This Blog Has Moved

Ah, I'm sorry it's been so long. Üzgünüm. But it was just so crazy... finals week. I think I did fine on my exams. Least well on Algebra, but that's to be expected. And as of yesterday at noon, school is over! As of yesterday, when people ask me what grade I'm in I can tell them "Oh, I don't go to school" and watch their expressions change as they try to figure out whether I'm serious. As of yesterday the only homework I have to think about is AP US History (maybe) and Sophomore English, both of which I can ignore for a couple months. Anyway, Friday night I got together with some friends and we watched movies and had a really great time, and this morning I got up way too early to help my mother sell granola and fried egg sandwiches at the farmers market. I need to make a little spending money for Turkey, so I'm doing that and babysitting quite a lot in the 10 days left. I'm way in debt because of the camera I ordered - which did NOT take the above random picture of some focaccia I made tonight (that was my webcam) - so I can show you all about Turkey, videos included!

This was senior class night, which meant that the jazzband had to play Pomp and Circumstance so many times that there ought to be an amendment to the Constitution about it, and then we watched slideshows with cheap effects that switched from one baby picture to another. The slideshow music this year was better than last, at least. Then there were awards, and it all took forever but was a bit more meaningful this year for me, as some of the people graduating are my friends now. I will miss some people terribly. Had a little cry about it today. I picked up the local newspaper with its list of all the graduates and it started to sink in that they're leaving. I really, really wish that I could just stay with a couple of them forever - I might even be wishing that this school year never ended, but that would be silly, because then it wouldn't be SUMMER.

But, hey, I might be leaving too. Yesterday (in French class, actually) I learned that I've been accepted to the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, which is a tiny but excellent magnet school up near Canada. I don't know if I should go or not. On the one hand, the people there are great, they send their students to great colleges and universities and it would probably be a lot of fun (and work). On the other (I am not from Fiddler on the Roof, and therefore only have two), it's four hours away from my home, it's essentially in the middle of a frozen potato field, they have very little music and art, no french and certainly no Türkçe - though, of course, neither does my current school. I need to think about it, and quite fast because the first deposit (it's a public school, though selective, but one has to pay for room and board*) is due on the 25th of June. Of course, I'd have to send it in earlier because I'm leaving on the 23rd.

Other people on the Turkey Summer programme are hearing about their host families, but I've checked my AFS account and have no information so far. I really want to know. The only things I hope are that my family doesn't speak too much English and that they're really into food.

Graduation is tomorrow, and I have to go play more boring march music, with the concert band this time. I have a killer headache resulting from standing in front of the speakers tonight, and not sleeping much last night, so I'm going to go to bed now.

Iyi geceler.

*Though my town has an interesting arrangement involving taxes going to local kids attending my school, which is technically private but the only high school here. So if you want to go somewhere else, provided it's not a religious high school, they'll give you the same amount of money that they would pay to this school.