Spain and Stuff

I have no idea how in the world it is already May 6^th.  I just booked a ticket to Southern Turkey for the end of the semester where my friend and I plan to hike and explore (Anatalya, Fethiye, Olympos).  I think then I will be road tripping through Bulgaria with 2 friends before I head back to Istanbul on June 21^st to fly to Charlotte.  Then I fly to LA to spend the summer with my wonderful brother, sister-in-law, and niece.  Oh, and I’m going to Jordan on May 15^th!  Pretty excited for that.

I went to Spain for Spring break with my best friend here, Sabreen.  We went to Barcelona and then Sevilla.  We were slightly underwhelmed by Barcelona, but the Gaudi architecture and gothic part of town were stunning.

Sevilla, on the other hand, was one of the most amazing places I’ve ever been.  The beauty of the city, combined with the flawless weather and relaxing way of life made it a perfect trip.  We also met up with a friend of a friend, who we expected to have dinner with us once or twice, but he showed us the whole city and hung out with us every day.  He was great, just like the city. It was really nice to be in a walking city, where all the “must see” things could be done in a day of walking around (in the beautiful weather, of course), and then the rest of the time was able to be spent relaxing.  It was a nice contrast to Istanbul, where everything is at least a 30 minute bus ride away, and some things (within Istanbul) can be over two and a half hours apart.

Other thoughts about spring break and Istanbul since the last time I checked in (sometimes I get bored of writing in paragraph style, so I figure people get bored of reading it)

• When I was in Spain, I found myself wanting to speak Turkish words (such as yes, thank you, hello) because I knew I needed a foreign word.  Those were the first ones that came to mind because they’ve been the ones I’ve been using for the last 3 months.  I said “merhaba” multiple times as I entered Spanish shops, restaurants, etc.  I did the same thing with Spanish when I first got to Turkey (I would say “y” for and, or respond “si” for yes).

• It IS possible to sight see in Rome when you have a 7 hour layover between Barcelona and Istanbul.  Things that are possible to fit in when you have exactly 3 hours in the city: The Colosseum (just the outside), Italian food (pizza, pasta, and bruschetta), The Trevi Fountain, lots of unidentified ruins (there’s no time for maps or research!!), Gelato.

• Pick pocketing by 7 year olds is a real thing.  (It was just attempted, I didn’t get anything stolen, just caught a kid with his hand in my bag on the metro… not sure if I’ve ever been that mad in my whole life)

• I miss Chipotle.  Our Cinco de Mayo feast yesterday, however, was a good substitute.  The guacamole was worth it, even though avocados were 6 lira each (~3 dollars).

• The Bosphorus straight is much colder and saltier than expected, but still very refreshing to jump in after running for the first time in months.

• Traveling is awesome, but sometimes it’s nice to spend a little bit longer in each place so you can explore the city and not feel rushed to do so many things in a day

• Ottoman Empire train station parties are pretty cool.  Also, climbing trains can be fun.  (https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151417026272393)

• It’s possible to not see everything in a city even after being here for 3 months

• Rock hopping in Asia is fun

I love it here.  I do miss home, especially the people, but this has been such an incredible experience and I’m so thankful to have come.  I’m really excited for my upcoming adventures (I’ll keep you posted!) and I’m also really excited for my senior year at UNC next year.  Sorry my blog isn’t the most consistent thing on the internet, but I hope anyone who reads this enjoys it at least a little bit!

And, to sign off, the song that has been played most frequently throughout the semester:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mDxcDjg9P4

Görüşürüz!

20 Things I’ve learned in the past 3 weeks:

1)      Sometimes the coolest places are the ones that are least touristy.  Maybe ones that, when you arrive on a 1 am bus from the airport and your plan is either to sleep on a beach, in a park, or just stay up all night and a guy that your friend meets on the bus says, “There is no beach in Rize.  You have big problem.  Rize is horrible city.  Why would you come here?” Just a hypothetical situation, of course.

2)      Turkish hospitality is a real thing – we were given homemade food at a tea garden, then as we wandered up into the more natural part of Rize, we were invited into a woman’s home, onto her balcony, where she fed us juice, cake, and kiwis and we sat and enjoyed the unbelievable weather.  She then proceeded to give us souvenirs of objects taken from her home.

