Cansu Yanik

2009-10 Inbound from Turkey

Hometown: Izmir, Turkey

Sponsor: 100. Yıl Guzelbahce Rotary Club, District 2440, Turkey

Host: Indian Rocks Beach Rotary Club, District 6950, Florida, USA

School: Largo High School, Largo, Florida

Bio

Cansu's Bio

Hi, I am Cansu from Izmir, Turkey. I am seventeen years old. I was born in İzmir which is a great modern Aegean city by the seaside. I live with my parents; my mother is music teacher while my father is an inspector. I have a younger brother who is a student of Robert College in Istanbul. I graduated from Izmir Anatolian High School this year with a good degree. I have been a successful and sociable student. I would like to study Architecture or Industrial Designing at university as I am really skilled at drawing and designing. I have a deep interest in several branches of art . As I have pointed out before, I am really good at visual arts and I have won several awards from the Visual Art Competitions. I also performed in the State Ballet and Opera House as a dancer and a choralist. I won the Science and Art School in Izmir and I carried out a project for the Blind which was given an award in the Physics.

I am really open minded and sociable, I can express my emotions and thoughts easily. I am straightforward and honest. I have been elected as the class representative for the last three years. I am good at establishing communication and providing mutual rapport among people.

The main reason of my participation in this program is my will for self- improvement. I not only want to develop my language skills but also get some insight into the other cultures. I innocently think that if people from other cultures strive to understand one another’s opinion and way of life, there wouldn’t be any war or conflict.

October 20 Journal

Today is my second month and seventh day in USA. I live with Johnsons.They are kind. I have a host sister and a host brother. Whitney is 23 and Patrick is 19.

The life here isn’t same with the American movies or it is not like a vacation. I am learning the real American life and the culture. I go to Largo High School. It is far from my home. I wake up at 5.30 and my host father takes me to the bus stop at 6.20 and the school starts at 7.05. The first week was really hard to wake up at 5.30. Because in Turkey, the school starts at 9.00 so I always got up at 8.00, but I got used to.

Until last week, the school was so bad and I am in the regular program. Students are not friendly and they are pretty rude so I didn’t have any friends. I felt so bad because in Turkey I have a lot of friends and I am really sociable. Last week the economics teacher saw me. I was so sad and I told my problem and he helped me. I started to go his class. I told my country and introduced my culture in this class. The students are so friendly and nice. But I only stay in this class for a while so I try to change my lessons and join the magnet program. Because I have friends in magnet program. I was always at home after school and weekends. I take Musical Theatre, Algebra 2, Drafting, American History, Drama, Photo and English Honor 3. I join the Drama Club and I will join the Student Council and Interact. I want to play tennis but it is going to be start in January.

In August, I went to Orlando, Clearwater Marine Aquarium, and a baseball game with my host sister. In September, it was so boring actually I don’t do anything. In October, I start to make friends and I went to 2 football games in the school and I went to the Busch Gardens for Hawl-o-scream. It was so fun. All the exchange students told me this year was their best year in their life. Now I have some problems and my life isn’t so fun. But I try to make it better. I never back down and I hope next year on this day, I will say “It was my best year” too.

April 29 Journal

I am sorry it has been so long since my previous journal. But I am going to write all my experience now.

8th of November, I had moved to a new family. They are so sweet and lovely. My host parents, Cindy and Doug, have 3 sons. They are 21, 28 and 29. They don’t live with us.

That week was homecoming week and it was so much fun. Every day we wore different costumes to school. And I went to the football games. In Turkey, we don’t have homecoming so it was a pretty cool experience for me. However, Thanksgiving was soon; I don’t know why but I always feel very happy when all family is together. My host parent’s son and daughter-in-law came from Ohio to visit us. My host family is from Ohio so they don’t really like GatorsJ Thanksgiving was awesome..Especially great foodsJ I went shopping with my host family, on Black Friday.

