Adventurous America
I don’t know if you know me, but I am Yaprak, one of the exchange students in IKE. I have been here for almost 8 months and I have lots of stories to tell. But I want to start from the very beginning, from how I decided to apply to an exchange program to how it is going right now.
I've always known that there are exchange programs. My sister did one when she was in high school and my family has been doing exchange programs as volunteers since their 20’s. When I was in Turkey, in my freshman year, I was in my school’s newspaper club and for my article I decided to write an article about exchange programs. After that article my mom saw the application for an exchange program called KL-YES (Kennedy Lugar Youth Exchange Services). I wanted to give this opportunity a chance. I had to take an exam about world culture and a test about personal traits. After that test, if you passed, they called you for the interview. After interviews, I needed to fill out LOTS OF FORMS. Pages and pages, they wanted to know everything about you. Also, in these forms you need to write a letter to your future host parents. When you're done with these forms, you are waiting for an answer. I got my answer when I was in my school but because they don’t allow us to use our phones, my mom called the vice headmaster and told him to give me the news. I was shocked and kinda worried when my mom called him. But in the end, that day became the happiest day for me.
Well, after that I was waiting for an email from my host family. Sadly, because of Covid-19 all of the exchange programs postponed everything for one year and I didn’t get that mail for 2 years. This was very stressful, I didn’t know what’s going to happen. While we were waiting, we continued to fill lots of forms, but on the good side my friends continued to get their mail hearing back from their host families. In June 2021, it was certain, we were going to the US.
We have a pre-departure orientation in August, 2021. In that orientation, exchange students who went to the US before along with volunteers in the program, taught us how to adjust to our new lives in the US. That week was amazing, I learned a lot, things like how we should treat our host family, who we should contact if we have a problem. And also, I got to meet the other exchange students who I had talked to for 2 years online. The last day of orientation was so emotional. Most of us left to our new host families and the others, who didn’t have a host family at that time, stayed in Turkey.
It didn’t take long to get the mail from my host family after orientation. It was literally 1 day after. I was outside and when I got the mail, I started to cry from happiness. I don’t why, but I always had a feeling like I was going to come to Washington. 17 days later, I said goodbye to my family, my friends, and my home. I started to feel weird after the plane started to fly. After 3 flights from Turkey to Washington, I landed in Spokane. The first culture shock that I had in the US was in the airport; unlike in Turkey, there is no separate place to take your luggage. When I was looking for my luggage, I saw my host parents. It was a weird moment, but it may have just felt like that because I was exhausted (it was a total of 21hours flight and a total of 6 hours waiting in the airport.)
My second culture shock was on the first day of school. I was walking to school and I waited for the lights to turn white for me to pass. It didn’t turn for 10 minutes. In Turkey, if it is red for cars, it is always white (or green) for pedestrians. After 10 minutes, I realized that there were some buttons to pass across the streets (the buttons still annoy me :) ). The only thing that I can remember on the first day was that I didn’t understand what people were saying (and I pretended that I understood people for a while (sorry guys)) and school was so huge! After times that I spent in school I had other culture shocks: Wearing pjs, wearing socks with Birkenstocks, and eating vegetables with ranch sauce! Like, I can kinda understand wearing pjs, or even wearing socks with Birkenstocks or Crocs, but I would never get used to eating or see somebody eating some vegetables with ranch sauce.
In these 8 months, I did volunteer activities, I attended drama and I met lots of new people, and unfortunately, it is almost time to say goodbye. First time in life I experienced refills (not popular in Turkey, you need to order 2nd if you want to eat more) and big portions of meals. I watched American football for the first time and experienced school’s spirit which is not common in Turkey at all. I celebrated Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter, these are not the holiday’s I usually attend or celebrate. And more other things that are going to stay in my heart as incredible memories.
Unfortunately, it is almost time to say goodbye for me. I had an amazing experience here in the US. I had lots of friends, not just Americans but people from all over the world. Being an exchange student is a journey that will never be forgotten. Thank you for being part of that journey <3.