Blog – METU – Fall 2021

How do you sum up 4 months of a different life? I spent a semester in Turkey...

I don’t feel like home. From now on, I’ll never be home. Even when I return to Pakistan and live in the place I’ve always been with the family I share blood with. Because home is here with my exchange family, but home is also in Pakistan, and I can’t be at two places at once. It hurt living experiences, meeting new people, exploring new places and trying new things that I know I’ll miss hard. I can imagine myself in some months wishing I could get back and talk with that person, or hug that one, or see that again. Having a biological family and a host family means that I’ll always miss one, ass well as all my friends. Probably, when I see this in a year I will smile gratefully, because this is one of the best things that could ever happen to me. That’s the meaning of being an exchange student for me, never being fully at home. Having my heart split in two with an ocean in between. I’ll never be home again, but I’d do this a thousand times.
 
This experience gave me a lot; I matured, I learned to take decision by myself and figure out situations alone, to wash my clothes, cook my lunch, I stepped out from my comfort zone, I tried new food (a lot) discovering that meat is not that bad and Adana Kebab and Durum are some of my favorite foods, I learned Turkish, I realized how much my family and friends are important to me and I found myself missing basic activities like walking to the grocery store or having chai at Khokha with my friends. It surely wasn't easy but it made me a stronger person that knows what she wants and she is not going to stop in front of anything or anyone!