunteers went to Kars, which is almost as far as we could have gone in Türkiye. We took the dogu ekspres, a train that connects Ankara and Kars, and before, we came to Ankara, also by train.
In the end we spent more than 40 hours on a train which, I must say, was more comfortable than the bus rides. The trains are spacey and they have toilets, I would definitely advise people to try and take the train in Türkiye, as the tickets are often cheaper than the buses.
The Black Sea region, where I have spent the last days, is definitely greener and of a colder climate than where we live. Although I feel like Türkiye, in general, has a lot of mountains, hiking is nice almost everywhere. One of the best thing now is that I can have basic conversations in Turkish, which is great because a lot of people here are eager to communicate and we got invited to a lot of çay. Still, learning Turkish is one of the things where I invest most of my free time in, apart from spending it with my friends or doing sport.
The workshops also have been changing a bit lately. What was really sad to me was that they had canceled our theater-workshop because of the lack of participants.
Two weeks ago a new Spanish conversation club started, which is really nice, and I hope it will continue for some time. Also the English conversation club on Saturdays is still continuing, I think it is one of the longest-lasting workshops from what I can remember.
Still, learning languages is a topic that plays a big role in my life in Izmir, but I must say, I already feel like I have learned a lot about this and I wish to continue to discover how languages work and what kind of differences they have, as it is a big part of my job and life in Türkiye.
I am very happy to still live with my amazing flatmates and to spend time with all the friends I found in Izmir, amongst volunteers and others. I was glad that there were a little more short term volunteers coming in the last month. I think that it is really nice that we can show new people around and help them find their ways at the workshops, because for us it was a little hard at the beginning and now we can help people get accustomed faster. Izmir feels like a city I know, I have traveled to many parts, also thanks to workshops. We get to know lots of people through our work and, sometimes, we get invited to events, conversation clubs or similar things in different parts of the city.
Taking the ferry is still one of the best experiences, it is always exciting and beautiful and I will miss it a lot if some day I do not live ten minutes from the Mediterranean sea.
I am happy that there is still some time left to spend in Izmir and – although it is very hot – that the summer is continuing.