On top of that, we met Can (the guy who may or may not have been the one we met on the bus) who:

1. Found us a hotel that first night
2. Took us to Ayder, a beautiful, tiny town with mountains, rivers, rocks, castles, silk road viewings abound
3. Paid for everything while we were with him (food, beers, spa trip, gas, snacks, etc)
4. Let us drive his car (dunno if that’s legal…)

His dad somehow was a doctor that everyone on the black sea knew (probably more than just a doctor, but that’s all he told us).  He was very rich.  We got pulled over for speeding (going very high over the speed limit) and because it was his dad’s car and the police knew his dad, we were let off the hook.

3)      If you have a “special” passport, you can go anywhere without needing a visa.  (Learned that from Can, of course).

4)      Sometimes people stare at you like you’re zoo animals if they’ve never seen an American in their town before.

5)      ATVs are one of the most fun activities and I think I want to ride them way more frequently in the future.  Or just pick up motorcycling, we’ll see.  (What do you think, dad?)

6)   Rocks and caves are really cool.

7)      Lamb intestines are delicious.

8)      Eggplant has nicotine in it.  It is also delicious.

9)   It can be over 60 degrees one day and snow the next.

10)   They do have nachos in Turkey.  You just have to go to an Australian bar called Fat Boys in Cappadocia to get them.

11)      You can order any food to your home in Istanbul.  It is great.  You use a website; you don’t even have to have human contact.

12)      How to properly eat sunflower seeds.  Also how to cheer in Turkish for soccer teams.

13)   It is possible to eat 3 ice cream cones in one day.  Although a little bit regrettable.

14)   Bikes are really fun.  (I knew that already, I just forgot for the time being).

15)   Istanbul is huge, and includes places you’d never think it would (like the Prince Islands – which are where the ottoman empire would put previous rulers of the countries they conquered so they were stranded on the islands.  Good thing they’re beautiful.)

16)   There can still be traffic while coming back from the airport at 12:30 AM on a Saturday night.

17)   I still hate cats.

18)    Stew never gets old.  Especially when you’re only paying ~80 cents for stew, rice, salad, and soup.

19)   It’s perfectly acceptable and practical to lock a sweater in a bike lock.

20)   It’s infinitely harder to care about school when you know you are learning infinitely more outside of school while exploring and adventuring through the city.  Also, knowing your classes are pass/fail doesn’t help.

Off to Spain in 2 and a half weeks, and hopefully some more adventures between now and then!

Check In

So many cool things that I need to write about, but don’t have the time right now. Just thought I’d let you know I’m still alive and enjoying life to the fullest.  Will write a post soon. 

 

Bursa and Beyond

There are lots of things I should be doing instead of writing this blog post, but I must say that the “study” aspect is not my favorite part of “study abroad.”

Today I will talk about my trip to Bursa.  Again, I’ll try to make it as short and sweet as possible, but no promises. 

Took a ferry (80 min) followed by an hour bus ride.  The bus ride was breathtakingly beautiful… I didn’t realize until I was on the bus that I hadn’t seen real nature (other than a tree in the middle of the left and right sides of a street) in a month and a half.  It was so refreshing to see mountains and trees and grass.  When we arrived in Bursa, we got some chicken sandwiches followed by soft serve (for a total of 2 dollars).  We walked around, went to a few mosques, and then went to the green tomb and green mosque.

 

We met this guy named Yunus (which means “dolphin” in Turkish… now we only refer to him as “dolphin”) who was unbelievably nice.  We said throughout the rest of the night “what’s the catch??” because he was so generous.  We kept thinking we were going to get scammed/robbed/killed but we made it out alive.  He gave us a tour of the tomb and mosque, and was very knowledgeable because he was a tile repairman that had repaired tiles for the green tomb/mosque and all over the world.  He took us to his studio, where he had tons of ceramics and rugs (he also repaired carpets) and other neat things.  He gave us free tea (delicious – I drink a plethora of tea here) and then took us to our hotel where he negotiated the price down to 25 tl (13 dollars) per person.  He negotiated our dinner cost down as well, and I had the most delicious dinner I’ve had in my whole life: iskender kebap.  It is unbelievably good.  To quote myself from later that night: “I keep burping up dinner, but to be honest, it kind of tastes good”.

