Hi Everyone,
Sorry for the delay in writing, but I've been catching up on reading (I have midterms in about 10 days...uh oh) and not much has been happening here. The weather has been playing tricks on us. Monday and Tuesday were absolutely beautiful (I'm talking borderline shorts weather), but Wednesday was cold and dreary and today was a mix of everything. Everyone keeps telling me that spring is beautiful in Istanbul, but I'm sick of waiting!
Classes have been going well. One thing I've noticed since being here is that attendance is TERRIBLE. Today, there were only 6 students in a class of 18. Not to mention that 2 of the 6 students showed up between 15 and 30 minutes late for a 50 minute class. If this was Boston, the student would have been either ridiculed mercilessly by the professor for having the nerve to show up to class halfway through and/or be told to leave. Here, being late is not only acceptable its expected. I guess all the absences explains the pop quizzes that one professor gives out almost every class. Starting April 6, I have 4 midterms in a week. Another exchange student recommended that a good spot to do reading/work was at the starbucks down the street. The internet is terrible at the dorm. Sometimes it doesn't work for 5 or 6 hours. My plan is to go on Saturday afternoon to the starbucks get a hot chocolate and do the readings.
A couple Saturdays ago I participated in a trip to four churches sponsored by a student organization at the university that plans activities for exchange students to participate in. We visited the Kariye (Chora) Church, Faith Mosque, Şehzadebaşı Mosque, and Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia) Museum. The trip consisted of about 15 American and Erasmus students, three or four Turkish students, and a tour guide in the University's history doctorate program. As opposed to Kapadokya this trip was much better as it was smaller and the guide was genuinely interested in telling us the history behind each of the churches and mosques that we visited. The architecture and craftsmanship of all these historical sites is amazing. They are some of the most beautiful structures I have ever seen. Check out shutterfly for some pictures of the churches. I'll add comments identifying what picture is what church over the next few days.
Being in Turkey has heightened my already high distaste for cigarette smoke. Since arriving, I've used my inhaler on a weekly basis; something that I have never needed to do. I don't know why, but everyone in Turkey smokes. It must have something to do with the lack of education being given to the public on the hazards of smoking. In the states, the horrors of smoking are ingrained in you from a young age. Everywhere you look there are anti-cigarette campaigns. Not to mention the hefty taxes associated with smoking or the banning of smoking in restaurants. According to the World Health Organization, 60% of males over the age of 15 consider themselves smokers in Turkey. This is compared to the 15-20% of the same population in the US (US # seems a little high if you ask me). According to a 2008 BBC article, 1 in 5 deaths in turkey are related to tobacco. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization lists Turkey as the world’s seventh largest producer of cigarettes, and the eighth largest market for consumption. I feel like I'm living in one large never-ending ashtray. Beginning in 2009, a smoking ban was instituted outlawing smoking in bars, cafes, and a few other places. However, the implementation of the plan is lacking as the fines are little and there are just too many smokers to police.
Alright, hope all is well with everyone at home. Talk soon.
Love,
Brett
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
Food!!
Hi Guys,
I thought I would take a break from writing about what I've been doing everyday and instead talk about the different food that I've tried. I can't remember everything, but I'll try to touch all the good stuff!
I haven't had the chance to have a real traditional Turkish breakfast, but I'm hoping that changes soon. My roommate and I are hopefully going to find time to go one morning to have breakfast together. With that said, the Turks are really big on yogurt. Yogurt is used in everything: sauces, dips, soups, breakfast, etc. Just about anything you can think of. I wasn't a big fan of the yogurt because its very dense and heavy, but then someone suggested putting jam in the yogurt to add some flavor and that did the trick!
Food is a big deal here and its taken very seriously. When you go out to eat at a nice restaurant the service is a little slower than the states because you're supposed to enjoy your meal and take your time in eating. I'm still working on eating slower. For lunch, if you don't go to a sit down restaurant, there are a lot of food stands and cafes that sell doner, which is like a sandwich, often filled with meat, spices, cheese, and veggies. It's a little bit like a panini, but much more juicy and flavorful. Its really cool to walk past these cafes because in the windows or right outside the stores you can see the meat being marinated or cut. At least you know its fresh! One of my favorite lunch meals so far has been Kofte kebab, which is lamb meatballs and fresh spices that are grilled on a steak and served like that or served on fresh bread. Speaking of which, bread is given to you everywhere. Its even more common than receiving bread at a restaurant in the states. There's a great bakery that makes fresh bread right now near campus and I've gone there twice to get fresh rolls for sandwiches.
