For Thanksgiving I decided to fly to Rome with Lexie and meet with Olivia who is studying at the University of Rome and Adam who is studying at the University of Mannheim in Germany. All in all we had a great time. I checked out an ice bar, where the temperature inside was 27 degrees farenheit. I went to Vatican city to see the Sisteen Chapel, Pomepeii, Naples and explored Rome. Everyday, I had pizza and gelatto. Needless to say my jeans are a bit tighter today.
A more detail update will come soon since I still have to catch up my week in Ethiopia and I am going away for the sixth weekend in a row. This weekend will be dedicated to Beirut, Lebanon!
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving and Black Friday!
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Update
Hey Everyone,
Thanks for reading my blog! Sorry, I haven't really been updating this blog in a timely manner because my computer crashed a month ago and I just purchased a new one. I have updated the blog until my the third week of Novemeber when I was on buyram holiday and traveled to Egypt and Ethiopia. This blog will come sometime next week as I am traveling to Rome, Italy this weekend. Photos will also come shortly.
In the mean time email me at aquierah@gmail.com if you would like to receive a post card from me.
Salam (Peace)
Aquiera
Thanks for reading my blog! Sorry, I haven't really been updating this blog in a timely manner because my computer crashed a month ago and I just purchased a new one. I have updated the blog until my the third week of Novemeber when I was on buyram holiday and traveled to Egypt and Ethiopia. This blog will come sometime next week as I am traveling to Rome, Italy this weekend. Photos will also come shortly.
In the mean time email me at aquierah@gmail.com if you would like to receive a post card from me.
Salam (Peace)
Aquiera
Buyram holiday
The second week of Novemeber flew by pretty fast. On Monday I went to the police station to pick up my residence permit. Once I got back to campus I went straight to the health center to get my 7 bug bites checked out. In the end I was diagnosed with an infection and prescribed medicine a nice shot of benadryl in my butt muscle. That night I booked my flight back to the States (I arrive January 11, 2011) , my flight to Beirut and my flight to Addis Abba, Ethiopia with an eight hour layover in Cairo both ways for the 10-day buyram holiday. The next day I went to Gold computers, mind you the world Gold was spelt in red for a netbook. The total cost was around 600TL ($375). The rest of the week ended pretty fast since I had a midterm, a quiz, a paper proposal and the CLS application to finish.
Auto reply: I will be in Africa exploring for the next 10 days.
Friday morning I head out to Ataturk airport using public transportation. This was a bad mistake on my part because there was so much traffic. I checked in and went through passport control with 15 minuets to spare. My Egyptaian Air flight was pretty fast but kind of weird as everything was in Arabic and then translated in English. After getting a visa for $15 and chasing in $100 for 575EGP I hoped in a cab bound for the Egyptian museum. My driver Ali, was rather inapproapiate as he asked to sleep with me and kiss me multiple times. At one point I yelled at him and said I am a married virgin. American's don't have sex before they are married. This meant nothing to him as he asked me two more times to sleep with him. Eventually he took out his cellphone and showed me his 2 y.o. and 5 y.o. sons and said he had strong genes so I should consider his offer.
With my ISIC card the museum cost 30EGP. The museum was filled with royal statues, King Tutankohmons cargophagous, animal mummies including a 20foot long aligator and other historical figures. Unfortuantaely I was not allowed to take pictures. I left the museum in search of an Egyptian dinner and ended up at Fefla a restaurant Jimmy Carter once ate at. I ordered Egyptian sausages for dinner but was torn between that and pigeon. After dinner my hired cab driver took me across the street to an oil shop where I purchased lotus flower oil and lavendar oil. I headed back to the airport with about 3 hours to spare and was immediately confronted with an Egyptian man who said “you have beautiful lips can I kiss them?” I replied no. He for some reason was convinced that I should say yes. I really do not understand why Egyptian men seem to be so disrespectful in a culture that seperates men and women.
Addis Abba – I landed at 4am paid $20 for a visa and cashed $300 for 4,920 birr. When I left that section I was immediately hugged by my cousin Lauren and greeted by her husband who said “man you two look alike.” I stayed up until 6am laughing with them and watching them deavour Turkish and Egpytian cheese chips and Whoppers from Cairo.
In the morning my cousin one of the maids, Si to make us french toast. Ten minuets later, Si came back with the best buttered bread of my life. Lauren replied this is not french toast. Si replied we were out of eggs and cinnamon. I just laughed and asked for the strawberry jam.
