Busy/crazy/fun

Well, it's been a while since I've updated... but that's definitely not an indicator of a lack of things to say! I have been so busy these past weeks, I've barely had time to sit down! Classes are starting to actually keep me busy (well, not really, but I have to say that for posterity). But I have spent alot of time hanging out, sightseeing, meeting people, eating delicious food, etc. You know... permanent vacation sort of things.

My friend Lizzie had a friend in town this past weekend, so I went sightseeing with them a few times. Finally got some mosque pictures since I remembered my camera. We also headed over to the Asian side to buy Lizzie an old Casio keyboard to give her a "creative outlet" that she needed, haha. See the picture of the sunset from the ferry -- it was absolutely beautiful. The weather is getting better, slowly but surely, and in not too long it will be perfect all the time! I'm hoping to go to the Prince's islands this weekend if the weather is nice. You take a ferry through the Sea of Marmara to these islands. There are no cars so you can just rent bikes and ride around. I am so excited, I miss my bike from home! I'm also going on a school sponsored city tour of Istanbul. It's given by the same professor who did the Bursa trip -- he's really knowledgeable about all the architecture in Turkey, so I should get a pretty good idea of the history of a ton of famous buildings in Istanbul. And it's only 7 Lira! So that is pretty much my big plans for the weekend.

Last weekend, in addition to the sightseeing, we also found ourselves at this really sweet meyhane, which is a traditional Turkish restaurant where you order meze (small appetizers) and raki (the Turkish liquor), listen to Turkish music, and all the Turks get drunk and sing. We were definitely the only foreigners in this one, so it was so fun just to watch the music and dancing. And the next day, two of my friends were at a juice bar and the ran in to Atatürk's great grandson who offered them a ride back to the European side... in his helicopter! So crazy! (I put a link on Atatürk for those of you that don't know.) So yeah. Life in Istanbul: never a dull moment :)

I also had a really cool conversation with a kid from my engineering class. He's trying to learn more about the US because he wants to go for grad school, so we talked for a while about movie stereotypes, what life is really like, and all that stuff. He was really interesting to talk to because he is the first Jewish Turkish person that I have met here. We talked for a while about that and he told me that close friends of his were killed in the bombings in 2003, outside of synagogues. That's the thing about being here, is that it's so beautiful, so amazing, but then you run into someone who's had his life torn apart by terrorism and you are like... I don't even know... Maybe it's because I'm from such a small town, but I've never run into anyone who has been directly involved with terrorism in the US. I mean I know it exists, but hearing him talk about it definitely made me appreciate life. Or whatever. I am not intellectual enough to describe this feeling... but I feel it!

On a happier note, here is a picture of Devin, me and Sarah from last weekend. Aren't we cute?! Tonight is a girls night so we get to do whatever we waaant. Woo! Everyone pray for warm weather, cheap living, and fun times! I am :)

Gross

You know in movies when it is raining out in the city and a giant truck drives by and splashes an unsuspecting character? Yeah, that happened to me right after I showered today. Not quite full body, just up to the waist, but I definitely took a slice of the Istanbul street home with me... yummy.

Everyone out there pray for better weather because I just found out you can go to the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara for the day and ride bikes. I love bicycles!

St. Patrick's Day... in Ireland baby!

In a completely irrational and thoroughly exciting move on Thursday, Sarah, a friend Adam, and I bought tickets to Ireland to celebrate St. Patrick's day. It was awesome.

We had a great time -- stayed with friend of Adam's from home, enjoyed some Guinness in it's homeland, ate all the things we missed from the western world (mainly sandwiches and bagels and bacon), and wandered all over Dublin. We met some really cool kids who were studying/working in Spain -- actually doing some Structural Engineering work, so I was excited to meet them. Without much of a plan, besides just to be in Ireland for the holiday, we saw a packed-to-the-brim Dublin (mainly tourists) lots of green and lots of Guinness.

We had a ton of fun, but it definitely made me appreciate Istanbul a lot -- #1: Western Europe is not for anyone lacking financially. Every time I bought something that costs more Euro in Dublin than it would Lira in Istanbul, I had to cringe. 2 Euro for a bottle of water! That is usually less than a Lira in Istanbul, so like less than 1/2 a Euro. Crazy! And #2: In Istanbul taxis practically beg to get it. If you walk to slow on the road taxis will honk at you to get in. Its less than 2 Lira to get in, and you can get quite a distance on 10 Lira during the day (remember 10 Lira = 5 Euro). In Dublin it was 6 Euro just to get IN the cab, not to mention a steadily increasing fare. Just to get back from town it cost as much as it does to get from the airport to my doorstep in Istanbul! And it took 2.5 hours to hail a cab! After fruitless attempts at flagging down the numerous empty cabs, we found the only place they were stopping was at this cab stand that had a mile long line of drunk and freezing people. Not the nicest crowd, let me tell you. And after waiting for all this time, the 5 of us hop in the cab only to be told "5 people weren't covered in his insurance." I don't even know if there is such a thing as insurance in Istanbul, but we've definitely had 6+ people in a speeding, crazy taxi before.

