No harm ever came from reading a book

So I am on my flight right now to Alexandria Egypt and I figured that I better start keeping track of stuff that has happened over the past few weeks since my update last. Since finals have started I have just been going and going. I am finally finished though. 3 finals down and a 20pg paper. It wasn’t too bad, would have been better if I wouldn’t have been enjoying Istanbul and the Middle East in general J! So I went to Bulgaria to visit some family friends a few weekends ago, some of you knew about that and some didn’t. It really was a last minute decision I made because I felt like I just needed a weekend away before finals started into full swing. It was a really great time. It was so good to have a time to get that kind of fellowship with people. It was wonderful to get to meet new friends there and make great connections.

The trip mostly consisted of what was supposed to be a 6 hour bus ride to Kircili, Bulgaria, instead was somewhere around 8. This was due mainly to the fact that the bus driver decided it would be best to talk with everyone at customs at the boarder for an inane amount of time. On top of that, I did not have a working phone I could use in the region to contact the people who were picking me up to let them know that I was going to be late. However a really sweet Bulgarian woman used her phone and her intimate knowledge of her mother tongue to call my friends so that they would know where I was. She was quite sweet, also, most everyone on the bus wanted to know who I was, where I was from, where I was going and how I knew Turkish and German. Haha, what happens is that when you say hello, ask how someone is doing and tell a bit about yourself in the little that you’ve learned over the semester and then switch to German, a language they know better than Turkish, they believe that you are a linguist and you magically will be able to understand everything they say. At this point, German and Bulgarian come rocketing towards your inner ear at breakneck speeds I believe many native speakers would not understand. Anyway, it was a very interesting opportunity to meet a lot of people from a lot of different backgrounds. That, and I got to watch Turkish soap operas for 8 hours. After an amazing weekend, the trip back was much longer. It took about 10 hours. Overall it was a great trip and I am so thankful to V and B for having me!

So... after that there have not been so many scheduled events but mostly some random stuff which I will describe in small captions with lots of pics!

The only thing I will explain is that Bogazici University (the one I am studying at) has another campus on the Black Sea which you can take a bus to… well we decided that we would take a break from finals studying one day during finals weeks and take a trip there. It was quite awesome. For us it was perfect weather. The sun was bright and shining and the water was cool but not too cold. We brought a couple snacks and just had a great day at the beach. There were supposed to be more of us, but as usual there were quite a few people who ended up not showing up in time for the bus to leave, this would include the Italians and our Palestinian friend… they sort of have a history of doing that this semester :) they would rather “take a beer and make picnic at university” to quote a common one! So it ended up being Trevor, Zoe and I. We have kind of become a little group that has stuck together. Possibly because we have really been the only trustworthy people in our study group and we are the only ones who show up to our outings on time lol!

We had an American South night! Chicken fried steak, garlic mashed potatoes and brown gravy…mmmmmmmmmmmmmm it was great!

           

Egypt

First night – Air port and cab! – June 5th

            So we get off the plane in the Egyptian airport in Alexandria the Bourg el Arab I believe it was called. So we get to the place where you can buy visas to get in the country and they only take US dollars… hmmm well that does me no good with my card, and a smattering of left over Turkish Lira and Bulgarian Lev… haha! Anyway the guy was really rude to us, didn’t offer us any other options either, simply told us “it’s not my problem.” We even tried to be really nice. Oh well. Anyway a Swedish family took pity on us and gave us some American cash so we could get the Visas, after we got out of customs we went to the ATM and paid them back in Egyptian pounds.

            So, after that debacle we headed outside to catch a cab. At this point there is NO ONE at the airport. Our plane had gotten in at 1:30 am and everything was pretty shut down. However there was a guy standing around who we assumed to be a taxi driver and he assumed us to be needing a taxi. Well assumptions worked out for both of us this time because in the next minute we are sitting in a blue station wagon that isn’t wanting to start as we have promised the driver E£120. The exchange rate her is 6-1 E£ to US$ so it was pretty good for an hour ride into the city to our hotel. Well the car started after a minute or so and we were off… to Backstreet Boys!! I could hardly contain myself it was hilarious. BSB all the way to our hotel… which by the way, no one seemed to know its location. We finally arrived at a place that, if the outside was any indication, the inside would look nothing like we were told.  Much to our surprise we were put up in a pretty quaint spot with a shower and a bed. Made for a pretty nice night of sleep.

