T-minus 10 days and counting...

...until I leave my now-beloved Istanbul. It only seems like yesterday that I was stepping out of that taxi in front of the dorm, knowing barely a dozen words in Turkish, blinking away the near-tears of amazement and fear, and now, I am only a week and half from leaving. I'm far from fluent, but now I can carry on a simple conversation in Turkish - enough to express the basics of my feelings and desires, how to order food, and lots of fun Turkish curse words. I have walked, head-scarfed and socked feet, over the carpeted floors of Sultanahmet. I have swum in the cold-blue Mediterranean. I have sat and stared up at the Library of Celsus at Ephesus. I have strolled the halls of the Grand Bazaar and Spice Market. I have climbed the ancient fairy chimneys of Cappadocia, and listened to the midday call to prayer from the highest point of Uçhisar. I have explored the shadowy nooks and crannies of the ancient underground city of Derinkuyu. I have scrambled over the backs of ruins that are older than Christ. I have acquired the Turkish "no". I have had an amazing time here, and I know, I know, that one day I will return.

Now I sit in my dorm room, glancing up at the calendar occasionally with both a pained look and hope in my eyes. It's an odd place to be. I love it here and I want to stay, but at the same time, I miss my home in California, my friends and family, and most of my, my Russ. I can't have one without the other. In order to go back home, I have to leave my Turkish home. To say hello, I have to say good-bye. Yes, yes, I'm being melancholy and overly dramatic. Shut up. I know. But if you spent four months in one of the most magical cities in the world, with some of the best people that this world has to offer, some of the tastiest cuisine, some of the most spectacular views and histories, then you would understand. I am going back home, but I cannot take the simits, the hamams, the lokum, the call to prayer, the tangled crowded bazaars, or any of it home with me. I will take the language that I know, the recipes that I have learned, the nazarlık, the scarves, the photos and music, and of course, my memories.

I will miss you, Istanbul.

Recap!

Okay, I've been a bit scarce around here. So here's a quick recap (aka procrastinating another ten minutes or so before diving into hardcore studying for my Turkish final)

School: Busy busy busy! The workload here is heavily weighted towards the end of the semester here, so while this is technically "the last day of classes", I still have four more classes in the next two weeks. And three finals and three projects still to go. So cue the caffeine. I need to conduct original research for all three projects, do a ton of reading and writing, and then studying. My Turkish final is tomorrow morning (on a Saturday!!), and then I have two more finals in my grad classes, which is unheard of back at home at CSUS. Who does finals for a MA TESOL??

Istanbul: Spring has arrived and everything is in bloom, especially the tulips for which the city is famous. The weather is warmer for sure, but is still fickle. One day it's cool and grey, and the next bright blue skies with a bit of humidity. I hear summer here is rather nasty, but now it's nice. It reminds me of home actually (Virginia, that is), and while I can't wait to go back to California, I'm not looking forward to the heat. Plums are in season, and the fresh fruit here is so delicious. I am going to miss Turkish cuisine.

Work: I'm still debating applying to a summer teaching camp in July in Poland, as well as one at the UCDavis Extension back at home in Sacramento which would overlap with the first week of school in the fall semester. Both are tempting. Now I just have to convert my résumé into a proper CV. Any tricks or tips from those academic types out there??

Travel: I'm still not yet sure at this point when I will be back to the US. (See above re: camp in Poland) When I do get back to the US though, my roommate here has invited me to visit her in Boston, a city I've not yet seen, and then of course, I want to spend at least a couple weeks in Virginia to see my best friend and her new baby daughter as well as my other friends and family.

We've made the plans for Russ' trip here to Europe, and booked the tickets, and will be getting the hotels soon too. We both arrive in Amsterdam on June 12, spend a week in the eastern Netherlands and Germany, and then two days in Amsterdam itself, and then head over to Dublin on June 21 for a few days there before Russ heads home on June 24. I will be heading down to Cork for a few days after that to visit a friend, her husband and her handsome little boy. After that? It's still up in the air.

Spring Break: Awesome! I will write more details later, promise, but for now, let me just say that southeast Turkey is absolutely gorgeous. It reminded me at points like California meets Virginia meets Germany meets Italy. If you guys ever want to travel somewhere international, I highly recommend Turkey - no, seriously. The country is beautiful, it's cheap (check the Turkish Lira against the dollar, yo), the food is delicious, the people are so friendly and hospitable, and you really can see and do a lot - and *touch* things! I climbed through an ancient city, Termessos, which Alexander the Great couldn't conquer, I explored the grand amphitheatre - seats for you and 25,000 of your closest friends! - of Ephesus, I scrambled over the mountainside with the ancient Chimera, naturally-burning fires that predate Christ, I swam in the cold blue Mediterranean, I strolled the pebbly beach of Konyaaltı in Antalya, and drank tea with Kurdish carpet sellers in their shop while playing with genuine Van kittens.

Aka Turkey = f*cking amazing. Come here. You will not regret it. Photos will get posted to my Flickr sooner or later (the Flickr loader is way slow), but they are all up on my Facebook. (If you can't find me there, let me know).

Souvenirs: I'm getting lots! Shopping here is cheap and lots of fun. So! What do y'all want? (Please be in mind that bringing back rugs and nargile would be at best challenging, so please don't ask for one of those, and please remember that I am a poor grad student living on my savings right now too.) What can I bring you that's cool from Turkey? Well, Turkey is known for its textiles (scarves, peştemal aka towels for Turkish baths, clothes), ceramics, tea, spices, nazarlık (aka the "blue eye" charm which wards away the evil eye - google it), and lots of other stuff. The chocolate here is also very good, so I'll be bringing a bunch of that home. Just let me know. I do already have a few things picked out for people, so you might be surprised. You can always email me privately too at mercurialmagpie at gmail dot com.

Oooh.. I should go study now. Fret fret fret.

*love*

Spring Break

Is it spring break already? I guess it is. Wow! Amazing how quickly time flies. In just a few minutes, I'll be heading out of here to join my friends Alex (from Chicago) and Lessa (from Oklahoma) on a 10 day tour of southwest Turkey. We're flying into Antalya, spending a couple days there, heading down the coast to Olympos, over to Fethiye and Ölüdeniz (one of the most beautiful beaches on the Mediterranean), and then several hours north to Selçuk to see Ephesus, the House of the Virgin Mary, and the basilica of St. John the Apostle. From there we'll make a day trip to Pamukkale and Hierapolis, and our final stop will be in Izmir before heading home. I promise to take lots of photos, get lots of sun, get my Powerpoint presentation finished, and generally have a good time and practice my Turkish! I'll talk to you all soon! :)

The Facts of Life

It’s a little hard for me to believe that I’ve been in Turkey now for just over two months. Sometimes it feels like we only got here a couple weeks ago and other times it feels like I’ve been living here for months. I settled into a comfortable routine: sleeping until my body wakes up on its own, breakfast/lunch, reading for classes, keeping up with the world on the internet, classes in the afternoons Monday-Thursday, grocery shopping, exploring the city, making dessert with friends, tutoring Turkish students in English, sipping tea at cafes while studying Turkish homework, meeting friends for dinner any number of places in the neighborhood, just enjoying life. All the while learning Turkish, speaking Turkish, eating Turkish food, hanging out with Turkish friends, buying and wearing Turkish clothes. Lots and lots of Turkish.

I’ve had several blog entries just banging around in my head for a while now, slowly composing myself as I get settled in and figure out Turkish life. I’ve been meaning to post about life in Istanbul, about my classes and what they are like compared to classes at CSUS, about Turkish food, about seeing places around the city, just lots of stuff. So quite a lot of it is overdue. I know that a couple of you reading my blog are planning on coming to Istanbul next semester, so hopefully a lot of this is good food for thought for you two. For others who may wish to visit Istanbul (or anywhere in Turkey), hopefully I’ll provide some good advice and things to consider. For the rest of you, if nothing else, interesting reading. 

Okay, so Istanbul. What is it like to live in Istanbul? Maybe I could entitle this blog entry “Facts of life for living in Istanbul”. I wouldn’t want to say “Turkey” because really I’m sure that way of life in Istanbul would not apply to the way of life for all of Turkey. It’d be like saying that the way of life in New York City can be applied to the rest of the United States. So what is it like to live here? I’ll start with the basics in no particular order.

Time – Turks use the 24 hour clock, just like the military (24-11 = am, 12-23 = pm). So 15:30 is 3:30 pm; if it’s a number over 12, just subtract 12. Most Turks tend to say what the time as non-military time though, so 15:30 is “3:30”.

Metrics - Turkey, like almost every other civilized nation in the world, uses the metric system. I have a handy-dandy little conversion chart that I carry nearly everywhere I go just in case I need to convert something. So temps are in Celsius, distance is in kilometers, and you buy food in kilos and grams.

Money - Turkish currency closely echoes American/Canadian/European currency. Their currency is the Turkish Lira (TL), and they have 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 TL bills. The coins are called kuruş, and come in 5, 10, 25, 50, and 1 TL. The currency changed back in 2005, so there are various different kinds of coins floating around.

Food – I could likely write a whole blog entry about food. Turkish food, in a word, is delicious. I thought before coming to Turkey that it would be like a blend of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern, and some of it is, granted, but it’s quite different than I expected. There are a key few staples of the Turkish diet, namely bread, rice, tea, yogurt and meat. Chances are you will be served some kind of bread with every meal, and after every meal, you get tea. (As I believe I said before, it’s fascinating living in a country where you pay for the water and the tea is free). Rice is also very popular, both white rice and bulgur pilav (pilav being the Turkish word for rice, so now going back to America, I’m going to laugh every time I hear “rice pilaf” because it’s basically like saying “rice rice”.) Pasta is popular to eat as well, especially mantı, which is like mini raviolis. Pasta, by the way, is quite cheap here, and oh, pasta is also a Turkish word but it means “cake”. So a pastanesi is a cake shop, not a noodle shop. :) As you may have guessed, shish kebabs (or şiş kebap) are also very popular. While there are plenty of vegetarian dishes, Turkish cuisine tends to be a bit meat-heavy in my opinion. It’s rare to find pork, but there is also plenty of chicken, beef, lamb, and fish to be had, fish especially in Istanbul and along the coast. Fruits and veggies are plentiful, and foods are well-spiced, but not spicy. People drink lots of tea (obviously), milk, bottled water (drinking the tap water isn’t advised here), juice, rakı (a traditional liquor that’s flavored with anise), and ayran, which is about the only thing that I’ve tried here and didn’t like. Ayran is a drink that’s yogurt mixed with water and often salted. It’s supposedly good for an upset stomach, and is a quintessential Turkish thing, but none of the Americans have liked it (I think primarily because we’re not used to drinks being salty). Oh, and then desserts. The Turks know their dessert. Baklava is very popular here, as is sütlaç (rice pudding), helva (think sweet grits with pinenuts in it – sooo good!), künefe (it’s made of phyllo dough, but its texture is very similar to shredded wheat and it’s sweet and syrupy like baklava), and many others. And of course, there’s lokum otherwise known as Turkish delight. This is quite yummy too and especially delicious when covered in chocolate. You just haven’t eaten Turkish until you’ve had lokum. Oh, I could go on and on.

