Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi :)

I finally started school at Samsun Atatürk Anadolu Lisesi! I haven’t actually gone to a full day of school yet, but this week I don’t think I will have any special days. While at lunch at Dominos on Monday I got a call from Sero, our AFS liason, which is the person that we go to with any questions, saying that we would start on Wednesday! Sero would come to Samsun and then each of us would go to our school with Sero at some point during the day so that he could officially register us. Sero comes to Samsun once a month to do regular visits with our families, deal with any issues, pay us back for school lunches, uniforms, bus tickets and other things that our NSLI-Y scholarship includes. First he took Lena and Lucas to their school because they are together, then he took me, and finally Sam. We met up in the morning and went to the Director’s office where we talked for a little bit and Sero gave his information in case the school needed it. While I am in Turkey Sero is my “guardian/parent” if there are any problems. After, we went to the Vice Principal’s office where he officially registered me and Sero filled out papers that he would take to the Police Station so that we would be able to get our residence permits.

My School!

Finally I was taken to my class, 11E/TM! The TM stands for Türkçe Matematık - Turkish and Math. Yes, I am in 11th grade again, but I love it and I absolutely LOVE my class! In Turkey, high school students choose a track to go in and I am in Turkish and Math. At my school most kids choose to be in the Science and Math track so my class is very small compared to most other classes even at other schools, but I really like it. There are 11 of us, 5 girls and 6 boys. In orientation and from observing other students we have learned that in many situations high school boys and girls do not hang out together even as friends, but this is not the case in my class. We are all like one big family and we do not sit separately by gender at all. My class is very excited to have me in class and they really try to explain things that I don’t understand. If I say that I don’t understand something they each try to explain it to me in different ways at once. They all say look at me! and I have to choose one person to explain it, but they truly want me to understand. They also have many questions about the American culture, which I am happy to explain, but it is very different and sometimes I get weird looks. Most questions are about high school, teenagers, boyfriends/girlfriends in the US and other subjects that high school students would be interested in.

I have 16 classes, which is very different than in the US. We stay in one classroom all day and the teachers come to us, which is a little like elementary school except that we have a different teacher for every subject. I have a 10-15 min break between each class, which is really a smoking break for the teachers, but I love it because it is when I get to chat with my classmates and meet more people. Some classes we have more than others such as Turkish literature, Turkish Grammar and Math. On Monday and Tuesday I leave after the 7th period because I have TÖMER language class at 4 and we get out at 4:30, but that is fine with me. It is a little confusing, but my schedule is below: 

	Pazartesi	Salı	Çarşamba	Perşembe	Cuma
1. 8:30-9:15	FLS	TEDB3	2YDI	FLS	REH
2. 9:30-10:15	GEO3	ÇAĞDAŞ	TEDB3	MAT3	DİN
3. 10:25-11:10	TEDB3	İNG3	TEDB3	SMAT	DCİT
4. 11:20-12:05	MAT3	İNG3	İNG3	SAT	GEO3
5. 13:00-13:45	TRF	DİLA3	DİLA3	TCİT	COĞ3
6. 13:55-14:40	2YDI	DİLA3	SCOĞ	COĞ3	MAT3
7. 14:50-15:35	DİLA3	BED	SCOĞ	İNG3	MAT3
8. 15:45-16:30	DİLA3	BED

2YDI – 2 Yabancı Dil – Almanca = GERMAN

BED – Beden Eğitimi = GYM CLASS

ÇAĞDAŞ – Çağdaş Türk ve Dunya Tarihi = TURKISH HISTORY

COĞ3 – Coğrafya = HISTORY

DİLA3 – Dil ve Anlatım = TURKISH LANGUAGE AND EXPRESSION

DİN – Din Kültürü ve Anlak = RELIGION

FLS – Felsefe = PHILOSOPHY

GEO3 – Geometri = GEOMETRY

İNG3 – İngilizce = ENGLISH

MAT3 – Matematik = MATH

REH – Rehberlik = GUIDANCE (it is a little like guidance/health class)