It was really strange to be in an English speaking country, Sarah, Adam and I all found ourselves stupidly miming every thing we wanted. The people would be like "Oh, you want this?" and halfway through the act of putting an imaginary hat on your head, you remember, ah yes, they can understand me with my words. We were really glad to find pork, and brought back a big bag of meat and cooked a big dinner last night with our friends. And we finally found medicine for Sarah's lactose-intolerance (a non-existent disease in Turkey apparently).

Overall, an amazing weekend, although we missed seeing quite a few Americans we knew that were in the city due to our lack of cell phones. It was an amazing experience and it also really made me appreciate Istanbul. It was so nice to come home to the city. Our super nice cab driver was talking to Adam (who has some Turkish background) and came up to our dorm and cooked us all Menemen, a Turkish egg/tomato/pepper dish. I love it! Only in Istanbul...

(a note on the pictures -- my camera went to Barcelona this weekend with a friend -- I didn't plan this trip remember! -- so all the pictures are from Sarah's camera. the group shot at top is (l-r back: Adam, me, Matt (we stayed in his house), Taylor, and front: Adam #2 (from Spain) and Sarah. the plane group shot is Sarah, Adam and i as we arrived in Istanbul with some Irish kids we talked to throughout the flight -- they were way cool. I love the people you meet traveling!)

Irish for the weekend

Randomness ensues: I'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day in Dublin, Ireland. See my next entry for a full account of this sure-to-be-amazing adventure :)

Taste my life

In honor of my constantly bursting stomach, I think its time I wrote about the food here in Turkey. Well what I eat in my budgeted and busy life.

There is this adorable little cafe right near campus called Arkadas (which means friend in Turkish) that I eat in at least 4 days a week. The guy who owns it loves us. We come in to be greeted with a huge hug, climb up some rickety spiral stairs and eat that day's special. Its usually some kind of meaty stew, served with rice and a ton of bread. Cok nefis (very delicious!) I also love the Pastry shop near the Superdorm -- they have super fresh pastries in the morning, cheesy/potatoey pogaca. And my newest discovery is the Hisar bakery -- heaven. There are tons of pastries, including baklava, that are so cheap. Yesterday I bought this huge cookie that was actually like 2 cookies stacked, and it was only 1 Lira.

There is so much meat and yogurt here, I feel like I never eat vegetables or fruit. Several times a week I wonder at the possibility of getting scurvy due to my crumbling food pyramid. Then I eat a salad and an orange and dive right back in. The first night I was here I ordered Iskender, which is literally just a giant plate piled with meat. With yogurt on the side. So much meat and dairy....It's all so good though!

So now I am seriously considering paying the 5 Lira entrance fee to the gym. Sadly, when I say 5 Lira, I can see 5 cookies dancing in front of my face. Anyways, that was a terrible description of Turkish food, but know its good, its making me fat, and I love it!

monDay on the Town

Today was such a perfect day! Number one -- my only class was canceled, so I had the day to get some stuff done. Sarah and I headed down to Karikoy, to get our student Akbil (the transportation pass used on the buses). It was pretty much madness, especially since we had to hit the bank first to pay the 5 lira fee. Everything closes at midday for lunch, and everyone who needs the bank during lunch stands outside waiting for it to open up again. They apparently haven't found the logic of people working shifts so as to control the pre/post lunch crowd... so we crammed into this tiny bank lobby and pushed our way through to a group of people holding similar looking papers, and paid the fee. Then we head over to an equally crowded transportation office that I'm sure was suffering the post-lunch onslaught of people. There is a line out the door so we awkwardly stood in it for a few minutes, responding to peoples questions with blank, deer in headlights stares. Out of nowhere this cop is like "student?" and waves us through the line into the office. Here we find a crowd of students waving their applications in the air. A different officer herds them off somewhere and we give him our typical awkward giggle/deer in headlights combination. And all of a sudden we find ourselves being led through lines of people holding the same applications as us, brought into an empty, open office with comfy chairs and told to sit. And within 5 minutes our new shiny transportation cards were ours. Simple. When it comes down to it, it's all about being awkward and giggly.

Now that we had our cards, we also needed the physical Akbil part to attach to them. This proved harder to find so we only managed to get one... but, they sell them all over the city, so I don't need to go back to Karikoy again. Which, since this city is so huge, is like an hour away. I also finally tried the infamous fish sandwiches that people are always talking about -- delicious fresh fish fried up and put on a bun. They sell them right by the Golden Horn, so we sat on the edge and ate them, then found our way to the Galata Bridge where we were lured into a restaurant by free tea. We sat inside, doing our homework and getting tons of tea and even more attention from the bored/enthralled wait staff. We were sitting there, just doing work, looking onto the Golden Horn about 10 feet away, Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace all in view, and were like "Wow... I am sitting here, doing homework, in Istanbul. Istanbul!" It's just so crazy to be doing something so mundane and tedious and look up and realize where you are. I can't say it enough, but I am loving it here!