December was different, I was looking forward to go to Disney. It was the best weekend in my entire exchange year so far. I love my exchange friends because nobody can understand us if they are not an exchange student. We have a fantastic relationship.

Christmas is my birthday. I turned 18 on Christmas Day. It is kinda cool. I had received a lot of gifts. We went down to Fort Myers that day to visit my host dad’s parents. They were so sweet.

Winter Break was fun. We went ice skating with some of the exchange students and Rotex who are from our district. My host family had thrown a birthday party for me.

I started to hang out with Brittany who is a Rotarian. She is 24 and she is the coolest American ever. We always have lots of fun. I always have the real Floridian experience with her. With her I have been lots of cool places. I tried unique Floridian foods like fresh grouper, crabs …

Martha who is going to be an exchange student next year, invited me to a family dinner. Her family is so nice. We ate a delicious supper and played games. I love hanging out with her.

In January, Cindy, my host mom, bought a ticket to Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus for all family. I had not been to a circus before, therefore it was so special for me.

I have a really good friendship with Filippo. I am in the same school as him. School is not really fun like I expected, but I try to make my year better. I love Drama Class. I have participated in lots of plays this year. However, the days are passing really fast.

The second best weekend was when we were in Sea Camp. In the orientation camp, we exchange students didn’t fuse with each other that much but after Disney, the friendship was amazing. The worst thing is we live so far apart from each other, because of this it is pretty hard to meet. The last day of the Sea Camp, it was so sad. Everybody was crying and hugging each other because, as you know maybe we cannot see each other again during our entire life. I hope we have another chance to be all together.

When I was on my way back to Tampa Bay from Key West, my mom had just landed to Tampa to visit me. I was so happy and appreciative of my host family to put my mom up. I have missed her a lot.

My host dad took us to Orlando. She had just stayed for 6 days but at least, I had an opportunity to see her after 6 months. She loved Clearwater Beach. She doesn’t know English so during her trip I had always translated between my mom and the host family. Actually the weirdest thing was I cannot feel comfortable about talking Turkish fluently when I meet with Turkish people over here. I think I have started thinking English.

13th of February, Filippo and I took the train to go to Fort Lauderdale in order to join Sanne, Anete, Marco and Madeleine’s birthday parties. It was so much fun. We went to Pompano Beach, Miami Beach, and movies. It was such a perfect weekend. We were with Alber, Marie Claire, Arno, Aneta, Bellina, Madeleine, Sanne and Marco.

By the way I was hanging out with my host brother, Don, and his friends. We played disc golf, Wii, and went to the movies. He is really friendly. My host family always make me feel at home. They always lay emphasis on I am always a part of that family. They always listened to me and tried to do best they can.

One of the weekends I went to Lu’s house. We hung out with Molly who is also going to be an exchange student next year in Sweden. On Sunday, Lu’s host family took us to Strawberry Festival. It was so yummyJ I made my own strawberry shortcake.

At that time, I got closer with Alexis who is in my English class. She is one of my best friends now. Her mom is Greek so she has known almost all Greek people around Tampa Bay area. She introduced me to them, in this case I have been to a lot of Greek meetings and also have an occasion to know Greek people well whose culture is close to mine.

On Spring Break, I didn’t do something special. I hung out with my friends.

10th of April, Rotary wanted me to move to another family. I was so sad and it was really hard for me. My new host family is Mr. and Mrs. Gregor. They are 73 and 78 so I call them ‘grandma’ and ‘grandpa’. They are so sweet. They moved over here from Hungary in 1956. They took me to Kennedy Space Center. It was fun.

Being an exchange student is not easy. It is totally self-improvement. Life and culture is different but I am positive in spite of all the difficulties, hardships and obstructions, I feel more confident and I am sure this year has incorporated a lot of things to my personality and patience. I totally feel it is making me grow up. The best thing is everything is just worth it to be with my exchange friends and we have already been planning the time we will meet in Europe. In conclusion my exchange year is widening my viewpoint to the world.