"No Flip-Flop" Rule Is Not Cool!

Last year, a rule was made that flip-flops were not allowed to be worn at school. I understand that flip-flops are not worn all year long here, unlike in America where many people do. I also understand that our school is located in a more conservative area, but the rule could at least change to allow the kids wear them for a certain time of the year, or let them put flip-flops on once they are inside the school building .

Another reason why I think that students should be allowed to wear them is because our locker rooms and feet will smell a whole lot better. When it is hot outside, people sweat in their shoes. Then their shoes stink, which makes their feet stink. Also, flip-flops are very convenient and easy to wear,. I do not really see a problem with flip-flops if nobody goes out of the school or out in public near the school with them.

Dear Aunty Jen,

Dear Aunty Jen,
My husband and I are raising four beautiful children. Our oldest daughter, age 15, has admitted to us that she has been drinking alcohol at parties on weekends. She says she never gets drunk but always has one drink because "everyone else is doing it" and she doesn't want to look "weird."



My husband and I never drink. Alcohol is not served in our home. Our daughter is an honor student and never has caused us any trouble. She says we should appreciate her honesty and not be angry with her. How should we handle this?



— Beside Ourselves in Bebek\



Dear Beside Ourselves,
I know this must be hard for you to deal with. You just want the best for your daughter, but she does not understand. I agree that you should appreciate her honesty, and you should tell her so. I do think, though, that alcohol is not a good habit to pick up, and is not something to do just because your friends say to. You should tell her that if her friends are the type that will only accept her if she drinks, then they are probably not good friends to have. You should also tell her that you love her and care about what she does, and you care that she is drinking underage. She is only 15, so you can still ground her from going to parties. You have authority over her, and parents are not supposed to be the child's friend, they are supposed to be the child's parent. You should just give her the "we are very disappointed in you" gig. That always worked on me. Sit her down and explain the seriousness of alcohol and its effects on people. Tell her you are not neccesarily angry with her but more disappointed and sad. Tell her how it makes you feel as her parent. Reiterate that in your house there will be no drinking of alcohol.

Dear Aunt Jen,

I have a friend, “Matilda,” who is very concerned about her weight. She is very thin, but she’s always saying she’s fat. She never eats lunch and she wears big, baggy clothing so we can’t really see what she looks like. I think she is anorexic, but when I said that to her, she reacted angrily and told me to mind my own business. What do you think I should do?




– Anxious in Antalya

 
Dear Anxious in Antalya,
I understand this situation. I was once accused of being anorexic myself. I was also very angry and annoyed, but mostly because I was not anorexic. I was just really skinny. Your friend, Matilda, sounds like she has really low self-esteem. There are many girls in the world that have this problem. What might help your friend is if you made her realize that she was thin by going to Wal-Mart and showing her how fat people really look. You could also tell her that she is beautiful the way she is, and it is not healthy for her to live this way. By doing this to her body she is destroying the temple of God. I would suggest therapy to her and tell her some of your issues so she feels like there is someone she can relate to and know that you are there for her.
 
 

Dear Aunty Jen,

Dear Aunty Jennifer,
I complained about the way my SAT Prep teacher grades our homework and tests. Somehow, the teacher found out it was me who complained and she treats me very coolly and angrily. What can I do to get in her good graces again—without “sucking up to her” or being a “brown-noser”?


--Sad in Selimiye

Dear Sad in Selimiye,
I understand your predicament. It is obvious that you care about what your teachers think about you, which is a good thing. The first thing you should do is go and apologize for saying something rude behind your teacher's back. You should also tell the teacher that you will respect them and their rules even if you do not neccesarily like them. You do not have to "suck up" to her, you just have to be honest with her and tell her how you feel in a civil manner. You could also behave in class and be on your best behavior, even if you do not agree with the teacher. Remember, your teacher is in control of you while you are in their class, so be polite and respect her.

