Down by the Water

Hi Everyone,

Thought I would do a quick update. I'm eagerly counting down the days until class begins Monday. As much fun as it is to be a tourist, I'm very much looking forward to having some structure in my life. I think once classes start I'll really start to get to know more of the kids. I had a meeting with my academic adviser on Monday afternoon with the other exchange kids in the Political Science and International Relations department. There were about 20 of us. Four of the guys I met at orientation and they seem really nice so that's good. There's a guy about my age from Providence who I'm looking forward to meeting, a girl from Boston, and a random assortment of other kids. Actually, Keith if you read this, I'm on the trip with a guy you went to high school with... Brent Seigel. He asked if you were still doing pre-med and I laughed, and told him you were now a history major. Small world, right? Interestingly, one of the students is a graduate student from Virginia who I'm looking forward to talking with. The registration system is really flawed. I mean I though BU's system was messed up at home, but this was 10 times worse. Turns out that all 12,000 students register at the same time. Talk about a massive traffic jam on the internet! It took some work, but I managed to get the four classes I really wanted. I'm debating about taking a fifth, but for now I'm sticking with four. The four classes are: Religion and Society, Politics in Developing Countries, Politics and Society in the Middle East, and European Foreign and Security Policy. Hopefully BU will give me credit for at least 2 of these classes! If not, senior year might get a little interesting! Luckily, all my classes are in the same building except for my class on Monday. I'm glad I won't have to run around the three campuses to find what building I'm supposed to be in. (I probably spoke too soon!).

So the picture at the top of the post is of my new favorite part of Istanbul: Bebek. It's one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city and its right along the Bosphorus. The past few days have been a little rough for me, but when I found this area I became excited again. Its absolutely beautiful! Tomorrow is supposed to be 65 and sunny (I'm thinking about breaking out the shorts!) so I'm going to go back and visit a couple museums and an old castle that is supposed to be in the neighborhood.

Okay, well more pictures are being uploaded onto shutterfly as I type this so check them out!

Love you all,

Brett