Transportation – Let me just say - traffic in Istanbul is horrible. I grew up in the DC area, and this is worse. Drivers here are crazy. If they can get through a space with an inch around their vehicle, they will. You think cab drivers in NYC are bad? The taksi drivers here are ruthless, and I’m being polite. They get you to where you need to go and quickly, but you may worry about speed limits and hitting pedestrians along the way. Drivers in general are more than a bit scary. They honk at everything, drive fast, and there have been more than a few times that I seriously thought that someone was going to get hit. The cars here are smaller, and there are plenty of models that you’d never see in the States: Fiat, Renault, Citroen, Daewoo, Daihatsu, and of course, in our area, Audi, Porsche, BMW and Mercedes. (Boğaziçi is in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Istanbul, btw, so it’s a bit high dollar around here, but still not quite what you’d think of in terms of high-dollar back home in the States). Mopeds and scooters are also quite popular, especially for delivery guys, and few drivers wear helmets, which scares me. I have seen very few bicycles which makes sense when you consider how crazy the drivers are.

The public transportation here however is quite good. There are lots and lots of buses, of courses, and trams, funiculars (underground metro trains), metro trains, metro buses, and vintage trams. Needless to say, the public transportation system here is extensive. I think you could live in this city for years and years and never ride on them all. But then, Istanbul is huge. Turks drive on the right hand side of the road, and the traffic signals and signs are very similar to those at home, save written signs are in Turkish. One of the first ones you learn is “DUR”, which is “STOP”. The lights are basically the same too, which means red is “fine, I’ll stop”, yellow “hurry the hell up! I can get through this!” and green “move, you &#%%$!”.  Walking is a fabulous if slightly hazardous way of getting around the city. As long as you keep in mind the idea that pedestrians don’t always get the right-of-way, you should be fine. Turks do a LOT of walking around Istanbul; sometimes it’s the only real way to get to a place. So accordingly, if you come to Istanbul, be prepared to do a lot of walking, aka wear comfortable shoes. Sidewalks here aren’t the smoothest either, so how the Turkish women wear high heels and don’t break their ankles, I just don’t know. 


Fashion – This is fascinating to me because I love people-watching, and I’m a girl, so I like fashion. I’m a jeans and t-shirt type of person myself, but admittedly, I’m still a bit of a girly-girl. Fashion among the students at Boğaziçi is rather varied. Most of it is European-influenced obviously, with lots of American brands being popular, and a healthy dose of the 80s mixed-in. Clothes from Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap, Levi, Guess and others can be seen, as well as many Turkish brands too. If I had to sum up Turkish fashion in only a few words, it would be “jeans, boots, and scarves”. Everyone wears jeans, everyone wears scarves – men and women, and boots are very popular with the women. Guys wear a lot of sports-inspired clothes, and women often wear skirts and dresses with tights and legwarmers. Women often wear pantyhose or tights under shorts too, and while in the warmer weather, they wear short sleeves, they don’t bear a lot of skin. Apparently tank tops, baring the midriff, and open-toed shoes aren’t very popular here. Tattoos btw aren’t either. I’ve gotten a lot of looks when mine is bared, some curious, some not-so-curious, and lots of questions from my Turkish friends. (For those of you who don’t know, I have a good-sized tattoo that covers most of my upper right arm and is very noticeable when I’m wearing short sleeves. There are of course a lot of women who wear the headscarves, long skirts and dresses, and beautiful long coats as well, keeping with Muslim tradition. It’s an interesting blend really – old and new, traditional and modern. All in all, Turks really seem to care about what they wear, and dress well, in clean neat lines.

People – Oh, the Turkish people. Turks are friendly, polite, gracious, patient, and overall, a very handsome people. Most Turks are dark-haired and dark-eyed, but certainly not all, though blonde and red hair isn’t very common at all. Most of the young men are rather good-looking and the women are beautiful. They will often go out of their way to make you feel welcome, appreciate people attempting their language, and will invite along to join them for meals, tea, and shopping, and don’t even offer to pay; they just take the check and pay! I’ve laughed over this with a few Turkish friends, and told them that they have to let me pay sometimes too, since it works as a two-way street in the American culture. They appreciate gifts, so I share the candy that I brought with me from the States, and they like to try American food. Religion is ever-present and important in the Turkish culture of course, and it affects a lot of the attitudes here. But they are some of the nicest people I have ever met too. I will not leave this city without crying because I’ll be leaving behind some fantastically sweet and generous people.

Religion – This is another thing that you can’t get away from being in Istanbul. It’s everywhere. As 99% of the population is Muslim, there are understandably mosques all over the place. They are very distinctive with their domes and towers, and several times a day you see the faithful going into the mosque to prayer. I’ve had the chance to see a few on the inside, and they are absolutely beautiful and definitely worth seeing. When it is not prayer time, you can go inside and explore them. No shoes, of course, and women must cover their heads. (Yet another reason scarves are so popular here likely.) Another fantastic thing about Istanbul is hearing the call to prayer several times a day. It is like a blend between a chant and a song, and is all at once eerie and beautiful. I’ve gotten used to hearing it, and it’s funny because when you hear it, you know about what time it is. It’s something that I know that I will miss hearing when I leave.

Music – Oh, Turkish music. Like many things here in Turkey, it’s a mix of old and new. On the older side, you can go and listen to traditional music played in cafes and restaurants in the city, and a lot of it is instrumental. On the new side, it’s a lot like what you hear out of America and Europe – pop, rock, haunting vocals, stirring rhythms, just an interesting blend. Some of it I think it is cute and peppy, and some of it I will definitely be leaving here in Turkey when I go. :) I’ll have to find a few samples online for y’all to hear.

So what else? What do *you* want to know about living in Istanbul?

Amerika Birleşik Devletleri

So Obama came to visit Turkey as the last stop of his first international trip as President after attending the G-20 economic conference in London. He spoke to the Turkish Parliament in Ankara and came to Istanbul briefly, where he visited Sultanahmet (the Blue Mosque), the Aya Sophia and the Islamic Arts Museum. While it was rumored that he'd be coming to Boğaziçi University, he didn't. So no, I didn't get to see our President while he was here. And really, other than it being on the news, I would not have even known that he was here. Istanbul is a very *big* city. I'm nearly an hour's drive away from where he was staying, and that's only going a couple miles. I did listen to his speech on the Hürriyet website though (Hürriyet is a popular newspaper in Turkey), and I liked what I heard. I was more pleased to hear though that he made an unannounced visit to Iraq and visited with several hundred troops there in Baghdad. It's a great PR gesture, and I think it means a lot to the brave men and women serving there.

Speaking of our fearless leader, Obama's being president has been the subject of some interesting discussions I've had with other students here, not just other Americans, but also Europeans and Turks as well. For the most part, I would say that the Turkish response to our new President has been positive. A lot of people approve of him and have high hopes for the future, our respective countries' relationships as well the military goings-on in Iraq and Afghanistan. There have been some who have expressed negative opinions of Bush, but then I'm not surprised. Still it's been very interesting to discuss America outside of America, or should I say, ABD as the Turks call our country (USA = ABD = Amerika Birleşik Devletleri = America United States).

I also had the chance to observe an American Studies class here at Boğaziçi in which I was the only American student with about twenty-someodd Turks. The teacher is from Boston and discussed American politics as well as immigration and how they are regarded in America. It was fascinating to learn about my own country from the other side, as it were. (I'll definitely be going back to observe again; it's really neat to be able to offer perspective for the class as well.) A very interesting article that he read out loud to the class was about an old mom-&-pop ice cream joint that had been around for decades in a neighborhood outside of NYC. It was the kind of place that people had grown up with, that they remember going to as kids, and now their kids go to it and eat the same kind of ice cream they had eaten years before. It was the place people gathered on hot summer nights, and sat outside on the sidewalk, cones in hand, and hung out. America is full of places like this. We've all had something like that in our own neighborhoods. But now the ice cream was closing and was going to be torn down, and a company run by Indians (as in from India) were going to build a hotel in its place. The story is familiar to me. This sort of thing too happens all the time in America, and it's really sad. This story is particular hit home for me because it was in a neighborhood just outside of NYC (Brooklyn, I believe), and my family is from there originally. What's sad about it are the things that people were saying about the Indians who were coming in to tear down their beloved neighborhood icon. People who years ago were immigrants themselves, or their parents were, people with names like Hernandez and Ching, criticizing this new group of immigrants who take over their blocks and put in Indian supermarkets and Vietnamese dry cleaners. It's sad. It's America all around, and it's very sad. Somehow I just don't think that these Turkish students appreciated the story quite like I did. The teacher later told me after class that he sometimes struggles to make these stories real to the students, but it's hard because they've never been to America, and they have nothing to really compare it to. In a way, it truly makes me appreciate my country.

It's odd, really. There's nothing quite like leaving your country for a few months to make you realize how much at times you loved and hate the place you come from. Yes, I'm proud of my heritages. I'm Germany, Irish, English and French - mostly. I'm sure that there are other nationalities blended in my family's background, but I'm those four mostly. I'm proud of my German names, my Irish blood, all of it. In some ways, it defines who I am. Mingling with other Germans especially here, I feel a kinship with them. I was born there after all, and spent the first few years of my life there. Even though I haven't been in Europe in years, I feel still a part of it in some odd way. But really, when it comes right down to it, I'm an American. I speak American English, I have an American accent, I look, sound, and act American. And I'm damn proud of that too.

"Where are you from?" I hear this all the time from people here. And I always smile when I tell them.

"ABD." :)

West Meets East

"Some people have asked me if I chose to continue my travels to Ankara and Istanbul to send a message. My answer is simple: Evet ('Yes' in Turkish). Turkey is a critical ally. Turkey is an important part of Europe. And Turkey and the United States must stand together – and work together – to overcome the challenges of our time." ~Barack Obama

Obama's Speech to the Turkish Parliament

Our President is in Istanbul tonight. I feel rather proud. :)

Adventures in Cappadocia

As promised!

