1st Weekend in Istanbul

It's been a crazy few days, especially since I am still trying to figure out how to get cash! We spent Sunday navigating the public transportation here with the little cash I had from Saturday. There's buses running right outside our dorm, and you can usually just pay when you get on... but sometimes you can't and cause a backup on everyone else who is trying to get on the bus (as we learned today....). We made our way down to the Grand Bazaar, but almost bought tickets to what I can only guess is the city of "Abazzar" or something like that. After asking around in a park some Turkish guys brought us to the bus office (I can say bus in turkish!) but I think it was something like Greyhound, because there were no buses to Abazzar that day. This was a good thing because I think we would have gotten on a bus to some remote city if it was available. Turns out the Grand Bazaar is something different in Turkish. The bus drivers of the city bus are very nice though and when we asked (in terrible accents) for Kapali Carsi our bus driver told us which stop to get off at, which bus to get on, and then told that bus driver to help us find the tram. It was an adventure, but we made it. Since we had hardly any money we only bought 1 thing -- a hair straigtener to share between Sarah, me and our roommate, Miranda, from Oklahoma -- you know, the necessities.

After the Bazaar we found our way to the coast via a street of restaurants that were all named "Fish & Meat Restaurant." As two girls walking alone we were getting alot of looks, which were justified when we realized we were the ONLY girls in sight. I think it was a man-only street or something. Once near the Bosphorus and the Golden Horn we saw tons of families sitting in groups in the grass cooking food and enjoying the warm weather as the sun set.
We ate dinner at a restaurant around here and then went up near the Hagia Sofia to find the bus home. Registration was early this morning so we wanted to get to sleep earlier than our typical 6am. There were some shops where the guys working let us try on belly dancing outfits over our clothes. I think Sarah looks better than me but I'll let you judge:There were also some fun signs above the stores. My Turkish is worse than their English though... Or maybe they are really sorry that they have to be open?

And today was spent paying the rest of my tuition (yay I'm a student!) and trying to find the Western Union that has my bank. This proved impossible, and we were tired, so we went to a mall. Tonight we are going down to Taksim square, the place we went on Saturday, to find some nightlife and all that good stuff. On a sad note, Sarah and I bought cheese and wine to have for dinner in the dorm and apparently you can't drink in the dorms. And we got caught! A whole big bag of groceries and the woman is like "...What is that bottle?" Umm, so much for being legal... well I am just not in the dorms... when I am getting caught. Haha.

Tomorrow is orientation so maybe we'll finally know this campus a little better. And I registered for all my classes today. Only 1 was overlapping and I don't need it really, so as long as the others work out I am happy. Of course I am taking one structures class that may be too hard for me so we'll see. If that doesn't work out my dreamy graduating on time plan may not work out. But whatever... here is my tentative schedule for this semester:

Soil Mechanics + Soil Mechanics Lab
Computational Methods for Environmental Analysis
Structural Analysis II
Latin-Aero Dance
Rock Climbing II
Basic Photography
Elementary Turkish for Foreigners