Turkey

17 April
We nearly didn't get into Turkey. Rose's visa stuffed up (I think she's cursed with visas!) so after about 3 hours in customs and passport lines, we emerged into arrivals having missed the topdeck tour welcome. We freaked out for a little bit, but then got a shuttle bus to our hotel and walked into the foyer right in the middle of the tour briefing. Awkward! After an entire day travelling, collapsing into our hotel room was the best feeling in the world. That night we headed out for drinks in the centre of Istanbul and met some other Kiwi and Aussie travellers. Lots of fun, although they were all 23+...I feel so young whenever I travel!

18 April
We woke up with all intentions of exploring Istanbul, but it was POURING down with rain so we spent a day relaxing in the hotel and chilling out with the people we met the last night. That night, we had a bit of a messy night out with the 'Fanatics', a tour group that was significantly more bogan than ours. Our night involved a blow up kangaroo and a karaoke bar...

19 April
After a yummy Turkish style breakfast (yoghurt and fruit, yummmm!), we went on a walking tour of the main Istanbul attractions. We went to the Blue Mosque, which was quite amazing. Our tour guide Tolga (who I liked at first then ended up hating by the end) told us facts about the city - at one point we were standing in a Hippodrome that was thousands of years old and had been used for chariot races! We had free time after that and headed to the Grand Bazaar, which I loved! The vendors were so fuuny, we'd walk past them and they would yell out things like 'Hey Spice Girls! Charlie's Angels! You want scarf?' I got 'Heyyy Jennifer Lopez' so many times it's not even funny. After spending a couple of hours there we took a ferry around the bay. We got to see a lot more of Istanbul that way, see how massive it actually is. 15 million people live in Istanbul - that's like 3/4 of Auustralia's population in just one city. Crazy!

20 April
Today was the day of the massive long drive. 10 hours. The turkish countryside was all that I thought it would be - three people on a bike, old men with donkeys, etc etc. At the start of our drive a typically Turkish driver crashed into the back of our bus, and from then on we all called ourselves 'Team Dinted'. (because the back of the bus was dinted...geddit?). We stopped at a couple of parks etc along the way to relax, until finally getting to Pamukalle.


21 April
We visited the ancient site of Aphrodisias and the calcium cliffs of Pamukalle. I think today, apart from ANZAC Day, was my favourite. The cliffs were incredible. The sun reflecting off the white sheer cliff face was surreal, and we paddled in the thermal pools that were on top of the cliff. Very cool. Visiting the ancient city was fantastic, because it was the first one we had visited and I was blown away by how OLD everything was. The thing about Turkey, once you've seen one ancient city you've kind of seen them all...From Aphrodisias we drove to Kusadasi, a beautiful beachside resort, and had the most gorgeous view from our window. Spent the afternoon walking along the beach and eating magnums. Mmmm gap years are hard! That night we went out and I was extremely...happy.

22 April
Second day in Kusadasi! After a lie-in, we headed off to Ephesus, another ancient city that was massive an really well preserves. There were loads of people there, and because many of us were hungover/still tipsy from the night before, it was quite a fun day! It was at this point that our tour guide began to annoy me and many of the others - he had no idea what he was on about, and would make sure he walked far ahead so he could read the stuff on the info signs before telling us and passing it off as his own. So we ignored him and made up our own history instead. Example A - Erin. 'And on your left you have a giant really old stone wall, built by an old Greek guy called Ned.'


We also had 'borrowed' Skippy the Kangaroo from another tour group and took photos with him all day. The city was the best preserved out of all the ones we went to, you could really get a full idea of how it might have been 2000 years ago. There were still original mosaics and everything. On the way back to Kusadasi we ended up at a Turkish fashion show. It was the most random experience of my life. Random in the true sense of the word. One minute I'm driving through Turkish countryside, the next I'm being herded into a small room with a catwalk and pounding music, watching 'models' and being asked if I want to buy a 700 euro leaher jacket... That afternoon we grabbed a magnum and sat on the beach relaxing (some Turkish girls came up to us and practiced their English, so cute!), then the others went out to a pub. Kate and I couldn't be bothered, so we stayed in and talked.

23 April
Started off the day in Pergamon, by catching a cable car up to another ancient city. It was very pretty, and VERY windy - apparantly people used to go there to be 'healed' by the wind. After that we headed to a an island that used to be a Greek island. You could totally tell, it was just beautiful. Old timber boats floating next to the boardwalk, seaside restaurants..Kate and I bought a Magnum (yes, we were addicted!) and walked along the path for aged. After another long drive we ended up at another hotel - we were all exhausted so everyone literally fell into bed.

