Exam season part 2

Note: I wrote this post early last week, but they unblocked blogger.com so i could post it myself now :)


First, I want to say that Turkey has blocked blogger.com. When I first got here in September YouTube was blocked becuase of anti-Atatürk videos and I think that the same is true now for Blogger. Therefore I have been unable to post for a while. Now, I email my posts to my parents in the US and they log on a post it for me.


Second, I have gotten very used to life in Turkey that I don`t really know what to post about anymore. It is all ritual to me and I don`t think of anything different anymore. If there is anything that you think I should post about please let me know :).

Exam season for the second semester has started. I know that I wrote about this before, but I wıll remind you of what this means now. I call it exam season because exams last from now until the end of the year. Some weeks students have multiple tests and some weekes they have none. These tests make up their final grade, becuase there are no regular tests and quizzes throughout the semester. They have at least 2 and up to 4 exams per class, depending on how important the class is. Also, this means that they cover material in a shorter amount of time. The other morning, my math teacher announced that we had covered all of the material we needed to until may so now they can just study, although then he did teach a little more in the following days.

The days of exams, the students beg the teachers to study for the tests rather than have class in the subjects they should having class for. You would never get away with this is int he US! For example, last week for the first exam of the semester, we had a geography test seventh, and last period, but first period they asked to study, and this continued all day. The teachers don't even bother planning to teach class since most won't be able to.

Unfortunately for me, although it is April, I am still unable to follow along in class. My Turkish is very good, but there is still so much vocabulary that I don't know, so I am unable to participate in most classes. The one class that I was hoping to follow along in before coming to Samsun is Math, and it is way beyond what I know and is impossible for me. Basically, I just dont know enough math and the type of math that they do here to be able to to participate in class.

I get really frustrated with school because it is pointless to go. It is basically our social lives, but it isn't all fun because during class we just sit there. AFS requires us to go to school, which I completely understand, but even one of our AFS liasons told us that we go to be social. The breaks between classes and free periods are fun, classes are not. There are teachers that let me study Turkish, read, or do something else in class, but then there are teachers that make me sit there and listen, even there is a lot that I don't understand. Turkish Literature class for example. We are studying old Turkish poetry... enough said. It is just hard... bahhhh! I like going to school, but it is pointless at times and frustrating.


It is okay though because I only have 3 months left. But that is really bad too because I only have 3 months left.I dont' want to leave Samsun, but I also really want to go to back to the US. It is going to be really difficult, I know, but it will be great! I know I will go through culture shock in reverse, but I am ready for it :)