Exchangius Studentidos

I found a really comprehensive description of the exchange students. I strongly recommend you to read below!

The Exchange Student (Exchangius Studentidos): The exchange student is a rare and beautiful animal, which lives in all parts of the world.

• It's easy to spot an Exchangius Studentidos because of an INSANE amount of BRACELETS and because it never truly fits in with the surrounding environment (somehow it always manages to be different even though it is trying to fit in).

• The exchange student is rarely seen in day light, it is mostly nocturnal. Because of this people often think the exchange student uses most of its time sleeping, this is however NOT TRUE. It is very fond of cameras, skype, and ALCOHOL.

• It is an EXTREMELY social animal, which when you put into a group of non-exchange students has a tendency of raising the mood and noise level of the group.

• If you wish to see an exchange student, a good place to look is ON THE STREETS after MIDNIGHT, preferably close to local BARS or CLUBS.

• The exchange student seems to be well at home in these places. It has been observed that when exchange students are gathered in a group (which occurs very often), that the chance of YELLS, SCREAMS and loud LAUGHING is increased by 97%.

• These groups of exchange students have a rather AMAZING SKILL. Whatever place they go to, be it a bus stop, a small bar or a fancy club, they always make the party, and seem to get the attention from all non-exchange students around, even though they are not really aware of it.

• They will 9 out of 10 times also drink amounts of ALCOHOL, and when this happens THERE IS NO TELLING WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

• The exchange student seems to show an ABNORMAL amount of pleasure when doing THINGS WHICH R NOT ALLOWED TO.

• This might be because it is an extremely free animal, but is always CAGED BY THE RULES OF SOCIETY that surrounds it.

• The exchange student is almost impossible to tame, and DOESNT GIVE SHIT ABOUT WHAT OTHERS THINK.

• because it is always out of its natural habitat and knows it never really fits in anyways. It is not rare that the exchange student changes mate, it has many times been seen changing mates several times per NIGHT !?

• Contrary to popular belief the exchange student is a very intelligent being, which often speaks two or more languages. It has been reported though that it has a huge vocabulary of random words in many different languages, and it is very good at learning to TRASH TALK in new languages. Through all the studies of the exchange student, we have found that the only thing that seems to drive them, and that they care about, is just having the best time possible.

NOTICE: Upon approaching a group of exchange students be prepared for memory loss, a lot of laughter and an EMPTY WALLET.

Hope you enjoyed guys :)

Truths About The Year

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to update my blog for nearly 1.5 months :/ If you're an exchange student, you can possibly understand why ;) There's no time, you're so lazy or you have lots of problems to deal with... for me these kind of problems have recently been confusing me. Believe me, it's so hard to be an exchange student. Sometimes you ask yourself "What the hell am i doing in this country? Why am i not with my family or my friends? As they say will it be beneficial for the rest of my life? Is it just a waste of time?" but then you realize that if you keep doing the same all the time you will regret eventually.

After sometime in your exchange year, life becomes so ordinary. You start to complain and then find yourself sad, wasted and vulnerable. But after some time your other exchange friends help you to find your way and gather your strength. I would be lost without them.. I can't imagine what would I do and how my exchange year would be different if they weren't here for me.

Now when i write those kind of things i can clearly see that there's a totally different Kadir from 5 months ago. I learned patience and strength. I learned how to get over the problems. I learned how to live on my own. I learned people's poker face. I nearly learned life... It's not just about having fun or having international friends. It's about difficulty, diversity and achievement :)

Since 3 Months...

"It’s been a long time since I came around
Been a long time but I’m back in town"

Yeah, i still can't believe it but it's been hugely 3 months. My life has dramatically changed in these 3 months. If i had stuck in place where i always belonged, I wouldn't have experienced the things which i don't appreciate that much right now but i'm sure i'll be so grateful by the end of the year :)
I've had so many amazing memories that would take my 15 days to write.. But today is one of the special days so i'll do whatever it takes :) It's been like 1 day since i came here, literally..  Let the journey begin ;)


I left Turkey 24 hours ago.. All of my fellow travelers and I were looking around us for the last time. We were about to start a long journey of which we had just known a little. I hugged my whole family with tears inside of my heart, trying to hide them. I said to myself "Farewell Turkey and my dears.."