 Day one – Alexandria – June 6th

Wow there is really so much to tell I don’t even know where to begin. So first off we are actually in a pretty nice hotel that overlooks the main bay in Alexandria. For those of you who do not know much about Egyptian geography like I didn’t, we’re at a port on the north coast of Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea. Well we thought we would stay for two days here but there isn’t a whole lot of touristy stuff to do here. From the reactions we keep getting, it does not seem like blonde people are super common here. I mean especially when we got away from city center, everyone wanted to talk to us. What was quite interesting was that what we initially interpreted as attempts to get money are just attempts to be friendly and talk to us. Most everybody has been really helpful here. I guess we were so used to being hassled in the bazaars and whatnot in Istanbul that we expected the same here. It may change as we move east across the country into increasingly touristy zones.

So anyway today we woke up to a breakfast brought to us by the hotel staff which was pretty good of pita bread cheese and boiled eggs.  I’ll start off with lunch this day… it… was… AMAZING. We went to a fish joint that the Lonely Planet guide suggested. We had fish, calamari, prawn, clams, rice… it was all fresh and amazing. This is something you’d expect to pay a good amount for at Joe’s or Red Lobster. After being helped out by a great guy nicknamed ‘doctor’ who spoke English, we were given our meals, drinks on the house, and were both very satisfied. Cost us 70 together which at first we both looked at each other wide eyed only to remember we weren’t in Turkey anymore and that wasn’t outrageous for a meal haha.

      

Well I jumped the gun, lunch was so good I forgot about the library. The library was HUGE and quite incredible. No bags were allowed in so no photos of it… guess you’ll just have to go and check it out. Along with tons and tons of books there were also lots of art pieces as well as antique printing equipment. Anyone who enjoys the history channel at all would have loved this place. We went up towards the top and found a pace we could go outside and enjoy the view on the roof… don’t really know if we were allowed to be there or not but no one said anything to us so we assumed we were good. Now is the time where I should tell you about lunch but since that cat is out of the bag I’ll move on.

 

Next it was a taxi ride away to the Catacombs !! Should have probably been a 15 min ride except no one obeys any kind of traffic law at all and they don’t get that their impatience only makes things take longer. Oh well… so we get to the place and the security guys tell us there’s no cameras allowed yet again, no surprise there. Well we get down in there and it’s so. Freakin. Cool! We were bummed we couldn’t take pics until a guard comes down and asks us about cameras, he then snuck us up to get our cameras. So here’s the pics! Oh and for about the equivalent of $2.75 we tipped the guy who got us into a second set of catacombs that was actually restricted. All in all a pretty great day as by the time we got back it was after 5 and everything was closing.

So we’re off to dinner tonight and to find an internet café to book our hotel in Cairo. We’ll be checking out tomorrow morning and hopefully on a bus to Cairo for a few days.

Cairo – June 7^th

            Today we were supposed to get up early so we could get an early bus to Cairo, but we were absolutely wiped from yesterday. It must be this north African sun, and the fact that we’ve seen almost nothing but doom and gloom all semester in London… oh wait, that’s right we were in Istanbul weren’t we. Well you couldn’t tell as much from the weather that’s for sure. So we take a taxi to the bus station, the guy tries to rip us off, doesn’t work, and we finally get a bus ticket. What is supposed to be a 2 and a half hour trip to get us in around 1430 hits Cairo traffic and we don’t arrive and taxi to our hotel until about 1630 or 1700. Yes, I’m using military cuz I’m too lazy to put the dots in. We decided to go walk around the city a bit, here’s some of what we saw.

American University of Cairo(AUC) – a good amount of our friends in Istanbul were originally enrolled and here at this university but were evacuated during the revolution at the end of January

Tahrir Square – the city center of Cairo where Mubarak stepped down and the Egyptian people were freed from a dictatorship previously backed by the US exactly 4 months ago. It was a bit surreal to be here. To imagine that people lived here for 15 days that the whole city pretty much shut down as people protested the government.

Here you can see pictures of the burned party headquarters. This was shown on live footage on Al Jazeera for quite some time. They were afraid because right behind this building is the Egyptian National Museum containing thousands of years of Egyptian history. Luckily the fires were contained fairly well and the museum is completely unharmed.

