End Of Program

I finished working by October and one week after I turned back to my country.

What a long journey it was...

I met lots of muslim people,
visited New York, Boston, Framingham, Buffalo,
rented and bought bikes,
purchased phone, watches, gifts,
saw exiting places,
tested to live without family,
particapated halaqah,
got on trains, buses, subways,

to be continued.

Visiting Niagara Falls

...

Other Turkish students were about to turning back to Turkey. They offered me to go to Niagara on Sunday and I accepted. 

I talked to my boss to give me off on Sunday. He said "no" at first because he'd prepared the schedule already. ( he prepares schedules and put on the wall every week )
But I insisted, explained the situation. Then he accepted. :D

One day ago we rented a car, prepared sandwiches and left next day earlier in the morning.

After 7 hours driving we were close to Canada border.

Between Canada & Usa

 That was a memorable day. 

Life in Framingham

It's been more than one month since I came to Framingham, Massachusetts. This area is connected to high way, close to main road and 40 minutes to Boston by train. 

I am getting used to living here day by day. 10 days ago, on Friday, Abdurrahman brother from Camerun picked me up and we went to a big mosque in Wayland which is 25 minutes to here by car.
Same day in the evening another brother, Osame took me by his car and we went to a big mosque in Boston. There were lots of people I met with people from different cultures. After isha prayer, we went to an Afghani restaurant and had a dinner. That's a memorable day ! :)

InshaAllah we will go next Friday also. 

Thankfully, my boss gives me off day on Fridays. That's exactly what I want. I wanna be close to muslims. 

This Friday we went to Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center. Imam was giving a lecture. We sit down and listened. After the lecture we prayed together. 

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Nice car 

Ramadan Feast in Boston

When I turned back from masjid, I went to room 107 which other Turkish guys stay at. They offered to go to Boston earlier in the morning. I was glad to hear this. I accepted and we urgently went to bed.

We woke up at half past 4 am, quickly dressed up and set off. It is approximately 3 miles from our motel to train station. We walked fastly and caught the 6 am train. 

Train was slowly going so we arrived at like 7 o'clock. We were hungry so we bought some food from Dunkin' Donuts. I wanted to try Boston Cream. It's delicious. 

We took a taxi to hotel. There were lots of Turks. People started gathering and we passed to big room. Imam came and remind us that how to pray feast praying. After that we prayed. 

After praying we all passed to Turkish Cultural Center for breakfast. All food had been prepared by Turks and we were happy to be there. 

Lots of foods... 

Kavurma, baklava, Turkish tea : )

We spoke to lots of people. We felt like we're in Turkey.

 Thankfully, brothers helped us to get there. Otherwise I think we couldn't have managed to find it. 

After breakfast, we turned back to Boston and got on the train to Framingham. It was a hard day for us. We were asleep but it's worth it. 

We all are looking forward to going to Turkish Cultural Center again. 

Getting used to living here

Finally I bought a bike. Thus I can go to mosque.

Long Journey

I stayed with Fatih brother 2 weeks in Brooklyn. It was a different experience for me.

New York City is a very developed location. I tried to get used to subway first. Because it connects people to almost everywhere. I lost my way, got on the wrong train :) , went wrong way . But eventually I was be able to find my way to home everytime.

First a few days I stayed at home. Everyone went to work or school. By the way I informed my sponsor and was waiting them to find me a job.

Our apartment in Brooklyn

It is very crowded and exteremely hot. There is more than 90% of humid. It is like boiling. It's hard to live in New York City.

On Friday we went to New York University Islamic Center for Jumaah.

I came to here for teravih later. Subway works at nights so when I left from here ( it is in Manhattan ) I went to our apartment easily.

The subway is very long and connects all places. We have only one line in Istanbul. You don't have to know which train you get in. There are 2 ways , one way to Taksim and other way. It's easy. But here is different. There are lots of trains and it is 2 or 3 storey. You have to be careful. If you get on C instead of A train it goes to another way. Shorty it is complicated. I wrongly got on different trains but I learned.

After teravih, I was going back to home.

Next week my sponsor offered me another job at Mcdonald's in Massachusetts. I accepted this offer and left from New York.

On the 20th of July, I arrived in Framingham, MA. There were another Turkish guys at Monticello Motel which I would share a big queen room with. We met and I settled. 

Monticello Inn

2 days later I went to Mcdonald's and two managers welcomed me. We spoke about job necessities. They gave me job dresses and I started working on the register at Fresh City.

Fresh City is next to Mcdonald's . And we are selling wraps, burridos, salads, tuna etc. Day by day I learned details. On my 4th day I learned almost %90 of it. İt is easy. My colleges are helpful.

I foınd a masjid on google maps. So I try to go there in the evenings.

We break our fasting here and play basketball befero teravih.

Elhamdulillah everything is going well. I want to buy a bicycle soon. So I will be able to visit Boston and other masjids. 

Changing job : 9 July

I haven't written for a week. Because days were almost same. I didn't want to write the same things.

I worked at Thendara for 4 days. I was working in the kitchen and it was a very hard job for me. For instance last Friday I started 5 pm and finished 1 am. I was always standing and after 5 hours working my waist ached and it continued all night and even next two days.

I didn't want to lose my health. When I got tired , my work speed decreased. And boss didn't like this. We argued lots of times and she said :

"If you don't want to work I can find another one!"

So I accepted.

She wanted me to work as a last time on Friday and leave Monday morning.

----

I went to see other Turkish work and travel participants who are working 8 miles away from Thendara. I couldn't find the bicycle in front of the Van Aukenn. Thus , I hitchhiked two times. Thankfully 2 men took me where Turkish students worked.

I stayed there for 2 hours. We had lunch together and spoke about our current situations. They were glad to see me and me too .

On Monday morning I hitchhiked again, thank Allah swt, he brought me to train station.

on the way

We talked about lots of things. 

When we arrived I thanked and went inside to the train station. I bought my ticket to Penn Station, NY and dropped my luggage off. After that I went to downtown and aplied for social security number. I will be able to apply another job with this number.

After I arrived to New York City, Fatih brother picked me up from the station. We had spoken on the phone when I was at Utica station.

We went to his home and I settled. Fortunately it was one day before Ramadan. We could go to masjid and prayed teravih.

Last night we started fasting by 3 o'clock and this evening I went to the same masjid again but on my own this time. I met with Fatih brother and others. He came there from work.

IQRA MASJID 

Everything is going well now, I hope to find my job and continue living here.