Little Ones!!

Last week Raven (from CIEE) told me that she knew of someone who was looking for an English "tutor" for her two-year-old daughter and thought of asking me if I was interested. Of course I was interested, but when I called the woman (Rahel) said she already had someone to tutor. However, a couple days ago Rahel called me and said that it might not be working out with the other tutor and she wanted me to come by just to talk. Her daughter (Kayla) is SO. CUTE. Chipmunk cheeks, Bambi eyes,... the works. Plus she waddle-runs around yelling in Turkish. Rahel basically just wants me to have playtime with her where I speak lots and lots of English so she can get used to the sound. It's still not clear whether or not I'll actually be working with them; Rahel has to decide between me and the other girl. I was supposed to go for the first time this morning, but as I was getting ready Sydney (CIEE) told me that she had been stomach-sick the previous day. Ever since Ivy got sick at the end of the trip, lots of other people have as well. It's probably not food poisoning at this point. It's probably a stomach flu. A pretty nasty one, too. I called Rahel and told her about the situation and we decided it was probably better for me not to be around Kayla for the time being; I don't know if a two-year-old could handle that.

I'm not sure if I'll be working with Rahel and Kayla, but while I was at their house interviewing Rahel told me that the neighbor across the hall was also interested in an English tutor for her seven-year-old. I went over and met them and ended up "tutoring" Zeynep for an hour. The mom is so nice. She kept saying that she wanted me to be like a second daughter and was getting all excited saying that I could give lessons to herself and her husband and tutor Zeynep in piano and herself on the computer.... I might be spending a lot of time there. I already went for two hours yesterday night. And Zeynep is absolutely wonderful. We really just play around. She has some cards with pictures and the English words underneath and she has a white board that we've been using a lot. She's incredibly polite and when I thank her for things she indicates that she's the one to be saying thank you. And she gave me a sticker yesterday!!

After hanging out with Zeynep, I met up with some of my CIEE friends in Sariyer. From there we went to Taksim for the opening of a bar dedicated to Erasmus (another study abroad program) students. It was crowded and there was no dancing. So no-go. We left and went to another bar just because it was cheap, but it was also boring and we spent way too long there. It was nice, though, to get to know two girls Deniz (which means "sea") and Shahrzad (yup, like the story) a little bit better. Then we went to another club with really great music and I was having such a good time and ten minutes into one of my homegirls decided she had to go home. :P I was in a funky spot cause she insisted she could go home alone and really didn't want to make other people leave, but I really didn't want her to go alone. I understand how she felt, but I wasn't about to let her go. It's probably better that we got back a bit earlier anyway.

I miss everyone at home a lot!! It's so weird thinking about a month ago and how different everything felt. Lots of love!!!

CIEE Weekend Trip

This weekend CIEE organized a hard-core trip for the whole group. It was really fun, despite the disproportionate time spent traveling and the fact that several people got food poisoning. Fortunately, the food poisoning happened at the very end, and the time spent traveling we still had fun.

On Friday we flew to Gaziantep, in southern Turkey right by the border with Syria. On Saturday we took the bus from there to Antakya (Antioch), which is a bit farther south. The green is the general region we were in (Gaziantep is actually farther northeast):

There was a lot of time spent on the bus, but we had a lot of fun. We played this really fun game called Contact where one person thinks of a word and tells everyone the first letter. Everyone else thinks of words that begin with the same letter and ask questions referring to one of those words. The point, though, isn't so much to guess the word but to ask a question that the person can't answer. If the person can't answer, the guesser has to find someone else who thinks they know the answer and they say the answer at the same time. If they had the same answer, the person with the word gives up the next letter. So, say Chelsea is thinking of "Nebula" and gives up "N". We guess things like "Is it a cell of the nervous system?" and so on. The thing is you have to ask questions that other players will be able to figure out but the person with the word won't. Plus you have to use your noodle :D I also had some really interesting conversations, especially with Tim and mostly revolving around cognitive science.