24 April?ANZAC Day
Stopped at Troy, and took some obligatory pictures with the reconstruction of the famous horse before speeding off to Gallipoli. We wanted to get there early and rose in protest against our guide who wanted to stop for an hour or two because he wanted lunch. No luck buddy. We stopped briefly at a supermarket to get supplies for the next day or so. Of course I went overboard and got myself 4 bags of food. When we got to Gallipoli we waited for a couple of hours (in the sun, making friends with strangers, it was lovely!) before slowly - VERY slowly - being let through security. They let the boys in first, so the Turkish guards had some assertive feminist Australians and Kiwis demanding to know why we had to wait and the guys could head right in. Yours truly included.
Once we were through we found ourselves a spot on the grass, and staked our claim with sleeping bags and my bags of food. Kate and I talked for hours, in between the presentations, until the lucky thing fell asleep at midnight and woke up at 4. I was lucky enough to be lying on a rock so I stayed awake all night (It was so cold!!), curled up in my sleeping bag and listening to the videos, documentaries and music that went on the entire night. The music was incredible - there was one piece titled 'Invasion' that was absolutely indescribable. Aisling woke up during it and said 'SHIT! I thought we were being invaded!!'
Just before the dawn service started there was a part where the names and epitahs were read out of certain soldiers. This is the point at which I started sobbing. There were so many names read out that could have been my brother, my cousins, my friends. I know I'm sounding unbearably pretentious and wanky but just bear with me. It's just so unfair that so many soldiers have to die through war to keep our country safe. Not only during WWI, but all wars. It sucks.

Dawn service at Gallipoli was, without a doubt, one of the most emotional, intense and moving experiences of my life.
Standing at ANZAC Cove with thousands of other Australians and New Zealanders, listening to the Last Post after a cold sleepless night under the stars, while remembering those throughout the years that have fought and died for our country was such an incredible honour. I will never forget it.

War has touched so many families, including my own. There are so many people back in Australia who think that being patriotic equals being a bogan. Not true in the slightest. I love my country, I think it’s one of the best in the world, and I can say that because hundreds of thousands of Australians have fought to keep it that way.

I’m proud to say that I sang both the Australian and New Zealand national anthems with pride, and choked on my tears thoughout. ANZAC Day has always been a special day for me, and I am so lucky to have had the opportunity to travel to the place where our national identity first became our own.

Lest we forget.

After the Dawn Service I headed up to Lone Pine after accidentally-on-purpose losing the others (yeah sorry guys, suprise!), because I wanted to take my time with everything and be alone to reflect on what had just happened. You're only at Gallipoli once. I wandered into cemetaries and along ANZAC Cove. The Australian Service was good, although we all nearly fell asleep because we hadn't slept for 24 hours. Seeing Lone Pine was quite surreal, I can't beleive how SMALL it was. I mean, you learn about that battle but I never realised what a little bit of land it actually was. The Inter Studies class St Bedes from Mentone was there...lucky things, where was our trip to Gallipoli Ms. Kelly?! After the worst hike uphill to Chunuk Bair (I was about to die), we hopped on a bus back to Istanbul. I had a stomach bug and cramps, so it was pretty much the bus ride from hell. Lovely.

But the shower back at the hotel was AMAZING. Heaven is a hot shower after 48 hours without washing, I am sure of it.

Paris - Easter Holidays

Woo, Paris! This is short, I'm really not in a writing mood!

7 April

I left the flat at 1am to catch a 1.30am bus for my flight which left at 6. Needless to say I was not that chirpy once I landed at Charles-de-Gaulle (although the business man next to me was listening to Christina Aguilera and Girls Aloud on his ipod, which cheered me up considerably!). I was very proud of myself when I was buying tickets for the train to Anna's house - I asked a French lady next to me if she could help me out (in French obviously - anything I say in this blog is in French unless I say otherwise) and we had a nice little chat about holidays and travelling and I could understand what she was saying! Once I got to Anna's house and had a big hug-filled reunion, we lay out in the sun and chatted for ages, then I went to watch one of her dress rehearsals. I also got to see the friends I made last time I was in Paris, which was really nice! They remembered me and everything.