Dolphin took us to an amazing Turkish folk music show in a tiny hole in the wall building.  It was one of the coolest experiences – the musicians were so hospitable and generous and fun.

 

We got to see whirling dervishes in a tiny mosque.  It was such an amazing and once in a lifetime experience.  It lasted about 30 minutes, with the dervishes spinning the entire time.  There were a few kids of no older than 8 that were participating – extremely impressive and amazing to watch.

Dolphin told us of a breakfast place in an old ottoman town.  We only knew the name of the town, and that we could take a bus to get there.  We got on the wrong bus, and had to walk about an hour in order to get to the town (we just guessed the direction to go, and kept going, until we stumbled upon it).  To quote my friend Peter: “usually when I go uphill, good things happen.  I think we should keep going uphill.”  He couldn’t have been more right.  We arrived at the town and it was incredible.  A 500 year old ottoman village, with cobblestone streets and merchants everywhere.  The place where we ate breakfast was in the courtyard of a family’s home, and it was the best breakfast I’ve ever eaten.  The butter was something I’ll never forget – the best butter I’ve ever had.  The jam was great as well.  Heck, every single thing served to us was great.  We combined everything and there was not a single bad combination (“what do you think butter and swarma will taste like?” “good.” “what do you think jam and eggs will taste like?” “good.”).  YUM.  I want some more.

The final experience I will discuss was a hamam – a Turkish bath.  I have never felt cleaner than when I left that place.  It’s a giant marble room with tons of sinks.  You go in and there are many women (the men’s hamam is a separate building).  You wash yourself using a bowl and the sinks, and then you go in a room where you lie on a massage table and Turkish women scrub you.  And when I say scrub, I mean scrub to the point of pain.  I had my eyes closed the entire time, and when I opened them, there was a disgusting amount of dead skin they had scrubbed off of my body.  I was embarrassed, and thought I was the only one, but after discussing with friends after, I realized that is the norm.  I want to get a Turkish bath as many times as possible while I’m here.

We barely caught the ferry back, but made the last one and arrived back in Istanbul.  We got iskender kebap for the second night in a row because we were craving it so much after the first time.  It wasn’t quite as good as it was in Bursa, but still pretty delicious.  It was good to be home.  I love my roommates so much – I truly feel at home when I come back to my flat. 

I will now quickly summarize other things that have happened recently.  It’s finally getting warm here, which is wonderful.  Walking around is such a great feeling when it’s not only beautiful scenery, but also beautiful weather.  Having class makes weeks go by very quickly.  I am starting to worry that this experience is going to fly by and I’m not going to have time to do everything I want to do.  If this past weekend taught me anything, it’s that I want to travel as much as possible while I’m here.

Another cool thing I did the other day was go to the Hagia Sophia.  It was beautiful, as expected, and an interesting contrast due to the fact that it was turned into a mosque after being a cathedral.  I then walked all the way to Besiktas (about 4 miles), which was nice to finally walk rather than always being on public transportation.  We stopped at this AMAZING art exhibition on the way, I can’t wait to go back and buy some prints of the guy’s artwork.  I also got a really neat handmade tapestry.  We then went to the modern art museum which was really great.  I had tiramisu for the first time that night as well!

 

MMMM

The peanut butter here tastes like the peanut butter in the middle of a reese’s cup.  It is delicious.

The Life

Hello!

I suppose it is about time to write another one of these posts.  I will make a list of the things I’ve done in the past week or so, to make things easier.

1)      Went on an old city “tour.”  You can’t really call it that, though.  We were supposed to be led by a student group around the different mosques/palaces (Hagia Sophia, Sultanahmet, a couple of different palaces), but it didn’t really work out.  We were supposed to attain a student museum card, but no one could because we don’t have our student IDs yet because for some reason it takes weeks to get them.  Instead, a few friends and I just decided to tour Sultanahmet on our own (because it is free, and the others are very expensive unless you have a museum card.  Sultanahmet is still a practicing mosque, which is why it doesn’t charge).  It was beautiful!  We then went to a café, where they served us 6 rounds of complimentary tea after our delectable meal.  I’m not typically a big tea drinker, but the tea here is phenomenal.  We walked around on the streets, where there were tons of neat shops with intricate lamps, plates, and other authentic goods.  We found an entire underground shop of just earrings – only for 1.5 tl each (about 80 cents) – and they were prettier than most earrings you find in the US.  It was definitely a successful day.

