It was the first time I was going out of my country. I was very excited about going to another country and I was waiting for that moment for all my life. The only sad thing about the trip was it was the first time that I would be away from my family for such a long time. It was the trip of experiences and the trip of the firsts. I was hoping that it would be a good and easy trip but there was a thing that I had forgotten; Life is full of surprises!!.
The plane took off from Adana at 9 o'clock p.m. I kissed all the members of my family and saw them cry. That was a moment that I had never experienced before. I felt bad, but even in that moment, going to Canada to study was like 'no big deal' for me. I got on the plane with a friend of mine and the plane took off.
Istanbul Technical University (ITU)
Frankfurt Hbf.
English: Lufthansa aircraft and one Air Canada air...The trip had begun. That was the first time I was getting on the plane.
One hour later we were at Istanbul Yesilkoy Airport. We had our next 6 o'clock in the morning, so we were planning to stay in the guest rooms of the airport. Usually the guest rooms are for the airport staff but because my uncle works for the airport, he had arranged us a guest room, or we thought so! When we got to the office of the man who had the lists for the rented guest rooms, there was the first surprise waiting for us. No guest rooms were arranged for us. We checked all the lists of the guest rooms but no, we were not on any list. We had to spend the night sleeping on the airport chairs. The police officer around there and the airport officer were very friendly. We sat down and chatted for a while. After that we slept and we woke up at 4.30 a.m. We picked up all our baggage and headed for International part of the airport, which another surprise was waiting for us.
Our tickets were first for Istanbul-Frankfurt plane. Because of there was not any room in that plane and the school was getting started we changed our tickets from Istanbul-Frankfurt to Istanbul-Munich, Munich- Frankfurt. When we got to the office of Lufthansa, the officer asked us if we had the visa for Germany. She told us to have it other than that we couldn't take the Munich-Frankfurt plane and we would have to stay in Germany. We told her that our agent had arranged all the tickets for us and she said something like, "how do you find agents that bad?". She was totally right though, I agreed with her. She then told us that she could write our names to the wait list for the Istanbul-Frankfurt plane, but she said she couldn't make sure we would go with it. We had no other chance so we thanked her and began to wait for the plane. There came the third surprise.
There was only one room and one of us had to choose to go. I let him go because he could have more hard time than I would have alone in the airport. I let him go and he was gone. I was alone. I could have gone earlier to Canada but because I had not wanted to go alone, I had waited for him.
His home in Canada was arranged later than mine and I had postponed my ticket because of that. It was my first long trip and I didn't want to be alone.
Now I was alone. This time I was late to school also. After he took off I went to the office of Lufthansa and wrote my name to the wait list of the next plane, which was a day later. I had a free day in Istanbul and I hung out in Istanbul. I called my uncle to arrange me a guest room to sleep because I was so tired. This time he did. I went to my room and slept.
Next morning there weren't any surprises, so I got on my plane without a problem. I was flying to Frankfurt. The flight was 3 hours and it was easy. I flew to a country that I didn't even know the language used. I was so scared of Germany because if had got lost I thought I would have no chance out. It was not like I expected, at all. In Frankfurt I quickly went to the office of Lufthansa and the rest was easy. I bought some chocolate because they were cheap. I sat down for the rest of the time and waited for my plane.
I was on the plane to Vancouver and it was a nine hour flight. It was a real long flight and I got bored too much. I also got gas squeezed in my stomach because of sitting. There were a lot of funny noises coming out of my stomach and I was really embarrassed because of that.
Finally I arrived to Vancouver. I got to the immigration office to have my student authorization paper. It took more than an hour. I met a girl at the airport. She was working there and she helped me a lot with everything. We were friends after that. She was my first friend in Canada. I got her e-mail address and went to the check in line. I couldn't know that there was another surprise waiting for me there.
I was late for the Nanaimo plane. I told the officer that I waited so long at the immigration office and that was why I was late. He told me to take a ferry or wait until the next day so I could take a plane. He told me that there was a plane an hour later but there was no room in that plane. I told him to write to the wait list of that plane and he did. I started to wait. Thanks Lord, there was room for me. I got on the plane. It was a small plane for about 20 people and their baggage. There came the final surprise. As my plane took off I watched my baggage going back to the airport. I think they were heavy. It was the best and the worst flight I had. It was the best because I sat on the window side of the plane for the first time and I watched all the beauty of the ocean and the trees. It was the worst because the noises in my stomach have reached to its maximum point. It was like I was farting but I was not. That was the worst time I had during the trip and I couldn't look at the man's face who was sitting beside me. The flight was real short. It lasted 12 minutes.
I was in Nanaimo finally. I told an officer about my bags and she told that they would send it the next day. Jeff, my host father, picked me up from the airport took home. There finished the first leg of my trip. I am still in Canada, and enjoying my life. I will be here for the next 3 years and I think there will be a lot of surprises waiting for me out there.
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Frankfurt Hbf.