8 April

I went to Paris by myself to do some more exploring - and springtime in Paris is incredible, beats winter in Paris by a mile! It was around 25 degrees, beautiful and sunny, and flowers were out everywhere. I strolled to Notre Dame and went inside (after asking a lovely old German couple to take a picture of me outside it). I prayed, then afterwards walked all the way down to place de la Bastille. I could have taken the metro and saved myself 20 minutes, but it was such a nice day I didn't want to waste the sun! I was a Revs nerd and checked out the outlines of the formation of the Bastille, then as I walked down rue de st antoine, I popped into a little bookshop and found an Ionesco play for 4€! Done deal! After buying an apple for lunch I sat back in Louis XIII square and lay in the sun, it was lovely. From there I kept walking down until I hit the louvre, then walked through the tuileries garden, all the way up to place de la concorde. The tuileries garden was AMAZING, the flowers were out and smelled amazing, fountains were everywhere... By this time I was hot and tired, so I way my home way by metro. I got lost at la chapelle, so luckily a guy who saw me looking lost helped me to gare du nord. Unluckily, he tried to hit on me (despite him being quite cute I didn't want to get drugged and abducted a la 'Taken') so as soon as I found my train I bailed very quickly! 'Merci, Merci! Au revoir!!' *runs like the wind*

That night Sylvie and Anna took me to the ballet at the Theatre National de Chaillot (excuse the lack of accents, I really cant be bothered). It was the Swiss Ballet doing 'Romeo and Juliet', but a really contemporary version - bare feet, disjointed time, dancing to silence - SO COOL. Anna fell asleep on my shoulder, and woke up during the sex scene (which they were dancing completely naked bar flesh coloured underwear, under this massive white sheet suspended from the air...). She mumbled 'That's so weird' and fell back asleep again. Bless her.

9 April

After sleeping in and having a leisurely lunch, Anna and I went into Cemetaire Pere Lachaise (the really really famous one with lots of famous French people - and Jim Morrison). It was beautiful, very old and very French. Found Jim Morrisons grave, and helped some American tourists. After that we walked back up to the Bastille, and watched a funk band play for a while, chilling in the shade and dancing and singing along. We also had to find a sneaky place for me to inject after lunch...THAT was an undertaking. I finally injected ninja-style through my jeans as Anna sheltered me from view - apparently it's illegal to inject in public in France, diabetic or otherwise. Bastards.

10 April

We took a road trip, and I got taken all the way up to Le Havre and Normandie! Check out the photos on facebook, it was so beautiful. The age of the villages and buildings still amazes me. Driving through the country we passed chateau after chateau - the French countryside is so beautiful! We had a stroll through Le Havre (was full of British people -French seaside towns are their equivalent of Sydney, then had a picnic lunch on the beach before heading to Normandie. Normandie was fantastic, it had a REAL BEACH WITH GOLDEN SAND AND EVERYTHING!! It was full of very rich and wealthy people, the kind who own chihuahuas and wear lacoste t-shirts to bed. We lay on the sand for ages - I can feel summer already!!! On our way home we made a detour past Monet's (as in the artist) house and garden :D

11 April

I headed into Montmartre, and spent an hour or two lying in a shady garden square, writing and reading. So relaxing! I walked all the steps up to Sacre Coeur, beating the fat tourists who were taking the lift up hahaha. I took a slow walk around Sacre Coeur, prayed for a while, then walked out down the hill feeling refreshed and rejuvenated! I had a bit of a low (stumbled into a man, checked my blood sugar..oh hello 2.3) so grabbed myself a baguette and some cheese (which meant I spent a whole €1.50 on lunch, broke student ftw) and sat in a little park with nannies and grandparents watching young french kids play on the playground. :) Strolled to the Moulin Rouge, then checked out Cemetaire de Montmartre before making my way home.

12 April

Musee d'Orsay! I finally got to go there! Anna and I had pre-purchased tickets, but we still had to wait half an hour in the queue before we went in. Inside was incredible - I saw 'The Ballet Class' by Degas, and 'Blue Water Lilies' by Monet, two of my favourite paintings ever, so that was amazing! After spending a good two hours wandering through there, we had lunch then I dragged Anna to the Musee Carnavalet, which is a museum dedicated to the history of Paris....there was a whole floor dedicated to the 1789 French revolution. Needless to say I nearly died, and went crazy snapping photos of everything. Original banners, paintings and artifacts, my nerd side was well and truly out. Fairly sure Anna thought I was crazy. After cramming so much revs into my head last year it's nice to put some knowledge to use! After that, we were both museum-ed out, so we headed to the Jardin de Luxembourg for a stroll and a lie in the sin. It's beautiful (my camera was flat so no pictures :()....we lay there for about an hour in the sun, chatting and resting our feet!

