Current mood:

sick

I spent all day being sick. I feel how I did that time when I overdosed on vitamins A and E. Only, I haven't overdosed on anything.

I was going to try and set my clock to the Turkish time zone (eight hours ahead) about a week before I left so I wouldn't become jet lag's bitch. That would mean I'd have to go to bed around two or three in the afternoon our time. I don't think that will be happening since I keep going to bed later and later instead of earlier and earlier. I took a nap today so that screwed it up more. Plus, I'd be asleep during the only time my family is here and awake. I'm actually feeling kind of sad about leaving them. My mom is taking off work the day before I depart and the day I depart, of course. I was like "what are we going to do the day before?" and she was like "play scrabble". Okay then...

Eight days left now. And I actually have lots of things to do. I have to finish my slide show, buy gifts for my Turkish family (families?), compose a letter to my Turkish RYE officer, replant my garden that I won't get the chance to fully enjoy, assemble a photo album to show my new family, email my flight itinerary to my host mom, a bunch of other little things, oh and PACK. Packing is going to be so hard. I get to take two suitcases each seventy pounds plus a carry-on. Imagine trying to go through your whole room and figure out what to bring while being quite limited. A bunch of space in my suitcase is being wasted on the gifts and my slide show carousel.

I'm starting to feel quite nervous about meeting my family. I'll be fine though until I'm on the flight from Istanbul to Ankara, where they'll be waiting. I always really enjoy the trip getting somewhere, but I always dread actually arriving there. I'm nervous they won't like me or it will be awkward or that my gifts will be really dorky. We're supposed to bring things about our state and some foods they don't have (ie. jello, maple syrup, jelly bellys, reese's cups, etc). I'm imagining me handing them a Michigan shirt and a box of jello and them being like "uhh, what the crap?", lol. I already feel kind of bad for flying into Ankara, since they stay in Bodrum during the summer which is on the Mediterranean coast and they have to travel up there to meet me. I don't know if I'll be going down there too or what. I have orientation from the 11th-13th and then school will be starting in less than a month.

I'm SO excited for school. It's in French so I have a bit of a head start, opposed to it being in Turkish. I'm just kind of nervous about school back home. Like what credits will transfer and stuff. I better get a French III credit for having every goddamn class in French. Hell, they should give me a French IV credit too, but I want to be in French when I get back. I wonder if doing my whole exchange could count as an independent study or something? Senior year is going to be busy as hell for me. I'm wondering if I'd be able to take summer school or something because of how I'm missing English and US history. And all the classes I'll be in after basically spending three years of high school doing nothing. Also I'll have to take ACTs and SATs. I'm glad I got MEAP tests out of the way. And of course applying to colleges and scholarships. I'm thinking about taking a year off before college though.. or actually repeating grade eleven.

Blah, blah, blah. Boring, boring.