Oh, what a very fun weekend we all had in Cappadocia! It all started on Thursday, March 12, when a group of about forty students piled onto a very nice charter bus that conveniently parked for us in front of the Superdorm. We left Istanbul around 10pm, everyone chattering gaily away, talking about the upcoming weekend, studying for our Turkish exam, reading, what-have-you. Aside from a couple stops, it took about 10 hours to get to Cappadocia. Folks slept for most of the trip, but it's not easy to sleep on a bus, let me tell you, especially you're sitting in the very back and the seat doesn't recline and you just can't get comfortable no matter what you do. We made a stop for breakfast in the early morning and then continued onto the hotel. There we dropped off our bags, but as our rooms weren't ready, we couldn't get showered or change clothes. Still it didn't seem to matter, because we were quickly on our way into Cappadocia itself.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the region, I guess you could liken it to the Grand Canyon of Turkey, and even that isn't quite right honestly. Between Istanbul and Cappadocia there isn't too much, just meandering fields and hills, with little towns randomly tucked here and there along the main highway. But when you get to Cappadocia, it's different. There are hills and valleys, deep canyons that roll away from you as you drive along their edges, and far below, there are these enchanting structures, towers, pinnacles, cliff sides, all cunningly carved out with doorways and windows, fantastically old and all inviting. The photos speak for themselves truly. "Fairy chimneys" aside, there are high plateaus with variegated lines and stripes of rich colors - clay reds, golden yellows, loamy browns, mottled sands - so beautiful and for me, rather reminiscent of the Painted Desert of the American Southwest. So much of what's historical in Cappadocia dates back thousands of years, including Hittite, early Christian, Persian, Roman, you name it. And the most beautiful thing about Cappadocia is that you can go right out into it and experience it for yourself. There are no red velvet cords, no signs saying "Do not touch", no stern guards frowning at you if you get too close. No, Cappadocia is a glorious hands-on experience.

The first place we went to visit was aptly-named Pigeon Valley or Uçhisar in Turkish, and as you may guess, yes, there are pigeons in said valley. We paused here for a little while, and we got out to look around and take photos. (We did this all throughout the trip. “Okay, we're going to stop, you have x amount of time and then we'll move on.”) The first thing I noticed was a nazarlık tree, which is just what it sounds like: a small tree hung with dozens of nazarlık charms. I'm now very tempted to buy a bunch and make my own nazarlık tree for my ev (home). There is something so simple and pretty about it. There was also a quaint souvenir shop and then the canyon itself. Of course, people immediately flocked (no pigeon pun intended) down into the canyon to explore. At the very bottom, we found some ruins, a dwelling carved out in the rock, with doorways, windows, little shelves, and colored paintings. Getting up into the house was a little difficult, but with a boost from other students, a bunch of us were able to climb inside and look around. Little did we know that it would only be the beginning of such adventures.

After too short a stop, we continued on to the real Uçhisar fortress. It's the highest point in Cappadocia, so after going inside and slowly making our way to the top, we were treated to a fantastic view of the whole valley. Up top there was a Turkish flag flying (you see a lot of Turkish flags flown here honestly – there is a lot of national pride here), and the wind wasn't too strong, so you could just stand and gaze for hours. I only wish that the weather had been better. It wasn't too cold but the sky was grey, so my photos aren't as good as they could have been. I can only wonder how much more beautiful it is in the warmer weather. On the top were carved holes that we had to guess were graves; they were the right size and dimensions. So, of course, that inspired morbid photos. :) (Hey, when you're the girlfriend of a mortician, you like these sorts of things.) But oh,
the view. The view really was amazing. I can't say enough. Even the photos can't say enough.

We made a stop for a buffet lunch at a large restaurant, and on the way out, paused at a souvenir shop where I bought a scarf and an embroidered satchel together for 20 TL. The scarf will be a gift but the satchel I'm keeping. It's a patchwork quilt-type bag, very colorful and quite practical. After lunch, we made another stop, longer this time, to go explore more of the fairy chimneys. A few other students got to experience a camel ride, and the rest of us dashed out like a class of elementary school kids to go climbing on an enormous ancient playground. Everywhere you looked, there was something new to see – a window to peek out of, a hole to crawl into, a doorway to duck through, somewhere always higher and better to climb up and see. We moved from structure to structure, and there was plenty of “Look up here! Look at me! Hey, cool, come here, look at this!” I swear, really, we were just a bunch of kids playing again. It was dusty and dirty, and we came out filthy and scratched-up and bruised, but we had an absolute ball. Lots of oneupmanship (is that really a word?) as we climbed higher and higher, and I'm actually quite surprised that no one got seriously hurt. It was just a delightful challenge – seeing a hole or platform that was just a little higher than we could easily reach, but with a lot of cooperation and helpful boosts, we could able to reach all kinds of nooks and crannies that others that might only be able to see but not climb up into. I have to say that it felt like being on one of those self-esteem exercises – a grand glorious playground that you have to work with your friends to investigate. Stress relief, I tell you.

After lots of climbing, sliding, peeking, and thankfully no falling, we headed back to the hotel to much-needed showers and naps before enjoying a buffet supper in the hotel dining room. We then went out to enjoy our “Turkish night”. This was deliciously touristy, but no one really seemed to mind. We went down into the spacious basement of this large restaurant, were served wine, beer, and rakı, and plates of sliced citrus fruit and nuts. The night was quite fun actually. A troupe of dancers first treated us to a performance of the whirling dervishes (not the real thing, but entertaining all the same), and then several traditional dances, including a courting/wedding dance, bellydancing, a display with a horse (!), an elaborate Turkish conga line of sorts which pulled everyone on the floor and right out of the restaurant, into the cold night, and around a large bonfire. Yes, it was a little surreal at times, and yes, quite touristy, but as I said, we had fun. They played a number of Turkish and American pop songs, and everyone got up and danced, so that was silly and fun. Hell, when you're drinking, it's all silly and fun. :)

The next morning we woke up to snow! It's known to snow in Cappadocia during the winter, and I knew that it was going to be cold (which it was), but the snow was still a pleasant surprise. After a hearty traditional Turkish breakfast (sliced meat, cheese, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, yogurt, bread, muesli, tea, coffee and sweets), our first stop was Derinkuyu Yeraltı Şehri, one of many underground cities in Cappadocia. Like most everything else in the region, many of them are ancient, dating back thousands of years. People tended to live above land, but in times of attack, they could retreat to the underground cities and hole up for up to six months a time. The one we went had multiple level, with several ventilation shafts and wells, as well as a church, stable, graves, and many little rooms and holes riddling the place like Swiss cheese. As you descended into the city, you could see large (about 3 or 4 feet in diameter) round stone doors which could be rolled across the entrance of a hole to protect the people within. Seeing how narrow the passages were, it would have been very effective.

Now let me tell you – should you ever come to Cappadocia and want to see the underground city, be forewarned: it's more than a little claustrophobic. I didn't know going in how narrow and tight the passages and rooms would be at times. Somehow I was thinking more that it'd been large natural caverns that were converted for human usage, you know, large airy spacious rooms, but it was anything but. I'm a claustrophobe, and there were a number of places that I had to stop and take several deep breaths to keep panic attacks at bay, and no, no, I'm not kidding. The ceiling is quite low in places, and tunnels from one level to another are rather slender in many other places, so I just took a deep breath, and dashed through quickly. I kept reminding myself how unique the place is, and I might never come back, and look, how cool was this, and keep taking pictures, Kristina, you'll be fine. It was a little nerve-racking, more than a little actually. But I really enjoyed it, and I'm glad that I went. There's nothing that I've seen quite like it back in the States, and when you think of how incredibly old the place is, and in still such good condition (Turkey is prone to invaders, earthquakes and tourists, and all of them destructive), it was really staggering. I really wish the photos could tell you it all, but really, if you go to Cappadocia, visit Derinkuyu. You won't be disappointed. It's worth the 15 TL (though if you have a museum pass, it's free!).

After a quick lunch at a local shop, we headed off to a local pottery store. There are many of these in Cappadocia as it's where a lot of the beautiful Turkish pottery is made. After viewing a brief and humorous “this is how we throw pottery” demonstration, we browsed the large shop, and I picked out a couple of little bowls as souvenirs. Aside from tea, rugs, and scarves, Turkey is known for its ceramics, and there are such lovely designs and rich colors incorporated into the pieces. Different regions will have distinctive patterns as well, and many of them date back hundreds, if not thousands of years. So I will definitely be picking up a number of ceramic bowls before I head home. :)

Amid the snow and chill, we went climbing up to another ancient church built into a cliff. Several of the others climbed up higher, but I erred on the side of caution and explored the lower parts. There was plenty to see again – beautiful views, neglected nooks and crannies, forgotten holes and rooms, all of it waiting to be explored. I cannot tell you how many photos I took; too many. I poked around in buildings many times over older than my own country , ducked my head through doorways and windows carved carefully by hand and simple tools, and scrambled over structures that housed people for hundreds of years before being abandoned. And still they draw people. The locals, many of whom live traditional lives, eat and drink the same foods and drinks as their ancestors, farm the same traditional ways, and live their lives in much the same fashion as those who came before them. It may be modern day but they live alongside these ancient ruins as they have all along. It's amazing. We just have nothing like this back home. Amazing.

As it began to grow dark and even colder, we stopped by a local winery for a brief tour and wine tasting. Turkish wine! Quite tasty. We wrapped up with dinner back at the hotel, and while several other students went out to enjoy nargile, Lessa (who shared a room with me) and I retired early. Rock climbing is hard work, you know. :)

We checked out the next morning and braved the cold again after breakfast to slowly make our way out of Cappadocia. Our last stop in the area was Ihlara Valley, which is honeycombed with dwellings carved out of the rock but is especially famous for its many churches. It was a long slow walk to the bottom of the canyon which was wooded and had a rushing river running through it. The stairs down were icy, so I slipped a couple times, adding more bruises to ones that I had already from the weekend, but when I got to the bottom, it was well worth it. Again, the view was so breathtaking, and this time it was almost all looking up. Many of the churches were built underground, so again students ran and played and climbed in the holes. I went off on my own a little to peek in little corners, take yet more photos, and see what I could see. The whole thing was very peaceful and serene. Even though it was a touristy area, it didn't feel like it. As many people as there were in our group, there were plenty of places that you could go and not see anyone. I only wish that we had had more time to see it all. I think you could spend hours and hours there and still not see it all. Before too long, it was time to go, and we piled back on the bus for the long trip home. That in itself wasn't too eventful, but we did get in a lot of reading, studying (especially reviewing our Turkish vocabulary) and napping. All in all, it was a simply fantastic weekend, and given the chance, I definitely think I'd like to go back to Cappadocia. I highly recommend it.

