So it's been a while...

My last post was the day after my birthday, so it has been about a week and a half. I'M SORRY! I know you all are just dying to hear from me. I hope you know it's nothing personal. It's not that I don't like updating you and I don't miss everyone back home, it's just that I'm so busy having fun and taking exams and whatnot. I did not mean to neglect my blogging duties!
So since I posted last, I have done the following incredible things:

1. I went to Amsterdam. You all have heard about Amsterdam and know about it's reputation. Needless to say it was quite a change from Istanbul. Lots of bicycles, very few cars, and everyone spoke English. There's other stuff too... plenty for college students to do. Enough said. Now before you jump to any conclusions, I was there with three other highly reliable and responsible friends- Kate, Logan, and Kathryn. We all decided to meet there for the weekend to experience the culture, and despite the (mostly) terrible weather we did succeed in going to the Van Gogh museum, passing by the Ann Frank house, and seeing how Heineken beer is brewed. So, since pictures are worth a thousand words, here are a few of my favorites from that weekend. Enjoy!


2. This past Friday was a national holiday, and I celebrated by racing in a single scull on the Golden Horn of the Bosphorus. And it was terrifying and wonderful at the same time. No need to mention how I placed. Just understand that I did not really know the starting commands, nor did I know where the finish line was. I think that the race was about 1 kilometer long, but I can't be sure. And because of that, I wasn't sure when it was over. I just assumed when I saw the other competitors headed to shore that I was probably finished. Oops! It was my fourth time in a single scull, and so I consider myself lucky for not flipping. For those of you that have never rowed in a single, they are very tippy. Especially if your sculling technique is terrible. Anyway, shoutout to Williams Crew: I thought of you guys the whole time, and even though I didn't finish first, or even second, or third, I think I brought pride on our behalf. I don't have any pictures of myself rowing yet, but my friend was there with her camera, and as soon as I get her photos I will share them with you. Be forewarned: The Golden Horn is a large body of water, and a single is a small boat. I will look tiny in the pictures. But I think that is appropriate, because that's pretty much how I felt. And this way hopefully you will not be able to scrutinize my technique!

3. On Saturday I went with Stella and Alison to Topkapi palace, which is in the Sultanahmet region of Istanbul, to the south of the Golden Horn. This is the most touristy area of Istanbul for good reason. The Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, Topkapi Palace, and the Basilica cistern to mention a few are all within a very short walk of each other. If you want to be a tourist in Istanbul, you must go to Sultanahmet. Saturday was the first sunny day in nearly a week, so my friends and I celebrated the occasion by spending the afternoon exploring this marvelous palace and acting like little kids with my camera. We did not go on a tour or anything like that. We mostly just wandered and read the signs posted in all the different rooms, halls, and chambers. But it was still fantastic and definitely worth visiting! We payed a little bit extra to get into the Harem, which is blocked off from most visitors. The Harem, as you probably know, has traditionally been highly orientalized by the Western perspective, and it was interesting to see where so many of our outdated notions on the mysterious and erotic Middle East came from. I fulfilled my tourist duties by taking plenty of pictures.




This last picture is the view from the palace. Note the seawalls, which I believe were built in the 7th century to protect Constaninople from an Arabic invasion. The far shore is Asia!

Turning 21!

Yesterday was a BIG day. Yes, I turned 21. I have officially entered the adult world, at least in my opinion. In celebration of my big day, I decided to skip two classes and go pick up myresidence permit with my friend Alison. I became an official resident of Istanbul and turned 21 on the same day. Like I said, it was a BIG day. BIG.

So, as you might imagine, picking up a residence permit is not the most fun way of celebrating a birthday. But it was sandwiched in between a quick shopping excursion to Taksim, where I picked up a killer jean jacket, and a slightly longer exploration of the Grand Bazaar. We weren't there very long, because if you really want to see it you have to devote at least a few hours to looking around. It is absolutely enormous, and is probably the biggest tourist trap in the whole city. So all in all, it was not such a bad day. I came back from the day out to take a quickshower, throw on my dress, and pop a bottle of champagne (which, by the way, is LEGAL for me) with some friends that came over.

