Cuenca trip

About three weeks ago I went to Cuenca with Charo, Milos, Amber and Mehdi (our friends from Spanish class). I don't remember whose idea it was but I'm glad that we took this trip. I automatically loved Cuenca (even though it was freaking cold) because I already love Toledo. Old buildings, narrow streets, same colours...

I really liked this liquor. Highly recommended!

some cool graffiti

First we found a spacious and lovely flat on Airbnb to stay for a night and then hopped into Charo's car! I think it's the best and cheapest way to find accommodation if you're travelling with a group of friends. I had never used Airbnb until then but luckily it turned out really well. The landlady was really nice, she even had some drinks in the fridge for us. And we were allowed to use microwave, dishwasher, toaster etc. It was literally "make yourself at home." And the most fun part: we had to draw for the rooms! Surprisingly I was lucky to have the room that I set my eyes on haha

                         

And it was "Carnaval" time on our first day so we all dressed up and hit the streets. A pirate, a cowboy, a vampire, a smurf and a mime! As you will guess, everyone was looking and smiling at us as we were the only ones with costumes on. It was funny. We never found the "plaza" that the celebration was supposed to take place. So a bunch of weirdos wandering around haha

the "supposedly" vampire

Charla Intercultural

I wrote about this workshop before but this time I want to tell you what kind of
things we shared or I shared with them as a Turkish.

Well, the first meeting was all about introducing ourselves and our countries briefly. I prepared a short presentation on who I am, where I come from, and Turkey 101 (flag, currency, official language, climate, people etc.). I needed to have a text to be able to make sounds in Spanish :P although we're just supposed to talk haha But it was fun. Both the process of preparing materials -mostly photos- and presenting it to lovely people.

Jose Luis brought along a dessert (I forgot the name) and Helena made us tea

Also we had Serbia, Italia and USA presentations on that day. Unfortunately it was the only meeting Antonella attended, she went back to Italy later. Although we never could truly communicate with her as she couldn't speak English, I liked her very much. She used her Italianish Spanish on others very effectively though :) 

in Toledo with Antonella

(very loudly)

Antonella! Se stai leggendo questo voglio solo dire "Non cambiare mai. Tu sei unica!" (it's google translate's fault)

(very loudly)

The second one "Gastronomica"

Time to go in the kitchen!

I had a few things to cook in my mind but lack of some key ingredients (like tomato for a tomato soup) forced me to make a kind of dessert (helva in Turkish) which I never tried to prepare before. Sounds risky! But I first asked my mom "Do you think I can make irmik helvası?" After she said "Yes, you can!" nothing could hold me back. And it was really easy. You just have to stir the mixture like for an hour:(

I proudly sent this photo to my mom. Maybe not a big deal but I'm not Martha Stewart myself. At all! haha

Anyway it turned out good for a first try. And I wrote the recipe in case someone might be interested in trying it himself/herself. But I think no one was really into it :D It was not too sweet (unlike polvorón or mazapán or roscón). I find spanish people very very fond of sugary things. Maybe I was being a little bit selfish by adding less sugar on purpose :P

Last but not least, I made turkish coffee for like 10 people on a small portable electric cooker. Believe me it was not easy! :D It took so much time. The coffee pot could get just 4 or 5 cups of coffee at once so I had to serve first ones before they got cold and go back to prepare the rest while they were waiting for me:D Unfortunately none of them was foamy or tasty. To be honest worst turkish coffee that I've ever tasted and made! 

this is not how it's done but they liked the idea of coffee fortune-telling:) 

But did we have fun? Yes, totally!

The third one "Navidad"

I mentioned this one in one of my previous posts but it's worth talking about again. All I can say is: desserts!

I ate turrón for the first time thanks to Charo and as we don't have a special Christmas dessert Milos and I decided to make a ready-in-5mins cake:D Maybe it took us even less! A cake, chocolate pudding and milk! It was tasty and a little bit bad looking:P

The fourth one "Películas"

Lately I've been criticized for my taste in films :P But I can proudly say that I like old movies!

So of course I picked an old Turkish drama called "Canım Kardeşim" for this meeting. This film never fails to make me cry. I don't have to see it. I can cry even when I think about that famous touching scene where the main character dies of cancer while his brother is about to make his one and only dream (a television) come true. After giving information about the film, I made them watch this scene but no one cried! What's wrong with you people!? haha At least the very very sad music should've brought some tears. But no! The only teary-eyed was me:)

this cute kid dies:(

The fifth one "Bodas"

This is the last one we had! Well, it was very fun. There were so many things to tell about a traditional Turkish wedding but as I had henna at home and Helena had some accessories from the youth exchange they had with Turkey before, we had a "henna night" instead. 

