So my first week of classes is unofficially over. I technically am registered for a class tomorrow morning but its an upper-level (read: grad) class in a department that is known for its difficulty. I am here to have some fun ya know!

Anyways, classes are definitely different from in the US. Like this is an english speaking school and all that, but none of the students speak english among themselves. Today was particularly frustrating because I am in this structures class that I think is going to be pretty tough, and the teacher was like: do this worksheet. And everyone starts talking in Turkish. Sometimes they even ask questions in Turkish. (The answer comes in english!) And yesterday my GSI person just started talking to the class in Turkish for a couple minutes. It's not like they aren't accommodating (the GSI translated for me after he was done), but it's definitely intimidating. And it's not like I don't agree -- even if I fluently spoke Spanish or something and went to a Spanish-speaking school with a bunch of Americans, I would speak in English. Intimidating is definitely the word of the week.

My schedule is almost all set -- a bunch of my friends are taking a photo class that I am in, so that should be fun. And Turkish for foreigners isn't all that exciting yet -- we're just starting on greetings, etc. Soon I will know more. And then I have my two civil classes that are back-to-back with mostly the same people, so I'm hoping to break into the group so I can get some help. This kid Ceki always helps me whenever I run into problems, which is a common and frequent occurrence.

We've met even more people this week, lots of exchange students from last semester are getting back from amazing travel experiences (southeast asia, all over europe). It's really nice because at any given point on my walk through campus or up the giant hill from campus to the superdorm I will run into someone that I know. After class almost every day this week I've bumped into a friend, grabbed dinner (its so cheap here, most places are like 6 lira or less) or gone to smoke nargile (mom, i promise I'm not addicted... it's not like that). We're getting a pretty cool group of people to hang out with -- plenty of americans (we flock like that) plus some really cool turks. My favorite is Ozgur, anytime I am lost or need help with my Turkish he helps. Today in class when I was like "oh my god I'm alooooone with my lowly english" I texted him asking how to say "I don't understand." He texted back in about 2 seconds "anlamiorum". So useful to know him. And the exchange students from last semester all know so much about istanbul -- the cheapest cafes where the owners greet them with giant hugs and kisses, the best clubs. And they have so many stories from their first months here I am excited to what lies ahead.

Tonight we are going back to that club we were at last Thursday -- apparently we are VIP if things work out. Um, yes please. I love Istanbul :)

Oh and the exchange commision set up a trip to Bursa for the weekend. So I'll be there Sat and Sun. Should be a good time -- although it may be snowy, something I thought I was done with for the year!