 

 

2)      Went to Taksim square (multiple times, both day and night).  This is a really neat place.  It’s an entirely pedestrianized street that is about a mile long.  There are tons of shops, restaurants, street vendors, and, most importantly, people.  The street is packed at any given day or time.  There are tons of alleys that have bars, restaurants, clubs, markets, etc.   It takes a while to get here, mostly because of traffic.  The buses are pretty good, though, and come relatively often. 

 

3)      Went to Bebek.  Bebek is a neighborhood on the water.  It is the ritzy neighborhood of Istanbul, or one of them at least, and it is BEAUTIFUL.  I had the best kebap I’ve had thus far in Bebek, and really just enjoyed walking along the water and looking at the Asian side.  I also went to Bebek yesterday, and went to a fancy restaurant for dinner on Valentine’s Day with a friend of mine.  We sat in a coffee shop on the water most of the day (we didn’t go to the Starbucks, but apparently it’s the 2^nd most beautiful in the whole world or something like that) reading.  It’s a really amazing place, and I’ll probably spend a good amount of time there because it’s only about a 15 minute walk, and a 2 dollar taxi ride.

4)      Went to 2 continents in one day.  It is only about a 15 minute ferry ride (plus a 30 minute or so bus ride to Besiktas, where you catch the ferry) to get to Asia.  The Asian side was amazing.  The town was so neat, with fish markets and fruit markets galore.  Tons of unique shops (seems to be a trend, eh?) as well as tons of people (another trend).  I had the best seafood I’ve had in my life in Kadikoy.  Fresh calamari, hot pot shrimp, fried mackerel (we didn’t know it would be little fish, but they were delicious), and these WONDERFUL stuffed mussels that are unlike anything I’ve ever had before.  Yum!

It’s really nice to be studying abroad and knowing I’m here for 5 months.  It’s a very different feel than a vacation, because I don’t feel rushed to see everything in one day, or even in a week.  I know I’ll have the opportunity to see most things I want to.  There is no way I’ll see the whole city.  If I’ve learned one thing, it’s that this city is huge.

Classes start Monday!  I’m actually kind of excited for some type of ritual and having structure again. 

This ended a little abruptly but I think that’s about all I have to say.  There was a party on a boat last night, which was a pretty awesome concept and was very, very fun.

Til next time!

On Settling In

Here we go!  I will do my best to recap the past couple of days as I’ve gotten settled in (as settled in as I’ve been able to get in 3 days..) in Istanbul!

I arrived to my flat at 5ish on Sunday (after around a 2 hour taxi ride from the airport due to traffic).  The ride was incredible though – it was a beautiful day so there were lots and lots of people just out at parks along the river and enjoying the day.  The most impressive thing I saw along the drive was the ancient city walls.

I showed up to my flat with the entirety of my luggage (luckily my flat mates were home, not quite sure what I would have done if they hadn’t been) and was welcomed by who I will be living with for the next 5 months.  Two girls and one guy.  The guy is only living here temporarily; he doesn’t have a room, he just sleeps in either of his friend’s rooms.  After introductions and a little bit of talking, I graciously accepted their offer for me to take a nap.  I woke up to a delicious dinner made by one of my flatmates, followed by Turkish coffee and fortune reading.  I am going to come across money and the wish I made will come true, but not until I work hard for it and wait awhile.  Some other stuff is going to happen too, probably.  A few of their friends came over that night, so it was nice to meet people and hang out with Turkish folk.  They speak in Turkish sometimes, but for the most part try to include me and speak English when I’m around.   They have also tried to teach me a lot of Turkish phrases, but with so much information coming at me all at once, I’ve forgotten most of them.  I do know there is a large difference between başak and taşak… the former means virgo while the latter means balls.  “Do not get them mixed up!!!!” my Turkish roommates insisted.  I will do my best – although I don’t know how often I will be talking about either of those subjects in Turkish, but I suppose you never know.

Yesterday I toured the university with some other exchange students that I met.  The university is INCREDIBLE.  There is an amazing view of the Bosphorus and the Asian side of the city as you walk to campus.

