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.