phones and food.

The computer lab is still closed but.. here I am on Alyssa's computer.  No, she definitely doesnt mind if you read her blog, she linked to mine too so... yeah, we intended for it to be this way. And yes I wish I could post pictures as much as you do, I'll see what can be done. We had a lovely adventure today... lovely? mm, perhaps not..

I bought a turkish cell phone awhile back, the man assured me it was 'maximum cheap' and I guess I believed him ( I also dont remember whether I already mentioned that on here or not, but whatever..)  Anyway, a week later, yesterday, I finally managed to get it to work, and I got my first call too :D  Beyond watching the mac in Taksim, that was one of the best things ever because it was one of my Turkish friends! I still dont really know how they work, just mildly understand using one.. in theory.  You buy credits for so much money and somehow they make you able to call and text.  Texts cost two apparently and calls are some ridiculous price like 6 a minute or somesuch, I dont really know.  Its cheaper if you call cells with the same company I guess.  I dont know how to check how many I have or add more either, what a mess :P  Anyway, Alyssa has been annoyed by her phone not working so we finally just decided to take care of it (she has a gsm phone so, in theory it can be opened up for use here, unlike mine).. the turkcell place told us we had to go all the way to Besiktas (a district in Istanbul, not to be confused with the huuge futbol team of the same name, although I believe they are associated) to fix it.  So we did, and we went to three different turkcell places trying to get this thing unfrozen and at the end she just bought a turkish one because they kept telling her it cant be fixed, despite what the place here in Etiler said.  Come to find out its apparently because one particular terrorist used that particular model of phone to set off a bomb and so turkish companies banned it or something ridiculous like that...  Either way, I love adventures in downtown areas.. and we also saw Galatasaray University, which also has a huge futbol team associated.  That was sorta cool I suppose.

That wasnt a terribly exciting story.. sorry, I should write something more interesting.  Mom, did you get my message on facebook? its kinda important....

I was going to talk about our Istanbul tour, but I dont know that I have much to say about it.. it was long, long and hot.  I liked it though.  The old buildings here are amazing.  I especially loved a really old church thats just empty now, but you can visit it.  Some of the old artwork is still (mildly) intact.  We went to so many mosques that I dont remember much of them, they all run together.  Like an idiot, I forgot my scarves in Arizona so I had to borrow one from each mosque we visited.  I kinda liked wearing them actually.  Anyway, we went to Fatih, one of the poorer districts, it seemed very conservative, the women were mostly wearing the big black things that cover everything but the eyes and nose.  I feel like I should know what those are called.  Anyway, our guide was insanely knowledgeable and spoke very good English.

We had our first culture talk yesterday, about Orientalism in art, it was interesting, but lets talk about food. I eat simit about everyday, I'd say I'm well addicted, especially if it has sucuk in it, forvI'm also well addicted to that.  Simit is a bread they have here, EVERYWHERE.  You can get it plain or with stuff in it.. usually cheese or sucuk, which is a sausage thats supposedly spicy, but even I dont think it is :P Its pretty cheap too, I should probably eat it everyday to save money :D haha...  What else about food.  Oh they have these things called gozleme, which are reminiscent of the bolanee I love in Afghani restaurants, I eat that a goodly amount too.  Also, I love pide (especially with sucuk again :P) which is sorta like pizza I guess.  The only thing I really dont like is the feta cheese, which is also very common. I accidentally got a gozleme with it once D: Turkish coffee is as fantastic as ever, but since its way more expensive than cay, I hardly ever drink it.  They have lots of exciting sodas too, so many of them are pomegranate flavored! And that energy drink with the lighter? glorious, although Alyssa apparently thought otherwise.  Perhaps I'll try more of their energy drinks.  the bakeries are lovely, there's one right across the street from our dorm and sometimes we stop there for breakfast on the way to class.  There are a few more we've visited as well, good cookies, and some weird things with olive or fruit fillings.  I swear its hard to find really healthy food here.  Yoghurt is pretty common, like Ayran, the yoghurt drink, or sometimes its just yoghurt based sauces on turkish raviolis or so.  Pretty amazing.  Oh, we went to El Torito the other day, way expensive, mildly Mexican :P.  It was pretty good, but the prices will likely keep us away in the future.

So for once I don't have so much to say.. so I'ma go do some homework now.