First we watched a video to see what this henna night is like and then applied henna ourselves. Well, just Amber and me. The others didn't want to -_-

Amber looking good in a Turkish way :)

Well, normally the bride is supposed to cry to an old Turkish song called "Yüksek Yüksek Tepelere" at this henna night. But no one cried. Again! :P Ours was a happy one:) At the end we danced to a Moroccan song in our own way.

I want to say that I really enjoy sharing the things I love with others even though they can't understand it the way it is or share the same feelings. We all just deserve to know something beautiful is happening somewhere around the world. It is happening. 

This post is definitely...

To be continued

a Turkish one, of course!

Axa España no tiene un idea

Sevgili Axa İspanya, seni kınıyorum ve sana laflar hazırladım.

Dur bekle şindi sen asfdsf

If you are sick and the clinics (even though you went there before and got treatment) don't want to accept you because you don't have those golden cards, what should you do?

The answer is definitely not: Call Axa Spain to get information. Because they have no idea! They don't even know that as an Evs volunteer you have Axa insurance.

Okay let me tell you what happened. I had a sore throat and I desperately needed a medicine to be able to eat again. So I went to that clinic near our house because I went there before and they had filled a form to send the bill to Axa and wanted me to sign it. So everything was fine. But this time they told me they couldn't get a response from Axa (or something like that because she showed me the form that we filled before and she seemed very unhappy). Well, she was kinda trying to help me by calling Axa and leaving me alone with that lady on the phone! But thanks god she realised that it was not a good idea when I was literally struggling with Spanish. Anyway, eventually they told me to call Axa Turkey!? But it has nothing to do with it! The bills are not going to Turkey or something.

When the lady in the clinic heard that I'm Turkish she said "Oh, Turquía es bonita!" Ok lady but I'd prefer una medicina bonita, instead.

The problem is that Axa can't even give any information let alone assuring that they will cover the bills so no wonder the clinics don't want to accept you as they don't know if they'll get their money or not.

So, I called Helena to ask if there's another clinic that I can go. Yes luckily there was one. On my way to the next adventure, I saw the Axa office. A ha! I definitely had to go in and tell my problem in Spanish, I didn't care if it'd help or not, I had to at least disturb them even just for a few mins.

Well, nothing different. She looked at my card like it was a UFO and called someone who had no idea either. But it was very nice of her to call this Msh international company that never picks up the phone. At least she gave me the directions to the other clinic. See? They're not that bad. You can call Axa to ask for directions :P

Oh, and the other clinic. They told me they don't work with this company.

The only thing left to do was to send an e-mail to Msh International. I told them I'm having problems using my insurance card where I live. 5 days later I got a response but they were saying that I should first pay myself and ask for a reimbursement OR if I request a direct payment I need to contact their some department to give the information about the hospital, the date treatment will begin and type of treatment etc. I'm sorry but the second option is a total bullshite. It means, either way you're paying first.. What am I supposed to do? "Okay I have an emergency but first I need to send an e-mail to the insurance company and wait for a response. Meanwhile, can I die here in a corner? Thanks."

So if you have an emergency it doesn't work for you. Go to an "Urgencia".

Eventually I did. My spanish mothers:p Helena, Mabel and Charo got worried about me and Charo took me to the emergency. We were not so sure if they'd accept me but they just requested an id and I finally got a bag of antibiotics and painkillers. 

Mi casa es su casa

Our flat definitely deserves a post!

my bathroom

the view from the balconita

showing affection to the paintings

As you can see it's quite cosy. I shared a room with 3 other girls when I was studying at the university so it's perfect to me:)We have a kitchen, a living room and a bathroom on the first floor. And there are two bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs. One of the best things about the bedrooms are the skylights for sure! I like watching the moon before I go to sleep. And during the daytime it can surprise you like this<3

my room

On my first week here I had problems with closing it. To be honest I couldn't manage to close it at all! haha It was kind of stuck. But it was okay. The weather was nice... Until that rainy day. I had to call Helena. It was very kind of her to come home just to close a window! Sounds funny but it was raining into the middle of the room! :D

Oh, speaking of which I had a microwave disaster too!

Starring a microwave, a poor bread and a happy but hungry girl :P

Plot twist: I didn't burn the house.

No, really I didn't know that the timer of the microwave didn't work. So I put the bread and set the timer (I thought so) and went to the living room. When I came back ...