That night we went out to Sishu, a snazzy burger restaurant. Here I ordered a double butter burger for 140bir (8.75), lemondade and a strawberry tart. Without a doubt the butter burger takes third place for best burger. The first being Butcher and Singer in Philadelphia fillet mignon burger. The second being Viallini's in Philadelphia kobe beef burger. After that we hurried home to make sure we got in before the hyennas came out.
Sunday was a low key day as both my cousin Lauren and her son Azariah were both sick. We spent the day watching Law and Order and CSI on the tv. The cool part is there shows come from Dubai, so the majority of the channels are in English with Arabic subtles.
Auto reply: I will be in Africa exploring for the next 10 days.
Friday morning I head out to Ataturk airport using public transportation. This was a bad mistake on my part because there was so much traffic. I checked in and went through passport control with 15 minuets to spare. My Egyptaian Air flight was pretty fast but kind of weird as everything was in Arabic and then translated in English. After getting a visa for $15 and chasing in $100 for 575EGP I hoped in a cab bound for the Egyptian museum. My driver Ali, was rather inapproapiate as he asked to sleep with me and kiss me multiple times. At one point I yelled at him and said I am a married virgin. American's don't have sex before they are married. This meant nothing to him as he asked me two more times to sleep with him. Eventually he took out his cellphone and showed me his 2 y.o. and 5 y.o. sons and said he had strong genes so I should consider his offer.
With my ISIC card the museum cost 30EGP. The museum was filled with royal statues, King Tutankohmons cargophagous, animal mummies including a 20foot long aligator and other historical figures. Unfortuantaely I was not allowed to take pictures. I left the museum in search of an Egyptian dinner and ended up at Fefla a restaurant Jimmy Carter once ate at. I ordered Egyptian sausages for dinner but was torn between that and pigeon. After dinner my hired cab driver took me across the street to an oil shop where I purchased lotus flower oil and lavendar oil. I headed back to the airport with about 3 hours to spare and was immediately confronted with an Egyptian man who said “you have beautiful lips can I kiss them?” I replied no. He for some reason was convinced that I should say yes. I really do not understand why Egyptian men seem to be so disrespectful in a culture that seperates men and women.
Addis Abba – I landed at 4am paid $20 for a visa and cashed $300 for 4,920 birr. When I left that section I was immediately hugged by my cousin Lauren and greeted by her husband who said “man you two look alike.” I stayed up until 6am laughing with them and watching them deavour Turkish and Egpytian cheese chips and Whoppers from Cairo.
In the morning my cousin one of the maids, Si to make us french toast. Ten minuets later, Si came back with the best buttered bread of my life. Lauren replied this is not french toast. Si replied we were out of eggs and cinnamon. I just laughed and asked for the strawberry jam.
That night we went out to Sishu, a snazzy burger restaurant. Here I ordered a double butter burger for 140bir (8.75), lemondade and a strawberry tart. Without a doubt the butter burger takes third place for best burger. The first being Butcher and Singer in Philadelphia fillet mignon burger. The second being Viallini's in Philadelphia kobe beef burger. After that we hurried home to make sure we got in before the hyennas came out.
Sunday was a low key day as both my cousin Lauren and her son Azariah were both sick. We spent the day watching Law and Order and CSI on the tv. The cool part is there shows come from Dubai, so the majority of the channels are in English with Arabic subtles.
I shall retire in Antalya. The most beautiful city in Turkey.
Monday morning I decided to go to Arti Apple Reseller in Sislı to have my Mac checked out. On the way there an African man stopped me and asked why I was in Turkey and all that other jazz. In the end he told me that he was Nigerian and had lived in Istanbul for 6 years. Only one person that I could see spoke English in the store because of this I had to wait on one man to act as my translator. The workers did a brief diagnostic test on my computer finding out that my logic board had crashed from overheating. I was told 4 weeks because the parts had to be ordered and that my computer would cost over 900TL to fix. My Mac turned 4 years old in September so it made no sense to get it fixed. I knew deep down that I should have given in and purchased a new Mac before coming abroad but I didnt want to let go of the computer that got me through college, the computer I paid for with the last of my fathers memory.
I was a bit depressed after hearing the news. But on the way back I cheered up when I saw cows grazing in front of flats near Koc. When I arrived back to campus I used the laptop in the basment to ask another exchange student who's computer crashed what did he do. Tim, replied that he had purchased an Asus netbook for 500TL ($375). I decided I would probably do the same but I wanted to get a few other opinons. At dinner I spoke to Josh, a Canandian exchange who worked at the Apple store. After talking with him I decieded to wait until January to buy my Mac. I was on my way to the dorms when I met Tyler, a Critical Langauage Scholarship (CLS) reciepent. After getting the inside scoop I decided that it would be worth applying for CLS to learn Turkish intensively for seven weeks this summer. The rest of the week was pretty busy as I was focused on writing the four essay requirements for the CLS application. Other than that, the exchange office helped Becca and I order a 20lt bottle of Pinar water to our room for 24TL ($16).