Mail?

Okay, my post about the Cappadocia trip coming up next, but while I'm thinking about it - anyone want a postcard from Istanbul? I just picked up a whole bunch but I know that I don't have a lot of people's snail mail addresses. You can email me at mercurialmagpie at gmail dot com if you don't want to comment with your address. :)

Reaching me

Because a few people have asked, here below is my snail mail address in Istanbul:

Kristina Kellermann
Bogazici Universitesi
Ucaksavar Kultur ve Spor Tesisleri, Superdorm
Cengiz Topel Caddesi
Etiler 34337, Istanbul Turkiye (TURKEY)

I'm also on Skype under mercurialmagpie, and you can reach me by email at kkellermann@gmail.com.

I don't really know how many folks read this blog, but if any of you are inclined to send me mail or care packages from the States, I will very happily reward you with goodies from Turkey in return (read: candy, hazelnuts, nazar, scarves, etc.) Just saying. :) I'll trade requests for requests even. ;)

Cappadocia!

It's about 9pm here in Istanbul, and I'm patiently waiting to get under way for our trip. A group of about 40-50 of American and European exchange students, including a number of Turks as our guides are going to Cappadocia this weekend. We leave at 10pm, so I've just been spending the past couple hours packing and getting ready, including cleaning leftovers out of the fridge as supper, washing dishes, and making sure that I have plenty of reading material for the bus. I have been known to get motion sickness if I read in the car, so we'll see what happens. Worse come to come, I spend the time listening to my ipod, talking to people and practicing Turkish, or looking out the window. (We're coming back Sunday during the day so we'll be able to see a lot of the Turkish countryside this way.) But since we're leaving at 10pm, I imagine that people will only stay up a couple hours and then sleep (hopefully!). I'm bringing my earplugs just in case the youngsters want to stay up late (and yes, I can say that. I think I've figured out by now that I *am* the oldest of the American students here). Very excited! I think that I have everything I need. Thank goodness for backpacks. It's going to be pretty chilly there, so I'm bringing all my long-sleeved shirts, hoodie, coat, gloves, hat, the whole nine yards. And of course, my camera. I want to get lots of photos. :)

Almost time to go to the bus! Have a good weekend, y'all. :)

Turkish Bureaucracy

So I've been politely reminded that I've not written anything in my blog for several days now. It's been a busy past few days, let me say, and as seems to be an on-going theme with my life here in Istanbul, one with many ups and downs, and learning/doing something new every day. That said, I promise from here on out to update on a more regular basis. Except for the next three days or so. And that's because I'm going to Cappadocia for the weekend! But more about that later. Let me bring y'all back to speed.

I've been here for about five weeks now, and sometimes it feels like much longer. It amazes how quickly one can adjust to a new environment, and settle in and fall into a comfortable daily routine. I guess we humans are largely creatures of habit, so no matter where we are, we do what we can to make ourselves comfortable - especially if we're going to be in a place for a long time - and do what we can to muddle through. Now funny I should put it just like that because one recent experience that me and nearly all the rest of the American exchange students have had to deal with is doing just what I said, making ourselves comfortable and muddling through and all that, in of all places, an Istanbul police station.

And no, none of us did anything wrong. Quite the contrary, we were trying to do things *right*, namely obtain residence permits that allow us to live in Turkey and allow us to travel in and out of the country without issues. Because most of us arrived in the country with student visas, within a month we had to apply for resident permits. In theory, this should be quite easy. You fill out a few forms, you go down to the police station, you apply and get the correct paperwork. In execution, however, this was a whole helluva lot more difficult than any of us imagined.

There is a lot I can say about this experience, but a lot of it isn't very pretty and involves quite a few four letter words, so I'll spare you all, and tell you the clean story. But for those of you who may be coming over here in my wake, you should know that dealing with foreign bureaucracy is simply not at all fun. It is at times a necessary evil, but I tell you, nothing makes you realize that you're not in Kansas anymore than to deal with foreign bureaucracy.

Okay, so this is what happened: we international students had until about the first week of March to apply for our resident permits. Shortly before this, the International Relations office sent around emails telling us how to do this. This is the basic rundown of what we needed to have:

"1. Residence Permit Application Form which must be filled in Turkish, typed-written, printed out colored and double-sided.
2. 5 passport-size photos
3. Your passport, as well as a photocopy of the front and student visa pages.
4. “Öğrenci Bilgi Formu” (Student Information Sheet). This form must be filled in Turkish.
5. A Turkish petition form declaring you will apply for residence permit.
6. Student Certificate
7. A statement signed and stamped by our Rector"

The first bit of trouble that I ran into was not having received the email in the first place. I searched through my spam file, my inbox, filter folders, since everyone else seemed to have it, but upon finding nothing, I went down to their office only to find that they had misspelled my name and email. 2 N's. My last name has 2 N's. It's really not that hard. It's the German spelling. 2 N's. Argh! So, anyway, I get that fixed, and then start looking at this list. The last two items we had to wait until the IR office had ready for us, so no matter how quickly we had the rest of the items, we still had to wait. The photos, photocopies, and passport I had easily accessible. Oh, but did you see that part about needing to be filled in Turkish? Yeah... none of us really speak Turkish. And no one in the IR office really offered to help (never mind the fact that only a few people in that office speak English, which is very much the case around the whole university btw - more about that later). So we had to ask Turkish friends for their time to sit and translate for us, and help us fill in these forms.

So we get all the forms all filled out, printed, stamped, all neat and pretty. Katie and I went down to the IR office once again just to have people take a look at them and make sure that we had everything as it should be before we set off for the police station. This was another headache. We were given directions how to get there, but they were more than a little confusing, and we got lost the first time we got there. It takes about an hour and change to travel first via bus, then via tram, and then a half mile walk or so to the station. So already we're sacrificing three hours or so our day just in travel alone. (If you didn't get it before, Istanbul is *huge*). Other students who had gone before us had already shared their horror stories - getting up very early (as the IR office suggested that we do), getting through the crowd, waiting in long lines, and finally emerging some *10* hours later. (No, I'm not kidding.) We listened to the others' stories and crossed our fingers, and thought maybe it was just so busy because they went on Monday. So we headed down last Tuesday afternoon, sailed in and went upstairs only to find that they had given out all their numbers for the day. (It's like the DMV; you come in and take a number and then go up to the counter when they call your number. Except in this case, they only give out a certain number and then they're done for the day).

So, whatever, we come back tomorrow, right? Well, we did. We woke up at 5:45am, were on the bus by 6:20, and arrived to a large group of people waiting to get in. They took our passports as we came in, and we stood over to the side waiting to see what would happen. Well, the small waiting room filled with people, so many that I couldn't see over people's heads, and we were crushed together so tight that I couldn't raise my arms from my sides. They started calling people's names right at 8am, presumably in the order in which they had submitted their passports. Katie and I got stuck on the far side, and when they finally called our names, we struggled through the crush (and I mean that quite literally). When I got to the front, one of the cops told me that he had been calling my name for 10 minutes, and why hadn't I come. At this point, I felt like giving him a little what-for, but I held my tongue in light of the fact that there were cops outside the front door holding machine guns. (And no, I'm really *not* kidding. Istanbul cops carry effing *machine guns*.) Instead I took my passport with a pained shrug, and explained that I had to shoulder past all the rest of the folks waiting, and then I ran. Literally. Katie and I went into the next area, again another crush of people, only to find out that they had already given out their tickets for the day, and it was barely 8:30. Apparently they usually give out more tickets but that day they were limiting it to 100. Needless to say, I was *hot*. We had gotten up very early, traveled over an hour, been shoved and jostled, yelled at in Turkish, couldn't understand a bloody word that people were saying, all that only to find out that we had to come back yet again.

I have to admit that I solidly lost my temper. I have German and Irish blood and I am not always a patient person, but this incident really made me angry. It's probably a good thing that people around me couldn't understand me because I was swearing up a blue streak. I apologized to the students nearby me later, but at that moment, I was not feeling very civil at all. The whole thing just felt very unfair. We were wasting our time, our money, we were going to miss classes, just to end up paying 90 TL for the privilege of living in Turkey for a few months. I just felt very annoyed that the IR office hadn't really prepared us for this. I think that the whole thing could have been better handled; clearer communication, more assistance, anything. If it's one thing that I really can't stand, it's poor communication and even poorer organization. And this incident had both in droves.

Katie and I went back this Monday with a few other students, and this time, we were a little wiser. We got there even earlier, we stood on the other side of the room so we wouldn't have to get through such a big crowd as before, and we ran in immediately to where we had to go to get the tickets. Luckily, this time we got tickets, and they seemed to be processing fairly quickly. We went downstairs to the cafeteria to have breakfast (a lira for soup and all the bread you could eat, not bad), and then all of us again wisely decided to make up for lost time by bringing reading for our classes. I had a bit of a panic though when I realized that when I was sitting in the cafeteria, cleaning receipts out of my pocket, that I had accidentally thrown out my ticket. I was very afraid that I was going to be turned away and have to come back yet again, but apparently Someone was watching out for me. When my number was called (we figured out that I was 171 - a note for others: do not lose your ticket!), I went up to the counter, and gave the guy my paperwork right away. I said hello, how are you to him in Turkish, and smiled, and tried not to look guilty. He seemed a little surprised - maybe because I spoke in Turkish when I am clearly not a Turk or maybe because I was polite and folks don't usually say hi, how are ya - who knows? In any case, when he asked me for my bileti (ticket), I nearly panicked. I started pantomining and stringing words together in a fluster: çöp, kaza, kafeterya, lütfen, Ben gelmek üç günlar, öğrenci (literally: trash, accident, cafeteria, please, I to come 3 days [not conjugated correctly btw], student). Luckily, he seemed to understand, and I must have looked desperate enough, because he accepted the paperwork and just gave me another number. He had a friend standing nearby, a former coworker who had come back that day to say hi. The guy had left his job at the police station to go to Ankara to learn English, and he translated a little for me. So my guy must have been in a good mood. When all was said and done, I got my paperwork processed, I paid my 90 TL, and then we were all done, 4 hours later.