I had to write a note because the whole entrance smelled bad for days:/

I felt so bad when I was telling Helena about this (It was my first week. What a start!). But she said if it's still working, it's okay. I cleaned the microwave three times! But still couldn't get rid of those yellow spots. I'm not sure if they were there before the disaster though.

And when I was talking to Csenge about this, she realised they forgot to write this on "house rules" list haha

the coolest mailbox in the apartment

The first thing I bought at the shop, my favorite piece in my room is this lovely mirror:)

And I want to introduce you to my plant! Helena's mother Marysol gave me this and explained what I'm going to do. I had no idea how to grow a plant. I had never had a plant myself. My mom used to have so many flowers but I was never interested. So I put it in a glass half full of water and waited for weeks until the roots came up. And then bought a flowerpot and used the soil that Csenge and Dilya left. Until that moment I felt like it was a mission: "I have to keep it alive. Because it's a present." But no it wasn't a mission or an obligation. I liked this thing. It's mine. I water it. I talk to it. It's not a random plant.

 As you can see I got pretty attached to a plant :D I know that it needs sunlight but I don't want to put it on the balcony even for a moment because it's cold now. Have no idea what I'm doing! Help!

a warmer day:)

And my first couchsurfing experience

I've never used couchsurfing as a surfer but I hosted a girl from Valencia right before I headed to Murcia for the on-arrival training. Actually she contacted Helena on couchsurfing and Helena asked me if I'd like to host her or not. Sure! I was living alone and we had an empty room, anyway. So I met her at the train station the night before I left. She came here to start working as a teacher. She was nice, we had the chance to talk a little bit. She told me about the time she was teaching in UK and also we talked about this Catalan election. Before I left I gave her a set of keys, because she had to stay one or two days more. When I came back she was gone. But everything was okay. I wish we had more time to chat.

Warning: This post is for Turkish readers

I'm sorry but I wanted to write my personal thoughts on Spanish people (from the viewpoint of a Turkish). Believe me I'm saying good things:)

Genelleme yapmak için belki biraz aceleci davranıyor olabilirim ama tutamiciim kendimi:D  4 ayı geçti buraya geleli e haliyle fazla fazla haşır neşir olma fırsatımız oldu. İş yerinde, apartmanda, markette, sokakta nasıl davranırlar nasıl konuşurlar. Birazcık dedikodusunu  yapalım şu İspanyolların :P

Ha bi de Türkçe konuşmayı özledim, ondan:) Her ne kadar yabancı dilde kendini ifade edebilmenin insana yaşattığı gurur mükemmel olsa da anadilin yeri ayrı oluyor. Öyleymiş yani. İlk defa bu kadar uzun süre ayrı kaldık Türkçeyle. Aslında hiç kullanmıyor değilim, daha önce bahsetmiştim Türkçe dersleri vermeye başladığımdan. Devamı gelmedi ama öğrencilerimden biri aynı zamanda arkadaşım ve Türkçe öğreniyor. Bazen ona bi şeyler öğretirken kullanıyorum. Ha bi de burada bi aileyle tanıştım. Kadın İspanyol, eşi Türk. İngiltere'de tanışıp aşık olmuşlar. 15 yıldır evliler ve çok sevimli bir kızları var. Adı Nuray:) Bazen hafta sonları buluşup ailecek bi şeyler yapıyoruz. Ailecek diyorum çünkü çok yakın davranıyorlar sağolsunlar. Nuray'la Türkçe konuşmaya çalışıyoruz.

Evet İspanyollar diyordum.

1. Aklıma gelen ilk şey kuşkusuz: nezaket!

Bu kadar nazik olduklarını tahmin etmiyordum çünkü. Başıma gelen çok güzel bi şeyle örneklendireyim. İsterseniz test edebilirsiniz bunu hatta haha. Bi gün markette sakarlığım tuttu ve bütün bozuk paralarım yere saçıldı ama bayağı bir bozuk para yani (para konusunda tedirgin olduğum zamanlardı. şöyle yani: kasiyer 8 euro 34 sent diyor. zavallı ispanyolcam error verip 10 euro yerine 20 euro uzatmamı söylüyordu. garantici olayım rezil olmayayım diye diye bozuk para zengini olmuştum.)Ha işte yere saçıldı hepsi. Daha ben ne oluyor demeden baktım kasiyerden tut sırada bekleyen yaşlı çocuk kadın herkes eğilmiş topluyor bile. Vallahi şaşakaldım. Evet tam olarak şaşakalmak! haha Nasıl yani? Yaşlı başlı adam tanımadığı birinin parasını toplamak için eğilip bükülüyor. Ha illaki vardır böyleleri memlekette de. Ama bizim oralarda böyle şey ne gördüm ne duydum. Şaşkınlıkla teşekkür etmekten başka bi şey yapamadım. Her fırsatta anlatırım ama:D Çok sevinmiştim çünkü. Sağlamasını bile yapma fırsatım oldu hatta. Yine paralarım saçıldı ama bu sefer otobüs beklerken. Yaşlı bi çift topladı nerdeyse tamamını. Hiç abartmıyorum:)

