Host family :D

Well this happened sooner than I thought!!! As one of the Oman girls said, it will happen when you least expect it. So there I was, watching The Avengers, and my mom texts me saying "you have a host family! Check your email!". My heart leapt. A host family!!! I quickly logged onto my AFS/YES account, and clicked on the host family information link. I will be living in Kayseri, which is in the middle of the country of Turkey. My family consists of a mother, a father, an eleven year old sister, and a seven year old brother. Having younger siblings will be SOOOOOO different, and I am so thrilled. The city's population is between 844,000 and 1,000,000. Anywhere in that range is quite a bit larger than my home town of 75,000, so that has of course only added to my excitement. It has been inhabited since approximately 3,000 BC, and is located near Cappadocia, an ancient city. The city rests at the base of Mount Erciyes, a 12,848 foot (3,916 m) extinct volcano, which has a ski resort on it (hello snowboarding!!). I emailed my host mom and dad, and am waiting for their reply. So far Zoe, Tommy, and I know that we are being hosted in Kayseri, but none of the others have been notified. I also met a girl on the AFS Turkey page from Serbia who will be living in Kayseri. Let me just interject here how incredible social media is. Already I have four people who I will know while there. Incredible!
     Getting my host family has made this upcoming year so much more real for me. Before I was going to Turkey to live in an unknown city, with an unknown family. But now I have a solid, breathing family in a city that I can research and tell people about. It has only increased my excitement.

Kayseri shadowed by Mt. Erciyes. My new home!!!

I know this year will be full of challenges (I still don't know if my family speaks english... that should be interesting!), but the fact that a family is willing to welcome me into their home based simply on an application is just the start of a list of the incredible things about this adventure. Until later my friends!
Xoxo, Izzy