My First Week In Izmir

Merhaba everybody!

My name is Cristina, I come from Italy and I am the new EVS volunteer for Atölye Deneme Sanat Art and Ecological Studies Association in Izmir.

I have already spent one week in Turkey and until now everything is amazing. This is not my fist time in Turkey and as my previous trips were amazing I decided to send my EVS candidacy for this project.

I live in a district of Izmir that is called Karşıyaka, it is nice and I like the place.

The different places of the city are well connected and it easy to move around. One of the most exciting thing for me was taking the ferryboat as in here it is a local way of trasportation. I also learnt how to use the Izban that is like a metro. It is very easy here to move, everytime there are indications and they are well written and understandable (I said like this because in Rome sometimes I get lost as there are no indication as well! :D).

I visited some places in here: Konak, is the centre where is the main bazaar, Alsancak, where there are a lot of pubs and the best nightlife and I really like it! I tasted some typical dishes and everything is great, I like to drink tea too even if it is quite strange for me as an italian because I am used to drink coffee as here it is for tea, anyway I like turkish coffee too and I mostly like salep.

I met with the organizators and everybody is kind and I think we will get on very well; I noticed that most of turkish do not speak english but this will not be a barrier for speaking because even there is this “problem” everybody is always ready to offer his help and this will force me to learn turkish. I have never had problem to communicate with strangers because I speak three languages and this time it is very hard for me, but I like challenges, that is why I am well motivated doing this experience.

I met with the three girls that will be my “students”. They are very sweet and cute. I truly  hope I will help them to improve their languages knowledge about english and italian and for sure they will teach me their language and turkish culture. In the two days that we met we just know each other, attended french lesson by a turkish girl and cleaned and set the office for next time.

As 8 march passed we also discussed about the meaning of being woman and the role that she has in turkish culture; girls told to me about the story of the italian artist Pippa Bacca, it looks like everybody knows in here and fells shame for this sad event but I really didn’t know it before.

I am always been attracted by different culture and I think that I will like staying here. I crossed the crowded streets and smelled new parfumes, listenned people speaking and had abslolutly no idea about what thery are talking to, watched  new and colorful things.I really liked that. There are many different things between italian and turkish culture but also a lot of things in common.

One funny difference that I understood is that after a question if somebody says “thank you” it means no; in Italy it means yes, that’s why first days I didn’t understood very well some situations but it was funny anyway. :)

Moreover here there is something that I am not really used to: contact eyes. It something very nice I think even if sometimes people stare at you with persistence and it is quite strange for me.

I am here also because there are still many stereotypes about Turkey and I want to show to my friends and people that  believe that this wonderful country is like middle age is mistaken.

There are many points in which east and west meet in this city and I would like to represent them like a project, taking some pictures with my camera.