Movie Review of Fireproof

Fireproof is an inspiring movie that we can all learn something from. It is a dramatic, Christian based story, filled with humor. I think that this movie is a very encouraging movie. It is about a firefighter named Caleb who is having problems with his marriage. His parents are trying to help him save his marriage. His number one rule as a firefighter is “never leave your partner behind, especially in a fire.” In the end he finds out that his number one rule at the firehouse should be his number one rule at his own house.
There is only one negative thing I could say about this movie. Some of the actors in the movie were not very good. There are lots of scenes that just sounded and looked fake. In several scenes you could really tell that they were not professionals.

Even though this movie did not have the best actors, it was still good. I liked this movie because it has three of my favorite things that I like to see in a movie: love, humor, and a happy ending. There was just the right amount of humor to make you laugh and just the right amount of touching moments to make you cry. It is a well-thought out movie. It also had a lot of drama in it to keep you wondering what was going to happen.

Another thing I liked about it was the way they implemented God into it so much. In the movie Caleb’s father gives Caleb a book called the Love Dare, to help with his marriage. It is a 40 day journey to help his marriage. The Love Dare was one of the most endearing parts to the movie, and the Bible verses at the bottom of every page were another good way to show that God should be in every part of a person’s life. I also liked how the parents would pray for their son while he was struggling with his marriage.

Overall Fireproof was just a good Christian movie. It was encouraging and gave lots of good advice to married couples. I personally learned a lot from this movie that I plan on using in the future. This movie shows not just to love your spouse and stick with them through hard times but also how important it is to have God in the center of marriage.

Facebook Article

Facebook is used worldwide and is the most popular social network. You can chat with your friends from all over the world, see pictures of them, post pictures, and so many other things. I personally have connected with a lot of long lost friends. While Facebook is a great place to meet new people and get connected with your friends, it can also be a big time waster.

In the survey that was taken about Facebook one of the questions was about the advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. Lots of negative issues were brought up, but I am only going to talk about a few of them because it would take forever to get into all of them. The first one is that Facebook is a time consumer. Out of about 100 people that answered the question 16 of them said it was a time waster. I agree with this statement. Although it can be used for productive things, it usually is not. I personally can say that I spend too much time on it while I could be focusing more on school. I bet even though only 16 people wrote it to be a time waster, if you asked the other people they would probably agree.

Another negative aspect of Facebook is that you are more anti-social face to face. Out of 100 people more than 6 said this to be true. By chatting over the internet and talking about relationships and other personal things you do not learn how to communicate as well with your friends when you are face to face with them. Some people also say that they talk about so many things on Facebook that when they are hanging out with their friends they are out of things to say. I had never really thought of that until someone mentioned it to me. I started thinking about this statement and noticed that it was true. Some of the people I talk to on Facebook almost every day I do not even talk to when I am sitting right beside them.

Now we move on to the positives of Facebook. Once again, many things were brought up but I will only mention some of the bigger ones. One thing someone said was that Facebook Is good for keeping in contact with friends that live overseas. For our school, most of us are not from Turkey, so this aspect of Facebook is really useful and helpful to us. I personally prefer Skype to keep in contact with my family back in the States, but if you do not have that then Facebook is a great way to keep in touch.

Another positive thing about Facebook would have to be that you always have an idea of what is going on in your community. If there is a party, or a bunch of people that are meeting up for something, it is posted on Facebook. This is a good thing because in a way, it helps us be more social and get out of the house to do things with our peers or friends. You can also plan an event and then post it on Facebook and tag a bunch of people in it so that they all hear at once and can respond if they plan on coming to it.

There are lots more things to be said about Facebook. I for one think that the negative and the positive are pretty neutral. I also think that people need to be more careful with Facebook because when you are careless you create negatives about the site that are not completely the fault of the site.

Essay Ques. : Is change always for the better?

Jennifer Bentley




One of the many changes in our society is food. Nowadays there are many fast food restaurants that are east to get to. Although these wonderfully convenient restaurants make your life easier, it is probably not the healthiest thing for you.

I once watched a documentary about fast food. They approached this video in a strange way. This completely healthy guy decided to experiment with fast food by eating it for all three meals of the day. He would do this for a month and see how it affected him. Of course this extreme change in the guy’s diet was not very good to start out with. At the end of the experiment, they learned that although the food is easy to get, and takes up less of your time, it is extremely unhealthy for you.