We also went to Taksim tonight to meet for dinner with a girl who is coming to school in Michigan. Her friend found Sarah and I on facebook and set up a dinner tonight so she could ask us about Michigan. She is actually going to Western next winter. It was so weird to be describing Kalamazoo and Western to someone here! I was telling her -- all my friends go there from home! My little brother is going there! That is the closest mall to my hometown! And then we found out she is from the same hometown as Can, my Turkish friend at Michigan. Such a small world! We told her we were planning to go to southern Turkey for spring break and to meet with Can and go to Mersin, his hometown, she got so excited. "Ah, we can go swimming and sunbathing, and you can meet my family too, and maybe we can go to Northern Cyprus!" Yeah, I'm ready for warmth, so that sounds niiiice. Beach time baby!

Sightseeing with the Police

So this Wednesday I didn't have class and made plans to finally get my student Akbil (transportation card that makes the bus/metro/tram way cheaper), and then to do some sightseeing with Sedat, the police officer we met who is trying to learn English. Of course, with my nonexistent Turkish, administrative matters like getting an Akbil are nearly impossible to complete.

After following the directions given in an email by the school, only to find out they were wrong, I was late to meet Sedat, so I just gave up on the Akbil for the day and headed to the Sultanahmet area of Istanbul. This is where all the major touristy things are -- Ayasofya, Blue Mosque, etc. We went to Topkapi Palace, which is also a museum. Its so beautiful. I can't wait to go back in the summer when all the gardens are blooming! And I also saw the Basilica Cisterns which is this huge underground cavern that was used in like the Byzantine Empire for people to have access to water. They were so eerie -- nearly pitch black with these huge cavernous ceilings. Every time I visit places like these it amazes me that I am living among all this history! We swung back by the Blue Mosque (see left) after sightseeing so Sedat could change into his civilian clothes. So he sat me on this little stool outside the security and I chilled for a few minutes with the security guards at the mosque gardens. Talk about random situations that I put myself into!

So thats pretty much all that is going on right now. The weather is so-so, not too cold, but definitely not the gorgeous stuff we had when we first got here. It kind of makes me just want to hang out inside, not go outside exploring. I'm saving that for when I won't freeze to death. So we may or may not take a day trip tomorrow. But there's homework I should be doing, and weather I'd rather just avoid (um, I left Michigan for a reason). So we'll see...

Anyways, love from Istanbul. Pray for sunnn so that I stop doing my homework and start getting a tan!

Superdorm address

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi
Uçaksavar Kültür ve Spor Tesisleri
Cengiz Topel Caddesi
Etiler 34337, İstanbul

So I don't know if my address actually works, but here it is. Umm send me a postcard and we'll see if it does :)

Besssssssssiiiiiiiiktassssssssss

Yesterday I went to the Besiktas-Galatasaray football match with a big group of friends. This is a huuuge game because these are two of the three teams in the city of istanbul (the other is Fenerbace). It was at the Besiktas stadium so we rooted for Besiktas. And I paid 60 Lira for a sweatshirt so I'm an official fan - I can' t turn away now. And they won! 2-1. So fun, complete craziness all around the stadium, inside and out. The cheers were all in Turkish, obviously, so I got by with following the hand motions and mumbling similar sounds in similar intonations. The atmosphere was so exciting, it reminded me of game day at Umich. Ahh just like home... and before the game a camera approached us to ask about the game (in Turkish), and I'm really hoping we got some airtime with our blank looks and me saying "Merhaba, Tesekkular" ("Hello, Thank you"), because that is like all I know. People who come to the states would never make it if they spoke English as bad as I speak Turkish. Thats another reason I love this country -- they just accept us!

Speaking of my terrible language skills, I learned how to say "very good, very bad, beautiful, handsome" so I had a 30 minute cab ride where I just talked to the cab driver about how bad traffic was, how good Besiktas was, how beautiful I was, and how handsome he was. Thats all I got. Oh and I can say my name and that I'm American.

We missed a culture night sponsored by the school to go to the game. I wish we could have done both because it was pretty much a free night of food, folk dancing, and art. Its nice how the school does these sorts of things. I definitely want to go to the next one (as long as its not the Besiktas-Fenerbace game!)


Ugh, and reality is setting in about school... I have HOMEWORK I have to do today! And I went to my lab for soil mechanics where I for the first time felt completely outnumbered by guys. As a girl in engineering, I was warned about this, but never experienced it anywhere at Michigan. Here, its another story. I walk into my lab and the conversation (in Turkish of course) froze. Absolute silence. So I gave them a kind of wave and said the obvious: "Hi. I'm the only girl." They laughed... and then I go to sit down at one of the tables where everyone was sitting. I am sitting down and all these hands reach out to grab their bags out of my way. I swear, every eye was on me. It was like in Eurotrip where they go to the nude beach and the girl they bring is the only girl and all the old men at the beach are like "GIRL?!". Yeah, kind of like that. So that should be interesting... I'll keep ya posted on that. But now its time to actually learn (or at least stop playing on the computer!)