...and sixteen to go. Cliched to admit it, but it feels like I've been here a lot longer than one week. Missing home, missing Katie compounded with jet lag and the jarring entry into new surroundings, all of that has come together to make it seem like I've been here a damn long time already. In a new place, you lose the familiar references that guide your flow of time. You set adrift a bit, bewildered with newness. Two days ago, that unsettled feeling freaked me out, but today I'm feeling better. My longing for home won't go away by any means, but I know that I will become familiar and comfortable with the ache of homesickness, and soon, where there was once pain, there will only be the comforting support of my thoughts of the place, and more importantly, the person I yearn to return to.
This adventure takes on more and more definition every day. The bumps in the transition are ironing themselves out; I can't say that I'm doing anything consciously to make it easier to be here, but it seems to be happening nonetheless. My group is great. My classes, probably no more boring than the classes I would be taking at St. Olaf. And to think, we leave Istanbul in two weeks. I can't imagine that those weeks will feel any longer than this week already has; I close my eyes for an hour and it might as well be a year. So strange.
In other news, I dominated my Turkish test (98/100), and am confident that I did just as well on my Poly Sci. test this afternoon. I had forgotten how exciting learning a new language can be and it comes naturally to me for some reason. Must be my past experience with Spanish. I need to look into learning a new language (German? French? Turkish even?), or at least in starting such an endeavor within the next year. Language is obviously the most daunting factor in the feelings of foreignness that unsettle us as we venture through alien countries.
Strange to be a world away, but it seems less far every day. And I know I'm only a plane ride, an email, or a skype conversation away from those I left behind, from those I love.
Until next time,
Your Favorite Luker
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