Two hours later i already met the others, they were such an amazing people that we had so much fun together. I just had lots of friends from lots of countries in a short time. I wouldn't even think of getting that much multicultural friends!




21 hours ago, I got my sweet host family. We had our first lunch and started to get used to each other. Since then i've never felt myself as if i'm trying to adopt myself or push myself. It has just happened and now i totally feel myself as a part of the family :)




I still remember the first day we went to school to check how was it before it opened. It was a strange feeling that you would go to a new school whose education was totally different, the people in there were totally strange to you and mostly... a new environment which you had no idea. But i got used to it as well, now it's likely that i don't want to leave it :) Being in a strange place but with my fellow traveler helped me a lot, we learned things together; we shared everything to each other. Luckily Emre was there for me ;)

Then i had a rest, afterwards i just woke up and found myself in a lake with my sweet German friend Svenja! I had never swam in lake before that. It was kind of strange because some places were so deep and some were so shallow. But it was recorded as a memory too :)



Yeah around 16 hours ago, i was in Budapest. The gorgeous historical bridge, which i've been several times and i'm sure i'll be there for lots of times too. I love Budapest, it's an amazing city. I just wish we didn't have so many troubles to travel.




Then i went to Balaton Lake which is really famous in Hungary. Most of the German tourists visit here and it's such a beautiful holiday resort. And i was the first time in my life that i had ever seen an alive swan! They were so beautiful and so exquisite.




I feel like it's been just 10 hours since i celebrated my birthday! You can find more details in previous posts ;) it was the first birthday that i was away from my family but so close to my new family :) That was the birthday that i'll never be able to forget *.*

Yeah, i've been in Austria once too, you can find it in here! Vienna is really close to place where i live. It's even closer than Budapest! It takes me approximately 1.5 hours to get there or less :) I hope i can spend more than there :)




Picking up grape was another thing that i had never intended to do. Anyway it was a nice experience and i think i'll never do it again :D You can find my 'Szüret' Blog in here!






Then... Partying! It's the best way to celebrate after-suffering-school-weekdays. If you ever come Hungary, that means.. you'll drink a lot :D It was my first party and i had lots of fun! Actually, it's enough to be with friends. They will eventually cheer you up :)




About 5 hours ago we had an IDD (Intercultural Dialogue Day) in another city near to mine. We all prepared presentations about our countries and brought lots of special things. We just knew our cultures but not that deeply. We all got the chance to learn more about our cultures :)

I went to Budapest again.. It was annual Turkish Republic Day. I haven't seen my fellow travelers for 15 hours. I've missed them yaay! It was good to spend time altogether again :) check it out what we've done in here!




Oh, my love! Budapest at night! The most beautiful view that i've ever gotten so far. It's just amazing. When i'm there i feel like my heart is hanging in my stomach. I have a total stroke!




And just couple of hours ago the last thing i did was to give Free Hugs! It was a lot of fun to do because most people didn't initially hug us, we just jumped and hugged them :D So now the whole city knows us as 'Hugging Freaks' :P

So i just turned many pages in my novel but i have lots of pages to write :) I'll keep on writing them and when i look back at this time i'm sure that i'll have lots of things to remember by. If i can't turn the page i'll just lose it and throw it out but accept the loss. Life is short, live the way you like it :)

Republic Day of Turkish Republic & Budapest ♥

I love this city so much, darn! It's the perfect combination of history and modernism, it's indescribable :) Turkish Embassy in Hungary sent me an invitation for Republic Day of Turkey last month. When i got the mail i felt so special because my own country's embassy sent me an exclusive invitation in my name written! I immediately sent a message to my other turkish exchange friends about the occasion and arranged everything altogether.