Thursday Melissa, Lexie and I headed down to Antalya, a beautiful southwestern city with every activity you can think of. We flew from Sabiah Goken airport (the airport on the Asian side) while there we saw a nice German woman with red hair green highlights and a a brown bang. We flew Pegausus air which only took 50 minuets compared to the 15 hour bus ride so of our coherts were embarking on. Once we arrived we took a shuttle bus for 10TL to center city Antalya and walked to Sabah Pansyion, the place where Jasmine and three others stayed in the begining of October. The three of us paid 70TL for one night and Turkish breakfast. After unpacking we headed out to tour Antalya bay, get food and see some sights. The bay was filled with lots of yachts and breath taking views of Anatalya. After taking in the scenery with a few good shots we headed out on the search of food. Along the way we met Fredy a nice çay (tea) vendor who gave us 4 cups of free tea and had a bit of a respectable crush on me. For dinner we ended up in a nice jungle like restaurant where we had seafood dinner platers (whole sea bass filleted at the table, calamari, shrimp, salad and fries) for 50TL ($). This was actually a bit pricey since a fish dinner was only 20TL ($). Nonetheless it was well worth the expense. After dinner we went to a museum, purchased a bunch of scarfs for 10TL each and went to the Hamam. The Hamam location was 600 years old and deced out with marble everything. Lexie and I paid 35TL for a Turkish bath, peeling (scrub), a soap massage and oil massage. For the Turkish bath Lexie and I pretty much washed out skin with a piece of soap wrapped in a t-shirt and then rinse off from water out of a marble fountain. Once we were done a man by the name of Doktor came in to do our peelings and soap massages. He decided to wet my skin first and throw a bucket of water on my freshly twisted locs. Needless to say I was abit annoyed. We then layed on a huge marble table and allowed the doctor to peel our skin and was it with soap several times. After this was done we left the marble hall and drank apple cay u until it was time for our oil massage.
The next day we had breakfast at Sabah, were I ate the sweetest green grapes in the history of my life! Then we hopped in our hired taxi (disco taksi) to go to Termesos, Karanian cave, Pegme and Aspendos all for 160TL ($106). Before going to Pegme we had lunch Antalya salad (white beans, eggs, parsley, tomatos and olive oil) and tavuk (chicken) sandwics at a local Turkish restaurant. At Aspendos there was a near perfect stadium which was beautiful to see. When we arrived back to the hostel it was around 7pm. We had dinner from the kitchen and met a nice Southeast Indian Frenchmen named Robert. He's such an awesome guy with a wealth of knowledge. He shared a bottle of red wine with us and shared stories from around the world.
The following day I had those same amazing grapes and hopped in the hired out cab to take us to Antalya museum, Side, Managavt waterfall and Alanya and a in cave for 200TL ($133). I watched the sunset in Alanya while swimming in the Mediterrean. Alanya is such a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. I would love to vacation there one day. I stopped by a restaurant to use the bathroom before leaving, there I met a Turkish Mel Gibson look alike named Nahim. On the way back we stopped at a gas station and drank cay, eat Magnums and danced to traditional Turkish dance music in the parking lot. There was alot of traffic when we entered Antalya so we decided to have karoke and dance to the blue disco lights in the car. For dinner that night we had balik emeke (fish bread) for 6TL at a nice karoke resaturant. After dinner I decided to window shop and I ended up sliding down the tile and falling on my tail bone. Many thanks to the two Turkish men who were helping me up as I literally laughed my butt off.
We decided to roam around the city a bit in the day time to see the harbor and other parts of Old Town. After that we took the tram to the otogar for a bus to Olympos. Unfortunatley we ended up waiting at the top of a mountain for a bus to take us 11km down the mountain to Olympos. Olympos was filled with tree house pansyions and beach side ruins. Once we got there we whipped out our handy dandy museum cards for free entrance. Our first path led us to Orange groves were I picked four softball size oranges. Yummo! Shortly after we ended up at the beach which was without sand but filled with lots of smooth ocean rocks. The beach was such a beautiful site becuase there were ruins right on the waters edge, an inland river and in the distance I could see a snow capped mountain. Before leaving Olympos I decieded to use the handicapped bathroom because that is the only one in Turkey that will always have an actual seat and not a whole. I guess my theory had bad luck that day because I found the toilet but I left with 7 misquito bites which eventually swelled up and became inflammed when I reached the airport.
I was a bit depressed after hearing the news. But on the way back I cheered up when I saw cows grazing in front of flats near Koc. When I arrived back to campus I used the laptop in the basment to ask another exchange student who's computer crashed what did he do. Tim, replied that he had purchased an Asus netbook for 500TL ($375). I decided I would probably do the same but I wanted to get a few other opinons. At dinner I spoke to Josh, a Canandian exchange who worked at the Apple store. After talking with him I decieded to wait until January to buy my Mac. I was on my way to the dorms when I met Tyler, a Critical Langauage Scholarship (CLS) reciepent. After getting the inside scoop I decided that it would be worth applying for CLS to learn Turkish intensively for seven weeks this summer. The rest of the week was pretty busy as I was focused on writing the four essay requirements for the CLS application. Other than that, the exchange office helped Becca and I order a 20lt bottle of Pinar water to our room for 24TL ($16).
Thursday Melissa, Lexie and I headed down to Antalya, a beautiful southwestern city with every activity you can think of. We flew from Sabiah Goken airport (the airport on the Asian side) while there we saw a nice German woman with red hair green highlights and a a brown bang. We flew Pegausus air which only took 50 minuets compared to the 15 hour bus ride so of our coherts were embarking on. Once we arrived we took a shuttle bus for 10TL to center city Antalya and walked to Sabah Pansyion, the place where Jasmine and three others stayed in the begining of October. The three of us paid 70TL for one night and Turkish breakfast. After unpacking we headed out to tour Antalya bay, get food and see some sights. The bay was filled with lots of yachts and breath taking views of Anatalya. After taking in the scenery with a few good shots we headed out on the search of food. Along the way we met Fredy a nice çay (tea) vendor who gave us 4 cups of free tea and had a bit of a respectable crush on me. For dinner we ended up in a nice jungle like restaurant where we had seafood dinner platers (whole sea bass filleted at the table, calamari, shrimp, salad and fries) for 50TL ($). This was actually a bit pricey since a fish dinner was only 20TL ($). Nonetheless it was well worth the expense. After dinner we went to a museum, purchased a bunch of scarfs for 10TL each and went to the Hamam. The Hamam location was 600 years old and deced out with marble everything. Lexie and I paid 35TL for a Turkish bath, peeling (scrub), a soap massage and oil massage. For the Turkish bath Lexie and I pretty much washed out skin with a piece of soap wrapped in a t-shirt and then rinse off from water out of a marble fountain. Once we were done a man by the name of Doktor came in to do our peelings and soap massages. He decided to wet my skin first and throw a bucket of water on my freshly twisted locs. Needless to say I was abit annoyed. We then layed on a huge marble table and allowed the doctor to peel our skin and was it with soap several times. After this was done we left the marble hall and drank apple cay u until it was time for our oil massage.
The next day we had breakfast at Sabah, were I ate the sweetest green grapes in the history of my life! Then we hopped in our hired taxi (disco taksi) to go to Termesos, Karanian cave, Pegme and Aspendos all for 160TL ($106). Before going to Pegme we had lunch Antalya salad (white beans, eggs, parsley, tomatos and olive oil) and tavuk (chicken) sandwics at a local Turkish restaurant. At Aspendos there was a near perfect stadium which was beautiful to see. When we arrived back to the hostel it was around 7pm. We had dinner from the kitchen and met a nice Southeast Indian Frenchmen named Robert. He's such an awesome guy with a wealth of knowledge. He shared a bottle of red wine with us and shared stories from around the world.
The following day I had those same amazing grapes and hopped in the hired out cab to take us to Antalya museum, Side, Managavt waterfall and Alanya and a in cave for 200TL ($133). I watched the sunset in Alanya while swimming in the Mediterrean. Alanya is such a beautiful city surrounded by mountains. I would love to vacation there one day. I stopped by a restaurant to use the bathroom before leaving, there I met a Turkish Mel Gibson look alike named Nahim. On the way back we stopped at a gas station and drank cay, eat Magnums and danced to traditional Turkish dance music in the parking lot. There was alot of traffic when we entered Antalya so we decided to have karoke and dance to the blue disco lights in the car. For dinner that night we had balik emeke (fish bread) for 6TL at a nice karoke resaturant. After dinner I decided to window shop and I ended up sliding down the tile and falling on my tail bone. Many thanks to the two Turkish men who were helping me up as I literally laughed my butt off.
We decided to roam around the city a bit in the day time to see the harbor and other parts of Old Town. After that we took the tram to the otogar for a bus to Olympos. Unfortunatley we ended up waiting at the top of a mountain for a bus to take us 11km down the mountain to Olympos. Olympos was filled with tree house pansyions and beach side ruins. Once we got there we whipped out our handy dandy museum cards for free entrance. Our first path led us to Orange groves were I picked four softball size oranges. Yummo! Shortly after we ended up at the beach which was without sand but filled with lots of smooth ocean rocks. The beach was such a beautiful site becuase there were ruins right on the waters edge, an inland river and in the distance I could see a snow capped mountain. Before leaving Olympos I decieded to use the handicapped bathroom because that is the only one in Turkey that will always have an actual seat and not a whole. I guess my theory had bad luck that day because I found the toilet but I left with 7 misquito bites which eventually swelled up and became inflammed when I reached the airport.
Happy 87th Anniversay of the Turkish Republic!
Monday night I celebrated Dunia's 21st birthday with cake and candles. I finally spoke with my mother through skype after being in Turkey for over a month. Most importantly today was the first day I tried a Magnum ice cream. I am officially hooked to the classic and pistacio and white chocolate.
The next day I went to apply for my residence permit which took about 5 hours. Tonight was the night of the Halloween party that I planned to skip. After the best cafeteria dinner of rotisseurie chicken I went to my room to take a nap and do homework. Soon after laying down Damian came by and asked me to help him get dressed in my clothes. We shared so many laughs especially when Damian went through my dirty clothes and found a bra and other laundry to stuff the bra with. After the laughs with Damian I had to get ready. So I deceided to dress up like a college party girl.
Wednesady night I went out with some of the Italians to a local Italian restaurant in Dirt Levent. The restaurant was upscale and the group of us (12 in total) were one of two tables in the restaurant. We all ordered pizza with many of us sharing pies because they were all over 30TL ($25). This is where I saw pork for the first time in Turkey in the restaurant.
Thursday was the 87th anniversary of the Turkish Republic and a national holiday. I stayed in my room caughting up on sleep and trying to figure out why my computer wouldn't turn on. That night I left with almost 100 other exchange students to Cappadocia. I ended up on the minibus because the coach bus filled up fast. Without a doubt this was the longest bus ride of my life - 13 hours. The bus driver stopped ever two hours and would take forever coming back to the bus. A CIEE guy by the name of Tim decided to talk to all throughout the night! By the morning I was on a hairs edge. We arrived in Cappadocia and went to Dadak Spa and Wellness (Murat's family hotel) shortly after we left for Capadocia ceramics where Abrar mad a ceramic bowl and I purchased lots of ceramics. After about an hour of shopping I had to go to the bathroom. This was my first encounter with a toilet in the ground I was not to thrilled but I made it through. We went across the street for lunch. This is when I tried Heaven fruit for the first time. It looked like a big orange tomato.
After lunch I saw a rainbow headed out to the fairy chimneys (http://www.cappadociaonline.com/nature.html). Goreme Open Air museum was a few minuets down the road. It was filled with lots of cave Christian churches which had early works of Fresco. It was night fall by the time we reached the Imagination Valley, which had rock formations in the shape a camel and an eagle. Luckily my Nikon Coolpix was able to take excellent shots and I even got a good shot of the sky when lightning struck. About an hour later I was back at Murat’s hotel relaxing in the thermal bath and sauna. After dinner I deceided to have a low key night with some nargile and pool. John and I lost to Bethany and Lexie. Bethany had the winning shot by laying on the table and shooting the white ball from the top left corner pocket to the bottom left corner pocket. This was definetely an unforgettable shot.
The next morning I had breakfast at Dadak Spa. Unfortunatley in my hurried manner for the bus I cracked what I though was a hard boiled egg all over the table. I headed out to the buses and hopped on the coach bus because I refused to be on the shuttle bus again. Our next stop was to Truva winery to take a tour and try some Turkish wine and some sicak sarap (hot wine) warmed with spices and sugar. We headed back on the bus to make our way to the underground cave. It was amazing to see that people had a full city underground where the ceilings were between 4 and 6 feet high. I purchased some beautfiul Turquoise earrings (turquoise is from Turkey), Jade earrings and a nice ceramic plate. At one point I picked up a pair of cream colored earrings thinking they were a type of stone or maybe ivory. I asked the shopkeeper what they were made of and he responded “camel bone”. I wasn’t ready for that response as hearing that almost made me want to go vegetarian again.
The last stop on the trip was the Inhara Valley. On the way there Paolo, an Italian was talking and said my “my woman uncle...”. I laughed and said your aunt? I could tell he felt a little embarrased but I couldn’t help but to laugh at the cultural differences. Sitting behind me on the bus was a Masters exchange student from Barcelona who did a study on tipping culture. She said that French men tip the least and Americans tip the most. I could understand that because as an American in Turkey I feel the need to tip the waiter or cab driver becuase I know they need the extra money. Unfortunately when we reached the Inhara Valley instead of seeing it before the sun went down, the mentors decided to have the group eat first and watch the sun set on the valley. Then it was back to the bus for a 13 hour bus ride which included the driver falling asleep along the way and all 60 people switching to another bus because of technical difficuluties. When we arrived back to campus it was about 6:30 am. Thanks to daylight savings time I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise. Around 10:30am there was a suicide bombing at the Taksim police station. This was a bit nerve racking because Taksim is where we usually party at.
The next day I went to apply for my residence permit which took about 5 hours. Tonight was the night of the Halloween party that I planned to skip. After the best cafeteria dinner of rotisseurie chicken I went to my room to take a nap and do homework. Soon after laying down Damian came by and asked me to help him get dressed in my clothes. We shared so many laughs especially when Damian went through my dirty clothes and found a bra and other laundry to stuff the bra with. After the laughs with Damian I had to get ready. So I deceided to dress up like a college party girl.
Wednesady night I went out with some of the Italians to a local Italian restaurant in Dirt Levent. The restaurant was upscale and the group of us (12 in total) were one of two tables in the restaurant. We all ordered pizza with many of us sharing pies because they were all over 30TL ($25). This is where I saw pork for the first time in Turkey in the restaurant.
Thursday was the 87th anniversary of the Turkish Republic and a national holiday. I stayed in my room caughting up on sleep and trying to figure out why my computer wouldn't turn on. That night I left with almost 100 other exchange students to Cappadocia. I ended up on the minibus because the coach bus filled up fast. Without a doubt this was the longest bus ride of my life - 13 hours. The bus driver stopped ever two hours and would take forever coming back to the bus. A CIEE guy by the name of Tim decided to talk to all throughout the night! By the morning I was on a hairs edge. We arrived in Cappadocia and went to Dadak Spa and Wellness (Murat's family hotel) shortly after we left for Capadocia ceramics where Abrar mad a ceramic bowl and I purchased lots of ceramics. After about an hour of shopping I had to go to the bathroom. This was my first encounter with a toilet in the ground I was not to thrilled but I made it through. We went across the street for lunch. This is when I tried Heaven fruit for the first time. It looked like a big orange tomato.
After lunch I saw a rainbow headed out to the fairy chimneys (http://www.cappadociaonline.com/nature.html). Goreme Open Air museum was a few minuets down the road. It was filled with lots of cave Christian churches which had early works of Fresco. It was night fall by the time we reached the Imagination Valley, which had rock formations in the shape a camel and an eagle. Luckily my Nikon Coolpix was able to take excellent shots and I even got a good shot of the sky when lightning struck. About an hour later I was back at Murat’s hotel relaxing in the thermal bath and sauna. After dinner I deceided to have a low key night with some nargile and pool. John and I lost to Bethany and Lexie. Bethany had the winning shot by laying on the table and shooting the white ball from the top left corner pocket to the bottom left corner pocket. This was definetely an unforgettable shot.
The next morning I had breakfast at Dadak Spa. Unfortunatley in my hurried manner for the bus I cracked what I though was a hard boiled egg all over the table. I headed out to the buses and hopped on the coach bus because I refused to be on the shuttle bus again. Our next stop was to Truva winery to take a tour and try some Turkish wine and some sicak sarap (hot wine) warmed with spices and sugar. We headed back on the bus to make our way to the underground cave. It was amazing to see that people had a full city underground where the ceilings were between 4 and 6 feet high. I purchased some beautfiul Turquoise earrings (turquoise is from Turkey), Jade earrings and a nice ceramic plate. At one point I picked up a pair of cream colored earrings thinking they were a type of stone or maybe ivory. I asked the shopkeeper what they were made of and he responded “camel bone”. I wasn’t ready for that response as hearing that almost made me want to go vegetarian again.
