When There's Something Strannnnge in the Neighborhooooood

Tuesday we had more orientation activities, this time more along the lines of exploring our culture and Turkish culture and the idea of generalizations and stereotypes. Then, our program coordinators sent us out in groups of 5 to do a scavenger hunt in the city...by ourselves. The idea was kind of daunting at first, but it was really easy. Well, in my group we had Tyler who speaks pretty good Turkish and during the summer lived in the area where the main part of our scavenger hunt was to take place. Brian, Amanda, and Raven were also in my group. It was nice to get to know all of them a bit better. The neighborhood we were sent to was across the Bosphorus, so........... in Asia!!!! That's right, we took a ferry into Asia yesterday. Once there my group was assigned to go to a candy shop and buy some Turkish delight. It was my first time tasting it. It was good, although maybe not my favorite. We bought rose flavored!

After all the groups reassembled in Asia (the specific area where we were is called Kadıköy), we had a special dinner courtesy of CIEE. It was so good and so interesting! We started out with assorted appetizers (humus, yogurt, couscous, etc) that we ate with different kinds of bread. Then, they brought out at least five main dishes that, like the appetizers, were placed in the middle of the table for everyone to take some of. There was a meat dish with sour cherry, somethings with potato and chickpeas, a meaty dumpling thing, rice, something with eggplant.... And there was a delicious yogurt sauce to eat on everything. For dessert they had honeyed olives (that tasted a bit like dates), pitch-black candied walnuts, pistachio baklava (I think), and candied pumpkin (!!). The desserts were really interesting tasting, even if not my favorite taste.

The streets in Taksim (where the club was) as well as Kadıköy were really busy and crowded. There are women with and without headscarves, women who dress up and dress down to go out of the house, etc. As girls, we were advised not to make or hold eye contact with the men we pass because it might be interpreted as an "invitation". It's kinda hard to get used to.

Last night we were supposed to go on a cruise with all the international students (there are a bunch that aren't part of CIEE) and all the incoming freshmen, but it was cancelled due to inclement weather :( So instead there was a big dance party on campus. I had a lot of fun, although a lot of people were complaining about it and comparing it to middle school dances :P I mean, you turn on the music and I'm set, so I wasn't buggin. Plus all the CIEE kids were dancing together. And they played a lot of really fun music, from typical top 40 to Turkish pop to old rock hits. They even played Ghostbusters!!!!! :DDDDD I was pretty tired and fighting a cold so I actually turned in early and slept more than 7 hours for the first time in a week. I feel loads better today even though I definitely have a cold.

Today we had a big meeting with ALL the international students. After, my fantastic mentor (Azize) took us to the club fair, and as usual I signed up for more than I will be actually able to do. I signed up for folk dance, folk music, dance club (tango, bellydance, hip hop OMGI'MSOEXCITED), and the volunteer club.

I'm so enthusiastic about my CIEE peers. I know that this happens, that at first everyone seems great and then after a while we all start to notice annoying things about each other or whatever. But I'm not thinking about that yet :D

Tonight: karaoke!!!

--lovelovelovelovelove