A fifth year of high school..

Today is Wednesday of my third week in school and I am surprised by how quickly it has gone. I am also surprised that I don't dislike it as much as I thought I would. Attending 11th grade for the second time as a high school graduate is no more fun than it sounds but ıt could be worse. My school is very close to my house, about a five minute walk, and the school itself is very pretty. There is a big courtyard with a little cafe type thing where Dilşad and I get coffee every morning. We start the day by lining up beneath the enormous gold Atatürk stature in what feels a little bit like a military formation so they can say good morning over the loud speaker and check to see we are wearing the appropriate uniform. Although on Monday mornings and Friday afternoons they mix it up a little bit and we all sing the national anthem accompanied by the school band a flag ceremony.
Though I have eight classes a day they all feel pretty similar for me because I am with the same seven other kids and rather than changing classes the teachers come to us. I chose to do the Turkish course rather than the math or sciences because I didn't really want to be taking chemistry or physics in Turkish though I still have a bunch of math classes. Besides math  I have Turkish, literature, history, German, English, Religion, sociology, philosophy, and computers. The course doesn't really matter at this point because mostly all I do is study Turkish, read, write, or make lists. My teachers seem to like me and have me participate some but I don't understand most of what they are saying so I have a lot of free time.
At four when I finish school I take the school bus to the city center for my Turkish courses. What could be a relaxing ride is marred by there not being nearly enough seats and blaring techno and bad American music. I look forward to my Turkish lessons because all nine of the NSLI-Y girls go so we have an opportunity to talk after long days of not being about to communicate well. Our Turkish courses are moving more slowly than I had hoped but I feel a bit bad for our well intentioned teacher Mustafa who has to deal with all of us bursting with energy.
I get home at about 8:00 every night because the courses are about a half hour away from my home but my host mom always has dinner ready when I get here. All is still going very well with my host family. Now that we can communicate a bit more my host mom and I are getting closer. Every night she has me read a children's book to practice my Turkish pronounciation and patiently helps me through it. A couple weeks ago she took me to this big outdoor bazaar and it was super nice to spend the afternoon with her. She helped me bargain for clothing, and I came out with some good deals, and bought us this  cheese filled pastry type thing called Börek that you watch these women make over these big outdoor fires. After we walked all the way home which was kind of a long walk but nice because we stopped at various street vendors for nuts and fruits. I am in the same grade as my host sister and I was a little worried that it might be too much time together but so far it is going well, for me at least!

All for now, though I have a lot more to add and will try to do so soon!