I think the most adventurous meal I've tried has been fried lamb liver. I'm glad I tried, but I don't think I'll be having it again soon. Fresh veggies and fruits are abundant. Every meal is accompanied by at least some form of both. Its nice to see fresh fruit listed as a desert at some restaurants. You forget how good sliced apple and orange can be as a sweet after a meal.
There are tons of different ways to prepare kebabs in Turkey. One of my favorites is Adana kebab which is generally minced lamb with red pepper flakes, peppers, and salt mixed in. Generally we think of a kebab as being served on the skewer, but in Turkey after the meat has cooked the kebab is removed from the stick and placed on bread pieces (think pita) with a salad and maybe some rice. Rice is served with almost anything and is always cooked perfectly. I never knew I loved rice as much as I did until I started having it here.
A couple days ago, I tried Iskender kebab which is one of the most famous foods in Turkey. The lamb or beef is cut really thin and sauteed with butter and yogurt before being placed on pieces of flat bread. Its incredibly rich, but tasty. It wasn't one of my favorite meals because of how rich it was, but it was pretty good.
Now for everyone's favorite foods: sweets! Turkey is well-known for their deserts especially baklava. For those who don't know baklava is a dough-based pastry that's been rolled in nuts and layered with honey or a sugar sauce. It's INCREDIBLY sweet, but really tasty. I'm not a big fan of really sweet or rich deserts so I can't say that I would want to eat it very often, but baklava is quite tasty and worth the calories! Another famous desert is turkish delight which are small pastries that have a really soft and almost jelly-like center. Like baklava they are really sweet, but pretty good. I should have mentioned this when I was talking about breakfasts, but I forgot... there's a place called abba's waffles that I have yet to try, but plan to soon. Located along the water, this little shop makes the waffles in front of you and then you can pick what you want it topped with. You can have it dipped in chocolate, nuts, bananas, strawberries, whipped cream, literally anything you can think of. Its kinda of like walking into an ice cream store and picking all the different toppings that you want in your dish.
Alright well that's enough for now. I'm going to go do some reading for class tomorrow. Hope the rain stops soon!
Love... Brett
I thought I would take a break from writing about what I've been doing everyday and instead talk about the different food that I've tried. I can't remember everything, but I'll try to touch all the good stuff!
I haven't had the chance to have a real traditional Turkish breakfast, but I'm hoping that changes soon. My roommate and I are hopefully going to find time to go one morning to have breakfast together. With that said, the Turks are really big on yogurt. Yogurt is used in everything: sauces, dips, soups, breakfast, etc. Just about anything you can think of. I wasn't a big fan of the yogurt because its very dense and heavy, but then someone suggested putting jam in the yogurt to add some flavor and that did the trick!
Food is a big deal here and its taken very seriously. When you go out to eat at a nice restaurant the service is a little slower than the states because you're supposed to enjoy your meal and take your time in eating. I'm still working on eating slower. For lunch, if you don't go to a sit down restaurant, there are a lot of food stands and cafes that sell doner, which is like a sandwich, often filled with meat, spices, cheese, and veggies. It's a little bit like a panini, but much more juicy and flavorful. Its really cool to walk past these cafes because in the windows or right outside the stores you can see the meat being marinated or cut. At least you know its fresh! One of my favorite lunch meals so far has been Kofte kebab, which is lamb meatballs and fresh spices that are grilled on a steak and served like that or served on fresh bread. Speaking of which, bread is given to you everywhere. Its even more common than receiving bread at a restaurant in the states. There's a great bakery that makes fresh bread right now near campus and I've gone there twice to get fresh rolls for sandwiches.
I think the most adventurous meal I've tried has been fried lamb liver. I'm glad I tried, but I don't think I'll be having it again soon. Fresh veggies and fruits are abundant. Every meal is accompanied by at least some form of both. Its nice to see fresh fruit listed as a desert at some restaurants. You forget how good sliced apple and orange can be as a sweet after a meal.
