Gökhan Gümüş

2004-05 Inbound from Turkey

Date of Birth: December 14, 1986
Hometown: Izmit, Turkey
Sponsor: Izmit Rotary Club, District 2420, Turkey

Host: Orange Park Rotary Club, District 6970, Florida USA
School: Orange Park High School

Gokhan's Bio

Hi; my name is Gokhan. I am from Turkey. I live with my parents and also I have one elder brother... When I return to my country I will go to college and I will be mechanical engineer...

I like to play basketball. I like soccer, chess and also I like all sports. I like to go out with my friends and have fun ...

This is my second week here. I am glad to be in funny and sunny Florida so much. I hope I will have great year here and I will enjoy some special experiences this year. I like to meet people and to learn about different cultures ...
And also I want to improve my English and my personality ...

Bye Bye

October 23 Journal

Hey everybody,

It is almost 2.5 months passed but I didn't write any journal, yet. That is my fault I know.

Now I don't know what I am gonna write, there is lots of things happening which I need to write about...

Start with school, I guess everybody told that before but I wanna repeat that again ... My second day here was school's first day. I went to school and I was like an alien, it was really hard to understand this system ... changing classes (as most of the world in Turkey the teachers are coming to the classes ), lunch periods (first week I didn't get what was goin' on about this lunch stuff and I was always in the wrong lunch), homework (homework is very important here, I don't know why - if you don't do your homework that's your loss). But right now I get used to all these stuffs ... and school is much more fun except waking up early :( I am so sleepy person gettin' up at 6 is very sad for me.That is funny, nobody can say my same and they always call me different nicknames (eg: Peja, Sas, Turk, George, Gork)

In Orange park High School, I think Stella told you, are 10 exchange students, I think that's too much, that has both advantages and disadvantages.

My mum is so nice, she is very helpful, she has a big heart. And I got a host sister, we hang out lots of times.

I don't wanna talk about hurricanes too much. Although we didn't have lots of problems they were terrible. Since the hurricanes aren't here, I am having better times ...

I told you I don't remember what did I do before ... I only remember last weekend ... it was really fun. Homecoming was pretty good and Sunday I went to a Jax Jaguars game, it was really cool, stadium was pretty nice, but it's kind of different because nobody was singing. In my country in all sport games people always sings songs! Here is only they cheer like "defense, defense" And I really liked football! I been in beach lots of times. That is awesome, surfing is really important here, lots of people very interested about surfing. I tried lots of times but I couldn't make it yet. The ocean and the waves impressed me so much.

I been in St. Augustine once, I like it there, history and lots of good places to visit. I like to go Rotary meetings. I enjoy them so much. Today we been in DeLeon Springs - it was nice, nice to see the friends! They are all very nice, I like to be with them. I know I didn't write about my first two months just because I forget them all!

Be happy J

Gokhan

My fotopage: http://goqhan.fotopages.com/

December 19 Journal

Hello everybody. Today I realized that, it has been 2 months I haven't write my journal yet ... I guess I couldn't find time to write journal ... Ok! What did I do these months ? Let me tell u. I bet I forgot bunch of stuff ...

Lots of time I was working on soccer stuff ... First of all I made the OPHS Soccer team which is one of the best soccer teams in Florida ... We played 10 games we are unbeatable, we have been playing very good ...

Before I came here my one of the biggest dreams was going one Orlando Magic game because I am a big fan of them especially Hido Turkoglu who is my best basketball player in Turkey, I went to L.A. Lakers (the team I always dislike) - Orlando Magic with my friend Garry and of course we won. There was more than a thousand kids who came from all over the state with their church group, we didn't sleep until 6 am in the morning because in Orlando we went places we had fun ..

I had a great Thanksgiving with my new host family. We met with my new host mum's family in Ponte Vedra; it was pretty cool. Of course all the time around Thanksgiving, everybody is trying to make the same jokes about my country's English name; it was boring after a couple of times ...

Disney World trip ... it was wonderful I had great times ever :) I missed my friends so much by the way I could see them, also we met new friends from other districts ... First day Epcot was a little bit boring for me because I went to Epcot before with my first host family (Cindy, Jen and Jen & my friend Katie ) it was lots of fun first time whatever it was cool in second time either especially fireworks are crazy! Animal Kingdom was cool too but if u ask me which park was most boring one, I can say Animal Kingdom ! Magic Kingdom was crazy although we need to wait lots of times in the lines . It was funny I forget the name of the roller coaster which we waited 35 min . for riding first time, ride was pretty cool the funny part is when we done riding the roller coaster the guy who was working over there showed us a shortcut for going directly to the place where u seated in roller coaster and we ride that again, after that the guy asked us if we are working in magic kingdom we were like "No" he thought we were working in Magic Kingdom :) . MGM was outstanding, too! except the leaving time. I liked Aerosmith's roller coaster a lot ... After all a very good weekend was already over :) .. I want to thank everybody who worked for that trip Al, Ken ... everybody thank u all GREAT JOB !