I know the State Department said that people traveling in Egypt should stay away from political rallies but this was in the square and for the Palestinian people so we talked to some of the Egyptian students there and signed a poster giving our thoughts on the current situation. I couldn’t help myself, sorry US government. It was so nostalgic to be in this place of revolution and freedom and pride and not take part in the peaceful demonstration for other oppressed people.

We pretty much walked a huge circle around city center and then had dinner on a boat on the Nile. It was quite nice… the place did have a Chili’s and a Carino’s on the boat but we had dinner outside at the Mediterranean restaurant which I got a salad that was WAAAAAAY too much for me to eat. The whole walk back I felt like a gorged tick on a fat dog.

The walk back to our hostel was riddled with hasslers and boats playing loud music with people dancing on them. It was pretty neat but we had to get back because we are going to the pyramids tomorrow!

 Cairo – Pyramids and Museum – June 8^th

Today… amazing!!! Got up early to have a filling breakfast of bread, cheese, and jelly and tea. After that we got a taxi to Giza. I’m telling you, it’s amazing that 4,000 year old history is smack dab in the middle of a bustling metropolis. While once you get into the area you feel as though you are in a vast desert, you can look towards Cairo and still see most of the city. The MOMENT we walked into the area after buying tickets we were hassled non-stop almost. Everyone wanted to give you a ride on their camel, horse, donkey, or just show you around. We met this guy “Sammie” who said he’d give us a ride for 30 pounds, but would talk to us about the long ride later. We got some great pics and were talked into a longer ride for 120. Not too bad for a camel ride around the pyramids and Spynx and whatnot. First we went into the main pyramid. It was pretty neat, you were supposed to buy a ticket for 100 pounds and leave your cameras at the entrance. Well we have found out that bribery is key here so we didn’t buy a ticket. The guy came up to us to give our cameras back after letting us in for free, and we ended up giving him 40punds a piece. Not bad I say. He got 80 pounds in pocket, and we got a huge discount.

The camel ride was great except for the fact that at the end, they took us outside of the area and to shops that I imagine our guide gets paid a commission on whatever we buy. Needless to say we listened to the sales pitch of how they use the lotus flower for medicinal and fragrance uses and to how papyrus was made, but didn’t end up buying anything. After this Sammy tells us that the trip is over and we should pay. No big, except Sammy has now been possessed by the hassle demon himself and tells us 250 a piece… this is starting out from the original 30 we started at. Haha, it’s pretty laughable to hear him tell us he would not lie to us and that if we are happy it is worth the money. We instead settled on 150 a piece, which in the end isn’t the worst thing in the world. Got an awesome camel ride and some amazing pictures and good memories of arguing with Egyptians trying to rip you off for $25. 

After this we just walked around ourselves. We tried to find an area on the pyramids we could climb up but we had no luck in this. THe tourist police were everywhere and we couldn’t really get alone by the pyramids. What we have realized though is that there are ‘no cameras’ and ‘no climbing’ so someone in charge can “break the rules” and let you get away with things so you can then give them baksheesh (a tip/bribe for their troubles). So after finding some guards to let us climb a bit and pose like complete idiot tourists, we found an area where we could slip away and explore some of the ruined surrounding city on our own with no one watching. Having watched “The Mummy” last night we were excited to find some interesting stuff there. Unfortunately we didn’t find any books of the dead or anything like that, however we did roam around the area quite a bit and find our way into some really great hieroglyphics chiseled into the old buildings.

This all took place before 2pm. We were pretty exhausted but we knew we wanted to go see the museum today still. So we decided to go. This time there really was no keeping our cameras, but that’s cool. Ultimately here’s what I can say about the museum: If I was an Egyptologist I would be really disappointed. While I think everything that was in there was incredible and I was in awe of over 4,000 years of culture and society that was contained in the two floors of this building I was upset at the hodgepodge way in which it was all thrown together. Most of the exhibits were not labeled or simply strewn around adjoining rooms on each floor. Again, let me express how SPECTACULAR all of the items themselves were. The Egyptian history contained there was magnificent and the breathtaking amount of culture that has survived so many thousand years is awe-inspiring. This being said, the museum as a whole leaves much to be desired if it is to do justice to the amazing opportunity it has been given in possession of such artifacts. Also… two best exhibits hands down: king tut room and animal mummy room. Not only were they REALLY cool just by their very nature, but they were also the most well labeled and laid out rooms in the entire museum. Overall it was a great almost 2 hours we spent in there.

