ilk haftasında kursları (first week of classes)

Sorry I'm not very good at this blogging business. For one, I'm just a terrible writer, as we know. And for two, I'm having such an incredible time here that sometimes I forget to let you all know about it! I'm busy busy busy (: Let's see... first of all, I guess I should mention my bags came!! Iştabu!! Friday night we went to a house party with Arican & Emre to celebrate Kaya's birthday. It was a fun party with Maddy (Kaya's cousin from England who also lives in the Superdorm!) & mainly Koc University students (even some more Americans!) etc. I also met Cem & Saim who are going to invite me to play soccer whenever they organize matches. (: (: Can't wait! We ate Chinese food (from a box!) and Allie enjoyed some lovely birdwatching - without forgetting to wear the appropriate equipment of course (: When we got back to the Superdorm, I knew my bags were coming because I had called the airline earlier that day. I was so excited!! I ran into the lobby & ran over to my bags ready to hug them when OH NO my feet slip out from under me and I crash backwards onto the floor & slide into my bags. hahahhaha! it was hilarious (: Hakan (our security guard friend) also thought it was hilarious and was laughing so hard. He pointed to the security camera & the security TVs and pretended to rewind & watch me fall over & over - pantomiming of course because he speaks no english & we speak no turkish - yet! But alas, my stuff was finally here!

The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing. On Saturday we went to the neighborhood market for el cheapo produce!! We're talking 5 oranges for a lyra (60 cents) total. & a free tomato. That night we enjoyed a dinner with our other American girlfriends at "Populer Pizza" - tough to ask Hakan for directions to because he thought we wanted to know what were some popular pizza places. "Pizza Hut? Domino's" he'd say... Sunday was pretty gross but we tried walking around campus & finding out where our classrooms would be. & don't worry, we're finally decked out in our Boğaziçi gear! That night we (A, E, J, me) cooked pasta again & veggies @ Julia's. mmmmm! It was really really nice just sitting around chatting for a long time that night. I love these girls! Then Erin & I watched 13 Going on 30 (dubbed in Turkish!) with my roommates & I stayed up really late talking with them - that was lots of fun!

Monday began the first week of classes - Numerical Analysis @ 11am. My classmates only speak & ask questions in Turkish. That's fun! That night, Julia's friend Luke from London came to town & we ate at Ecvator in Taksim - delicious mexifood. Oh, also I met my husband - Peter, a carpenter from Sweden. You're all invited. Then I came back & skyped paps for a while (:

Tuesday was Operations Research @ 9-10 - incredibly boring. unbelievably boring. more boring than professor Katz @ washU! (is that possible?) Irem's boyfriend, Bathouan is in our class & he met up with us after & gave Allie & I lots of info on sailing club & aviation club (paragliding!) Then Facilities Design & Planning @ 12-2 - more interesting than OR. Then Turkish for Foreigners @ 3-5. Should be a fun class, but the four of us are already so far ahead! psshhh "Merhaba"?? that's for beginners! That night was Ufram Ocakbeşi again... mmm... and then Emily & I dominated Luke, Caitlin, & Katie at some tavla (backgammon). (:

Wednesday was Num.Anal. @11-1, Turkish @1-3. Our campus is so pretty! & after that we went into Taksim, picked up Luke, and walked to the Galata Tower... çok güzel!! (so pretty!!) just check out the pics (: Unbelievable. Then we found dinner at "The Liver Corner" of course, we don't speak Turkish so we didn't know that's what it was called. We drank oğranç (orahnch - disgusting) beet juice!! yuck! But ate delicious kebaps & free baklava dessert!! Then we went to a nargile (hookah) place and sat on big comfy cushions on the ground & Allie & I shared a rice pudding... Such a fun place (:

Thursday was Operations Research @9-11, Facilities @11-1. Then I was the only person done with class so I met up with Luke & we were going to go to the Grand Bazaar. Sadly, I was completely distracted by a lamp/chandelier store & really hit it off with the guys who worked there. I talked them down to a reasonable lamp price & they made me a whole chandelier!! They were hilarious & much better prices than inside the Bazaar. Unfortunately for Luke, the affair took two & a half hours because I was having so much fun while they made my chandelier hahaha. Oh well, it's so beautiful & I can't wait to show it off! That night was the Sportsclub Disco Spring Semester Kickoff party at Airport Dance Club & it was insane!!! Such fun dancing music & we stayed so late (: haha. One guy actually lived in fairfax county for 2 years & knew my high school! Strange?? Yeah!! He bought me a drink & I rudely declined on accident & felt really bad about it... so I tried my first cranberry vodka cocktail, actually pretty yummy. Luckily All the Single Ladies came on & I ditched him (kinda creepy) for the dance floor!