Yesterday I again braved the Turkish public transportation system to travel alone down to the station to pick up my residence permit booklet. The whole experience cost me about 15 hours of time, 90 TL for the permit, about 23 TL for transportation costs, and caused me a lot of stress, anxiety, and my losing my temper. So that would make the experience about the single worst one that I've had not only here in Turkey, but just in a long time. I truly hope that those of you who come after me do not have to go through this. In fact, if you can, just pick up a tourist visa at the airport when you arrive, and save yourself all this hassle. (There are pros and cons to tourist visas though - they're cheaper in the short run, but if you get one, you have to leave the country after 90 days and buy another one when you come back. So if you do get one, just be prepared to make a trip to Bulgaria or Greece or somewhere else at some point in the middle of the semester. It might end up being more expensive in the long run, but it's up to you.)

Now apparently this isn't typical, or so we've been told. One thing that's going on right now in Istanbul is that it's election time. There are political banners and signs everywhere you go. Trucks drive the streets blaring music and excerpts of speech. Everyone's got an opinion. The elections are at the end of the month, so supposedly, many more people than usual are applying for resident permits. I don't know if this is because it allows them to vote, or laws will change shortly regarding permits, I don't know. But supposedly, just supposedly, what we went through isn't usually the case. Whatever it was, however, it was still absolutely miserable.

So! That all being said, I am now officially a resident of Istanbul, and will be able to travel in and out of the country freely from now until October 30 if I should choose. Happier topics in my next entry, I promise. :)

The Dark Side

Note to the readers: I wrote this entry initially on Wednesday, and reading it over, almost decided not to post it. I'd prefer this blog to be more positive, but then I thought that it'd be unfair of me to mask the negative aspects of this experience, especially for those of you who are reading about my adventures who are potentially planning on coming here. Another thought was that I didn't want to get too personal; some of you who read this blog know me better than others. But again, I like to be honest, and I think it's important to record what's going on in my head, good or bad.

Second note to the readers: Important names you should know - Russ (my boyfriend, my other half, the love of my life, etc. We've been together 5 years and he is at home in California holding down the fort while I'm off gallivanting in Istanbul); Stephanie (my best friend of 18 years; she lives in VA, happily married to Karl, one son, Caleb, and expecting her daughter any day now)

That being said...

Today marks my three week anniversary of arriving in Istanbul. It's a bit hard for me to believe now how scared and anxious I was 21 days ago, touching down in Ataturk Airport, not quite ready to face this exciting new country and culture, and yet here I am. I've navigated the ins and outs of the Istanbul public transportation system, have heartily sampled Turkish cuisine, have tried rakı, have smoked the nargile, played a game of backgammon, and have even visited a mosque. Time both feels like it's standing still at times, and other times it just flies. This is in many ways just like a four month-long vacation - just with work.

Still I think that I'm beginning to hit that wall. You know, when the novelty of "whee, I'm in a foreign country!" starts to wear off, when loneliness kicks in, and you start missing strange silly little things that you can't find where you are/don't have readily available and took for granted at home, like peanut butter and maple syrup and a hair dryer and a comfortable bed. I keep company with lots of other Americans and Europeans, and they are fine people and I'm making friends with the Turks too, but I miss people I know, my friends and family. I have talked with Russ a few times on Skype but because there's ten hours between Istanbul and California, we don't get to talk as often as I'd like. I've only been able to speak a few times with Stephanie and Karl, but no one else. I haven't spoken with my family since I left too. My cell phone doesn't work here because Verizon doesn't have networks in Turkey. I'm so spoiled because at home I can pick up my cell any old time and call people I love.

It's lovely here, please don't get me wrong. I'm having fun, and learning so much, and seeing all kinds of neat places and meeting all kinds of cool people, but I miss home. I miss decent Mexican food and being able to bake cookies in my own kitchen. I miss curling up on the couch and watching tv and movies with Russ. I miss tv. I miss movies. I miss pancakes and Sunday brunch with scrambled eggs, sausage, toast, and the works. I miss my car, and being able to drive to stores to buy familiar food, to be able to see and read and *understand* signs and billboards in English, to be able to talk to people I see out and about in my everyday life. I miss being able to go to an ATM and withdraw cash without having to a $5 fee on top of a 1% fee just for the privilege of being able to get *my own money*. I miss kisses. And hugs. I miss reaching out in the darkness and touching Russ's warm back as he sleeps in bed next to me. I miss Russ. A lot.

I feel like I'm missing out too. Stephanie is waiting, any day now, for her daughter to be born, and I won't be there to see her arrive. By the time I see her, the baby will be almost four months old. I want to be there with her when the baby comes. I'll miss the baby coming, I missed saying good-bye to Shadow. All these cats, these strays on the streets that I want to take home, but none of them my Shadow.

Sometimes I just want to block out Turkey. Beautiful city, beautiful people, beautiful food, but sometimes it's just too much Turkey. I find myself now beginning to long for distinctly American things: pb&j sandwiches, classic rock & roll songs, American slang and accents. Turkish is a lovely language, and I do want to learn it, but it's not easy. It's the fourth language that I've undertaken to learn, and despite the many cognates that I've come across, it bears little resemblance to the English, French and German that I already know. Part of my brain rebels against that. "The sentences are backwards." "How can you have a sentence without a verb?" "Why do they say things like 'five apple or many student' and not 'five apples or many students'?" Turkish doesn't fit the patterns that I already have in my established language knowledge in my brain. It's like trying to put that old square peg in a round hole. It doesn't want to fit. It doesn't want to compute. Yet I have to learn it if I want to get anywhere and communicate with people who don't speak Ingilizce.

I miss mail. Every day I check the box here hoping that something will have arrived with my name on it but nothing so far. Granted, I haven't sent any out either, but I have a bunch of postcards that are ready to go to a bunch of people but I have to *find* a post office first, and figure out how much they cost to mail to the US, and hope that I can communicate with the person behind the counter. I miss *English*. It is so agonizingly frustrating not being able to talk with people. Yes, the teachers and students here speak English, but nearly everyone else on the campus doesn't - the office staff, the infirmary staff, the guy at the information booth on the main campus, even the front desk people here in the dorm where nearly *all* of the international students live - none of them speak English. If you have a problem, you have to find a Turkish student to translate for you, or muddle through with a phrase book and dictionary. The sweet ladies who come almost every day to clean up our dorm rooms, Katie and I struggle to talk to them. They are so nice, so patient, but every encounter just leaves me so frustrated. One thing is for sure - I will completely be able to understand the frustration and irritation that my students go through trying to learn English and get around in a country that really only speaks English because now I can say that I've "been there, done that". So for that, I am thankful. But still, I'm lonely and alone.

I'm sure that things will get better. I keep busy, and I have plenty to do and see, and I'm sure that before I know it, June 12 will be here and I'll be leaving and then I won't want to go. But still, in these wee dark hours of the night, I feel very alone.

I'll get over it. I'm not trying to guilt trip anyone or ask for sympathy. I just need to get this off my chest else I lash out at some poor hapless Turk and cause an international crisis. I'm sorry for being random and rambly. It'll get better, I know, I know.

First week of classes...?

This past week has been interesting, lots of ups and downs. I'm still mourning Shadow, but I'm trying not to dwell, and as I said before, trying to keep myself busy so I don't get caught up in sorrow. So this week was supposed to be the first week of classes, only three of mine were canceled - read: all of my grad classes - and I went to only Turkish. It's rather nice to be back in an introductory language class; it's been years. My class is split up, two hours on Tuesday, two hours on Wednesday, and is composed of mostly Americans but other several Europeans. So far we've gone over the alphabet/letter sounds (there are 21 consonants and 8 vowels in case you're curious), greetings, numbers, the days of the weeks, months, and seasons. A lot of this vocabulary we've already been using in our everyday interactions with Turks on the street, stores and restaurants. What is interesting is feeling my grad school training kick in almost immediately as I start to silently appraise the professor's teaching style, how her syllabus is written, and how she blends several introductory language teaching methods. (And yes, Dr. Heather, I thought of you several times in doing this! *grin*) When she discussed the eight vowels of Turkish and how vowel harmony works, the fact that the vowels are evenly divided between "front" and "back" made perfect sense. (Vowel harmony btw basically is "matching" the kinds of vowels. If a word has front vowels, then the plural ending will also have a front vowel, and if the word has back, then it's back vowel ending. It's a little more complicated than that, but you get the idea.)

So Turkish looks like it'll be an entertaining class. I may not have the opportunity to use the language very much after I leave Turkey, but it'll definitely be of immediate practical use while I am here, and for that, I appreciate it. It also provides a refreshing opportunity for me to reflect on what I've learned already about teaching language and see it in action for another language. One of the things that I didn't consider in the beginning when I was thinking about coming here to Istanbul, but have since decided is a positive aspect is that fact that Turkish is not related linguistically to Germanic or Romantic languages, so I have little to fall back on with respects to my own past training in both French and German. So this is a linguistic challenge for me, and is at times rewarding and frustrating, both really. It's very neat to be a market, buying fresh produce and making connections with people who only speak a few words of English when I only speak a few words of Turkish, yet with the help of a pocket dictionary and phrase book, we can make ourselves understood and both parties are pleased in the end. Every day more I feel like I can sympathize with my students who are surrounded by a language that they don't speak very well, or even when they do, they still cannot fully express themselves. We're all still at the most basic level, so it's so frustrating not being to communicate in the simplest ways. So it's a lot of give and take. Every word made clear on both sides is a victory. But I still have this overwhelming urge at times to slip into French, just to be able to say *something*. It's hard to explain. So much of the time, they can't understand me, I can't understand them, so I want to switch to a language that's different from both English and Turkish. I'm sure that I'll have plenty to say on this subject. It's ever-present for so many of us.

But yet one of the funny things is that we get through, we manage, we survive. I was just saying this to my roommate, Katie, and my friend, Lessa, when we were sitting at a local pastry shop sharing a couple slices of chocolate cake and tea after having gone to the local Saturday produce market this morning. We were discussing the thought that while we were "strangers in a strange land", surrounded by a different culture, different language, different customs and all, there are certain universal things that we just slip into like slipping into an old glove. We may not be able to speak much Turkish, but yet we can walk into a shop, point to what we want, sit and eat and drink, and then pay for our food and leave - just as though we would back home in the States. The only difference really is that we're in a foreign country, with a foreign language, and foreign people. But really it's about the same thing.