HOME was next and it was about time. Jumping in the shower and laying down for a little was delicious. We decided we’d get some street food and some Egyptian beer and stay in the rest of the evening and recuperate before our day tomorrow.

Cairo- Last Day- June 8^th

Today was a long but satisfying day as well and it was BRUTALLY HOT! In the sun it was just killer. Went through about another liter and a half walking around today. We went to the Coptic district of Cairo and checked out the big churches there and walked around the area for a bit. Form here we took the metro back to Tahrir and then a taxi to the Islamic district. This gave me the feeling o baing back in Istanubul. Large bazaar and tons of people hassling you for your business. We walked around for another hour or so and made our way back to the square. We tried to find the Hard Rock Café that was supposed to be here but we found out that it had been closed down during the revolution. Oh well, we tried at least. So we walked back to the square again to buy some of the memorabilia from the Jan 25^th revolution. It is pretty cool to see how proud of this area and of what they did together. I am quite amazed at what they accomplished and I have so much respect for the Egyptian people.

This was also a bit of a reflection day for us. Time to think about our time here. First thing that comes to mind is how different Cairo is from Alexandria. There have been very few people here that have just wanted to talk to us for the sake of talking. About 5 min into what seems to be a great conversation with an interesting Egyptian you are told to follow them to their shop so they can give you their business card or asked to go buy something for them from the duty free. To be honest, it’s a bit emotionally and mentally taxing. I mean I would love to just talk to someone to get to know them and talk about their life here, but it seems that most of the time people just want to sell you something here. We have had a couple instance where we have had great interactions though and those have given us hope. For instance children are the main ones who give hope. So far there’s been almost no children we have met that have wanted anything other than to know our names and ask us how we are. They like to say our names and to tell us theirs and seem really proud of their English. They’re really cute and I just love that as far as we could tell, they had no ulterior motives. Also the people who had their windows rolled down in traffic by our taxi waving to us, asking where we were from, telling us they were excited to have us, welcoming us to Egypt and hoping we were liking it was really great. People who had nothing to gain from talking to us in a traffic jam, genuinely hoping we were being treated well and liking being in Egypt at a time when most tourists stray away from this place.

I would like to take this time to give you some travel advice if you every decide to come to Egypt to survive here. These things not only help you from getting hassled but they also make it fun for you instead of getting frustrated like we were the first few days. Here goes:

Play the repeat game

Speak in Turkish – this was probably my favorite. I would speak in Turkish to Matt and the hassler and ask him how he was and if he spoke Turkish. I pretended not to understand English much and eventually they gave up. Probably the most fun way to approach hassling.

Sell THEM something – another favorite which I developed today. This worked really well near the bazaars where everyone wants to tell you something. People came up to get us to eat at their restaurant and I subsequently offered to sell my water to them. After they got over their initial confusion they gave up and walked away.

Run away – this one I did at the pyramids. Guy tried to sell us a horse ride, I told Matt that the next person to hassle me, I was going to just run away… so I did. A fun variant to this one is yelling “stranger danger” as you run away.

Just a few tips for you. Off to dinner now. We leave tomorrow to go to the Sinai Mountain and the St. Catherine’s Monastery. The ride should get us in at night, we plan to go to bed early and get up about 3am so we can make the climb to see the sunrise on the mountain where Moses received the commandments. I'll talk to you guys again after that.

PS...
Tickets into the pyramid site: 160 EL
Camel ride and all baksheesh for pictures taken: 200EL
Looking back on your pics realizing they have made you look like a complete fool tourist: PRICELESS

Gift of one liners

Hi again,

So to start off, the government here has decided to allow access to Blogspot again! Yay for freedoms!

Anyway there's quite a bit to update you on that has happened over a relatively short timespan. I will naturally start at the beginning and make my way chronologically towards the end. That is unless I receive any requests to Wonkafy my posts from now on :) I aim to please!