Over half of the United States’ population eats fast food every day. Even though most people would say fast food is a life saver, it is harmful if you eat too much of it. This is simply because the food is filled with chemicals, preservatives, and steroids that are not good for you in large amounts.

I have heard it said that “too much of a good thing is bad.” I partially agree with this statement. If you are talking about fast food then I think the phrase applies. So, I would say that it pretty much is true that changes that make our life easier are not always the best thing for us.

Facebook Bad?

Facebook is a popular way of communicating across the world, but is it  neccasary?No, it is definately not a "need to have" thing. Facebook, I think has two sides to it. One side being the useful side, and the other being dark side.

Personally, I waste a lot of valuable time on Facebook. When I need to do any kind of school work on the computer, I end up there. In the summer, when I first got Facebook, I got addicted to it. I was on it all the time, because I had time. I could have been doing way more productive stuff, but I did not want to.

Facebook, on the flip side, is a great way to stay in touch with friends across the world. I also use Facebook for this reason. I also can use it to know what is going on in my community and it is very helpful.

There is always ups and downs to mostly everything in this world. I think some people are too rapped up in Facebook, but it is not a bad thing as long as you do not use it in the wrong way or too much.

Is Conscience a Stronger Motive Than Money, Fame or Power?

There are many ways you could look at this question. There are also many different answers. My answer is based on one event that I went to.


I was at a Halloween fair and I had 3 tickets. I had to choose what I wanted to do with these tickets. As I walked around to all the booths I was looking for two things. One, that if won the game I would get candy, and two, that it was fun. I saw a booth that gave out more candy that the rest of the booths, so I used one of my tickets for that. I used this ticket because my conscience told me I would be rich with candy if I did. My conscience motivated me because the candy motivated it. So, technically the candy had hold on my conscience.

I will say though, our conscience has way more power than money, fame, fortune, or candy, but most of the time we do not let it. We usually should listen to our conscience, but in my story I did not.

With the other two tickets I had I wanted to rock climb. The problem was, my wrist was broken. I should have listened to my conscience, and my mom, when they said not to rock climb with a broken arm, but I did not. As a result, my arm hurt really bad and I to be slowly let down by the safety rope I was on. Because I was so concentrated on my arm hurting, I accidentally kicked a guy in the face that was trying to help me down.

I would have to say that our conscience is only stronger than other things when we listen to it. So depending on if you choose to listen depends on which thing is stronger.

Boy Saved!!!

Yesterday, two boys were saved from drowning in the ocean.

These two lads were just having fun fishing together, when all of a sudden “a huge wave swept over us,” said Alan Boyd, the boy who tried to rescue his friend. “The current was too strong,” said Tony Slater, who nearly drowned.

Luckily, there happened to be a lifeguard nearby who saw what was happening. “He was a really strong swimmer,” says Tony. "I don't normally go anywhere near the beach at this time of year,”said Mark Stebbings, the rescuer. It was just "sheer chance" that Mark happened to be there that day.

"We are investigating complaints that the pier is not a safe place for fishing”, said a policeman called by one of the eye witnesses. Apparently there has been more than one complaint around that neighborhood. Even the mother of Tony Slater said that she told him not to go out onto that pier because it was dangerous. "I've told Tony time and time again to keep away but he took no notice," says the concerned mother. "It was all very frightening", says Joy Revel, another eyewitness.

Thankfully no was killed in this incident. The council is going to have to do something about that pier though.

Swept Off My Feet, but Landed in a Puddle

The Murphy’s Law applies to me. In my world something usually goes wrong at the worst possible time. I have many "funny" stories about these incidents that have happened to me. They did not exactly seem funny at the time, and some of them still are not.

There was this guy I liked and I was always to scared or shy to talk to him. One day we passed each other in a hallway and he said ”hey." I was swept off my feet by him actually talking to me...literally. I slipped in a big puddle, did a split, and ended up with water all over the back of me. It looked like I wet my pants, and the part were I did a split did not feel too great either. I actually died out laughing because I like to laugh at myself rather than get embarrassed. I did this sort of thing twice. He said hey to me another time and I slipped again. My friends always joked with me that he "swept me off my feet". I guess I am not as smooth as I would like to be. Why did I have to slip and fall straight on my back in front of him? Thankfully nothing has ever happened to me like losing any bathing suit pieces.

