Reflections?

Today, like yesterday, we spent trying to register for classes we want to get into. It's pretty much a headache. We tried to pre-register at the beginning of the summer, but few of us got into more than one of our preferred classes. We're all required to take five 3-unit classes, including beginning Turkish. I'm registered for Mythology and Religion and am working on the rest of my schedule. Most classes are full already. It's crazy and we're all having a hard time.

Today I'm just going to comment on some of my impressions so far from being here.

Food

I really like a lot of the real Turkish food we've eaten so far. Of course, it really depends on where we eat. There's a lot of really delicious meat and yogurt. Some great bread as well. And there actually are quite a lot of interesting and tasty veggie dishes. Unfortunately, the cafeteria food isn't all that yummy and it's a lot of the same, but it's not terrible.

Bathrooms

So in the dorms we have to provide our own toilet paper, which came as a surprise. Also, we can't drink the tap water (no one can, it's not only a problem for foreigners). This all worked out the first week because it meant I was super dehydrated and didn't have to worry about the fact that I didn't have toilet paper for the bathroom :D TMI for a travel blog? Anyway, I'm getting the hang of it now, have tp in the room and know where to fill up my water bottle in the student center.

Gender dynamics

This is something that really interests me in general and I am really curious about. As I mentioned before, the females among us have been advised not to make or prolong eye contact with men on the street. Street sellers often yell at us and call us beautiful when we pass. I'm pretty sure I've had my bum grabbed a couple times as well >:[ What's been really interesting for me lately has been talking to people about dating in Turkey. Burcu is one of the ISS mentors and Jonathan K. asked her (hopefully) if Turkish girls were into American boys. She said that they usually aren't. She explained that Turkish girls like for boys to be calling and texting them all the time and for the guy to take control of the situation, which American boys often don't do. I would not like it if a boy I was interested in contacted me too much and I certainly wouldn't like for him to have disproportional control. A couple of the other American girls present agreed with me. On the other hand, American boys sometimes put in so little effort into making contact that it seems like they're not interested and I give up. Today, on of the CIEE guys was also talking about his experiences dating a Turkish girl in the US. He was talking about certain things that he would try to do to help out, like wash the dishes, that his girlfriend wouldn't let him do or would get all flustered if he tried. That also bugs me, even though I want to be open minded to the different understandings of gender roles and remember the fact that it's definitely not equal in the US either.

Laundry

I did it!! I was pretty unsure about my success for a while there. First, I realized that I needed detergent. Then, upon entering the supermarket I remembered that in this capitalist economy there's never just "detergent". Faced with countless variations on the theme, I realized that my extremely limited knowledge of Turkish was not going to help prevent me from bleaching out my entire wardrobe. Several exchange students had already bought fabric softener when intending to buy detergent (not tragic, but illustrates the point). Although I eventually got help from Jon there, I was all alone when finally confronting the washing machines. The Turkish washing machines. The first step was to determine which washed and which dried. Arguably an important distinction. However, not nearly as difficult as the task of figuring out how to set it. Ultimately, though, I'm pretty sure my clothes would get comparably clean whether the machine was set on "Sentetik" or "Yünlü". Finally, one of the dorm staff walked in, took my detergent, and took charge. So I guess "I did it!!" is a somewhat ambitious statement. At any rate, I now have clean clothes :DDD Much thanks to the kind staff.

lovelovelove

PS One of the washing machines has such an intense spin cycle it moves on its own. It almost fell off the platform :P