We've all been doing things like this. We figure out the bus routes ("take the 43R and the tram to get to the Spice Market or take the 559C directly to Taksim, etc"), we figure out the currency ("5 lira? That's about $3 American, etc."), we know enough to say "hello, good-bye, please, thank you, etc.", and really, we're good. Yes, I know that we all have plenty to learn, but we're getting by. It's funny - you put yourself in a situation where you're surrounded by *different*, and you just make do. We've been figuring out what we can get at the local grocery stores, what we can pick up at the street markets, and then from there, working with our limited cookware to make old favorites - pasta with cream sauce, stir fry, chili & rice, even chocolate chip pancakes and omelettes. A bunch of us are essentially working together to be sure that the others are well taken care of and well-fed. Lessa is going to do breakfast on the weekends, we've plans to do a dorm potluck of sorts, and if I could get my hands on any board games, I'd love to host some game nights. Already Katie and I have made dinner for other students and had guests at our dorm, and it's just so friendly and nice, it makes it feel more like home. Yes, I know I'm being sappy and sentimental, but at the same time, it's very cool how many people I've getting to know and make friends with.

Oh, more later. Katie and I need to get dinner ready: tuvak, pilav, ve soya sosu ve salatar (chicken, rice and soy sauce and salad), and for dessert, maybe elma ve peynir (apple and cheese). :)

Taksim, Balat and surprises, oh my!

The past few days have been a big rough, but I'm getting through all right. Mostly I've been keeping myself busy so I cannot dwell too much. There is a lot going on at home too that I'd like be involved in or take care of, but I cannot so instead I preoccupy with life in Istanbul. Saturday I broke one of my preset rules for living here and decided to venture by myself into the downtown. (I said before that I wouldn't go anywhere off the campus alone but well, since the "campus" is actually four separate campuses here, I suppose I do that a lot actually). I rounded up my 1.40 lira fare, checked the schedule, boarded the 559C bus, and rode an hour or so down to Taksim, studying my phrase book on the way. I met my new friend Charlotte in front of Burger King (yes, there's a Burger King in Taksim Square. There is all kinds of American food here, but that's another post). Charlotte is a friend of a friend, and is just all kinds of nice. She's a lovely human being, witty, intelligent with a dry snarky sense of humor that just delights me. She is here in Istanbul teaching English kindergarten, and she lives on the Asian side, which I have incidentally not yet had to the chance to visit.

She and I wandered Taksim, ducked into an English-language bookstore there, happily pored over a decent selection of the "classics" (Poe, Shakespeare, Faulkner, Austen, etc), admired the bigger selection of books about Turkey, and drooled over the books about language and linguistics. I didn't see anything that caught my eye to purchase this time, but I noted the store for future trips because I miss reading and it's not easy to find a lot of great English-language books here. (While I know that I'll likely have plenty of reading for my classes, I do love to read other things during the semester, especially right before bed, because that's *my* time to read things that have nothing to do with my degree work. I did bring a couple Bill Bryson books, and don't get me wrong, I absolutely adore Bill Bryson, but a girl needs a little more variety over the course of five months.)

Charlotte then led me to a little restaurant that's off the main street, and tucked in a little side street that I probably would not have found by myself. Parsifal's is a lovely vegetarian restaurant, a snug homey spot which maybe could seat twenty-someodd people, with worn wood floors, classy art on the walls, and rickety wooden chairs and tables. Needless to say, I loved it immediately. (ooh, look, and they have a website! It's all in Turkish but you can still look at the photos.) The food was a bit pricier than other places that we've eaten at already, but it was so good that I didn't care. Charlotte and I got the same thing, a broccoli and cheese au gratin dish, with tea, bread, water, and the bill came to about 42 lira (about $25), so in hindsight, no, not really that expensive. We lingered there for a few hours, slowly sipping tea and chatting. She and I have a lot in common, and we already get along quite well. She told me how she came to be in Turkey, what she loves about it here, what she misses from home, and we discussed our respective educational backgrounds. Come to find out, it may be easier than I thought to actually get a teaching job if I wanted. (more about that later)

Charlotte and I split ways when she went to meet her boyfriend for Valentine's Day dinner, and I braved the rush-hour traffic home. Traveling alone isn't as bad as I thought it'd be. I know which bus to take, I know where my stop is, and I know how much it cost, so I was okay. As much as we are riding the buses, the other international students and I have been figuring out which ones go where, and exploring quite fine all on our own.

To that end, a group of us decided to brave a couple new routes and find Balat, the Jewish quarter of the city on Sunday. It was bitterly cold, far different from the balmy first couple of days that greeted us a couple of weeks ago. I have a winter coat with me, but I didn't bring any gloves, hat or scarves with me to Istanbul. I do have a plan to rectify the situation with the scarves, but so far I've been dealing with lots of layers and keeping my hood up in lieu of a hat. We took a bus down to the tram station, and walked a good distance over one of the bridges to an area called Eminönü (which I keep wanting to pronounce as "E-min-o-yu" instead as "E-min-o-nu" for some reason). There we actually were able to purchase akbils! What is an akbil, you ask? Well, as for most major metropolitan public transportation systems, Istanbul has an extensive system of buses, trams, and trains, and they all use this little tab button thing that hangs on your keychain called an akbil. You purchase one for 6 lira, preload it with money, and then you just touch it to a sensor when boarding, and it beeps at you. This way you can avoid carrying around pockets of change to pay for the bus or tram. (Hey, look, akbil info!)

Unfortunately, we tried following this “45 walk around the Balat and Fener neighborhoods” but ended up getting more than a little lost. We did however find the St. Stephen Church, which is a beautiful Bulgarian Orthodox church that is famous for being constructed entirely of iron. It was actually colder inside than outside, but exploring it (it was free!) was definitely worth it. I'd like to come back when it's warmer – and I find myself saying this about several things actually. There are a number of sites here in Istanbul that I haven't seen yet either because I'm waiting for the weather to get better and/or I'm waiting for my student id so I can get in either cheaper/for free.

After leaving St. Stephens, we walked even more, getting a bit more lost, and the weather just got worse. Just cold, grey and windy. After we finally got back to the dorm, I curled up in my room to warm up for a little while. But the best was yet to come. Not even half an hour after coming inside, I heard a strange sound at my window, and I looked over and saw that it was snowing! Not only snowing, but it was sticking! Big old fat snowflakes, the perfect white fluffy snow that I love so much, and despite the late hour, I just had to dash outside and play. So after a flurry of messages on Skype and Facebook to locals here in the Superdorm, I threw on my coat and ran outside.

So yeah, never the fact that I'm nearly 30, I went outside and played like a kid all over again. But you can't blame me – the snow was just so beautiful. After a few minutes, a number of other students trickled out and we amused ourselves by throwing snowballs at each other, rolling up a couple snowmen and even making snow angels on the Superdorm lawn. On a lark, a few of us decided to walk down to the South Campus. I slid a few times (note to self: smooth-soled Chucks are not the best to wear in the snow), fell a couple times, but seeing the snow was worth it. Well, to make a long story short, the snow truly transformed the campus. Everything was coated in fluffy white snow – the perfect “snowball” snow, might I add – and the Bosphorus looked lovely. A lot of the Turkish students were out playing when we got to the South Campus. We stayed out for a while, my feet got completely soaked, and I was cold and wet, but very happy. All in all, we got about two inches of snow. Sadly, by morning, it was almost all gone, and by the afternoon, you wouldn't have even known it had snowed. According to the Turks, it was pretty rare to see such weather, so we felt very lucky to have experienced it. It was very ephemeral, but at least we enjoyed one beautiful night.

So close, yet so far

Today hasn't been a very good one for me. Well, yes and no. Let me back up. The past couple days have been great actually. Yesterday, despite the chilly weather and intermittent rain, friends and I ventured out to the Book Bazaar in downtown Istanbul. The bus ride was bumpy and abrupt as usual (the public transportation is pretty good, granted, if crowded at times, but the bus rides are rather erratic at times, and you really have to hold on to keep your balance most of the time), but we arrived in one piece, had lunch and set off to explore. Most of the books we saw were in Turkish of course, but there was a goodly amount of English books, as well as bilingual dictionaries and how-to-learn-English books, which pleased me to see. We found some lovely posters of local sites (anyone want a 18x24 photo of the Blue Mosque or the Hagia Sophia? Only 3 TL), admired the beautiful Korans, and then lo and beyond, came across one of the many entrances to the Grand Bazaar itself.

Now the Grand Bazaar, let me tell you, is quite large. It's also quite a maze, and one street (yes, it's divided into streets and "districts" actually) can look quite like the other. How the vendors themselves don't get lost, I don't know. There are so many vendors selling the staples: silk and "cashmere" scarves, multi-colored glass lanterns, ceramics in all shapes and sizes, Turkish delight and traditional sweets, leather goods, hookahs, backgammon boards, and of course, the famous Turkish rugs. There is just so much to see, and of course, because it's as plain as day that we're not natives, the vendors step out in droves to invite us into their shop and look at their wares, and as one grinning young man put it, "help us spend our money". The vendors are a funny bunch too, tossing out all kinds of comments and "compliments". "American? Washington? New York? No, Texas! Anyone from Texas, y'all?" We were a group of 6 women with 1 man, and poor Alex got all kinds of teasing once they figured out we were all with him.

But the vendors are polite, just persistent. We did step into one shop for a cup of tea, and Lessa was treated to a free glass by the waiter, who also took a photo of all of us. We mostly did window shopping, and I kept my eyes open for potential souvenirs. Right now, I'm looking for a few scarves for myself (it's still cold, so this is a practical desire!), but also I'd like a nazar or two, which are the blue glass "eyes" that ward against the evil eye. They're very popular here and you'll see them hung on the walls in restaurants and stores, wore as jewelry, keychain charms, you name it. Like baklava and tea, they are a quintessential part of Turkey.

Yesterday evening, we went out to Taksim again to experience a little of the nightlife there. Again despite the weather, people flooded the area. It's one of the most popular areas in the city, so supposedly no matter the time of the day, it's always busy. We passed a couple hours in a local bar, trying the Turkish unofficial national drink, rakı, which is anise-flavored (think Sambuca), and is traditionally drunk mixed with water, which causes it to turn a milky-white color. It's strong, and not sweet, so I didn't particularly care for it.