First of all I must finish with the workshop that I was able to take part in the weekend before last. It was amazing overall. What I was not able to tell you is that the second night we were all taken to an amazing restaurant, what would normally be quite expensive might I add, that was positioned all but in the Bosporus. One wall was entirely glass windows, allowing us to see the sunset off of the water and allow us to marvel at the reflection of the lit up bridges as night fell. It was quite gorgeous but I was also able to schmooze with some international types in Turkey and elsewhere that will definitely be great contacts if I wish to return here to pursue more school and research in the future. The last night was particularly the most exciting for me as we were taken to the seaside and put on a party ferry. Now let me start by saying that the food wasn't quite as good as the amazing restaurant from the night before, but I was so hungry that the beer and pizza hit the spot! It was really quite great. After eating we meandered up to the top deck of the boat where music played the rest of the night and we danced into the evening while floating along the Bosporus. It was quite amazing. Granted, it was not a lazy pontoon party at Grand Lake... but it did remind me of home and subsequently prompted me to begin planning a weekend lake trip upon my return home.

Here are some pictures from the conference and events. That weekend there was also a concert series going on at the university so it was great to get to go out and listen to some great free music in between the sessions.

So after indulging in the lack of classes and studying the workshop provided, I found myself getting considerably behind in my classes and, with only about a month of classes left, it was about time to put my nose not only to, but practically in the grindstone. Much of the next week was spent making up quite a bit of reading, homework and preparation. I am glad to say that I was able to do pretty well on the Turkish test I had and that I am caught up with my classes now… however there is one matter that I am a bit perturbed by.

A certain professor, who those of you with facebook may have seen me post about, is a rather pretentious horrible individual. Through most of the semester I was able to overlook his ego and personality of something akin to sandpaper on raw buttocks, but I reached my breaking point last week. I received my midterm back from him. To make a long and frustrating story short, he gave me a 20/40 on the assignment and upon asking him how I might improve and what I could do specifically to meet the requirements, he responded, “Take more care.” Hmmmm you gave me 50% of the possible grade and your only input is to insult my university during our discussion and tell me that my only area of improvement is to take more care?! That’s like someone who gives a performance review that is not 100% but then offers no comments in “areas of possible improvement.”

This past weekend was quite wonderful. Particularly Saturday’s festivities. I guess we just decided to have an ‘American’ day. Not only this, but a friend here from K State and I both were having our ‘graduations’ this day. Since our classes here run over the normal semester at our home universities we are not able to technically graduate until August. However those graduates also celebrate in the May graduation ceremonies… so we decided we would celebrate our own way here. A group of us decided to meet Saturday afternoon and begin the fun. We got a few beers and sat out to watch our illustrious American football team, the Bogazici Sultans, somehow win the game they were playing. I’ve seen 7 year olds playing flag football that hit harder and played more seriously than these individuals did… anyway it was amusing at the very least J

After we tired of poor football we caught two cabs who decided to race to our destination: Go Karts!!! Oh yeah! 35TL bought us 20 min on these go karts. Without seatbelts, gas tank positioned tightly against your crotch, these death machines were just what was needed on a beautiful sunny Saturday… much better than any commencement could be (even if Robert Gates did speak this year at OU). At breakneck speeds, much faster than any other karts I’ve been in before, the racing slicks let us power through the corners and drift around the competition. It was pretty incredible to say the least. We all got out of there adrenaline pumping and were in need of sweet sustenance… what better way to satiate our hunger for American culture and adventure than a Best Of Box from KFC! Not only that, but on the way… yes folks that is a Bugatti Veyron in the flesh. This car goes for $1M and that’s our of the factory before shipping. With a W12 engine, it’s a beast and I would NEVER put it on the streets of Istanbul… but someone’s dumb enough to so I snapped a pic!

So, though I thought my weekend was about over and would be quite quiet. I decided to go down to campus and study out in the gorgeous weather. Silly me, I forgot this was Sports Fest weekend. It was basically a small amateur Olympics put on by Bogazici. After about an hour and a half of not reading and watching the German girls’ volleyball team CRUSH everyone else, I decided to leave and get some real work done. However the rowing team came back from their meet (I wasn’t able to row in it) full of medals and joy! So I finally made it home in time to read a little before catching OKC’s great game 7 closer against Memphis. 