13 April

My last day in Paris! We slept in, after being up late the night before, and headed to Anna's grandparents for lunch. 'Mamie' et 'Papie' aka Michel and Genvieve are pretty much my third set of grandparents, they are so incredibly nice and friendly, it was fantastic to see them again. Michel insisted on driving me to the airport the next morning, no matter how much I said that he didn't have to! After a lovely four course French lunch, I took a photo with them and promised to be back asap. I mean it. They won't be able to get rid of me this year! Anna and I went into Paris to visit the catacombs. We just made it on time, they close at 4 and we got in at 3.45! They were incredible, but horribly scary and creepy. My fear of tunnels and enclosed spaces didn't get any better, lets say that. Anna and I were clutching each other for dear life. I was quite happy with my french though - one of the staff was telling us information in french and I understood most of it! Maybe listening to 'et pourtant' in french class about a million times last year really did pay off!

Would that not scare you as well?!?! In the half dark with water dripping down the back of your neck?!

14 April onwards

I left early in the morning, giving Sylvie and Anna a huge long hug, and promising to come back. My flight went smoothly, and for the past day or two I've been back in good old High Wycombe, doing boring things like laundry and organising stuff for Turkey. On a side note, the health kick I started about a month ago has payed off - I've lost two kilos since March! Yay! Did a great work out today so hopefully it continues. Tomorrow is all organisation and then we're off to Istanbul. I'm so excited, can't wait!

Promise blogging will be more regular once I'm back at work!

cranedale

Last Sunday I headed off on a Geography camp with the Uppers (Year 7). It was the kind of camp that Anna and Corky would have loved, being the geography nuts that they are (there were lots of rocks and landforms and stuff), but I ended up loving it, which I didn't expect! Obviously I went off to camp with a positive mindset, but it really took me by suprise how much I actually enjoyed it.

Day 1 was spent hiking through the moors. We were crashing through the valley, jumping over fallen trees and sliding down muddy banks. Every so often we would stop and examine something. I would either get really interested and help out the girls with their work (looking at ancient fossils) or completely zone out and focus on a pretty leaf instead (discussing sedimentary rocks...). I completely ruined my 'tough Aussie' persona when Hannah (one of the tutors) was showing the girls a dung beetle and thrust her hand at me and asked me to hold it...I screamed, covered my eyes and nearly fell backwards. I can deal with spiders and snakes but NOT beetles. Argh it was horrible! We spent a couple of hours at a stream where the girls took samples of the organisms in the stream. while the teachers and I lay in the sun (and I went to sleep). I love being a staff member hahaha. We finished off the day hiking up a massive hill, which was hard because I was so over the day by this stage but had to keep a positive face on for the girls

'Miss Peters, I'm tired and want to go back and my feet hurt and I'm hungry'

'Keep going B, we're nearly there! Don't worry, it's still such a great day!' (meanwhile I'm thinking 'killmekillmetakemehome')

Every night after we would return I would hang out with the girls in the common room, playing table tennis and table football and card games. My competitiveness came out in full force, the head of geography and I were playing a very intense game of table football one night and we had half the year level standing around us screaming while N. led a commentary ('Miss Peters has the ball, passes it down,ooooooo nooo intercepted by Ms. C!')

Day 2 was a rivers day, where the girls took the depth, width, velocoity etc of different rivers around the district. It sounds boring, but it means they got to tramp around in rivers wearing wellies and waterproofs. They had a lot of fun, and I had a lovely time 'helping' while appreciating the beautiful English countryside...this is what we were surrounded by...

Real Bronte country. Also, as a side note, the Hogwarts Express in the Harry Potter movies is the train that regularly goes through the moors that we were in that week.

So, pretty much, I WAS NEAR HOGWARTS!

Day 3 we spent at a typical English beach, rockpooling and...counting limpets. Yeah, it's about as thrilling as it sounds. I loved being at the beach though, I hadn't realised how much I missed it until we got onto the sand and all I could smell was the sea. If it hadn't been about 4 degrees I would have thrown off my 10 layers of clothing and dived into the ocean right then and there. After that we headed to a bird watching sanctuary, which was actually a lot of fun! The birds were amazing, and we saw puffins! Cutest birds ever! They looked like this...

