Sleepless in 'Stanbul

I wrote this post yesterday (reallllly early in the morning) but didn't post it right away cause I thought I might put up pictures with it.

In reference to the title, "Sleepless" is a bit of an exaggeration. Between jet lag and lack of any bedding I didn't sleep as much or as well as I would like, but that's really part of the experience, no? Last night all of the CIEE students who were here had dinner together and decided pretty mutually that we needed to start the ice breakers before orientation actually started. So we all went to one of the mentor's apartment and hung out for several hours, playing never-have-I-ever and having some super intense conversations. One group covered every topic from politics to literature and love to philosophy. I had a super long conversation with Jonathan that got very personal. It was nice to feel like we could all start getting close...on the first day.... Today (now yesterday?) we really started orientation. We met our mentors (mine is so nice!!), had a more detailed tour of the campus, got introduced to the library, had a program session of exploring our hopes and dreams for the semester, bought sheets, went to the nearest town called Sarıyer, etc. And then we went clubbing. It was so fun!!! I feel like I bonded even more with a lot of the people, this time with no conversation whatsoever. I really liked the djs. We danced for about four hours, and I didn't sit out once. It's now 3:20 am and Kathryn and I are scheduled to breakfast together at 9 am. :P And I need to take a shower.

I can't believe it's been only two days!!! So much has happened, it feels like we've been here way longer. I'm really loving the other people in my program and really excited for tomorrow :DDD