SCOĞ – Seçmeli Coğrafya = EXTRA GEOGRAPHY

SMAT – Seçmeli Matematik = EXTRA MATH

TCİT – T.C. Inkılap Tarihi ve Atatürk Çülük = ATATÜRK HISTORY

TEDB3 – Türk Edebiatı = TURKISH LITERATURE

TRF – Trafik ve İlk Yardım = TRAFFIC AND FIRST AID (we literally learn about traffic on the streets and how cars/busses/taxis operate. and then towards the end of the course we learn CPR and first aid... this should be interesting)


On Wednesday I went late to school, but was very welcomed by my class. For lunch we all went to a restaurant where we got durum and drinks. At the end of the day Sero met up with me again so that we could talk with my “school bus” driver so that I could get picked up in the mornings. The school buses here are vans that hold about 12 people, but carry from 15-20 people. They try and cram as many people as possible into them. They do this on busses and public transportation too. It is as if it doesn’t even phase them to maybe run busses more often or add another school bus that has a different route so that we wouldn’t have to cram many people into the busses. My bus had as many seats as it holds except that now since I am in it we have one extra person.

Thursday I went to school on my school bus in the morning, but left right after lunch and met up with Sero, Sam, Lena, Lucas, and Lucas’s host sister who just got back from a year with AFS in the USA and is now volunteering for AFS, so that we could go to the Police Station and register for residence permits. Since that ended early we went to a café and hung out there before TÖMER. That day in class we all crashed. The last hour was almost painful because we were so dead from class, and we hadn’t even gone to a full day!

Friday was pretty much a normal school day except for the fact that my Geography teacher was traveling so we had math during that period and got out early. Some kids in my class accompanied me to the Police Station because I had to go back and pick up my residence permit. Unfortunately it was 2:30 at the time and it wasn’t going to be ready until 4. We went to a restaurant and got drinks and just hung out. Lena and Lucas had left class early and came and met up with us so they got to meet a couple of my classmates. We talked about the social life of high school students and it is pretty much as if there it is very minimal to nonexistent. They all go to dersane after school and on weekends, which is pretty much like extra school, so regular school is where they hang out with friends. They get almost no homework for school, so their homework is all for dersane. It is very different from the American lifestyle, but here it is the norm. I don’t know any high school student who doesn’t go to dersane. 

Melis, Me and Almila on my first day!

In our different uniforms!

Wednesday was a little bit of a blur because there were so many new faces and names, which are very hard by the way, and it was very difficult to follow what was going on. So many people looked at me, but since I was in uniform I didn’t stand out as much as I expected. Lena stands out more because she is much taller than most of the girls here, but I am normal height and I'm not blond so even though I look foreign it is not completely obvious. As each day goes on I don’t stand out that much. I went to the bathroom on Thursday by myself and no one even looked at me differently! Lena’s host sister’s cousin who I met previously is in another class so I meet up with her sometimes during breaks. I have met a few of her friends, but I want to meet more. I think people know there is an American at school, but they don’t really come up to me or meet me, so I want to meet more people. Especially since my class is small I don’t know too many people at school. Also, the classes stay together for all 4 years here so the classes become very close. Another thing that I have noticed that is different besides the not getting homework, is that they don't really take notes during class, only for some subjects where it is necessary. I need to take notes because otherwise I don't understand what is going on. If words or pictures are drawn on the board then I can follow along much more than reading the text book. Classes are mostly lectures and in some classes each student is assigned a specific paragraph or page to explain to the class after a few minutes of reading it over. In class there is much more talking and chatter than I expected. Some of the teachers are very strict and no one even whispers, but some of the teachers get so off subject and just talk with the students or let the students talk between themselves while they read a book. During a couple classes we listened to music on the students' cell phones and talked about the differences in cultures. I am interested to see how a regular week will be especially when I am not super new. It is the weekend so I am very glad I get to rest, but I am so excited for school again tomorrow!