So all of that was well and fine. But I am still reminded that one of the hardest parts of going away to a foreign country is just being so far away from your home and your loved ones. I mean, we aren't nearly as "far away" as we used to be. Modern technology allows me to tap into the Internet any old time that I like when I'm in my room and sitting at my laptop, and with a few clicks of my mouse, I can even make a phone call through the internet and see people on my webcam and "talk" with them that way. And then there's emails, IMs, blogs, Facebook, so you'd think that you couldn't possibly feel alone with all that at your fingertips.

But I'm not home, and when it comes right down to it, I'm not there in person, and especially now when I want to be. .. Russ (my other half, my boyfriend, my partner, for those of you who don't know him by name) left me a message last night, so I walked into my room around 1:30 in the morning to find out that he had our cat put to sleep yesterday. Shadow, our 14 year-old grey lady, had gotten sick over the past couple of days, and he didn't think it was too serious, but had taken into the vet just in case as she had some bad sores in her mouth. He found out that the sores were the end result of kidney failure, and she was dying. There was nothing that the vet could do. So he decided on the humane option, instead of letting her suffer, and he let her go.

It's hard for me to accept this. I want to think that she's still at home, maybe curled up on the couch with him as he watches TV, and when I come back to California in July, she'll be there to greet me. But she won't be. I only really knew her for the 3 years I've lived with Russ, but he had had her for 14 years, since he adopted her as a young cat from the SPCA. She was "as dumb as a box of rocks", as he liked to call her fondly, but she was the sweetest, gentlest cat I've known. So tolerant and lovable. She was my cat, I guess. When I moved in with Russ, she adopted me as "her" human. When Russ and I were curled up on the couch, she'd come up, popping her grey fuzzy head over the edge of the cushion, meowing. Sometimes she'd jump right up, other times she'd hesitate and judge, hesitate and jump, then then hop up. She had arthritis in her legs, so she didn't move especially quickly, but usually ambled through the house in her wobbly slow gait. But she'd always manage to find a little corner of room on the couch with us, and often, on my lap, where she'd flop down and purr, blinking at us with those lazy golden eyes of hers. And sometimes, when I'd get up from the couch, I'd come back and she'd have slipped into my spot, curling up where it was warm. I'd lean in close to her sometimes, and touch my nose to hers, and she'd sniff at my face, and sometimes, I'd very gently lay my head on her warm body and listen to her purr. I'd skritch around her ears and under her chin, and stroke along her whiskers. She loved that.

This is hard. I cried for a couple hours last night, and today tried to get by as best as I could, but now as I'm alone, writing this, too late at night, I'm crying again. It's hard to be away from home ordinarily, especially when you're a stranger in a strange place, but this makes things even harder. I can't be home to mourn in my own home, the space I shared with her. I can't comfort Russ, who I know is mourning the warm fuzzy ball of fur that we both loved and miss. I'm just here, alone in my grief. My roommate, Katie, asked me if I believe if things happen for a reason, and I do. Shadow got sick, she was an older cat, and I knew that some day she would leave this world to cross the Rainbow Bridge, but I just wasn't expecting it to be so soon. But then I guess that we're just never really expecting it, nor are we ever really ready. Maybe somehow it's better this way. Her death isn't so.. immediate, I guess you could say, because I'm not there.

I'll miss her, my sweet grey lady.

Happiness is...

..making dinner for two in your tiny kitchenette for pennies.

Chicken cutlets: 2.05 YTL. ($1.25)
Barilla farfalle pasta: 1.40 YTL. (85 cents)
Tomato sauce: 1.75 YTL. ($1.05)

Feeling self-sufficient again & saving money at the same time: priceless.

Oh.. and to give you further perspective, the whole box of pasta was 1.40 YTL. We cooked maybe half of it, and that made four servings of pasta. Four. And I only used about 1/3 of the jar of sauce. So with those ingredients above, Katie and I had a full dinner (with a side of salad and an orange for dessert), and we *still* have leftovers for tomorrow's lunch.

Amazing.

Orientation

Yesterday we had Orientation, and I got a chance to meet a bunch more international students here at Boğaziçi. Most of us are from America (all over the country too), but there are also a lot of other Europeans here, including from Germany, Austria, France, the Netherlands, Bulgaria, Ukraine, oh, and then China and Japan. So we're a pretty eclectic bunch. As I said before, most everyone is younger than I am, though I've found out that I'm not the only grad student which is a bit comforting.

We got a tour of the North and South campuses too. The North campus is closer to the Superdorm and it looks like most of my classes will be there, and the South campus is the larger one closer to the Bosphorus. It sprawls on the hillside with a blend of Victorian-era American architecture with distinct Turkish accents that you can see in the interior tilework especially. But in a way, it's strangely familiar. Boğaziçi was originally founded in 1863 as Robert College, for those of you who don't know, so it was/is the oldest American college outside of the US. It's now a Turkish institution, but all of its classes are taught in English and it's a very prestigious school here in Turkey. The North campus is more modern and has a very large library, so it is likely that I will spend a lot of my time there. Shorter walk, which is grand, because we do plenty of walking here. I'm really hoping that I walk off about 10-15 pounds by the time I get home! :) Of course, you balance that with very good Turkish food, and that ambition may be a lost cause!

After the tour, we had a brief break and I grabbed a drink with a couple new students that I hadn't yet met, a girl from NYC who's originally from Poland, and a girl from NJ who is Turkish, and speaks both English and Turkish fluently. After this, we loaded up on buses to go to dinner, and enjoyed a pretty tasty (albeit pricey) dinner right along the water, and then it was back out into the cold and then onto to Tophane, a historical area (what isn't in Istanbul, really?) that is very famous for nargile. Sure enough, shortly after pulling up, we spilled out of the buses to see several cafes lined up, their slightly smoky interiors beckoning us in out of the cold to go enjoy a hot cup of çay, play a game or two of backgammon, and smoke the nargile.

For those of you who don't know, all of these are famous traditions here in Turkey. The nargile, otherwise known as the hookah or water pipe (yes, that thing the Caterpillar was smoking in "Alice in Wonderland") is very popular here. They stand about knee-high, and their base is filled with water which cools the smoke. The top is set with coals, and the long pipe is wrapped in cloth and piping, and is passed from person to person (each of us had our own tip to insert for smoking). This was something that I simply had to try. The smoke smelled good, even tasted good, but when it hit the back of my throat, it burned, and I ended up coughing a lot. Not very dignified, but then, I'm not a smoker. *shrug* Livia, Lessa and I sat with Anna from the Ukraine and Chris from Bulgaria, and we played a few games of backgammon. Since I had never played, the others took turns telling me the rules. Chris' father was a three times national champion of backgammon in Bulgaria, so he definitely knew what he was doing!

It wasn't a bad way to pass the evening hours, and everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, meeting new people, chatting, drinking the ever-present glasses of tea. We felt very Turkish. :) This morning was registration, so I have to hope that I'll be able to get into the classes I need (already they hit their quotas!) I have a feeling that I may not able to as there are a couple of conflict with the dates and times, but I'm hoping too to have a chance to speak to my advisor and work out such details. Wish me luck. :)

Days 3, 4, and 5

I really need to keep up with this blog, so I don't let time slip away from me. So much is happening so quickly, and I want to keep record of it all. Day 3, Friday, a large group of us went down to Taksim, which is one of the busiest shopping areas in the whole city. First we had lunch at a local shop (we've been trying new places every time we eat out, and each one is better than the last, it seems). The place was a little mom & pop type shop, and we all had tavuk ve pilav (chicken and rice). I adore rice, but I love the way that they prepare it here, buttery, light and very flavorful. The owner also had us try ayran, which is not unlike buttermilk, frothy and often salted. I've found that I much prefer süt, which is regular milk.

We took a bus down to Taksim, and I ended giving up my seat to a little old lady halfway there. On the way, we saw many banks, stores and restaurants, including a Starbucks and a TGIF right across the street from each other. There is, incidentally, a decent amount of American stores and restaurants here in Istanbul, and they seem pretty popular if a bit more expensive than their Turkish counterparts. Public transportation is also popular here, and before long, the bus was packed with people. Traffic too in Istanbul is an adventure, let me tell you. Drivers go for every inch that they take on the road, they drive fast, aggressively, honk constantly, and sidewalks and pedestrians are fair game. At least the famous Turkish courtesy often does prevail, and drivers will stop abruptly to let people cross the street.

Taksim was a deliciously chaotic area, jammed with people swathed in scarves and dark colors, with vendors on the corners selling chestnuts and simits (like a cross between a soft pretzel and a bagel, covered in sesame seeds. I tried one - very tasty.) We quickly found the Turkcell store, and after a frenetic exchange of jumbled Turkish, English, passports, and lira, we all had new cell phones and simcards. My American cell doesn't work here, but now I can at least keep in touch with my new local friends and I don't feel quite so alone without a line of communication. After this, we wandered through Taksim and the adjacent neighborhood of Tünel, and window shopped, drooling over pastries and candies, delighting over Alex's purchase of a Harry Potter book in Turkish, sharing Verena's pistachios, and snapping photos like the silly tourists that we are. Hey, if we're gonna be tourists, we may as well as be tourists.

We did visit two Catholic churches, St. Anthony's and St. Mary's. Both were just beautiful and peaceful, and I definitely want to return to these for a good second look. We also found the Galata Kulesi (Galata Tower), which stands nearly 200 feet high and dates back to the 6th century. A few of the group went up into the tower, and the rest of us continued exploring, saving the tower for another day. I don't want to do too much touristing too early so I'll have things to see later. Dinner and grocery shopping (an adventure in of itself, I assure you) finished out our day.

Saturday, my roommate and I went off and did a little exploring and shopping around the immediate area. To give you some perspective, the Superdorm, where we live, is about 1.5 miles from the Güney Kampüs (South Campus) where we have our classes, and includes a good-sized hill, so yeah, I'm going to be doing a lot of walking. Between the two campuses are a variety of restaurants and stores, including ATMs, pharmacies, pastry shops, grocery stores, etc. We've eaten in a number of places and each one is just lovely. If you've never had Turkish food, you're missing out. It's not exactly vegetarian-friendly, but I'm pretty pleased.

