So, about my experiences here... I'd said that I went out to eat for the first time on Saturday, we went to some Iskender kebap place. No, I dont know what Iskender means. We couldnt really read the menu, at least I couldnt, so I just guessed on something with "tavuk" (chicken) in the name and I ended up with.. guess what Jenn!!! Chicken wings!!!! Yeah, suffice it to say I was thrilled to death about that. Alyssa got peynirli pide, which is sorta like a mini cheese pizza. Both were awesome. Besides, our server kinda reminded me of Sylvester Stallone :D The servers kinda stalk around in the restaurants here. They almost creep me out. They're always standing at the front greeting people or looking at you while you eat or whatever. I think its just because they want to take your plate from you within .5 seconds of you finishing a meal. After we ate, we had a little cup of cay there before looking like idiots when we didnt know how to pay or understand the amount they wanted from us. And I've eaten many other things since I've been here, lots of them I didnt really know what they were, but all of them have been fantastic! We do have to eat out every single day, which gets sorta stressful, but it gives me a chance to try lots and lots of new foods and practice everyday speaking and listening. Maybe someday I will understand prices... but they say them crazy. 500 means 50 kurus or whatever and 2 milyon 750 seems to mean 2.75 lira. I'm just really happy that I havent had any problems with my stomach adjusting to the new food, it hasnt really been upset at all, which is pretty rare for me anyway :D Especially considering the vast quantities of cay I consume, I would expect it to be more of an issue.
We also walked around campus and tried to find our building, which we sorta failed to do, but the campus is incredibly beautiful. I was kinda curious about the "forest" they had written on the map, I mean, what kind of forest can you really find on a college campus? Not much of one was my guess, but no, its a real, honest-to-God forest in there. Also, cats, cats everywhere in Istanbul, but even moreso on campus. The great part is that people here actually feed them too. You definitely make lots of lovely kitty friends if you buy any sort of food and find a spot to sit outside. I'll have pictures of them I'm sure. There are dogs as well, but not quite as many of them. Also, one day last week, there were two chickens just milling about.. I found that strange, I havent seen them since either.
Class is pretty awesome. 4 hours a day of just straight up class, I know it shouldnt be thrilling, but it is to me, okay?! I've been waiting for forever it seems. We have a few different kinds actually, speaking, grammar, writing, reading and lab, which is mostly listening to headphones in a very white room. I have lots of homework each day, but its ok I suppose. After class, we usually have informal speaking practice with our TA, who's super super sweet. I like all of our teachers actually. We see a movie once a week and we will have cultural lectures too :) Those start tomorrow and will be on every Tuesday and Wednesday after this.
Last Wednesday Alyssa and I went downtown in Taksim square to watch the futbol mac. That was a glorious experience, actually, I dont remember ever having a better one. We were both sorta scared of being German in heritage so we bought some really cheap Türkiye jerseys to wear around so that people wouldnt hate us, though I dont think they would have anyway. We still got asked if we were German alot, or Australian. Actually, lots of them yelled things like "thanks for to buy this shirt!" or "Thanks for the support our country" as we walked by. They just seemed pretty thrilled in general. There was a huuuuge mob in the center of Taksim, they had a massive screen set up to watch the game and people selling team paraphernalia everywhere. We went down a side street to a small cafe to actually watch the game because there was nowhere to sit in the main square. This place was pretty cool, the tv was small and not terribly nice and was sitting amongst a million oranges outside. It was on top of a crate of oranges and the rabbit ears were stuck in an orange in a glass on top of the tv, I have no idea why... and there was a bag of oranges nailed to the tree beside it. Its because they served fresh squeezed orange juice, which Alyssa bought, and we both had a CAY before the game... I always have a cay though... There were other tvs set up with turks around them along the street too. They were amazingly well-behaved actually :P but there was much rejoicing at the home team scores and lots of grumbling at Germany's. I jumped up and screamed along with them :P The end was sorta sad and depressing.. though, and afterwords was a sea of garbage and unhappy turks everywhere. We caught a bus home and went to bed way way late :P. Check out pictures of these awesome things on Alyssa's blog!
The Istanbul Gezi was awesome. It was a really long walking tour of some lesser known historical sites in Istanbul, I'll hopefully cover this more in depth later but.. I have homework and I've already been on Alyssa's computer too long :P For now, check Alyssa's blog for some pics of awesome mosques and such!
3 comments:
Please thank Alyssa for for letting you use her computer. It is very kind of her. I am very angry with myself for not making you take Stee's computer so you would be able to post your pictures and such. Perhaps she would let you take a few pictures that you could post on your blog and then she could delete them from her computer and camera but they would still be here for us all to see? I did enjoy reading her thoughts on your experiences there. Does she mind at all?
I am so glad you had fun during the game. I was watching here at home and they were showing all the riotous rejoicing after the goals with bonfires, fireworks, etc. They didn't say where in Turkey that was though, so it may not have been where you were. Jeremiah will be so jealous if you got to take part in a real soccer riot. Turkey has no reason to feel badly about their performance as they played very well. Germany should have been ashamed of themselves winning that game when they played so badly.
Thank you for the link to Alyssa's blog! The pictures are very nice, and really help you get a feel for what's going on - though you're a better writer than you cop to, you described the orange stand perfectly.
What a wonderful update. I can't wait to hear more adventures of you and Alyssa.
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