 

It’s a little bit unreal, if I do say so myself.  Kind of hard to believe I will see such a beautiful sight every single day for the next semester.  The campus itself is gorgeous as well.  There are bunches and bunches of cats and dogs roaming all around campus.  They are the equivalent of squirrels on Chapel Hill’s campus.  They are all vaccinated though, which was surprising to me.  We also went to the market to get some random things that people needed.  It’s a bit overwhelming choosing food when everything is written in a language you don’t understand, but I managed.  Mostly got very recognizable things – like eggs.  Can’t go wrong with eggs.

Last night we went to dinner and then to a bar with lots of other exchange students.  It’s nice to have Turkish flatmates as well as exchange student friends, because I feel like I’m experiencing two very different aspects of Boğaziçi life simultaneously.  The food here is excellent, as would be expected.  They’re also very generous – if they offer tea after a meal at a restaurant, it is complimentary.  The tea is delicious, and I’m not typically a tea person.

Today I had to register as a student and then went on a campus tour, and just hung out with other exchange students for most of the day.  It’s been beautiful weather.  I don’t start class for another week and a half, so a few friends and I have talked about maybe trying to go on a trip!  We shall see.

I suppose that’s about it for now.  It’s been a busy couple of days, but I’m definitely getting a feel for my tiny neighborhood in this giant city they call Istanbul.  I can’t wait to explore more.  I like this place.

Şerefe!  (how they say ‘cheers’ in Turkish – meaning “to pride!”)

Airport Thoughts

I have now arrived in Istanbul, and will write about my experience thus far soon!  This post was written yesterday morning en route to my final destination.

Well hello there.  I am writing this from the airport in Rome, Italy.  It is a beautiful airport, very clean and lots of glass.  Both of which are things I like.  I suppose the most logical time to write a first blog post would have been before I left, with all of my thoughts and feelings about my upcoming adventure, how I was unsure about what to pack, etc.  Oh well.  I’ll do my best to include those fairly predictable things within this blog post.

On my flight from JFK to Rome, although it was a mere 7 hours (I was expecting longer for some reason), I had a lot of time to think.  Of course, I’ve been thinking about this trip for months now, but I actually thought about the logistics of arriving and what my experience would actually be like.  I’m nervous, sure, but as I thought about it more, I actually became less anxious as the distance between me and my destination lessened.  One of the things I was most worried about was my apartment mates.  I don’t really know what the exact fear was of this, I suppose mostly because I’ve never lived with random roommates before, much less roommates that have spent their whole lives thousands of miles away from anywhere I’ve ever been.  However, once I started thinking in a different way, it eased my nerves.  If I were to have a foreigner coming to live in my apartment, I would be thrilled.  I would welcome them with open arms.  Whenever anyone is in America that doesn’t speak English, I don’t judge them or even think twice about it.  Rather, I just try to communicate in the best way possible.  Hopefully, both of these cases will be true for my experience as a foreigner.  I have heard the people in Istanbul are some of the friendliest there are, so I don’t see why they’d be any less friendly than I am.

Last night I looked at a lot of reddit posts about Istanbul.  It made me really excited.

The plane ride made me encounter 2 things:

1)      Probably the shortest night (and by this I mean the shortest amount of darkness in a night – I am still in ‘night’ mode considering it’s 3 AM in the states even though my watch now reads 9 AM in Italy) I will ever experience.  The loss of time caused me to have a mere 6 hours of darkness for the night of my February 2^nd, 2013.

2)      The most beautiful sunrise I’ve ever seen.  Granted, I haven’t watched that many sunrises.  For this reason, I have now vowed to watch more sunrises in my life.  It’s worth it, despite what the self that turns off the alarm has told me these past 20 years every time I attempt to wake up for one.

I think that’s about it.  I think people tend to stop reading a blog post earlier the longer it appears, so I will try to keep mine short.  I will leave you from this very reassuring quote from my Turkish phrasebook, which I diligently studied for the duration of my flight from Charlotte to JFK, but still feel like I know nothing.

“In those dreaded moments when your Turkish won’t flow freely, try not to say ‘um’ to fill the gap.  In Turkish you’re actually saying am (a vulgar term for ‘vagina’) – if your audience has a good sense of humour, they could be hiding a smirk, but you could also be causing serious offence.  Use the more neutral ‘ah’ instead.”

Great.  Just great.

Til next time!