Hi everybody!
My name is Kardelen Ezgi Kalyoncu. But my friends call me „Kardy“. I know my name is long and difficult. But it is ok, I like the my new name. I am from Turkey. However right now I feel like the Czech Republic. I have been living in the Czech Republic since August 24th. I am here with AFS, a student exchange program.
I’d like to tell you about some of my experiences.
The first day we arrived, we went to AFS camp from the airport. All the students and many AFS officers were there. If we are speaking about myself, I was very nervous. Because I got on a plane and came to a country I didn’t know about. And I didn’t know about your culture. I didn’t even speak English. I was so scared
I was relieved when I met my parents. It made me feel so peaceful to meet my parents. At first I didn’t know what to do, how to act. But Everything was spontaneous. We glued yellow Post-It papers on things at home. We wrote the English name of the goods and the Czech name. Then I wrote Turkish because they were curious. So it was, „Židle, chair, sandalye.“And we glued that paper on the chair.
We started spending more time together. We played table games together, went to the shopping center. I made them Turkish food. They like the food, and we have one dessert. We call it „bisküvili pasta“ It’s a pudding and a biscuit. And they liked it very much. I think they will eat it forever. We danced together. So I had a very fun time. We went to a lot of places together and collected memories. for example One day we went to the mountain house with my family and grandma. We were spending time together. The weather was very hot. Grandma said „šortky“ to me. I’m shocked because Turkish is the same and a sentence. And I thought she said it in Turkish. I learned later.
I tried skiing for the first time in my life. my parents helped me with this. I am so bad about that. Really 🙂 But it was so fun.
I made new friends. Some people are really friendly and ready to help. And it was interesting to them to learn Turkish. They wanted, and I teach them a few words. In fact, we greet a few friends in Turkish. I’m saving up a lot of good memories here. And I know this is the year of my life.
I’m glad to be here. I’m so glad to be with my family. Of course, I have problems like everyone else. But I prefer not to see them. Because wherever we go, we always have a problem. Relive your moments rather than see them. Be happy.
Kardelen