2. Görgü mü desem bilemedim.

Diyelim eczaneye girdiniz, sıra var. Sessizce sıraya girip beklersiniz di mi. Yok bunlar öyle yapmıyor:) Tanıdık tanımadık herkese selamını veriyor, işi bitip çıkan hoşçakalın diyor. Apartmanda biriyle karşılaştınız. Komşunuz olabilir, olmayabilir de. İlk defa gördünüz ama önemi yok. Selam veriyorlar hemen ardından da hoşçakalın diyorlar (çocuk bile olsa).

Aynı şekilde çalıştığım dükkanda da bütün müşteriler bunu yapıyor. Kural gibi bi şey yani. Mesela biz workshopları mobilyaların olduğu alt katta yapıyoruz. Büyük bi masada bi grup insan oturmuş sohbet ediyoruz bazen hararetli bazen kakara kikiri. Merdivenlerden inen müşteriler mutlaka selam veriyor. Aman nasılsa konuşuyorlar bölmeyeyim, sessizce işimi halledip gideyim demiyorlar. Çok hoşuma gidiyor bu alışkanlıkları. Ben de artık nerede olursam olayım selam vermeden geçmiyorum. Aman bunda abartılacak ne var demeyin. "Sana bi insan olarak değer veriyorum, seni görmezden gelemem." deme şekli bence.

3. Çok konuşuyorlar!

Gerçekten biraz gevezeler. Hadi o neyse de bağıra bağıra konuşuyor çoğu (benim bildiklerim en azından) :) Özellikle ne dediklerini anlamadığımda ha sustu ha susacak diye çaresizce bekliyorum. Çok afedersiniz "Bi sus da motorun soğusun." demek geliyo içimden haha Nasılsa anlamıyorlar :P

Yine de İtalyanlara tercih ederim. Hepsi öyle midir bilmem ama benim tanıdıklarım konuşurken insanı dayak atarcasına yorup en sonunda da diz çöktürüp tövbe ettiriyorlardı :D

4. Sülaleleri raad

Gördüğüm kadarıyla çoğunda "aman gezelim eğlenelim, 3 günlük dünya" düşüncesi var. Hemen hemen hepsi kriz var, iş olanağı yok, durumumuz eskisi kadar iyi değil, politikacılar yolsuzluk yapıyor, maaşlarımız aynı ama daha çok çalışıyoruz gibi şeyler söylüyor. Ama gelgelelim çok mutlular. Gerçekten hissediyorsunuz o enerjiyi. Özellikle orta yaş grubu o dans kursu senin bu yoga benim, gel bi reiki yapalım iki bira içelim, sonra yine dans edelim kıvamında. Nereden buluyorlar bu enerjiyi bilmiyorum.

Aynı rahatlık ilişkilerde de var. Mesela bi bardasınız çift olarak. Biri öteki masada karşı cinsten biriyle baş başa kakara kikiri sohbet ederken diğeri de aynı şekilde başkasıyla sohbet edebiliyor ve kıskançlık yapmayı geçtim umurlarında bile olmuyor. Eski sevgili/eş ile arkadaş kalma olayı da çok yaygın duyduğum ve gördüğüm kadarıyla. Birçoğu boşanmış ama yine de iyi ilişki içindeler. Örnek vermek gerekirse bi kadın eski eşi ve çocuklarıyla akşam yemeğine çıkıyor, şu anki erkek arkadaş hiçbir sorun çıkarmıyor. Dırdır etmek, burundan getirmek bile yok. Ne bileyim, tuhaf gelmiyor değil. Hiç mi kıskanmaz insan? Belki de kıskançlığın sorun çıkarmaktan başka bi şeye yaramadığını biliyorlar ve kıskansalar da belli etmiyorlar:P

5. Bu maddeyi okumasanız da olur ama söylemeden geçemeyeceğim:D

 Kadını erkeği genel olarak oldukça "eli yüzü düzgün". Fiziksel özellikleri bizden pek farklı değil belki ama model kıvamında adamlar bazen belediye işçisi, bazen kırtasiyeci, bazen polis, bazen de otobüs şoförü olarak karşınıza çıkabiliyor. Hiç abartmıyorum mahallemizin kırtasiyecisi Adam Levine'in dövmesiz, işimdeyim gücümdeyim versiyonu. İnanmazsanız politikacılarına bakınız: Pedro Sanchez :D

I've got mi tarjeta!