There are tons of different ways to prepare kebabs in Turkey. One of my favorites is Adana kebab which is generally minced lamb with red pepper flakes, peppers, and salt mixed in. Generally we think of a kebab as being served on the skewer, but in Turkey after the meat has cooked the kebab is removed from the stick and placed on bread pieces (think pita) with a salad and maybe some rice. Rice is served with almost anything and is always cooked perfectly. I never knew I loved rice as much as I did until I started having it here.
A couple days ago, I tried Iskender kebab which is one of the most famous foods in Turkey. The lamb or beef is cut really thin and sauteed with butter and yogurt before being placed on pieces of flat bread. Its incredibly rich, but tasty. It wasn't one of my favorite meals because of how rich it was, but it was pretty good.
Now for everyone's favorite foods: sweets! Turkey is well-known for their deserts especially baklava. For those who don't know baklava is a dough-based pastry that's been rolled in nuts and layered with honey or a sugar sauce. It's INCREDIBLY sweet, but really tasty. I'm not a big fan of really sweet or rich deserts so I can't say that I would want to eat it very often, but baklava is quite tasty and worth the calories! Another famous desert is turkish delight which are small pastries that have a really soft and almost jelly-like center. Like baklava they are really sweet, but pretty good. I should have mentioned this when I was talking about breakfasts, but I forgot... there's a place called abba's waffles that I have yet to try, but plan to soon. Located along the water, this little shop makes the waffles in front of you and then you can pick what you want it topped with. You can have it dipped in chocolate, nuts, bananas, strawberries, whipped cream, literally anything you can think of. Its kinda of like walking into an ice cream store and picking all the different toppings that you want in your dish.
Alright well that's enough for now. I'm going to go do some reading for class tomorrow. Hope the rain stops soon!
Love... Brett
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Trip to Kapadokya
Hi Everyone,
Hope all is well in the States. I've been following the weather in CT, MA, and the like and it appears that spring is in the air. The weather here has been awful. Its rained everyday and pretty much all day since last Wednesday or Thursday. The worst part is that according to my Turkish classmates and the weather channel the rain is not going away soon. Everyone keeps telling me that Spring here is absolutely beautiful, but its still about 3 weeks away.
Also wanted to say that I've been having a lot of fun reading the comments. Even if I don't have a chance to respond I always love getting little snippets of news from home. So please keep commenting and I'll try to respond!
Over the weekend (Late thursday night till Late Sunday night) I was in Kapadokya or Cappadokia, Turkey (I'm not sure which is the "right" way to write it, but I've seen it both ways). The trip was planned by a couple graduates of the University and there lack of event planning was evident. From the start, the trip lacked order and structure. Not once, did the leaders introduce themselves or really give us a gameplan for what we were doing. The trip was made up of about 60 exchange students. It was awesome to meet and hang out with kids that I had yet to meet, and others that I had seen in classes, but hadn't had a chance to socialize with. We left from the dorm around 11pm on Thursday for the start of a 12 hour bus ride. I think the bus ride can be summarized quite simply as: brutal. After what seemed like an eternity we finally arrived at our hotel around 10am Friday. After dropping our stuff off we got back on the buses (Theme of the weekend = bus rides) to begin a day of sight seeing. Unfortunately, the weather was lousy; it was cold, rainy, and dreary. However, the region is still absolutely beautiful. I have new pictures up on shutterfly so check them out and you'll be able to get a glimpse of how pretty the region is. Friday morning we visited several historical sites of the region and had a lunch at a restaurant that catered to large tour groups. It was buffet style and had some really good Turkish food and desserts. After lunch we visited a pottery factory where we watched as one of the workers showed us how they create the pottery pieces that you can see in the pictures. Next, we went and hiked/walked around the fairy chimneys (large rock-like formations, similar to something seen in Arizona... check them out on wikipedia to get a better idea of what they are). Unfortunately, we were supposed to go and watch the sunset, but the weather was not cooperative and instead we went to a wine tasting. The wine-tasting was interesting as we only had the opportunity to taste two wines and then they tried to persuade us to purchase from their winery. It was interesting, but I'm still not entirely sure what the point was. I'm going to have to do some research to see if the region is known for their wine. After a buffet dinner at the hotel, we went to yet another tour bus haven for turkish cultural night. Basically a night of drinking, dancing, and belly dancing. It was fun, and cool to get a glimpse at the culture of Turkey. We finally made it to sleep at about 1 in the morning. I was beat, as I got very little sleep on the bus (lack of sleep also became a theme of the weekend).