We also had a guide for the trip. He was a real character. Many of his facts were flat out wrong. He tried very hard to get us to sing and dance on the bus. And he often referred to the things were we seeing in the superlative: "oldest in the world"; "most in the world".... Even the program leaders were continually rolling their eyes, and it seemed at one point that Kathryn Bourgeois got angry at him.

Gaziantep

We went to the Euphrates!!!! Actually it was a valley where there had once been a city that was now submerged after the Euphrates was dammed. In one place you could still see a mosque minaret poking out of the water above the submerged mosque itself. Omg, it was so cool. The boat ride itself was great, just being there. And then we went up onto the surrounding cliffs to check out the ruins which was fascinating. It was really beautiful how smooth the transition from building to cliffside was. There were cave homes and castle ruins and church ruins and mosque ruins. And the Euphrates...!!!

We went to an archeological museum exhibiting primarily mosaics. It was an incredible collection. I have such a different understanding of mosaics now that I've seen these. Apparently, the mosaics in this museum were salvaged from the submerged Roman city of Zeugma (I'm not sure if it's the same one we'd been sailing over). Plus the super famous "gypsy woman" mosaic was there.

This is actually the Euphrates, but blogger is being really weird about moving pictures around :P :

Another mosaic:

Then we ate perhaps the most delicious meal I've had in Turkey yet. It helped that I was super hungry. It was all kinds of lamb in different sauces eaten with deliciously fresh pita bread. There was also amazing baklava, a specialty of this region.

After the mosaic museum we went to the Gaziantep castle, which wasn't very interesting because the only part that was open was one passage lined with informational posters and illustrative metal reliefs.

Then, we went to the bazaar area. There were many shops selling a variety of things, but more interesting was that you could see many of the artisans working. There was mostly metalwork (including the place in the picture) but there was also some woodwork.

The next day, John was turning 21 so we went to the bar next door to be sure to be celebrating at midnight. It was kinda sketch and not a great atmosphere, but for a couple of songs the locals at the bar did traditional line dances, which was so much fun for me. When Kathryn and I went back to the hotel we hung out with Tim, Jonathan Madison, Caitlin, and Ivy for a while which was fun, especially since I hadn't really gotten to know Jon or Tim by this point.

Gaziantep to Antakya

The next day (Saturday) we traveled from Gaziantep to Antakya and made a couple stops along the way. We stopped at what had been a trading post along the silk road. There was a mosque, a bazaar, what seemed like a castle, and a hamam (Turkish bath). I think the only part that was still in use was the mosque. The hamam was really cool and I had never seen one before. There were different rooms for different temperatures and the building design was cool. We stopped at a restaurant that served local cuisine (of course) and I had nummy lamb kebab (I think).

Then we went to an Armenian Catholic village. I think they said that there was a population of about 120 in 35 houses. The best thing about it was how beautiful the area was. It was in the hills and surrounded by mountains. There was a ton of lush greenery and a fantastic view of the Mediterranean. We went to some ruins nearby that had similarly amazing nature. We saw the sunset from way up high:

The bus was parked right on the seashore and we quickly jumped in the sea before heading out. It was totally perfect, so warm and indescribably refreshing after walking around in the heat (it was hot!!) the whole day. When we got back to the hotel we had birthday cakes for John and Kathryn Bourgeois. Won't complain. Afterwards we went to the restaurant across the street and had dinner and hookah and some really great conversations. Then the manager started dropping some US beats, straight from YouTube, just for us. Eventually, he just let us use the computer to pick the songs. It was fun, but we were all exhausted.

Antakya

The next morning I woke up at 6:30 to go see a marginally interesting waterfall close-by. The coolest thing about it was the way restaurants were built on and around it. It was also really early. After breakfast we were supposed to see an Orthodox service, but in the end weren't allowed to disturb it and could only go into the church later :( In the meantime, Kathryn, Nathan J, Emily Christensen, Linda and I went to another archeology museum. It had some really great artifacts as well. It had mosaics, coins, glasswork, Hittite statues and Greek pottery.

