Hello! This is Mira. I have now been in Türkiye for almost 10 months and a very warm summer is starting.
Of course, a lot of things have happened since my last blogpost in February. First, there were many different workshops: I kept doing English workshops at Sakin Mekan Agora, which I still really like, and English conversation clubs with high-schoolers in a high school of Alsancak. More or less the same participants have been coming since the beginning and it is really a joy to see the progresses they are making, seeing them becoming more confident and keeping their enthusiasm – the challenge is, now, to find new ideas of activities every week.
I also experienced a children’s workshop in Buca Science and Arts centre and I have to say that working with children, even though they are really sweet there, is difficult for me.
I also did, for a few weeks, a conversation club in a coffee shop in Alsancak with university students. It was quite different from the other ones, because it was mainly conversation and less games.
I replaced other volunteers for different workshops, in Bornova or Foça for example, and it was nice to see different places and people. I really enjoyed these workshop with students that are more or less my age, because we could have good conversations and create links more easily, and I met there really nice people.
The Turkish classes that we have from Pi Youth Association continued, as well as the Turkish conversation clubs, and it is really nice to see that we all are making progresses – slowly, but surely.
Now, with the end of the school and university year, both the number of participants and of workshops decreased. I have to say that I am a bit sad that some workshops that I really enjoyed doing are now over.
In the meantime, I also had some time to travel a bit around Izmir and Türkiye and I could visit a lot of places such as Cappadocia, Kars, Trabzon, or Konya, among others. I also went back to Istanbul, which was really nice, and explored the vicinity or Izmir: the ruins of Sardes – near Manisa – Urla, or the mountains surrounding the city for example. I really loved these trips and, above all, I loved doing them with friends.
I also could discover more of Izmir and I visited different parts of the city, different museums, tasted different food, and I still enjoy living there.
Now that the end of the project is coming really soon, I want to enjoy my last months in Izmir!
