We're HERE, We're POOOOOR

We got into Istanbul around 1pm Ist Time... 6am Michigan time. We were exhausted, especially since the flights were very turbulent so we each slept very little. We went camera crazy on the ride into the city, since it was long due to the traffic we had been forwarned of.

Our cab driver from the airport wanted us to take a picture. He was on a 24 hour shift and still had 5 hours to go. That made us less tired.

Some buildings as we got farther into the city.


View the rest of my photos from our ride in HERE. There are also some shots of the view you see walking from our dorm down to the campus that has the International Center on it. AMAZING.

Of course at the International Center we come to find out our tuition is short (mine by a mere $11 resulting from unforeseen wire transfer fees). And yeah, our bank cards don't work in Turkey because of previous fraud that has occurred. So... FYI I didn't bring a dime of cash. Ok, I lied, I have a quarter. The soonest we can get money transferred is next Wednesday. We spent all the cash Sarah had paying for the taxi ride. THANKFULLY, Sarah found a $100 bill in her backpack (why doesn't that every happen to me?!). So $11 of that is going to the school on Monday to make sure I can register. And that leaves us with $89 to live off of this weeked. So much for crazy parties and good times on the first time out. I was really upset at first, but now that I've accepted, I'm really excited. We bought my favorite European meal staples -- good bread, ripe tomatoes and yummy cheese. And some Peanut Butter. Se we're packing a lunch and wandering on foot, taking pictures and learning where the hell we are in this huge city. Should be good, non spending fun :)

Other than that, we spent our evening unpacking and moving into our new homes. We met one of our other roommates, a really nice girl from Oklahoma, who is here with 3 other student from OK. We also met a guy from Texas who is Turkish (he saved us in several stores today with his language skills!) and a girl calledNana for short, who is from Greece. I'm excited to meet even more people -- so far everyone has been really nice and helpful, even through this money massacre.

The superdorm staff told us not to tape anything on the walls of this ultra-modern dorm... but I have a secret... it's not all that modern. My matress had stains (I flipped it) and my wall had a thin layer of white paint over the previous occupants hate message: "I will always lover her. Nadsko will regret not doing what I want tonight." I decided that, and other obvious tape marks on the walls gave me authority to tape whatever I wanted, so now my room is quite nice. And just as I am thinking this I hear Sarah say "ewww" from her room. There are gross stains on her mattress.... Oh dorms.