YES!

I have been waiting for a care package from my Mom for the past three weeks, and today it finally arrived! It's a Christmas miracle. The contents: An Advent calendar from Harbor Sweets, a candy shop in Marblehead, Massachusetts. Each day comes with a new chocolate surprise. I love this season.

The downside of the Turkish post system: I was supposed to get this package a while ago, and we're halfway through Advent already. Who's in charge of delivering packages in Istanbul? Scrooge?

The upside: I have 13 days worth of candy to eat to make up for lost time! So maybe I can't complain after all.

Thanks, Mommy!

Winter, is that you?!

Hold up a second. Last weekend, I wore a t-shirt around in the 70 degree weather. This weekend, I spent most of my time hiding from the snow. This doesn't make sense to anyone else either, does it? Just checking.

One lesson I've learned while living in a country where I don't speak the language is that if I want to get something done, I have to plan it ahead of time. Spontaneity will only get you so far, and is generally accompanied by some degree of stress. I have spent the past three months in Istanbul assuming that I would stumble into Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque at a time that was convenient for me. Anyone that goes to Istanbul can tell you that these are two absolute must see attractions. They lie across from each other in the Sultanahmet district, and can therefore both be checked off the list in one afternoon. I have been living here since mid September, and it wasn't until yesterday that I finally went inside of them. To some, this may seem normal. What's the rush? They've been there for hundreds of years, and will hopefully remain for hundreds more. It's not like I hadn't seen them from the outside. I've been to Sultanahmet plenty of times. I've explored Topkapi, checked out the Basilica Cistern, and survived the Grand Bazaar. However, as an Art History major with a special interest in Byzantine art and architecture, I am absolutely disgraced by my negligence with regard to these two landmarks. Especially the Hagia Sophia. This building was what inspired me to come to Istanbul.

I finally realized that I wasn't going to wind up seeing them without some prior planning. Luckily, my friend Katherine Conaway decided to take a weekend trip from her job teaching in Sofia to come visit Istanbul. Unlike Sara, Kat had never been to Turkey. What better way for me to spend my Saturday afternoon than catching up with a friend and seeing some incredible architecture?

As I mentioned above, these kinds of things take planning. Unfortunately, in the wise words of Outkast, "You can plan a pretty picnic but you can't predict the weather." Thank you, Andre 3000 and Big Boi. I never thought I would quote you in a blog about Istanbul. So as you may have guessed, the weather was terrible. A wintery mix, as they say-- rain, snow, and wind. I am proud to say that we were NOT deterred. We saw both Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque, and spent the rest of our time hiding from the weather. This "hiding" involved lots of food and tea, because I couldn't let Kat leave without having lots of the local cuisine. While escaping the elements, she and I did a lot of catching up and talking about our experiences living abroad. I'd say we managed to make the most out of the horrendous weather! So it looks like winter, or some variation on it, is finally here. Luckily, in true New England fashion, I'm equipped with some sturdy Bean Boots and a (mostly) weather-proof attitude. Bring it on, Istanbul winter.

As a wintery-themed side note, Stella and I decided to make stir-fry for dinner while listening to Christmas music on my computer. Stella got weepy cutting the onions, and I tried to catch it on video. The Christmas bow on her head is what really makes the video complete.

My first visitor!

Dear Everybody,

I'm sorry that I have neglected you for the past two weeks. I'm sure you've been dying to hear what I have been doing since my last post, which was just after Thanksgiving. So I concede that it has been a while, but as I believe I mentioned previously, but I am in fact IN SCHOOL. I have had roughly a month of "midterms", averaging roughly one paper and one "midterm exam" per week for the past several weeks. Why do I put quotation marks around "midterms"? Because they can't possibly be midterms if they are in the last quarter of the semester, right? Yet somehow they are still justified, apparently. I just love taking five classes! What I'm most excited about finals, which start in less than a month. And my neuroscience class is really rocking the boat. Hard. Good thing these grades don't translate to my GPA back at Williams!

So enough of that silly class stuff. The highlight of my past two weeks was hosting my first

visitor, Sara Wallace. I was honored to show off my territory to one of my best friends, who will now hopefully be able to vouch for the fact that Istanbul is the coolest city in the world. Luckily for her, she had already been to Istanbul once before. We therefore did not go to the touristy region of Sultanahmet, which is where you find the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, and lots of pushy Turkish men. She wanted to see what I like to do with my time on weekends, and I tried to give her the right idea. Highlights from our weekend together include, but are not limited to:

1) Enjoying a sea bass dinner together in the classy Galata region of Istanbul, and enjoying the Galata tower all lit up at night.

2) Going to Ortaköy and enjoying kumpir, which is essentially a super-stuffed baked potato, by the waterfront. Ortaköy has tons and tons of kumpir vendors. It's really the thing to get there. As we ate our kumpir, we watched as the waves from the Bosphorus splashed up onto the sidewalk, scattering jellyfish all over the pavement. Some little boys decided to collect them all in a plastic bag, which is a difficult task. It's not that they sting-- it's that they fall apart. There were little pieces of jellyfish adorning the sidewalk up and down the waterfront.

3) Rowing together in a pair (2 person boat, 1 oar each for you non-rowers out there) on

Saturday morning. It was especially interesting because we are both starboards. And my oar broke when we were in the middle of the lake. Try getting anywhere in a pair with one functional oar. You really can't. I'll leave it up to your imagination as to how we got out of that one. Here we are, back on dry land after practice!

3) Hopping on a ferry over to the Asian side of the city and satisfying our shopping craving. We spent most of Saturday night in Kadıköy, which probably the most cosmopolitan area on the Asian side. After checking out some clothing stores, wandered around the food markets, had a delicious kebap dinner, and stuffed our faces at Mado, a restaurant chain that specializes in phenomenal desserts. I introduced Sara to salep, which is a hot, creamy, sweet drink that is some combination of milk, sugar, and spices. The picture at right shows Sara just moments after I told her to watch her step. She is straddling a gutter that is carrying a stream of fish blood and guts from the fish market uphill.

Like I said, this is a pretty limited list. We really did do a lot of stuff. Sara got to meet my friends, go to rowing practice, and see the Bogazici University campus, so now she basically knows as much about Istanbul as I do! Any questions? Ask her.