Legends Die, but Thier Stories Stay

   Michael Jackson’s death was sudden. He died on June 25th 2009 from cardiac arrest. He was said to be in his home at the time, and was found by his personal physician Bubbles. When Bubbles found Michael he was found in the floor and was not breathing but still had a pulse.

When Michael Jackson’s death was further looked into officials say it was homicide, which was caused by the combination of drugs. It has been said that Michael was taking propofol, lorazepam, and midazolem before he died. Law enforcements are investigating and questioning Michael Jackson’s physician who claims to have been trying to get Michael of some of the drugs."I walked in and he was just in the floor motionless"says Bubbles.

All of Michael Jackson’s fans were mortified by his sudden death. "I was like,omg! Michael Jackson is dead? I mean, I thought he was like, immortal" says a big fan of the late Michael Jackson. The internet became booming with people who wanted to buy his music. Before his death he was scheduled to do a concert but never did. The reason for his death is still being investigated but most likely he over-dosed on drugs.

DRUNK DRIVER KILLED IN CAR ACCIDENT!

On Wednesday an accident accord. A bus and a car collided into each other on Nato Yolu in Çengelköy, Istanbul. The young man in the car did not survive the impact, but the bus driver is in stable condition at a nearby hospital.

A 19 year old boy, Ozan Alpasian, was driving home from a raging party he had just attended. He was about to enroll in the army and it was his last night of freedom before he went off to training. That night it was raining and the roads were slippery and dangerous. At the party he had a few beers and was not completely sober. He did not have a designated driver; in fact, he was alone. The accident happened at about 11 p.m. that night. Witnesses say he was being very reckless in his driving, and he was even driving on the wrong side of the road. Obviously he did not see the bus coming around the corner, and likewise the bus driver was not prepared for a speeding car to be heading for him. The car smashed into the front of an IETT bus. The impact crushed the whole front of the car and also the front of the bus. The young drunken boy was thrown into the car's windshield because he was not wearing his seatbelt. He was killed instantly by the impact. The bus driver was taken to Medicana Hospital and treated for a broken arm.

"I saw him coming and tried to avoid the accident by switching to the left lane. Unfortunately, the Renault driver also changed lanes and drove straight into me,” said the bus driver.

Slippers vs. Shoes in the House

  There are many differences in our culture and Turkey's culture. One of the differences is shoes in the house. In America it seems to be very normal to walk around in shoes in the house. Here in Turkey that is not cleanly, and is considered rude.

Here in Turkey when you go into a house you are supposed to take off your shoes and put on slippers. Slippers are provided for you at the front door so you have easy access to them. In Russia they also do this. Taking off your shoes shows good breeding. In America you do not do this at all.

When I go back to America I always take my shoes off and whoever house I am visiting always tell me, "Oh you don't have to take your shoes off", but in my mind I do. Then just when I am getting used to leaving my shoes on when I walk around in the house, I go back overseas. "I had gotten used to the fact that I just leave my shoes on in the house so when I went back I went to a Turkish person's home and I forgot that I had to take my shoes off,” says Kendall Martin. The hostess in turn is taken aback by this behavior and does not know how to respond to it. “It takes some time to get used to the change in a culture when you go back,” says Annie Jonas. "There are many times when people have come over to our house and have trekked across our clean floors that we have slaved over to get clean, and they get mud/dirt all over the floor." says Morgan Benton.

It bothers me now when people wear their shoes in the house because I am not used to it. Slippers are provided in our home in America as well, and when people come to our house often they know to take their shoes off. In my case, my family in America has had to adapt to our culture because we are so used to it we make them change their culture while they are around us.

