After months of applying, and hoping that everything works out, I am finally flying to Turkey tomorrow morning! My plans were on hold until I finally received my Student Visa only ten days ago. It feels very surreal, but a very long-awaited for trip! So far, I have learned Turkish only through online resources, private tutors, and TV shows. But in only 24 hours, I will be speaking and hearing Turkish in-person, and this time it is not through a laptop screen. In only 24 hours, I will have a view of the Bosphorus from my dorm room and Simit (Turkish bagel) sellers minutes from where I stay. Surreal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As excited as I am, I want to ensure that I truly engage in this experience fully, and experience all the opportunities that come with it. During my time in Turkey, I want to be able to use every opportunity to enrich my Turkish language. To do this, I have decided to set some ground rules for myself:
1. I will try my hardest to communicate my thoughts and ideas only in Turkish, even if the person I am talking to speaks English.
2. I will not be discouraged by the inevitable language mistakes that I will be making. After all, it is a natural and important part of learning!
3. I plan to be open and welcoming to new experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With these set as a guide throughout my stay in Turkey, I hope to not only maximize the language benefits but also gain a new perspective to view life with. During this experience, I will step outside of my comfort zone to challenge my language skills and make deep connections with new people. Overall, I very excited for all the growth that will occur during the program and in Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hawraa Al Janabi
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After months of applying, and hoping that everything works out, I am finally flying to Turkey tomorrow morning! My plans were on hold until I finally received my Student Visa only ten days ago. It feels very surreal, but a very long-awaited for trip! So far, I have learned Turkish only through online resources, private … Continue reading Surreal! Simit and Some Ground Rules<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4301,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4301"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2046,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997\/revisions\/2046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/sla2022\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}