Friday was simply Facilites @12-1. Then Allie & I had a weird experience at the American Internship Center where they needed help for a weekend job fair. It was a sketchy ordeal & we ended up backing out... We spent the afternoon just gezmek-ing (wandering) and I bought a $2 tee from a fun store (: We also tried kumpire (basically a stuffed baked potato) and walked along the Bosphorus some more until we caught a bus back to Bebek & walked home. We had more pasta & salad with J, E, & Luke and that was nice (:

Yesterday was hilarious! Allie & I woke up late & went on a run together. (My first run this semester! It felt so good!) However, it started raining then icing then snowing on us & we came back after maybe 2 or 3 miles... There's a track right next to the Superdorm that we run on so that's nice. We then went to Kanyon Mall to meet Arican & Ege for dinner. We went early & walked around - it was insane! A half outdoor - half indoor mall with a skating rink inside & really cool architecture. It was fun to explore (: and dinner was delicious. Then Maddy & Kaya joined and all of us (minus Ege) took a cab to Cem's party by Koc. It was at his house and was again a lot of fun! Minus too much playstation with Iyit... and minus the huuuuge smelly guy who wanted to dance with me over & over & over! The gang all pitched in to save me multiple times & Livyo dubbed it "Saving Private Ryan" bahaha çakal! (clever!) Plus they had delicious raspberry cake - I think that's three birthday parties we've been to already & we're already planning Allie & Arican's joint 21st! Saim also taught me how to conjugate all turkish verbs - give me a verb, any verb & i can tell you the past present & future tense of that verb! (: dang Türkçe seviyorum!! (i love turkish!)

Today Allie & I went on a HUUUGE gezmek! We just decided to have a wander and see where we ended up... turns out we went really far - even a muddy hike under the freeway haha (: and found a cool part of the city that felt much more foreign and exciting. It was freezing though so we didn't even shop - we have nothing to show for the 5 hours we walked around. Oh, except Allie found the best simit ever! (seemeet - our fave bagel like bread with sesame seeds. mmmm) & i found the lamest ice cream ever! hahaha. Pasta with Erin Julia & Tim again plus some more Turkish tv tonight pretty much wraps up the week (: I'll try to put pictures up tomorrow.... it's 2:34am here & it's a school night! You see what I mean about time here? Where does it all go??

Enjoy the pics on facebook for now (: Miss you all!

Gule Gule!

Yamur Adam! (It's Raining Men)

hahaha. not really. mostly just rain! The past week has been a lot of fun though. It feels like we've been here forever! Sadly, bagaj yok (still no bags for me)...which reminds me, I need to buy some more Turkish underwear today! But also, I am still borrowing Allie's computer to get on the internet. So, while my pictures are on my computer (I really am photo-recording this trip!), they won't be online for you all yet. Soon, I promise!! I am calling British Airways / Air France today to see what we can find... On saturday we went out for a waffle breakfast (mmm) and then Allie Julia and I made arkadas (friends) with the fruit stand boys and bought some portakal (oranges) kivi (kiwis) & muz (bananas). Then we got cellphones from Turkcell and made friends with the store owners too haha. That night Tim Allie Julia & I we ate at Ufram Ocakbesi (mmmm) which just happens to be the best kebap place around & went to Taksim, to an "Aydish Bup" - a place our Superdorm security friends recommended. It was actually an Irish Pub with live music and it was really great. We're probably going back for Allie's birthday in march. The next morning, the Turkcell guys (or men I should say) took us (julia allie TIM - we were safe i swear - and me) out & paid for Sunday brunch (super traditional Turkish food! Balkaymak seveyorum! I love honey yogurt!) Whenever we mention to people that we've eaten balkaymak they are really impressed (: That night one of the exchange students hosted a "tea party" (chai) in her Superdorm room and almost all the Superdorm exchange kids were there! It was great to meet more 'foreigners' all from france, the netherlands, germany, etc! Then on monday a big group of us went to the Grand Bazaar in the Old City. WOW! It is absolutely huge. It wasn't tents, like I was picturing, it was actually a full blown huuuge building, like a maze, filled with shope after shop selling carpets, chandeliers, lights, jewelry, antiques, spices, shoes, purses, and even jeans - I bought a pair of "Armani" haha and they actually fit really well! So I'm kind of surviving this whole bagaj yok situation (: On tuesday we finally met Arican (ahreejan... c sounds like a j here) and his friend Ege (she is so cute!!) and they took us to the Dolmabahce Palace, where the last Sultan of Turkey lived and died in 1938. WOOW! It was unbelievably beautiful. One of the chandeliers in the main hall weighs 4.5 tons! And, mom, they love trompe l'oeil (: their paintings made all the celings look twice as high. From there we made it to orientation with the Student Xchange program. Our tour guide Silcuk was great. All the students bussed out to the water for a fancy dinner and then to the Tophane district for group nargileh (hookah). Our group just played Backgammon for a while (: Tavlah that is, it's Turkey's favorite pastime. Then we took Silcuk with us to Taksim to meet Arican and Ege. It was Arican's friend's birthday party at a Mexican restaurant (with incredible music!) and we danced forever! They even played Elvis and the Beach Boys haha (: Allie Julia & I all tried Turkish Raki - tastes like black licorice so Julia & I are fans... On wednesday we registered online for classes which was a nightmare, met Elif for lunch (she lived in the superdorm last year with our WashU friend Eric and she is sooo great and helpful and wants to take us to do everything!) then we painted our nails in Allie's room while we waited for Arican to call. We met him & his friend Emre in Bebek for a delishhh dinner and then back to Taksim for some HILARIOUS dancing. Seriously, Julia Erin & I OWNED that dance floor. Especially when It's Raining Men came on (: That was last night, & boy are we exhausted. Since I don't have running shoes, I'm waiting here and updating the blog & emails & fb while Julia Erin & Allie go on a run. Today we are going to campus to find our classrooms and buy some sweet Bogazici spirit wear. It's raining again & it's suppposed to rain tomorrow, so maybe we'll even rent a movie... And hopefully we'll go back to Ufram Ocakbesi for absolutely delicious kebaps!! More to come (:

