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A Day in the Life of a Student in Istanbul
Posted June 10, 2010
 English is a second language for Sparkler Mikolatte. This is an impressive post, no? Also, this is a pic of the Bosphorus Bridge in Turkey, and we´re 99% sure it´s the one Mikolatte crosses every morning to get to school. —Sparkitors
The most interesting part of my day (for you) is that *drum roll* my school is in Asia but I live in Europe. It is not that my parents are super rich and I can afford a private jet or anything, it is just that Istanbul, as you might know, is located in two different continents. We use a bridge to pass from Europe to Asia, and the sight is wonderful but the bridge traffic is HORRIBLE. I have seen what should have been a 30-minute ride take three hours because of bridge traffic. Yeah, all that "two continent" stuff stops being cool when it means you have to wake up way earlier. But still, it´s unique...
6:15-6:30 a.m. I wake up and start getting ready. I don´t know exactly when I´m woken up since my mum is the one who wakes me and I never think of looking at time at that time in the morning, but I´m sure it is no earlier than 6:15.
7 a.m. I´m on my way now. The ride will take 30-45 minutes depending on traffic, and I usually listen to music and daydream as we go. I always listen to a slow/romantic/cheerful music when I´m on the bridge, enjoying the view. A lot of passengers in other cars fall asleep waiting on the bridge.
8 a.m. School starts. Our school is very selective, so the lessons tend to be very hard. It is an old school, established in 1876, and the campus has been the same since early 1920s. At the start of every Monday, we have our flag ceremony and announcements. If the weather is warm, this is held outside, but if not, we will have this in our classes, and it will take a shorter time, making our first lesson unbearably long.
8.20 a.m. History. This is one of the most boring lessons for me, and I spend the next 40 minutes a) staring blankly or counting random stuff (like dots on a wall), b) getting warned about not talking during class, or c) looking interested at the history book, maps etc. If we had the ceremony inside, this class takes up to 55 minutes, and it´s so boring you start thinking about which house your classmates would be in if you were in Hogwarts.
9:05 a.m. The previous lesson ended at 9 a.m. and we had a 5 minute break between classes to get from one class to another. If we are lucky and the next classroom is close, it will take less than 1 minute to get there, but if they are far away and you have been stupid enough to leave your stuff at your lockers, you have to run a marathon, and still be marked late by the evil late-writer-teacher. And 7 lates makes a detention, so it is no small thing. But usually teachers pity us, so it´s okay.
9:50 a.m. It is now chemistry time! Chemistry is for juniors at my school, and like most of our classes, it´s taught in English. When you start at my school, you have to take an English prep year. My English was already good in my prep year, but students who had absolutely no previous languages classes are now good enough to take everything in English.
10:30 a.m. Yay! Recess time! This break is 15 minutes but it is enough for eating a small mid meal from the canteen. A lot of students use this time for their breakfast.
10:50 a.m. Nooo! Recess is over and now we have Turkish Literature. We tend to write a ton during this lesson and my brain gets all mushed up. One time at the end of the lesson, I failed at trying to spell my own surname.
11:35 a.m. We have maths, which is also in English.
12:15-13 p.m. Lunch break! This is the best time of the day. It is usually 1 hour long, but not in the Monday schedule. The majority of school club meetings takes place in first half of the lunch break. We also have a garden, and if the weather is nice, me and my friends sit on the grass and enjoy the spring—okay, maybe more like "sit on the grass and frantically try to finish our homework"—but still, it is nice to feel the sun.
13:05- 13:45 p.m. Double English. I sit at the back row so I probably get half as bored as the poor ones sitting on the front, but this class is still boring. My teacher is quite funny and sometimes distracts us from the monotonous lessons plans, but I still fall asleep sometimes.
14:35 p.m. At my school, we choose between taking French or German, and I picked German. The view from the classroom is very good, and it is the last lesson of the day, so it´s basically impossible to concentrate on the material. But our teacher must be good, because I´ve learned a lot of German so far.
15:30 p.m. I have an afterschool activity at Mondays, drama. Our school play was a month ago (I played a white-haired, crabby mother-in-law of a king), so now we just play theatrical games and have fun.
18-18:30 p.m. (aka 6-6:30 p.m.) After an hour of exercising, I come home, read SparkLife, stalk random people on Facebook, check MLIA if my submission has been published (it has not), and talk to my friends.
Is school in Istanbul better than your school?
Related Post: A Day in the Life of an International School Student
By: Contributor
Topics: School
Tags: sparkler posts, travel, europe, a day in the life, asia
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