After the museum we took a walk through the nearby park and stopped to get tea and Linda (whose mom is Turkish) taught us a typical game played with tiles called Okay. From almost the moment we left the museum a tall and gangly teen took a avid, although distant, interest in us. He followed us for over an hour. It seemed like he made a slight effort to disguise the fact that he was following us: he'd stop to wash his hands, sometimes it would seem like he was going a different direction or disappear altogether. But without fail he would reappear and go where ever we went. He followed us all through the park, into the cafe (he didn't even finish his tea when he saw we were leaving) and all the way back past the museum and to the Orthodox church. That's when we lost him lol.

After that I wandered around another part of the city with Ali, Kim and Linda. It was nice hanging with them because I haven't as much as with other people. I really liked the feel of the city, small winding streets, a lot of light.... It had that "rustic" feel, Middle Eastern style. We met up with the rest of the group and had nummy lunch at a restaurant, after which we got Künefe, a dessert unique to this part of Turkey. It's like baklava but with sweet cheese in the middle instead of nuts and honey and you eat with some creamy stuff and ice cream. Super good, but we were so full it was hard to truly enjoy it.

Our last stop was at one of the first churches "in the world". Apparently this is where the term "Christian" or "Christianity" was first used. There was also an escape tunnel in the back. There was some other pretty special stuff about it, but it wasn't totally clear to me. Here it is:

From there we headed to the airport and eventually back to campus, ridiculously exhausted, but with some wonderful memories :D

İznik

Yesterday we took a day trip to Iznik. We had wanted to get a shuttle bus to take us to Bursa (the city next to Iznik), which would have been relatively cheap and really convenient, but the driver cancelled on us last minute. So Tyler figured out a way for us to get to Iznik by public transportation. Tyler is great. He's really smart, knows way more Turkish than most of us, and has spent more time in Turkey so he knows his way around a lot better. I'm kind of worried that we take advantage of his expertise sometimes :P It ended up taking us about five hours to get to Iznik, but it was a good to get more familiar with the public transportation system, and with friends I didn't mind, especially since I didn't have much homework hanging over my head. This was our route:

1. Dolmuş (minibus) to Sariyer
2. Bus to the metro
3. Metro to the tram
4. Tram to the ferry
5. Ferry across the Bosphorus
6. Dolmuş to Iznik

The way back was similar. But it was totally worth it. Iznik is beautiful and really different from Istanbul or Edirne. It's the site of the First Council of Nicea! Here's the church where the Council took place (no big deal):

After seeing the church, we walked to the lake. Iznik is famous for this lake, which is huge. It was soooo beautiful!!!! I can't even describe and the pictures definitely don't do it justice. I'm not actually putting my better pictures of the lake up because I'm not sure what the ownership rules are for blogspot and I don't know what I might want to use the pics for later. Here's where we had some delicious tea and "tost" (with cheese and meat that tasted like tandoori lol) on the lakeside:

Then we spent a while just wandering around on the town's extensive ruins: walls, gates, and an impressive amphitheater. It's so amazing to see these things that were built SOOO long ago! I can't wrap my mind around their age, or the fact that they were being used at one point and parts still last. Nathan was climbing a particularly precarious part of the amphitheater and Tyler was getting nervous, saying that those walls were so old you couldn't trust them. Nathan argued that if they lasted this long they were surely trustworthy :D We could get gorgeous views from way up high on the walls. The air there was a lot cleaner than in Istanbul and it was a beautiful day. Here's part of the wall seen from another part of it:

Here's the amphitheater:

The feel of the city was really different in general, too. Everything was much smaller scale and much more rural. It seemed like every house had a good-sized vegetable garden. It looked like a lot of houses were burning trash as well. There was also a group of people that kept catching and releasing pigeons and doves, maybe to train them? Throughout the day there was a really loud, really long procession of cars driving throughout the town celebrating a wedding. I got a video of it but I can't figure out how to put it up :(

On our way to the museum I wanted to buy one of the delicious-looking loaves of bread that were displayed along the streets to have at home over the next few days. In my plan to have it last I didn't realize what I was up against: at about 5 in the afternoon it was fresh. Piping hot. It was SO GOOD. Between all of us we finished a huge loaf before we got home. No regrets :D.