We died of cuteness. Although, the girls spotted these two birds mating. And these birds were really mating, they were going all out, really having a lot of fun...the girls were nearly on the ground in tears they were laughing so much. J. and I had to keep a straight face and discuss how it was mating season blahblahblah. but it was really so funny, I couldn't say 'stop laughing girls' with a straight face. And the birds looked so happy too!

Day 4 was coastal geogaphical landforms. With the fittest tutor going around, Mark with a Newcastle accent. youtube it, it's so cute. I didn't care what he was talking about, as long as he kept talking I could sit there and listen to him talk all day. The girls had the same opinion as me, they swarmed towards him hahaha. We spent a couple of hours in a bay, which was gorgeous, I'll put up photos soon. I listened and learnt heaps...but I'm still not doing geography at uni. There are only so many different types of rock I can take. We played 'Kung-Fu Landforms' before lunch, which was pretty much 'Simon Says'. We would say 'erosion makes...' and put in something like 'stack' or 'wave cut platform', and that had to make the shape with their body. Why didn't we do that in geography?! When we got up the top we all nearly got blown off the cliffs, the wind was 30 miles per hour! We were all leaning into the wind and it kept us up, it was actually insane. Afterwards we went to the most depressing seaside resort ever, and looked at the coastal erosion...one metre PER YEAR. crazy. On the one hour drive back I had a lovely chat with Joe, one of the tutors.

That was pretty much Cranedale! The girls were so much fun, I kicked back with the staff every night, and on the last night we let the girls go a little bit crazy. It was their last night so they were running around screaming, and we really just leant back and said 'they'll run it off eventually'. I got a lovely thankyou on the last day and a little Cranedale teddy, it was very sweet! With regards to A., the girl who was a type 1 diabetic as well, her levels were really good, I made sure she kept them at 5-7. One night she shot up to 17 (I have my suspicions she ate lollies without injecting), so I made sure she set her alarm to keep testing and inject 1/2 units etc. It was such a lot of responsibility but it all turned out well, thank god!

These past couple of days have been relaxing. I unintentionally went for a 2 1/2 hour run today, as I got lost and couldn't find my way back to Godstowe. Was legit near tears until I finally asked someone and found my way back. Nearly kissed the floor. Aisling, Yve and I did some aerobics last night, using an old aerobics video we bought at the opshop for 40p. Best fun ever! Aisling and I have been youtubing aerobics videos, and I have never had so much fun exercising. My favourite so far is a clip with a sassy black guy who told us that we should be 'feeling funky!!' by the end of the exercise. Classic. We've all been playing tennis quite a bit, as the sun is coming out and it's warming up! I'm actually learning to hit the ball Mum! Gap years are the best, must suck to be in uni and writing essays right now.

There's a staff vs. students netball match on Tuesday, which should be really fun! I was planning to sneaky skype chorals but have to work in the boarding house on Wednesday. Shattered :(

GO NEREIDS YOU WILL OWN CHORALS I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE IT ON YOUTUBE YOU GUYS WILL BE INCREDIBLE I LOVE YOU!!

I'm heading off to Paris on Thursday for a week, to see the Seurins and be part of a family again for a week. I can't wait to see them, they are like my French version of the Corkills. Freaking out about my french though, it's going to be so hard speaking it all the time again, it's become so bad since school ended. They are just amazing, they're taking me to the ballet and letting me stay at their house the whole week!! After France I'm back in England for a couple of days then heading off to Turkey, with some of the other gaps and Kate, a friend from Melbourne :) I'll be there for ANZAC day, I still can't quite believe it. After I get back I'm getting all my medical stuff sorted out, because summer term is crazy and before you know it it'll be summer holidays!!

Promise I'll upload photos to Facebook soon. Miss you guys, can't wait for some of you to come over!!!

PS- tonight at dinner L. told me she had a secret for me. Beofre I could ask what it was she pulled me down and planted a massive kiss on my cheek, and said that was her secret. Cute! Then A. (9 yrs old) grabbed me around the waist and said 'Miss Peters, I have a secret for you too'. I bent down, fully expecting her to say 'bum' or something, and she whispered 'you're the best gap'. Dead. Work in a primary school, you will never feel unloved.