I am from mint.

from the bays of Foca.

I am from where cats and olive trees are.

Uniquely patterned cats, and strong trunks that carry vibrant green olives.

I can hear the seeds of the sweet figs popping and melting in my mouth.

From growing with love.

From Nejla

From Felipe

From cilantro.

and sage.

I am from coffee pot,

foaming,

mantı,

lavender,

and walking in the breeze to get gum-mastic ice cream.

Hello! I am Alara Sever. I was raised in Istanbul, Turkey!

I love to travel to learn about and work with different animal species and watch may different sunsets. I love touching and interacting with animals and observing them. Along the way one of my favourite things to do is tasting different food even though my options might be limited since I am vegetarian. I love finding tastes that I can obsess about. I never get bored of watching sunrises and sunsets, seeing how the colours change and get painted by the sun rising and going down. I am very excited about this class because I am very interested in Latin American culture. Since I had been to Mexico I could not stop going back there in every opportunity and I did an exchange in Santa Fe Campus last term (My next stop is Islas Marietas to see the blue-footed boobies). I absolutely love discovering and experiencing Latin American culture. Since I am Turkish I also believe the Latin culture is close to Turkish culture. There are also so many things that I enjoy about Turkish culture such as drinking Turkish coffee and trying to interpret my energy from the shapes that the coffee grounds form. I used to make mantı (Turkish ravioli) in our summer house for hours with my grandma, playing with dough and having fun. I love eating sweet and juicy peaches in Turkey and papayas with lemon juice in Mexico. Overall, I am always looking forward to going to new places in Latin America and to observe endemic animals and colourful sunsets while tasting some incredible food (mezcal hot chocolate, and green chilaquiles with extra beans). I am happy that  I will get to learn more about the Latin culture in this class and when I am back there I can interpret things more meaningfully.