We didn't have much time at the museum, but it was small and we were tired anyway. There were some really nice artifacts, including flatware, sculptures, and gorgeous coins from various eras. This one has the signature of the Ottoman Sultan:

We were all exhausted by the time we got home, but made a valiant effort to get some homework done before bed. And now we're beginning our fourth week in Istanbul!

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM

This week has been mostly settling into the school rhythm. Which is definitely easier said than done. It's been about five months since I've been in school!! I feel like I've forgotten how to pay attention in class, how to do homework, how to write, how to read, how to use a mechanical pencil.... Most people don't have class on Fridays, so nearly all of us get three-day weekends which is WONDERFUL. Also, it started raining like CRAZY and it's been getting super cold. We've definitely gotten soaked several times.

On Thursday night we went over to the Asian side (Kadikoy again) for dinner and then went into Taksim for a concert. Dinner was really good. We went into this restaurant with a limited menu that none of us understood and all ordered the first item on the list. We were brought what seemed to be breaded and fried meat, in my case served in a sandwich with raw onions and tomatoes. I ate it with thick yogurt and some yummy herbs. We all had the same meat stuff but in different variations. After agreeing that it had been delicious we found out that the meat had in fact been... liver. I'm glad I found that out after I finished :P We had really yummy ice cream afterwards, which is weirdly sticky and gooey here. Then we made it to Taksim and made it to the concert quite late but it was still really fun. The band was called Baba Zula and it's kind of like Turkish trance music or something. Super wonky, but I really loved the clear influence of traditional music. The performers had some crazy costumes, too, and I'm pretty sure the lead was rocking out on an electric saz. Here's a video of them from YouTube. They're much older now and not all the members are the same. The song actually starts at 40 seconds:

Yesterday CIEE organized a "mahalle tour" to explore one of the CIEE staff's neighborhood. Beforehand people were telling us that this particular neighborhood (Şişli) isn't very interesting, but we all ended up having a lot of fun. We took the metro for the first time. It's really nice, clean, and high-tech. Here are Emily and Kathryn, two of the people I spend most of my time with:

We actually started our tour in supposedly the biggest mall in Europe. There was one floor that was entirely devoted to all the fast food restaurants us yanks associate with home. Everything from McDonalds to Krispey Kreme to Popeyes (surprisingly). We went all out. Then we went to Ataturk's house. This is the building from which he apparently planned the revolution. It's a museum now where they have some really weird memorabilia, including his metal dentures, some of his hair, and some dirt from his grave. Here's one of his pictures (his mustache wasn't always this phenomenal):

One of the things that Kathryn (the staff who lives in this neighborhood) emphasized is the stark contrast of socio-economics here. The tall building below is apparently incredibly expensive (you can see the sea from the higher apartments) and includes day cares and stores inside. Kathryn said that in this kind of building you don't need to leave except to go to work and described it as "hermetically sealed". Meanwhile, the area around the smaller building is already one of poverty. Homes are made out of scrap materials. Despite areas of extreme poverty throughout the city, it is uncommon to see the kind of homelessness I'm used to seeing in the Bay Area. Apparently this is largely due to strong family support systems. The specific smaller building in the picture is a tomb where people in the area can go to pray. Even though it's pretty shabby, it's considered a sacred site and if they try to develop this area (which is very likely, apparently) they are unlikely to get rid of it:

Then we all went to Kathryn's home and had tea with sweets and talked for a couple hours. It was really nice to talk to our staff in an informal setting and just get to know them better as people, not as authorities or program leaders. They're all really nice. And the cookies were SO GOOD. On the way back home we picked up supplies for hot chocolate and a chocolate cake (perfect rainy-weather food) and ate it all while we watched a soccer game once we got here. A few from CIEE flew to Antalia for the weekend so we were a smaller group on campus. It was really nice doing nothing together. And the cake was SO GOOD. Really though. Super moussey with amazing frosting and these little chocolate chips every once in a while OMNOMNOMNOMNOM:

Edirne

The exchange dinner turned out really fun. THERE WAS SO MUCH FOOD!!! AND IT WAS ALL SO GOOOOOD!!!!! The Americans made grilled cheese, hot dogs, hamburgers, candies, macaroni and cheese, and... fruit salad. The Germans had some cookies and candies. The Italians made a pot (literally 3-feet in diameter) of spaghetti. The Turks had all kinds of delicious things (especially baklava). I think my favorite though were these fried potato pancake things from the Czech table. The only frustrating thing was how quickly I got full! XO After the dinner the ISS organized shuttles to Taksim to keep partying, which was very impressive considering the crazy party the previous night. We stayed in.

On Sunday I got to go to Edirne, a town on the border with Bulgaria (aka Bulgaristan) that had been capital of the Ottoman Empire for a while, I believe. It was really nice to get out of Koc and Istanbul just for a change. There were really gorgeous mosques here. We also got to briefly participate in a sports parade. I hung out mostly with CIEE-ers, but also spent some time with other international students. We went through the bazaar (bought lots of cheap yarn :D), went to the ruins of the palace, a Balkan War memorial, and a museum of Ottoman medical practices. The museum was kinda weird, but kinda interesting, and there was a woman doing paper marbling that was really cool.

Outside of the really important mosque in Edirne (not a graveyard in the background, a memorial)

At lunch: Tyler, Tim, and Ivy

Another mosque:

One of the memorial stones:

Another mosque: this is the signature of the Ottoman emperors:

Mosque:

The parade:


Climbing the ruins of the palace:

The ruins of the palace:

Another mosque:

Woman doing paper marbling:

She made things like this:

2 weeks!!

I've officially been in Istanbul for two whole weeks. I know the first week seemed long but this past one flew by so fast. And we've partied perhaps 75% of the nights we've been here so far :P

I've finally got my classes figured out! Here's my list:

• Mythology and Religion: it looks like this is going to be mainly reading and analyzing stories, mostly Greek probably, although we've started out with the story of Adam and Eve. It's not quite what I was expecting, but I think it will be interesting and fun.
• Basic Turkish: looks like this is all things that Rosetta Stone has already covered for me, but it will be nice to learn the grammar explicitly. Maybe if it truly ends up being too easy I can join a higher level.
• Introduction to Sociology: I was discouraged by CIEE from taking this course because it's intro-level, but it would be really convenient for me to have it before going back to Oxy if I'm serious about having a Soc minor. Plus, it looks like we will be looking at things from a "Turkish" perspective (using examples from Turkey, etc.) so it might be really interesting. And the teacher seems really cool anyway.
• Islamic Cities: I think that this will be interesting after the art history class I took last semester. Plus it will undoubtedly help me appreciate the city in new ways. And the professor is funny.
• Turkish Culture and History: this is a class for exchange students only. Which is really nice because it will give the basics for those of us who didn't have Turkish history in high school. Furthermore, the professor said she really doesn't want to overload us because she knows we want to be spending time exploring the country.

Last night the ISS organized a fantastic party on the beach of the Black Sea. We danced for 5-6 hours. I met some more international students, but spent most of time dancing :D The only classes that are held on Fridays are science labs, so most people have 3-day weekends. And they're taken seriously.

Tonight the ISS is organizing an exchange-student dinner where we make food from our respective countries. We're making chocolate-chip cookies :DDD I'm pretty excited about it. Afterwards apparently everyone's going to Taksim (the party center of Istanbul), but I'm not sure I'll make it lol.

So, I haven't started missing any things or people in particular yet, but I have been missing familiarity. I've been missing being around people who really know me and who I really know and seeing things I'm familiar with. It sounds like some of the other people in the program are in a similar spot. It's nice to be in it together at least :)

lovelovelovelovelove