Mysterious Girl Seen at the Prince's Ball

An unknown girl was at the Prince's Ball on September 20th, at the Prince's Palace in Fairytown. This ball was held to help the Prince find a bride. He was to dance with all of the eligible women in town until he found the "right one." Halfway through the ball, a girl in a beautiful gown came in and danced with the prince. The couple was then seen exiting the castle to the garden.

The two seemed to be having a pleasant time, until midnight. At 12 o'clock, this lovely girl got into her carriage and went racing off in a cloud of dust. She did not give the Prince any information about herself, not even her name. All she left was a glass slipper that slipped off her foot when she was running away.

Baffled by the whole ordeal, the Prince wanted to find this remarkable girl. He  sent out a search warrant to every house that had an eligible young woman in it. He then went to all of those houses and made the girls try on the glass slipper that had fallen off of the runaway girl.

"She said she had to leave at 12 o'clock. I asked for her name but then she ran off. I just want to find her!"said the Prince. "I hope the slipper fits the right girl," said one of the townsfolk jokingly. Hopefully she will be found soon.

Yalova, Turkey, Teen Retreat in 2008

    In October,there was a teen retreat in Yalova, Turkey. This retreat consisted of high schoolers from a school in Istanbul, Turkey. This retreat is held every year in order to deepen the teens’ knowledge of God, as well as to get to know their peers a little better. Transport was also provided for the students to get to Yalova safely.

     This retreat helped teens to express themselves, show who they were as believers and how to interact with other Christians. “I liked the retreat because you got to know your classmates out of a school setting” said Jennifer B. The students enjoyed the trip to Yalova. “There are so many funny stories that happened on the way,”Josie Holiday, said.

The students stayed for two days at a camp in Yalova and enjoyed the time that was spent there. Another highlight for the students was spiritual focus. At the camp there were lots of games and activities provided for the students to keep themselves occupied. Worship was held every morning and evening as well. “I enjoyed the worship a lot. It really got me going in the morning,” said Jack Roberts.
     There will be another retreat on October 4th, 2009. This one will be held at  a hotel near Izmet.






28/08/2009

Girl Thrown into Contaminated Waters

  In October, 2008there was a teen retreat in Yalova, Turkey. This retreat was attended by many teenagers that go to an international school. It was organized to allow the teens to interact with each other out of a school setting. It was also about getting to know God better.
    Most of the teens that went last year enjoyed it, but there were some that said it was a waste of money. This remark is quite untrue. Other teens thought it to be filled with fun and fellowship.  There were some unpleasent experiences for some people,however.

    There was a pool of water at the place they were staying. It was filled with green, filthy water. Some of the boys wanted to have a little fun. Suzanna P. was looking at this peculiar  bacteria-infested water as well. Not expecting it, Suzanna was pushed into the slimy pool. "I smell really gross,"she said afterwards. Though probably not a highlight of her trip, it still made her laugh afterwards. Even the worst experiences can be our best stories to tell.
 

Love wins! Infinity to Nothing

      I would choose to marry for love but be desperately poor rather than marry for money without love. I chose it for lots of reasons. I have been all over the world and have seen places some people only dream about; but as amazing as those places are, if it came between money and love, I would choose love. I think true love is important. Not just between husband and wife, but also your family and friends. For me at least ,I could not live a very good life if I did not have love in my life.

      Rich and lonely people are not really happy, they are just rich. They try to buy happiness and try to buy love. The truth is, you can't buy true love. Love is given as a gift from God. Money just makes greedy people of us. Don't get me wrong, I like money, but when it starts to replace more important things like God, and family, then it is bad. . I really would rather marry for love than be filthy rich and lonely.

10 years from now!

 Ten years from now if I did not  have to worry about money or education, I would probably have two houses  in two different settings. One house would be near the coast, and the other one would be in the mountains: Mountains in the winter and beach in the summer. I would also probably be married. I would like to have a job as an outdoor extreme sports guide. I would want this because it is something I love to do. My job would involve teaching people how to rock climb, ski, snowboard, and white water raft, etc.
    
I would be in America, and I would want to be a youth group leader at the church where i attended. I would also go on trips to help the less fortunate people. These are just some of my plans for my future. I hope to fulfill them 10 years from now or sooner.