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: