First week

Classes started last Monday. Fortunately for me I was already assigned four classes. While many other exchange students had zero. I got lost every day last week trying to find classes. On Monday, I was foolish enough to tell Damian and Ricardo that I knew where class was located. We ended up in a class that was taught in Turkish! After about 3 minuets Ricardo raised his hand and told the teacher we were exchange students. She replied in Turkish. We ran out the class laughing. We found our class a few minuets latter, which were filled with exchange students.

I went downtown to Sariyer after classes to buy a cell phone. This is when we still used Facebook as the main method of communication. I posted a tag on my FB for 3 people. Turns out 20+ exchange students went downtown for phones. I did not end up with a phone because it was too much of a Hassel. But I did end up with a headache from waiting for other people. The one benefit is that Ozzy and Yunus were going to Istinye Park mall afterwards. This mall is very high end and huge! I didn’t buy much this time around because my Turkish was bad.

Today really took a toll on me mentally. While in Sariyer people starred at me like I had two heads. People starred out of cars. Others starred on the street. The crazy thing is they would sometimes look away when I looked or not say anything at all when I said Merhaba (Hello). When I got on the bus to Istiyne Park a 2 year old turned to her left to stare at me for about 10 minuets. On the bus back a teenager sat next to me and just stared me in the face. Thank goodness for my iPod because I was starting to get frazzled.

This was a huge culture shock for me. The next day the Turkish-American exchange advisor explained that not many people of color come to Turkey, which is why people were curious. This made me feel a lot better and formed my reasoning to take Turkish and learn more about the culture while I’m here.

The next day was pretty chill. I had dinner with Zach and ended up hanging out with some other exchange students. It was a beautiful night so we ended up in the woods area and talked about politics, conflicts, religion, price of education and our lives prior to this trip.

The rest of the week was pretty decent with the exception of my roommate waking me up everyday at 7am because her cell phone alarm vibrated and rang extremely loud on the table and the noise she made when she got ready. I was on hairs end by Thursday. Especially after I addressed the situation and she denied it. She got my point after I decided to make the same amount of noise. Now I’m roommate less.

Thursday rolled around pretty quick and was the first day of my weekend. I went to Taksim with Zach, Lexie and Duhn.  We took the dolmus and subway. It was very clean and efficient. We got off in Taksim Square and who do I see the same Gypsy child that jumped on me a week prior. We ate Patata (fries) with curry sauce, koketl (mayo + ketchup), babekue and olive sauce. Yum. We hung out till the wee hours of the morning. At Kafe Pi and Joker Joker a bar on the 6^th floor. Can we say 6 flights of marble stairs. We met some kids from Koc’s rival school in the beginning of the night. Zach wanted to go to club 360 for 25TL. Glad we didn’t end up there. Walking up the main strip we saw another dance club. While trying to figure out if it was free we prepared our free Turkish words. I said to Lexie I think that guy has a confederate flag on his leather jacket. Then he responds I speak English and the club is free. Needless to say I was not comfortable there.

The kids from earlier showed us were there college party was being hosted. We ended up going to a familiar place. Later on they met us at Kafe Pi. I’m glad they did because Onur was nice to intercept this teenage kid how came stood next to me while I was sitting and pointed and laughed in my face. I said what did you say and Onur said its nothing. Most likely it was because of my race because kids did the same thing when I came out of the Blue Mosque. The only difference is the called me Afrikan. Please note I am not offended by being called Afrikan. I am offended at the ignorance “curiosity” that exists with many.

The next day I lounged around so I could prepare for the beach party. I did laundry. Now ordinarily this would not be a task to mention. But going to the basement from the third floor multiple times was no fun. At on point of time I said I would hang in the TV room. The housekeeper came in and said, Nasilsen? (How are you?) I of course forgot my Turkish so it was an awkward moment. The beach party was fun minus me freezing my butt off.

Saturday was a blah day. I woke up to an email from my Koc mentor telling me that he was not my mother or servant. This was his reply to me asking which Apple store was the closest. I was livid and felt disrespected. I worked off my anger at the gym.

Later on I went down to Sariyer and had Borek a lamb filled dough with currants. It was okay at best. What really caught my eye was the fact that this little restaurant had granite counter tops when my meal was only 6TL ($4).

Tonight was the cultural dinner. I made sweet teach, which was a hit and brought pork rinds to represent my families cultures but pork is illegal. Opps. The food was amazing especially Portugal, France and Pakistan. I stayed in that night because I planned to go with a few exchange students to Erdine. My stomach told me otherwise. Good thing I stayed in because Lexie told me there were only toilet holes.

All in all I had a good first week. My advisor explained to me that Turkish student would tell me they don’t know English because they are not comfortable. I’ve become a quick learner by memorizing what I like and dislike, especially food wise. I finally figured out how to order at the cafeteria. 3 plates o food is 5-6TL.yet my first few days cost 7-12.50TL. Something to note spinach is a main dish and yogurt sauce is extra. And a normal cafeteria meal is a soup or salad, entrée, side or dessert.