The last stop on the trip was the Inhara Valley. On the way there Paolo, an Italian was talking and said my “my woman uncle...”. I laughed and said your aunt? I could tell he felt a little embarrased but I couldn’t help but to laugh at the cultural differences. Sitting behind me on the bus was a Masters exchange student from Barcelona who did a study on tipping culture. She said that French men tip the least and Americans tip the most. I could understand that because as an American in Turkey I feel the need to tip the waiter or cab driver becuase I know they need the extra money. Unfortunately when we reached the Inhara Valley instead of seeing it before the sun went down, the mentors decided to have the group eat first and watch the sun set on the valley. Then it was back to the bus for a 13 hour bus ride which included the driver falling asleep along the way and all 60 people switching to another bus because of technical difficuluties. When we arrived back to campus it was about 6:30 am. Thanks to daylight savings time I was able to watch a beautiful sunrise. Around 10:30am there was a suicide bombing at the Taksim police station. This was a bit nerve racking because Taksim is where we usually party at.
1 month anniversary
In the beginning of the week I baby sat Kayla. We shared alot of laughs especially when she asked me to climb into her little 3-foot high tent. I looked like a giant with my legs sticking out the tent. Shortly after playing in the tent Kayla decided that she wanted to color. I picked up a brown marker smelling it to see if it had a chocolate scent like my markers growing up. The marker had no scent but Kayla had to check as well. She was so adorable especially when she colored the tip of her noise brown. Soon it was time to leave and I said bye bye to Kayla. She replied bye bye Akera. This made my heart melt. Later that night Rachel called me and said she wanted Kayla to be taught English by one exchange student for the whole year.
Wednesday night was the opening event for ESN (Erasmus Student Network). It's a pretty low key bar that’s focused on good conversation and a bit of dancing. It was packed when I arrived so I did a brief walk thouhg and left for two other bars. Later that night I went back to ESN and met a lot of exchange students from other universities. At the end of the night I was approached by a Turk who asked me if I was American. I replied yes, why? He replied that I looked American and brought his friend over. His friend had studied at Yale and wanted to know my thoughts on living in a secular society. I said my family questioned my choice but I have my own reglious views. She agreed.
Thursday October 21st was my grandmother's 78th birthday. I'm was so glad I was able to speak to her and the she is still holding on strong. I'm proud of her being a fighter. Today was also my one month anniversary of being abroad!
Friday I went to the Turkish Cultural Foundation in Taksim to meet Hulya. This was a requirement since I am a reciepent of ther $2,000 scholarship. On the way there I stopped at Sariyer Borekivi and had the most amazing potato borek. Upon my arrival I had to wait 20 minuets for Hulya to get off the phone. She spoke to me for a few minuets and then spent 10 minuets talking on her BB and greeting people at the door even though there was a receptionist. Hulya showed me their website which was filled with Turkish song, dance, foor dand many other cultural things. The receptionist and Hulya both offered me çay (tea) about three times later on I realized Hulya's business etiquette would seem less rude if I was preoccuppied by cay. All in All TCA is a great place that I can come to for help.
Later on that night was the Taksim pub crawl. Alex, the backpacker I met the weekend before was back from Cairo so Lexie, Zack, Damian and I decided to meet up with him on last time. In between meeting with Alex and the rest of the group Damian and I went for food. Damian and I had a McKofte burger from McDonalds. Kofte is a tradtional Turkish dish of barbeque meatballs in Turkish. On our way back to Joker Joker a guy named Ben walked up to me and said I heard you speaking English and I saw you the other night at ESN. Are you American? I was so excited to speak to someone else who spoke English. Turns out Ben is from California but studies at Columbia University. We exchanged numbers and head our seperate was. Joker Joker was packed so Damian and I decided to head out to ESN. There I met two people from Long Island, students living in Conneticut, an Assuie and a guy from Mauritius. Soon after this I went to a dance club where I meet Indonesians that worked in Dubai and two Portugese Erasmus studying in Sophia,Bulgaria.
The next day was a planned photography trip. During the trip I witnessed a woman drop a basket with money from her 7th floor window for the neighborhood grocery store across the street to bring her food. I purchased some vintage necklaces and had lunch at limonlu bache (lemon garden), a nice restaurant inside of a three part gardern. Here is where I had my first near death exeprence in Turkey. I ordered a fresh squeezed limonade for 8TL and a meat wrap for 20TL. My sandwich came out with red sauce on it. I took the first bite which wasn't to bad but a second later I was on the verge of tears. My lips turned beat red and I had a hard time breathing. I gulped down my $6 limondade and asked Batu, my ex-mentor to order me another sandwich and limondade.