OMG! Finally here!

Merhaba from Istanbul!! (finally) holy moly (: I knew I signed up for an adventure when I decided to study abroad in Istanbul, but this isn't quite what I had in mind! To make a long story short, Heathrow and snow are a terrible combination (even if it's only about two inches). My plane landed quite nicely at 6:45 am in Heathrow. I then proceeded to wait 4 hours ON the plane and another 6 hours in a long, slow-moving line. British Airways kindly set me up in a hotel, about an hour into the city and told me to take the Tube to Euston. Well (haha) I managed to get myself to Euston Square instead of Euston Station so I wandered around for a while in the snow (it was about 8pm at this point) until I asked a bus driver for directions and made it to my hotel no problem. A number of my friends from the 6 hour line were there too! Including two Turkish women who were booked on my flight (:

I woke up at 5:30 the next morning and took the Tube back to the airport, waited two hours to check in and was so close to the counter when my new flight was cancelled. I spent the rest of the day in line again and they booked my on an AirFrance flight through Charles De Gaulle. In line at the AirFrance check-in, I met Katie Numbers - an American girl who is also studying at Bogazici (my university!) She had a hostel and a ride from the airport already arranged and they even had room for me so we finally made it to Istanbul and stayed at the Bahaus hostel that night. Sadly, neither of us had luck with our luggage coming through and to this day, our bags have not been delivered! We had a lot of fun finding our way around Sultanamet though and eventually tramming/busing our way to the Superdorm.

It's pretty nice accommodation. I have three Turkish roommates: Irem, a master's student in civil engineering, Zeynep a freshman in chemical engineering, and Çiğdem a sophomore in mechanical engineering. They all seem to be really nice and fun so I can't wait to actually get to know them. The past few days have been spent getting to know the other Americans (mostly girls) and exploring our way around the city, trying to buy the essentials: a bed sheet, shampoo, underwear!, tee-shirts, and food!

Last night some of us went to Taksim, the party area, with Tugay - a Turkish guy who just came up to me and started asking if we needed help doing anything. Don't worry. Everyone here is genuinely hospitable, friendly, and willing to go out of their way to help! All of us always have our guard up, thinking these people are just being helpful because they want something - but they never do! He took us to a fun, popular bar where we each enjoyed our first Turkish beer (not bad, but not my favorite...Julia helped me finish it) and then to a bizarre dance club where no one was dancing, but us haha. Oh well, Julia and I probably had the best moves I've seen in a while and we used practically the whole floor! It was a lot of fun & a great way to get to know the girls (: we were all so goofy! Today we all got waffles together (so delicious) and Allie Julia and I made friends with the fruitstand boys who spoke no english. We sure are learning a lot of Turkish really fast! We might meet them later tonight to back to Taksim, this time we're bringing our American friend Tim along to make sure we're guzluk (safe!) I think we are all having a fabulous time and enjoying the beautiful weather! Time to go buy a TurkCell! Pictures and more posts to come...

GuleGule, 

Rhy