On Saturday, we finally had a tour guide who accompanied us during the day and was able to tell us about the history of the sights we were visiting. Unfortunately, with a group as large as ours it was difficult to inform us of everything. It would have been nice to have learned more about the history of the region. Saturday was a little bit of better weather as it did not rain and the sun peeked through at times. In the morning, we visited the underground cities in the region. If I remember correctly, its believed that there are 36 cities below ground that are more than likely all connected together. Under normal circumstances, the people in this region would live in cave-like dwellings in the rocks, but when under attack they would live in cities deep underground for up to 6 months. Everything they needed would be underground and they would have no need to emerge until the invaders had been defeated or vacated the area. In the afternoon, we went to the Zelve Open Air Museum where we were able to go inside the cave dwellings where people once lived. After a buffet dinner at the hotel, we had a free night in the city center. The majority of us went to a large restaurant/bar where we were able to hang out, talk, and play backgammon (I'm not very good yet, but backgammon is very popular in Turkey).
We left the region Sunday afternoon and arrived back in Istanbul around 11:45pm. It was a long long trip, but overall it was a lot of fun. I'm going to start adding comments to some of the photos so you'll know what you're are looking at, but it might take a few days before its done.
Hope everyone is well... talk to you soon.
Love,
Brett
Hope all is well in the States. I've been following the weather in CT, MA, and the like and it appears that spring is in the air. The weather here has been awful. Its rained everyday and pretty much all day since last Wednesday or Thursday. The worst part is that according to my Turkish classmates and the weather channel the rain is not going away soon. Everyone keeps telling me that Spring here is absolutely beautiful, but its still about 3 weeks away.
Also wanted to say that I've been having a lot of fun reading the comments. Even if I don't have a chance to respond I always love getting little snippets of news from home. So please keep commenting and I'll try to respond!
Over the weekend (Late thursday night till Late Sunday night) I was in Kapadokya or Cappadokia, Turkey (I'm not sure which is the "right" way to write it, but I've seen it both ways). The trip was planned by a couple graduates of the University and there lack of event planning was evident. From the start, the trip lacked order and structure. Not once, did the leaders introduce themselves or really give us a gameplan for what we were doing. The trip was made up of about 60 exchange students. It was awesome to meet and hang out with kids that I had yet to meet, and others that I had seen in classes, but hadn't had a chance to socialize with. We left from the dorm around 11pm on Thursday for the start of a 12 hour bus ride. I think the bus ride can be summarized quite simply as: brutal. After what seemed like an eternity we finally arrived at our hotel around 10am Friday. After dropping our stuff off we got back on the buses (Theme of the weekend = bus rides) to begin a day of sight seeing. Unfortunately, the weather was lousy; it was cold, rainy, and dreary. However, the region is still absolutely beautiful. I have new pictures up on shutterfly so check them out and you'll be able to get a glimpse of how pretty the region is. Friday morning we visited several historical sites of the region and had a lunch at a restaurant that catered to large tour groups. It was buffet style and had some really good Turkish food and desserts. After lunch we visited a pottery factory where we watched as one of the workers showed us how they create the pottery pieces that you can see in the pictures. Next, we went and hiked/walked around the fairy chimneys (large rock-like formations, similar to something seen in Arizona... check them out on wikipedia to get a better idea of what they are). Unfortunately, we were supposed to go and watch the sunset, but the weather was not cooperative and instead we went to a wine tasting. The wine-tasting was interesting as we only had the opportunity to taste two wines and then they tried to persuade us to purchase from their winery. It was interesting, but I'm still not entirely sure what the point was. I'm going to have to do some research to see if the region is known for their wine. After a buffet dinner at the hotel, we went to yet another tour bus haven for turkish cultural night. Basically a night of drinking, dancing, and belly dancing. It was fun, and cool to get a glimpse at the culture of Turkey. We finally made it to sleep at about 1 in the morning. I was beat, as I got very little sleep on the bus (lack of sleep also became a theme of the weekend).