Later on that night I celebrated Dunia's birthday at Open House, a beautiful contemporary restaurant in Ortakoy. After dinner I purchased a handmade Amythyst pendant and ring for 40TL. Shortly after I caught a cab with Lexie and two others to go dancing in Taksim. Lexie and her overly friendly hello got our cab followed by 4 men all the way to Taksim. Our cab driver even cut them off and went up an alley way and they continued to follow us. They even got out of there car in Taksim and asked us alot of questions until we met up with Dunia and the others.
Sunday was pretty low key since Jasmine and I decided to go downtown for dinner and groceries. On the dolmus there I told her about the potato borek. Burger King was already our choice for dinner but Jasmine said “we could get borek and eat it on the way to Burger King.” That is exactly what we did.
Wednesday night was the opening event for ESN (Erasmus Student Network). It's a pretty low key bar that’s focused on good conversation and a bit of dancing. It was packed when I arrived so I did a brief walk thouhg and left for two other bars. Later that night I went back to ESN and met a lot of exchange students from other universities. At the end of the night I was approached by a Turk who asked me if I was American. I replied yes, why? He replied that I looked American and brought his friend over. His friend had studied at Yale and wanted to know my thoughts on living in a secular society. I said my family questioned my choice but I have my own reglious views. She agreed.
Thursday October 21st was my grandmother's 78th birthday. I'm was so glad I was able to speak to her and the she is still holding on strong. I'm proud of her being a fighter. Today was also my one month anniversary of being abroad!
Friday I went to the Turkish Cultural Foundation in Taksim to meet Hulya. This was a requirement since I am a reciepent of ther $2,000 scholarship. On the way there I stopped at Sariyer Borekivi and had the most amazing potato borek. Upon my arrival I had to wait 20 minuets for Hulya to get off the phone. She spoke to me for a few minuets and then spent 10 minuets talking on her BB and greeting people at the door even though there was a receptionist. Hulya showed me their website which was filled with Turkish song, dance, foor dand many other cultural things. The receptionist and Hulya both offered me çay (tea) about three times later on I realized Hulya's business etiquette would seem less rude if I was preoccuppied by cay. All in All TCA is a great place that I can come to for help.
Later on that night was the Taksim pub crawl. Alex, the backpacker I met the weekend before was back from Cairo so Lexie, Zack, Damian and I decided to meet up with him on last time. In between meeting with Alex and the rest of the group Damian and I went for food. Damian and I had a McKofte burger from McDonalds. Kofte is a tradtional Turkish dish of barbeque meatballs in Turkish. On our way back to Joker Joker a guy named Ben walked up to me and said I heard you speaking English and I saw you the other night at ESN. Are you American? I was so excited to speak to someone else who spoke English. Turns out Ben is from California but studies at Columbia University. We exchanged numbers and head our seperate was. Joker Joker was packed so Damian and I decided to head out to ESN. There I met two people from Long Island, students living in Conneticut, an Assuie and a guy from Mauritius. Soon after this I went to a dance club where I meet Indonesians that worked in Dubai and two Portugese Erasmus studying in Sophia,Bulgaria.
The next day was a planned photography trip. During the trip I witnessed a woman drop a basket with money from her 7th floor window for the neighborhood grocery store across the street to bring her food. I purchased some vintage necklaces and had lunch at limonlu bache (lemon garden), a nice restaurant inside of a three part gardern. Here is where I had my first near death exeprence in Turkey. I ordered a fresh squeezed limonade for 8TL and a meat wrap for 20TL. My sandwich came out with red sauce on it. I took the first bite which wasn't to bad but a second later I was on the verge of tears. My lips turned beat red and I had a hard time breathing. I gulped down my $6 limondade and asked Batu, my ex-mentor to order me another sandwich and limondade.
Later on that night I celebrated Dunia's birthday at Open House, a beautiful contemporary restaurant in Ortakoy. After dinner I purchased a handmade Amythyst pendant and ring for 40TL. Shortly after I caught a cab with Lexie and two others to go dancing in Taksim. Lexie and her overly friendly hello got our cab followed by 4 men all the way to Taksim. Our cab driver even cut them off and went up an alley way and they continued to follow us. They even got out of there car in Taksim and asked us alot of questions until we met up with Dunia and the others.
Sunday was pretty low key since Jasmine and I decided to go downtown for dinner and groceries. On the dolmus there I told her about the potato borek. Burger King was already our choice for dinner but Jasmine said “we could get borek and eat it on the way to Burger King.” That is exactly what we did.
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