Snowboarding in Bursa!?? GERÇEKTEN???

Evet. Doğru. (yes. it's true.) But we'll get to that in a minute.

Here I am, Sunday morning...sore as ever from yesterday & enjoying my typical breakfast (: Please note the JIF from home, the boxed milk, danone yoğurt, ahududu reçeli (raspberry jam), & Nestle cheerios.

Weekly update: school's been going well. Still not much homework & we're enjoying our classes. & we're making lots of friends (: Tuesday evening was the first Turkish Conversation Club meeting & it was sooo fun! I really do feel like I'm getting a hang of the language & it's so exciting (: I'm working on vocab/verb memorization now! You should see my room, there are post-its everywhere haha. Mali was my tutor & he's pretty funny so we had a good time. Also everyone went out to dinner/dessert after & Erin & I played a wicked sweet game of Egyptian Rat Screw. & by wicked sweet, I mean I won... Mali taught us some Turkish smack talk but I forget it now... We wrapped up the evening with FOTC & dondurma (Flight Of The Conchords & ice cream). We discovered a new dinner option on Wednesday night - that is, cheesy rice, chicken, & veggies. & some more Turkish TV i think. Thursday after class Zeynep & I watched Turkish MTV - Made, & I learned the words for dude (abi) brother (erkek kardeş) & sister (kız kardeş). That night was full of excitement (: Arican's Radyoclub party at Les Ottomans!! Very swanky (çok şik!) & more fun music AAANNNDDD a really great way to practice my Turkish! Seriously (: Every time we go to a some sort of party I try all my Turkish out & I am always surprised at how much I actually know! Haha for example a couple guys were teaching us some sweet dance moves & instead of "butter the bread" i called it "balkaymak the lavaş" hahaha (: etc etc... Friday we made more friends in out Operations Research Problem Session & I might add, our TA is pretty cute. Allie doesn't agree but my roommate Zeynep pointed out that that's a good thing - no competition! haha (:

Now onto the REAL reason you're reading this post: BURSA!!! Please again note: HOW GORGEOUS!!

My roommate Irem is dating Batuhan who is also in our Operations Research class. In class on Thursday, he invited us to join him & the rest of the Bogazici ski team for a ski trip on saturday. Total cost, including rental: 110YTL. That is, $65! Are you insane?? Who passes up an offer like that? Plus, Batuhan & Irem are just so cute! (: He was so great in organizing our part of the trip: he got us spare snowpants, coats, gloves, & goggles from his teammates. He picked us up from the Superdorm at 4am on Saturday & took us to the buses at Akmerkez mall. The bus then drove over to the Asian side of Istanbul and eventually onto a Ferry! We got off the bus and walked around the boat for a while, watching the sunrise over the Marmara Sea. So beautiful (: Eventually we made it to the mountain & the bus drove us to the top, through a forest that reminded me of the movie Defiance - just more snow. But these huuuuge beautiful trees! Ah such a great way to wake up after a four hour bus ride (: Unfortunately, I don't think the guys did very well in their competition that day, but the girls' team made 2nd place & are now going to europe to compete! I think it was all thanks to Allie's strong performance in the last heat.* Way to go team!! Speaking of team, Tim ("team" as the Turks say...and we say) was a wonderful instructor all day. I had the most terrible time getting up the T-bar lift thing. What the heck?? Who invented those? NO good. I have a nice nasty huge bruise on my left thigh now. Far too many wipe outs. But Tim was 

patient and taught me everything I now know about toe-side, goofy-style. I eventually made it up to almost the top & hiked the rest of the way (haha). We took a break at the cafe up on the top of the mountain & made friends with one of its frequenters (& a photographer), Mazo. After we enjoyed heating up by the fire, eating some tavuk sis & corba, & listening to Tim jam on a saz guitar, he led us to the slope with a CHAIR lift & took some pictures of us mid slope! They look awesome (: Yeah, we're friends on skype now so he is currently, at this very moment, sending me our pics. haha he was nice. Oh, and told me I have a really nice head. We think he meant I'm smart, but it was pretty funny (:

The rest of the day was absolutely breathtaking! Here are some more photos to show what I mean:

[rats. the pics aren't working @ the moment.... stay tuned.]

*Allie did not actually compete. Though she probably should have. Bogazici Volleyball Team, Bogazici Ski Team, why not?