The title says all about my spanish level right now :P But we'll talk about it later.

I want to explain little bit how the process works to get this id. First you need to get an appointment in Extranjeria to present the documents such as activity agreement, passport, insurance card, application form and their copies. This thing called Extranjeria is in Toledo so Helena and Antonella (our Italian friend who used to help us at the shop) accompanied me for the first time. We had the activity agreement in english and they requested the spanish one the whole spanish one nothing but the spanish one! :d So we had to find a copy place first and then the document on Helena's computer. We did but the signatures were missing in this one. I panicked for a moment but then I remembered that I had it in my gmail!

But I've never understood why they needed to have the copies of ALL the empty pages of my passport.  Anyway the first step was done (Yayy)

After a while (I really don't remember the exact time) I received a paper and this time I had to hand a photo and pay a tax. I went alone and surprisingly didn't get lost:P The most challenging thing was to tell the bus driver "I don't know where to get off. Can you tell me when we arrive at Extranjeria?" in spanish. Well, he understood somehow :D  Oh no, the most challenging thing was to find a bank that accepts this kind of payment. The nearest one to Extranjeria required a bank account (Nayy). So I followed three moroccans who also were leaving the bank because they seemed to know where they were going haha

We found one but it only accepted tax payments between certain hours. So I found a place where I can eat churros (sin chocolate:( and wait for a few hours more. Finally I paid it and brought the receipt back to Extranjeria. The only thing left to do was to wait for 30 days and come back to take my card.

"The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows."

It's always easier to share happiness and shiny stuff with others, at least to me. You can proudly say you achieved something or you're just having a great day without a reason. Everyone loves a happy person anyway.

But I'm not always happy (well, let's say most of the time) and it's totally OK.

This post will be all about my heartbreaks. All about the things I don't want to talk about. But I believe I should.

Well, let's face them:)

The first one:

On-arrival training

All Evs volunteers attend this 5-day training once or after their projects start. Ours was held in Murcia on my third week here. We stayed at a dormitory-like hostel near the sea. Bugs and dirty sheets! But that's not the problem. The weather was nice, nice enough to sunbathe during breaks:) And the trainers were really cool and fun.

yeah this was happening :D

                                               a very different kind of "henna night" :)

BUT I felt really bad about myself most of the time because nearly everyone spoke Spanish very well. I guess I was expecting to see more volunteers like me. Even though the training was mostly in English, we had Q&A sessions in Spanish and the trainers were translating everything just for two or three people. And one of them was me! To be honest I felt so uncomfortable and just wanted to go home and by home I mean Illescas. The first time I realized that I called it "home"!

The second one:

My first and last bachata class

Note to self:  Don't underestimate bachata!

I've been always interested in taking up dance classes. So perfect place, perfect time? Also, my au pair friend Sinje (I met her on my first day here. We're lucky that we became really good friends:) was interested. So we ended up in a class full of people who were already taking the classes. Well it seemed so... It was definitely not for beginners. While they were learning new moves the teacher was showing me the first steps. I was so convinced that I couldn't dance, I kept forgetting the steps. Well it's typical of me. There's a switch off button right in my head. And I often activate it with my super powerful negative thoughts.

The teacher's complaining about how difficult it is for him to work with different levels at the same time didn't help either. It was like "You ruined the class, you sons of beginners!!!1"

Well, listen to me you son of teachers. That's not how you treat someone who has no idea what she's doing. Once I had a student who didn't know how to read and write and I was supposed to help her (along with 9-10 other students) with their homework. She was crying all the time. Imagine a worksheet covered with tears of an 8-year-old. She was the only one who couldn't read and write. I had moments where I felt like holding her arms and shouting at her "Please don't cry anymore! Once you stop it, you'll start learning." But I didn't. I kept telling her she was doing great even when she invented her own alphabet and I had no idea what she wrote. At the end? She did it! And I didn't lose anything by telling her lies about how great she was. The look on her face when she was saying "I can do it!" was priceless. And that's all I need.

I feel you, Aslı. And I'm proud of you.

Note to self: Don't underestimate yourself!