Then we met yesterday, early in the morning. We were all hungry and we knew that there was a turkish restaurant, so we started to look for it. After walking half an hour finally we found it! We all directly ordered our food then sat down. I missed most of the turkish foods and was so excited to taste them again. It was perfect! I remembered how i miss İstanbul :( Anyway it was still amazing :) And we listened turkish music after 2.5 months! I felt like i was in Istanbul for a moment :P

After having a perfect lunch we went for sightseeing. We saw the monumental Parliament. We went to a coffee shop to have drinks near the Europe's second longest river and most gorgeous one Danube. As you can see we had lots of fun! Living one day as a total turkish guy in abroad made me feel like a bomb which is waiting for activation heheh :)
Then... It's time for getting ready :) After dressing up we went to the Museum of Fine Arts where the reception held.

We talked all night long, we've missed each other so much. We drank Rakı ,our national drink, ate lots of turkish food during day and at night, talked turkish after months... In a word, we lived one day as if we were in Turkey :) I really needed that motivation and it was perfect!

And here are my sweet Turkish Exchange Friends! 

As i don't live in Budapest i had to sleepover at someone's house. Thanks to sweet volunteer Niki Buda from AFS orientation camp i had a place to sleep :) And after all in the morning i've met our angel Eszti and my mexican friend Monica to have breakfast then go back to Győr. They were in a concert which Mexican embassy sent an invitation to Mony Pony :) Look at us! We were all so tired that our dark circles wouldn't be more annoying in the picture :D

I love Budapest! It's a really nice place to live, shop, wander around, spend time with friends... I mean everything! I hope that I'll see you soon Budapest! :)

I Am An Exchange Student!

–How are you going to know what a dream is, if you never fulfilled one?
–How are you going to know what an adventure is if you never took one?
–How are you going to know what anguish is, if you never said “goodbye” to your friends and family with your eyes full of tears?
–How are you going to know what desperation is, if you never arrived to a place alone, and without understanding what people was saying?
–How are you going to know what missing is, if you were never far away from home?
–How are you going to know what diversity is, if you never shared the same roof with people from all over the world?
–How are you going to know what tolerance is, if you never had to get used to something different, even if you didn’t like it?
–How are you going to know what autonomy is, if you never had to take decisions for yourself?
–How are you going to know what growing up is, if you never stopped being a child for starting a new way?
–How are you going to know what impotence is, if you never felt like hugging somebody, but a screen was stopping you?
–How are you going to know what distance is, if looking on a map you never said “How far away I am!”
–How are you going to know what a language is, if you never had to learn one to make new friends?
–How are you going to know what patriotism is, if you never screamed “I love my country!” holding a flag in your hands?
–How are you going to know what a party is, if you never travelled hours to get to one?
-How are you going to know what reality is, if you never had the chance to see many different ones, to form a new one?
–How are you going to know what a chance is, if you never took one?
–How are you going to know what pride is, if you never felt it for yourself when realizing what you have achieved?
–How are you going to know what enjoy your time is, if you never saw it going away very fast?
–How are you going to know what a friend is, if circumstances never taught you who are the real ones?
-How are you going to know what family is, if you never had one that supported you unconditionally?
–How are you going to know what a frontier is, if you never had to cross yours, to see what is beyond?
–How are you going to know what money is, if you never had to administrate yours to make it last?
–How are you going to know what imagination is, if you never thought about the moment of going back home?
–How are you going to know what the World is, if you have never been to abroad as an AFSer ?

Szüret*

*Picking up grapes is really hard thing to do if you're not used to it. Last sunday all AFS'ers in Győr and Sopron gathered in Sopron to go to the Szüret. Because of living Győr we had to wake up so early that we could catch the bus to Sopron, which took us 1.5 hour to go. It was the first time that i had ever woken up so early, i woke up at 4 a.m! It was really exhausting :D In addition, Hungary is really cold at nights and early mornings. It's like 10 degrees in the morning and then 25 degrees in the afternoon!

After all, when we arrived in Sopron it was 9 a.m and we started to work immediately. It was a really laborious job. We were like a crew separated in 2 groups :)

And this is how a Hungarian grape looks like. It's smaller than the Turkish grape but it tastes really good :)

And... At the end we picked up lots of grapes! There were like a zillion grapes! :D

Then we went to a special place to make wine. Finally, at the end of the process we drank must (click on it!) which means young wine. It was really delicious!

I know it's kind of cliché but frankly I had really nice experiences that i'll never forget :)