We then made a quick trip down to Bebek, the beautiful coastal area with the Starbucksfeatured a couple of posts ago. There we each had an Efes, the popular Turkish beer, on a rooftop bar overlooking the Bosphorus. Because we areresponsible students, we did not stay out very late. We were all heading home by midnight! This is not typical for 21st birthdays, but I was perfectly fine with a relaxed evening. I am going to AMSTERDAM this weekend to meet three of my friends for a real celebration!You can expect to hear more about that earlynext week. Until then, I leave you with some pictures of the minor shenanigans that occurred last night.

P.S. There is a Dominoes Pizza in Bebek.

Büyük çay, lütfen!

Translation: Large tea, please!

I have come to terms with the fact that I am still a student, albeit in another country. There is no escaping that "Crap, I have four hours of class today and I got 4 hours of sleep last night!" feeling. Try as I might, I can't seem to stay awake in class here any better than I do at school back in the States. The solution for that is obviously caffeine.
Since I have been here, I have been drinking more tea (or çay, as I will refer to it from here on) than water. It is complimentary with most food at restaurants and actually less expensive than water. When I need to hydrate for a workout, I will drink a large çay instead of a bottle of water, because you can't drink the tap water (unless you are in the Superdorm- guess it does have some perks after all!). It can't be that great for my hydration. In fact, I know it is not. But when in Rome... so to speak.

Here they drink çay out of glasses, not mugs or tea cups usually. In fact, whenever they serve me çay in anything but a glass I know it is because I'm foreign. But I really just want to fit in! So I've started trying be a Turk when it comes to my çay. 2-4 sugar cubes per glass. We like it sweet. And keep that milk away, we aren't English!

One of the great things about the university I am attending is that there are little canteens on the bottom floor of most classroom buildings, so you can grab a quick çay if you are feeling sleepy before class. In fact, you can grab a çay anytime. Getting çay is a totally acceptable thing to do if you want to go hang out with your friends, or even just sit and relax in a cafe by yourself. I guess we do that back home too. But here places don't close at 6 pm, which is fantastic! You can get çay early in the morning, late at night, and anytime in between. But it's a healthy addiction, right?

I did not take this picture, but it pretty much sums up my experience in Turkey so far. Çok çay.

The most beautiful starbucks in the world?

This beauty is in Bebek, which is a short but steep walk from campus. My friend Chelsy and I "did homework" here yesterday. Finding a seat on the deck overlooking the Bosphorus got competitive!

Weekend on the water

It's not hard to find a beautiful place to eat by the water in Istanbul. Because of it's layout, you've got your choice. In the southern part of the city, you can eat on the coast of the Sea of Marmara. In the central part, you can eat on the Bosphorus Strait or the Golden Horn, an inlet off the Bosphorus that is the great geographical landmark of the European side of the city. If you go far enough north, you hit the Black Sea. There is no shortage of waterfront dining, and when it comes to food, cheap and delicious are certainly not mutually exclusive. One thing that I read about in my guide book was the balik ekmek. They described it as a fish sandwich made right on the waterfront. Fried fish, simple yet delicious, with some onions and maybe some lettuce or cabbage, and some bulky bread. I knew I had to try it. This weekend, I had the pleasure of eating TWO balik ekmek(s?). I will describe the surrounding experiences, because I guess some of you may be interested in what I'm doing that doesn't involve food!

On Saturday, I adventured to Ortaköy with my pal Zoe. Ortaköy is part of the Besiktas region of Istanbul, which in north of the Golden Horn. Its most notable landmark is its beautiful, waterfront mosque that has reached some strange aesthetic harmony with the towering cable bridge that reaches across the Bosphorus behind it. We got there late in the day, and I had my first balik ekmek while admiring the beauty of the two structures from a public bench. As you can see from the photo, the cable bridge is enormous. Although I wasn't able to capture the full effect of the contrast between the 19th century mosque and the 20th century bridge, I think you can use your imagination. The Bosphorus Strait has heavy commercial traffic, and you can see massive cargo ships bound for Russia heading through regularly. After I had my balik ekmek, which was truly delicious, Zoe and I treated ourselves to dessert at Mado, which is a chain dessert restaurant in Istanbul. I had a waffle covered in melted white chocolate, fresh fruit and a scoop of ice cream. What a truly amazing culinary experience.