On Saturday, we finally had a tour guide who accompanied us during the day and was able to tell us about the history of the sights we were visiting. Unfortunately, with a group as large as ours it was difficult to inform us of everything. It would have been nice to have learned more about the history of the region. Saturday was a little bit of better weather as it did not rain and the sun peeked through at times. In the morning, we visited the underground cities in the region. If I remember correctly, its believed that there are 36 cities below ground that are more than likely all connected together. Under normal circumstances, the people in this region would live in cave-like dwellings in the rocks, but when under attack they would live in cities deep underground for up to 6 months. Everything they needed would be underground and they would have no need to emerge until the invaders had been defeated or vacated the area. In the afternoon, we went to the Zelve Open Air Museum where we were able to go inside the cave dwellings where people once lived. After a buffet dinner at the hotel, we had a free night in the city center. The majority of us went to a large restaurant/bar where we were able to hang out, talk, and play backgammon (I'm not very good yet, but backgammon is very popular in Turkey).
We left the region Sunday afternoon and arrived back in Istanbul around 11:45pm. It was a long long trip, but overall it was a lot of fun. I'm going to start adding comments to some of the photos so you'll know what you're are looking at, but it might take a few days before its done.
Hope everyone is well... talk to you soon.
Love,
Brett
Monday, March 1, 2010
First Week of Classes!
Hi Everyone,
I had my first full week of classes last week and they were all interesting (for the most part). The classes are a good mix of Turkish students, Americans, and Erasmus students (Europeans). With the exception of the development of contemporary democracies there is at least one other American in all my classes which is nice. The classes range from about 25-35 kids and are a mix of both lectures and discussions. My favorite class thus far is Politics and Society in the Middle East. The professor is really animated and excited about the subject matter. He seems really nice and is very engaging. He wants his class to be more like a laboratory where we question everything including what he says. I actually have a map quiz on Wednesday in that class. We have to memorize the main waterways, cities, countries, deserts, etc. in the Middle East. The amount of work is nothing compared to BU, but it still requires a solid amount of time. My "books" for this semester consist of photocopied packets of all the readings for the semester. These packets are about 700 pages long, but the price of these packets for 4 classes cost about the price of a textbook in price (90$).
I rearranged my schedule so that I now have Mondays completely free of classes. I also picked up a basketball class that meets for two hours on Thursday afternoons. Well, I'm not going to bore you with more details on the classes, but if you want to know ask in the comments and I'll respond with more information.
That pretty much takes care of Monday through Friday. I'm forgetting what day it was, but I think it was Thursday, Yigit came back to the room around 8pm and asked if I wanted to go to the mall with him to look for a pair of shoes he had seen in Paris and desperately wanted. He has a car on campus, so we drove about 20 minutes to one of the largest malls I've ever been to. We couldn't find the shoes, but we walked through the mall. It has two separate sections: One for the normal folks, and one for the really rich people. Walking into the rich section was like night and day. Every designer you could think of (the best of the best) was located here and the cars were ridiculously nice. Just around the entrance there was a Ferrari, Maserati, and Porsche. Friday, my roommate took me out to show me around Istanbul. We went to a couple of bars that were really busy even though it was pretty early. We got back around 10:30 and around 11:30 he came by to ask if I wanted to go to a party with him and his friends. I was sitting in my room in my shorts ready for bed, so I declined. I heard him come back in around 4 am! Saturday was dreary weather if I remember and I did not do much. I got some reading done for class and got involved in a book I brought from home. There's a bookstore about a 15 minute walk from me that has English magazines and books. I only walked through once, but I'll be going back again for some new reading material.