The next weekend after Disney World trip I had a Birthday Party . I liked a lot, around 40 my friends was there, I enjoyed so much :) Thank u for coming Stella, Luisa, Hanna, Elle, Pierre, Nick, Livi, Luca ... Sunday we all went to Jaguars game with Rotarians ... it was pretty cool, again..

I guess I missed bunch of stuff I did. Anyways I am enjoying my year a lot everybody cannot have that chance, I had that chance and I am using my wonderful opportunities ... My school is very nice I have lots of friends, I like to be with my friends. American teenagers are so interesting :) I wanna add something American girls are outstanding :) I can't believe 4 months are already passed !

Always Smile !!!!

My fotopage ! http://goqhan.fotopages.com 

Gokhan !

February 25 Journal

Hi ! Almost 7 months gone? Get real! Oh my god I didn’t even feel like it. Couple more months I'll be in my home as I realize right now this is the best, most wonderful year of my life. I will miss here so much, when sometimes I think about my leaving day, I feel so sad L although I know it is gonna happen! What have been doing in my life? It is going to be so hard to remember … Let me see

- Key West: It was a nice camp trip. It was pretty good to see the friends, since that was the last time to see our friends from south it was hard. Thank u all for giving that opportunity to see one of the most beautiful place in U.S.

- Daytona: 2 weeks ago I went to see Daytona races it was pretty cool actually , before I go I didn’t know I was gonna have that much fun. Special thanks to the wonderful people Mark and Lori Easterling…

- Soccer: It was very sad we were so unlucky in the playoff game against mandarin we lost against them 1-0 which means we were done! That was so awesome to play soccer at Orange Park, everybody is so friendly. Now we started to play club soccer .

- School is more fun and easier then it used to be, ORANGE PARK Rullaz. Nice people around!

- Super Bowl was crazy, everybody was going crazy, so do I J. It was pretty cool and also we are very lucky exchange students, we kind a hosted Super Bowl !

- Other than all I am having great time here, I have wonderful host family, Youngs are so nice, so kind people. I am always having great time with them. I am lucky I have bunch of so nice and warm friends. It is so hard to remember. I know, you are right, I should write more often, otherwise I can easily forget! You all should know my picture page.

Always smile !!!

Gokhan

June 29 Journal

Well I can't believe it's over. I am leaving July 5th at 2:10. I don’t know what to say - 11 months is over. This is gonna be a goodbye journal. My last journal says Feb 25th so it has been a little bit more than 4 months which were the craziest 4 months. There is too many things happening every hour every minute and every second of your life when you are an exchange student … I can't even remember.

Well my trips: I went to N.Y. and Washington D.C. with Easterlings … they were both 4 days trips … I enjoyed it a lot. N.Y. City is something different and cool. Washington D.C. gives you different stuff, more cultural with museums and plenty places of government. I am so glad that I get to see these 2 beautiful cities. Thank you for all your help Mark and Lori.

Then I went to Las Vegas June 2nd for 6 days with my host family and I saw Grand Canyon. Sin City is crazy oh my god!!!!

The next day I came back from my last trip I went to west coast trip with 33 exchange students including Luca and Bruno from our district which was an incredible, amazing trip for 14 days and I just got back from that a couple days ago …

Well other then that I did too many things which I don’t even remember … My dad came for couple days, we had too many senior activities with school, prom and 6970 exchange students we had a fun weekend at gulf of Mexico, senior night and plenty more … I am just amazed by all the things happened to me.

This year has been wonderful great beautiful amazing all the good words can fill it… I just wanna thank everybody that helped me, of course the number 1 AL KALTER who has been changing our lives, you are amazing. I cant forget you all my life !!

And my host families, I would talk about them forever so I hope they enjoyed having me in their house. I loved all of them - they are gonna be in my heart forever!! I Love you all!

Well there's one hundred some hours til my plane is to take off. Last words are: Thank you everybody and thank you Rotary. I will miss you all.

Always smile

Gokhan Gumus

P.S. My fotopage is http://goqhan.fotopages.com. My trips fotopages is http://ourtrip.fotopages.com. Check 'em out