Sunday originally had the promise of being a less food-oriented day for me. I ambitiously set out in the early afternoon with my friends Alison, Dean, and Joseph. We were bound for the Grand Bazaar, which is apparently a true shopping experience. We never made it, concluding that it was undoubtedly closed on Sundays when we arrived and it was abandoned. Were we in the right place? I'm not sure. However, there was still a plethora of shopping opportunities in the area. While I didn't buy anything, I did see several notable things for sale- puppies, exotic birds, ducklings, chickens, baby turtles, and on almost every corner there were big plastic jars full of leeches. I'm not sure what they are used for, but I had to take a picture. Eww! Eventually we meandered to the waterfront of the Golden Horn, where the bridge reaching across the water is notoriously populated by fishermen and lots of balik (fish) shops. I used this opportunity to purchase yet another ekmek balik. This one was bigger and cheaper than the one I had the day before! And I even thought to take a picture. Note the fishermen lined up across the top of the bridge and the restaurants beneath. We ate our sandwiches as we crossed the bridge, and then we hopped on a bus back to campus. Another successful and culinarily satisfying day in Istanbul!



Alison and I enjoying our balik ekmek.


Except this it what we actually look like. Let's be honest.

Live from Istanbul...

It's Saturday night! And I'm sitting in my room recovering from my first cold of the school year. But don't worry, it's not going to be the main topic of this post. I have better things to talk about! Classes started last Monday, and it's been a great way to meet other students and get more familiar with the campus. Not to mention learn, because that is clearly my top priority. Don't worry, Dad! I have on average two classes per day, and a four day week. No Friday classes = fantastic decision on my part. So here is the low down on what I'm taking:

1) Aegean History and Archaeology
The hard part about this class, besides learning how to spell a-r-c-h-a-e-o-l-o-g-y, is going to be actually trying to conceive of a civilization in Greece that predated the Ancient Greece that I am familiar with. That and the boring textbook readings. But I'm actually looking forward to this one quite a lot, because archaeology is something that Williams doesn't really do.

2) Byzantine Art and Architecture
YES. This is why I came to Istanbul. At least, I think it is. I'm hoping it won't be a let down, because the first class was a little slow. I guess I assumed that my classmates would be familiar enough with Christianity that my professor wouldn't have to explain who the Virgin Mary is. So yeah, I'm a little ahead right now on the whole Christian iconography thing. But hopefully the rest of the class will catch up. And we're going to go on field trips!

3) Neuroscience
Don't laugh. I will be able to handle this course, and I'm going to get credit for it at Williams. I think neuroscience is something I should have at least some background since I am a psychology major. And there aren't labs, so that means no lab practicals. Bonus.

4) Turkish Language for Foreigners
An absolutely essential class. I really want to speak Turkish. Life would be SO much easier. Also, Williams requires that I take it. I've had fun in class so far because everyone is on the same boat and we can laugh about our ignorance. At least I do.

5) TBD
I was previously signed up for Late Ottoman History, but the professor advised me against taking it because I don't know early Ottoman history. I'm hoping to add Theories of Child Development, which sounds interesting and would earn me credit towards my psych major at Williams.

I am very impressed by the professors I have had so far. They have impeccable English, and all seem quite intelligent. I've found it hard to interact with the Turkish students, however. I think it is partially because they are uncomfortable speaking English to me. Perhaps a little shy? Although Bogazici University teaches strictly in English, some of the students I have met don't speak it very well. This surprises me. It must make classes a lot harder for them, not to mention keeping up with all the reading!
As I mentioned, this weekend I've been laying low and recovering from a cold. I did do a little bit of exploring today with my friend Zoe, but I plan to write about that tomorrow. Don't fall off the edge of your seats!