Sunday I had my first big outing since I've been here. I went to Edirne, Turkey with five other people. One of them was Erin, the girl from Windsor and who goes to BC. Also on the trip was my friend Joshua from Oklahoma, two Erasmus students, and an Irishman who was not attending the university, but was couch surfing with Joshua in Istanbul. Speaking of which, have you guys ever heard of couchsurfing.org? I had only heard of it in passing, but apparently its a great way to meet people. Its basically a network of people throughout the world who are willing to offer up a "couch" or spare room for a few days as you travel throughout the country. No money is supposed to be exchanged for your stay and your host will often show you around the city/town that they live in. Anyway, the reason I went to Edirne was to cross the border into Bulgaria to void my student visa and return with a tourist visa. Long story short, getting a residence permit with a student visa requires up to three trips to a police station where they most likely don't speak English and these trips might take up an entire day. So, if you leave the country within a month of arriving you can get a tourist visa that allows unlimited entry for three months and its a lot cheaper than the resident permit. Technically, its not the "right" way to be in the country, but some in the international students office at the university recommended that we don't get a residence permit. So I met Erin at 8am at the starbucks down the street. We took a cab to Taksim (about a 15 minute drive) where we met with the other 4 members of our group. From taksim, we took a bus to the Otogar (bus station) which was about a 45 minute ride. That just gives you an idea of how big istanbul is! From the bus station we were able to choose from about 3 bus lines to go to Edirne. We went with Ulusoy which is like the Mercedes of bus lines. The ticket for a 2.5 hour bus ride was only 10TL (roughly 6.50$). Bus travel is really big in Turkey and is much cheaper than flying or the train, and just about as nice. Our coach to Edirne was a double decker and on each floor there was an attendant (think flight attendant) who came around and passed out free drinks and an assortment of snacks to choose from. Every seat had TV screens (of course, it was in Turkish so I didn't watch). Leaving Istanbul reminded me of leaving Melbourne, Australia. Once you get out of the city, there's nothing... just rolling hills and lots of green grass.
Edirne was fun. We arrived around 12:30 and took a free shuttle from the bus station to the city center. We had lunch at a cafe that was famous for its lamb liver. I tried the liver, and it was okay, but not something I need to have again. We ordered three different dishes, the lamb, a kebab dish with chicken, lamb, and veggies, and something similar to a pizza. After lunch, we visited three different mosques in the area and then walked around the city for a couple hours. After our walk, Erin, myself, and the two Erasmus girls took a bus to the Bulgarian border. Technically, I don't think we ever crossed the border into Bulgaria, but we were able to get our tourist visas after a lot of confusion. I don't think you're supposed to cross the border by foot and so everyone was staring at us. The officials seemed very confused by what we were doing and we kept getting stopped. After about 30-40 minutes we were able to head back to Edirne with our tourist visas. We met backup with Joshua and Alan, the Irishman, at a little cafe. Erin and I, decided to split off and head back to Istanbul as we were both tired and didn't want to wait any longer. Erin and I took a 7:00pm bus back to Istanbul. After arriving at the Bus station in Istanbul we took a 40 minute bus ride back to Taksim and then I took a public bus from Taksim back to the University. All in all, the trip (one way) took about 3.5 to 4 hours. I got back to my room around 11 and went immediately to sleep! I took a few pictures, but not many as nothing really struck me as needing to be documented so I'll post those in a few days.
Tomorrow, I'm back in class and then Thursday night I'm leaving for the Cappadocia region of Turkey with about 50 other exchange students. I'll write more about the trip tomorrow!
Okay, hope everyone is well!
Love and miss you all,
Brett
I had my first full week of classes last week and they were all interesting (for the most part). The classes are a good mix of Turkish students, Americans, and Erasmus students (Europeans). With the exception of the development of contemporary democracies there is at least one other American in all my classes which is nice. The classes range from about 25-35 kids and are a mix of both lectures and discussions. My favorite class thus far is Politics and Society in the Middle East. The professor is really animated and excited about the subject matter. He seems really nice and is very engaging. He wants his class to be more like a laboratory where we question everything including what he says. I actually have a map quiz on Wednesday in that class. We have to memorize the main waterways, cities, countries, deserts, etc. in the Middle East. The amount of work is nothing compared to BU, but it still requires a solid amount of time. My "books" for this semester consist of photocopied packets of all the readings for the semester. These packets are about 700 pages long, but the price of these packets for 4 classes cost about the price of a textbook in price (90$).
I rearranged my schedule so that I now have Mondays completely free of classes. I also picked up a basketball class that meets for two hours on Thursday afternoons. Well, I'm not going to bore you with more details on the classes, but if you want to know ask in the comments and I'll respond with more information.