We wandered around for a few hours to figure out where things were, and to our delight, found a great Saturday market, chock-full of all kinds of produce, fresh cheese, eggs, seafood, and even clothes, towels and linens, toys, and household products. It's just the way I imagined a market here would be: men and boys behind the tables hollering out invitations to buy their things, women in scarves and long skirts chatting together and bargaining good-naturedly, vendors handing out samples of their wares to try, just beautiful chaos. Together we bought stuff for salata (salad), lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, and apples, oranges, a quince, cheese. My roommate and I had a fun time fumbling through our very basic Turkish to make our purchases. It's frustrating not being able to express ourselves, nor understand the Turks, but we're learning quickly. Every day we pick up new words. What's even better is overhearing others, and understanding what they're saying. Ne kadar? Beş lira? Tesekkür. (How much? 5 lira? Thank you.)

Sunday we woke up to rain, so it was bound to be a lazy stay-at-home type day. Still we ventured out to eat and pick up groceries. I'm still just getting over a bit of a cold, and I've been tired and not feeling my best, but I think that has to do with adjusting to the new environs and food. I think that we're all taking in a lot all at once - new country, new language, new people, so many names and faces and facts that we're all feeling overwhelmed, and my body is adjusting too to Turkish food. It's very good, but the Turks cook with a lot of oils, which I'm not used to eating as I tend to eat a lot of fruits, vegetables, salad, whole grains, fiber, and mostly vegetarian. Luckily, bread is a big part of the Turkish diet, and with newly gifted kitchen goods from a local friend of Katie's, we can make at least some things now in our dorm.

Last night one of the American girls held a tea party (since alcohol is verboten in the dorms), and I was able to meet a bunch of people all at one time. It appears that most of the international students are Americans, with a couple Germans, a couple of Dutch, a Chinese girl, and a French girl. I think that I've also figured out that I am the only graduate student, and likely the oldest of the international students, which in itself is odd, since I usually am one of the youngest of any group of my friends. It's a neat experience though being able to hang out with people from all walks of academic life, and spend time with people outside of the TESOL crowd. I miss the TESOL crowd at CSUS dearly, and I have a feeling that I'm going to have mixed feelings about the TEFL crowd here at Boğaziçi, especially as I have been forewarned that I may be the only non-Turk in the classes.

(Still haven't figured out my schedule too btw. I'm more than a little annoyed that they have decided to schedule two core classes to conflict with each other. I am also more than a little annoyed that both Turkish classes conflict with the rest of my classes so that at this point, I really am just not sure what all I'll be taking. I intend to speak with an advisor before registering, that's for sure. I know what I'd *like* to say, but instead I will think of my mantra ("patience, flexibility, this-isn't-America") and try to maintain my temper.)

Today Katie and I strolled over the campus to find the infirmary (where nearly none of the staff speak English, save the Chief Medical Officer himself, who saw us personally), and then we found an Eczane( pharmacy), did laundry (or should I say dropped our laundry off to the lady who does it for us for 10 lira for the two of us), found a little market in the basement (no more lugging big water jugs a quarter of a mile back to our dorm!), before heading to Turkcell for Katie to register her phone. It had started to rain, so we huddled under my umbrella and continued exploring south as we knew that we were near Akmerkez, which is a big fancy-smancy mall a kilometer or two away from the dorm. Along the way, we started at the Starbucks and I indulged in a Chai tea latte for a mere 4.25 lira. I know, I know, I've barely been away from the States for a week, and already I'm craving Starbucks. But it had been a running joke amongst my coworkers and me about how to order chai tea in Turkey since çay (pronounced the same way) *is* tea in Turkish. So is it "chai çay", we wondered? Turns out the Turks don't seem to drink chai, so I have to find it at Starbucks. And tea with milk... the way it should be.

Oh! Oh, but the best part! We had *Mexican* for dinner! In Istanbul, of all places, there is an *El Torito* restaurant. I absolutely couldn't resist, so Katie and I went to have MexiTurk for dinner. We split a chicken fajitas dinner for about 40 lira, so it wasn't too bad that way, but it is still a bit pricey so this will only be an occasional treat for us. But oh, a chai tea latte and chicken fajitas in one day! So happy. It was a very surreal experience eating Mexican food in Turkey. Our waiter spoke decent English, and we went back and forth in English, Turkish and Spanish, teaching each other new words. He ended up giving us his phone number and extending an invitation to take us to a local soccer game. Interesting. Oh, have I mentioned how handsome a people the Turks are? Some of the men *swoon*. :)

Tomorrow is our Orientation. Supposedly. It's not mandatory, but they "highly recommend us to take part in order to have a smooth transition and introduction to Boğaziçi University and Istanbul". The only problem is that they have yet to actually let any of us international students know when and where this Orientation is. So.... yeah. The lack of communication here is really beginning to get on my nerves. There a few other things that I have some serious reservations about here, but I plan on keeping a list to report back to my program advisor and global education office for when I return.

But hopefully we will find out more in the morning. More soon.

Istanbul, Day Two

Day Two

I woke up about 9ish, after nearly 11 hours of sleep, which were sorely needed, and met up with the others at 11. We met Alex, another American student from Illinois, and walked to the Güney Kampüs (South Campus), which is a 10-15 minute hike from the Superdorm. Along the way, we passed lots of little shops and restaurants, and finally saw the Bosphorus. (For those of you who don't know, Istanbul is divided by the Bosphorus Strait which connects the Black Sea in the north with the Sea of Marmara in the south, and beyond the Marmara are the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas. Istanbul is the only city in the world which sits on two continents.) Across the water we could see Turkish flags flying on the Asian side. Asia! We're barely a couple miles from Asia! That was a delicious startling thought, and all of us laughed at that. Registration took only a few minutes, and there we met Nadine, Verena and Ernesto all from Germany, Karel from the Netherlands, and a couple others whose names are currently escaping me. We decided to find the swimming pool, which is on the Hisar Kampüs, and unfortunately it requires a membership fee so I don't think I'll be swimming there.

After that, we went all together for lunch at a local place, all 10 of us sitting down together. Ordering was fun – only Nadine really spoke much Turkish so with translating help from her, referring to pictures on the menu, a little pointing and a little random choosing, we all got lunch. We swapped bites so we could all try everything. I can't remember now what I ordered, some kind of wrapped burrito-like thing with hamburger sausage, lettuce and tomato, but it was very tasty. A little dish with spices and peppers, not unlike a dryish salsa was served, and baskets of puffed bread that was big as a person's head. Seriously. We joked about taking a photo of the bread next to someone's head just to get a size comparison. (I'll be learning all the Turkish words for these things sooner or later) We drank water and tea. Oh, this is definitely one thing that you notice about Turkey. Bottled water and tea are everywhere – every store, every restaurant, nearly everywhere you go. You can't drink the tap water here, so everyone drinks bottled water and it's cheap, about 90 kuruş (kuruş are comparable to American cents), which is maybe 75 cents. Tea is of course absolutely ubiquitous in Turkey. It's so much a part of Turkish culture, and it is drunk very simply with şeker (sugar), but no milk. Apparently this is just not done. There are two kinds of milk even, süt and ayran, which is more like buttermilk and is drunk with salt and pepper sometimes. The yoghurt (I'm not going to translate this one – surprise! You already know some Turkish) is also different, not flavored and eaten as a side with meals. I mixed a little with the salsa-like stuff and it was a reasonable Turkish mock-up of my beloved Mexican.

We spent the afternoon walking, and decided to make our way down to Bebek which is on the water's edge. We made our way down a long hill, along a steep narrow road, dodging crazy drivers all the way. Oh! The drivers in Turkey are unbelievable. They park their cars every which way, even on the sidewalks as the roads are often narrow and many of them cobblestone or brick, and they drive all over the park, honking at anything, and they will barely slow down to let you pass. We kept joking today that one of us was going to end up dead, and here I am, over 6000 miles away from my favorite mortician! So needless to say, this isn't a city that I'd want to drive in. Turkish drivers are downright ruthless! But the walking, oh, the walking may kill me. I think we must have walked 5 miles today, and between having a cold and being stupidly out of shape, I had to stop a couple of times to take a breather. But to be fair, coming back up the hill was more than a bit of a workout. So yeah, Turkish food is delicious, but I think I'm going to lose a bit of weight being here.

The waterfront was quite pretty, again lots of little shops and restaurants, and many people fishing along the water. Mostly they were pulling in silverly little fish which they put in plastic buckets of water. We even saw a small clutch of men huddled around a portable grill, eating their fresh catch with lemons, cigarettes dangling from their fingers. Here's another constant: everyone seems to smoke, and they smoke everywhere – in restaurants, on the street, on their mopeds (minus helmets too) and smokes are cheap apparently, not that I'm interested. The girls and I took it all in, including strolling beneath the grey rock towers of Rumelihisarı, which is a fortress that was built between 1451-1452, back when Istanbul really was Constantinople.

It was seeing that majestic fortress looming over us that I really had that “OhmiGod, I'm really in *Istanbul*” moment. America is old and has lots of very neat buildings, but there are no real fortresses or castles there. This was a fortress, built nearly a century and a half before Virginia was first founded, over three hundred years before America was founded, even forty years before Columbus sailed for the Indies. Constantinople, y'all. 1451. That's old. Now to be honest, we've all been having these little OhmiGod, I'm in Istanbul” moments at various points, but seeing those towers really drove home the fact that I'm now in Europe.

Oh... another long day, and it's late as I'm writing this. We Americans went back to the Superdorm, rested for a bit, and there I met Katie, my roommate, who is from Boston. She just got in from many long hours driving from west Europe and was suffering from the same jet lag the rest of us had the day before. We ventured out, and I introduced her to Erin, Emily and Olivia, and we had dinner at a local hole in the wall restaurant, where we ordered our food by again a lot of pointing and smiles. I had something like a Turkish beef stew and the others had dishes that resembled chana masala, chicken pot pie and mousaka, which was the one dish we all recognized. Tea, bread, salad (lettuce, carrots and red cabbage eaten with olive oil and lemon juice) rounded out the meal. And the the very handsome waiters (Oh, girls, let me tell you that the men here are so pretty!) even gave us free dessert, including a baked apple in syrup with heavy whipped cream, a caramelized milk pudding (like flan), and a dessert that had the consistency of grits or polenta but was sweet. All in all, very tasty. We will definitely be going there again!

So that's my road less traveled so far. I'm very happy to have met other Americans, including ones who are from Virginia, no less! I've made some good friends pretty quickly, and I'm looking forward to meeting more. Every hour I spend here I learn or see something new. We're all happily fumbling our way through the language, and even going to a restaurant minus a Turkish-speaker has not daunted us. We're all in this together. Tomorrow we have plans to brave the public transportation and go to Taksim, near the downtown area, to see what we can see, buy Turkish cell phones and do a little shopping. I promise more updates soon. :)