That pretty much takes care of Monday through Friday. I'm forgetting what day it was, but I think it was Thursday, Yigit came back to the room around 8pm and asked if I wanted to go to the mall with him to look for a pair of shoes he had seen in Paris and desperately wanted. He has a car on campus, so we drove about 20 minutes to one of the largest malls I've ever been to. We couldn't find the shoes, but we walked through the mall. It has two separate sections: One for the normal folks, and one for the really rich people. Walking into the rich section was like night and day. Every designer you could think of (the best of the best) was located here and the cars were ridiculously nice. Just around the entrance there was a Ferrari, Maserati, and Porsche. Friday, my roommate took me out to show me around Istanbul. We went to a couple of bars that were really busy even though it was pretty early. We got back around 10:30 and around 11:30 he came by to ask if I wanted to go to a party with him and his friends. I was sitting in my room in my shorts ready for bed, so I declined. I heard him come back in around 4 am! Saturday was dreary weather if I remember and I did not do much. I got some reading done for class and got involved in a book I brought from home. There's a bookstore about a 15 minute walk from me that has English magazines and books. I only walked through once, but I'll be going back again for some new reading material.
Sunday I had my first big outing since I've been here. I went to Edirne, Turkey with five other people. One of them was Erin, the girl from Windsor and who goes to BC. Also on the trip was my friend Joshua from Oklahoma, two Erasmus students, and an Irishman who was not attending the university, but was couch surfing with Joshua in Istanbul. Speaking of which, have you guys ever heard of couchsurfing.org? I had only heard of it in passing, but apparently its a great way to meet people. Its basically a network of people throughout the world who are willing to offer up a "couch" or spare room for a few days as you travel throughout the country. No money is supposed to be exchanged for your stay and your host will often show you around the city/town that they live in. Anyway, the reason I went to Edirne was to cross the border into Bulgaria to void my student visa and return with a tourist visa. Long story short, getting a residence permit with a student visa requires up to three trips to a police station where they most likely don't speak English and these trips might take up an entire day. So, if you leave the country within a month of arriving you can get a tourist visa that allows unlimited entry for three months and its a lot cheaper than the resident permit. Technically, its not the "right" way to be in the country, but some in the international students office at the university recommended that we don't get a residence permit. So I met Erin at 8am at the starbucks down the street. We took a cab to Taksim (about a 15 minute drive) where we met with the other 4 members of our group. From taksim, we took a bus to the Otogar (bus station) which was about a 45 minute ride. That just gives you an idea of how big istanbul is! From the bus station we were able to choose from about 3 bus lines to go to Edirne. We went with Ulusoy which is like the Mercedes of bus lines. The ticket for a 2.5 hour bus ride was only 10TL (roughly 6.50$). Bus travel is really big in Turkey and is much cheaper than flying or the train, and just about as nice. Our coach to Edirne was a double decker and on each floor there was an attendant (think flight attendant) who came around and passed out free drinks and an assortment of snacks to choose from. Every seat had TV screens (of course, it was in Turkish so I didn't watch). Leaving Istanbul reminded me of leaving Melbourne, Australia. Once you get out of the city, there's nothing... just rolling hills and lots of green grass.
Edirne was fun. We arrived around 12:30 and took a free shuttle from the bus station to the city center. We had lunch at a cafe that was famous for its lamb liver. I tried the liver, and it was okay, but not something I need to have again. We ordered three different dishes, the lamb, a kebab dish with chicken, lamb, and veggies, and something similar to a pizza. After lunch, we visited three different mosques in the area and then walked around the city for a couple hours. After our walk, Erin, myself, and the two Erasmus girls took a bus to the Bulgarian border. Technically, I don't think we ever crossed the border into Bulgaria, but we were able to get our tourist visas after a lot of confusion. I don't think you're supposed to cross the border by foot and so everyone was staring at us. The officials seemed very confused by what we were doing and we kept getting stopped. After about 30-40 minutes we were able to head back to Edirne with our tourist visas. We met backup with Joshua and Alan, the Irishman, at a little cafe. Erin and I, decided to split off and head back to Istanbul as we were both tired and didn't want to wait any longer. Erin and I took a 7:00pm bus back to Istanbul. After arriving at the Bus station in Istanbul we took a 40 minute bus ride back to Taksim and then I took a public bus from Taksim back to the University. All in all, the trip (one way) took about 3.5 to 4 hours. I got back to my room around 11 and went immediately to sleep! I took a few pictures, but not many as nothing really struck me as needing to be documented so I'll post those in a few days.
Tomorrow, I'm back in class and then Thursday night I'm leaving for the Cappadocia region of Turkey with about 50 other exchange students. I'll write more about the trip tomorrow!
Okay, hope everyone is well!
Love and miss you all,
Brett
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