And if the weekend wasn't great enough, we decided to catch the last home game of one of Istanbul's soccer teams, Besiktas, on Monday night. It was an amazing experience, the first time I've been to a professional soccer match. The fans were crazy! It was so loud and there was not more than 5 minutes in which there were not chants and cheers being shouted back and forth. Unfortunately for the visiting fans, stuck in their cage-like section, we beat the visiting team 3-1, finishing it with a well placed penalty kick as you can see from the video. All in all it was quite a win. And now its back to classes and finishing up the semester.

 Trevor, Zoe and I

 Visitor's cage

They wouldn't let us carry change into the stadium for fear of it being thrown at players, yet this flare and many others like it made their way in safely... hmmmm

 Trev, Me, Ryan - State School Unite!

 That's a W!

As I was walking back to my flat, these guys stopped me to take a pic, cuz we each had a different BJK jersey on. 

P.S. - Thunder Up! We're playing game 2 of the Western Finals and down by 1 game. We can do it though!

Spring Break

Hello again,

So this time I have lots to tell you because I made good use of my spring break to have a wonderful time in Istanbul. So last time I wrote here was when I went to the tulip festival in Emirgan. That was on Friday the first weekend of Spring break. Well Saturday night of that weekend I stayed up late to watch the Thunder game, which we won! How awesome was that. Sunday morning I went with my roommate to the Turkish speaking church I have been going to here for the Easter service. It was packed. There were probably 50 or more people in the tiny building but it was quite amazing. I love being back at this church. People are always so excited to be there, and excited to be worshiping. I don't know what it is about the English church I have been to a couple times here but it's just not the same. Recently we had a prayer time to remember the Turkish martyrs who were killed for their faith and the church prayed for not only the families of the lost but for the killers as well. It was amazing to see people genuinely interested in seeing those who did wrong come to know their ways and turn from that life.

Honestly it is a fresh take especially in light of recent events in the international field. To see people's reaction to the tsunami in Japan and to Bin Ladin's death has left me somewhere between embarrassed, ashamed, and angry. So many Americans it seems just don't get it, don't seem to understand how the world works or how to see anything past their own opinions. I don't know what it is...

Anyways, enough on that, I know I'm tired of it all and I'm sure you all are as well. So the first part of my week was spent by myself mostly as most of the students here decided to travel over the break. Most of them left on Saturday so I had the weekend until Thursday night to myself. I was very glad to get that time though. It was a great time to relax, read, get school work done and so forth. I actually was able to finish two books, both of which I recommended: The Hunger Games and Lies My Teacher Told Me. The first is a fiction set in post-apocalyptic America, the second is a narrative on the failure of the publishing company monopoly to accurately transfer history in a way that is conducive to allow students to retain or be interested at all in the information. As well as be able to read quite a lot, I have also been able to watch every one of the OKC Thunder and Pittsburgh Pengin's playoff games (until the Pens got beat out that is). Speaking of, game 3 of the Thunder-Grizzlies series is Saturday night at 12am my time which is much better than most of the others have been (3:30am or 5am)!

So on Thursday night one of the greatest people ever came to Istanbul to both celebrate her birthday and to see me. I picked Alicia up from the airport around 12pm and we got home a little before 1. Went to bed not too long after and got up the next day for an entire day of shopping. Went to the Grand Bazaar to get tons of goodies for her, her parents, my parents, sister and our friends. We spent too much money probably but had an amazing time. Haggling at every step it was wonderful. The best one of the day probably was the one where we were trying to get a small decorative Turkish lamp. It was gold with green and red, one Alicia could use as a Christmas ornament (she collects ornaments from places she visits). I told her I wouldn't pay more than 15TL for the thing. I mean it was nice but it wasn't THAT nice. Anyway the guy comes up to us and tells us it's 35TL. I told him that's more expensive than we want. I offered him 10... I wish you could have seen his face! He was outraged that we were asking him for less than 50% of his offer. He went on to tell us how he was the only guy around who would tell us the real price and not increase it on us from the beginning. He said he could do it for 25. At that point we just started to walk away... we got about 5 feet from his shop and I hear him yell "okay what is your highest price?" I told him 15... he gladly obliged. I didn't tell him we still got it for under 50% of his original price though :) She was able to get tons of other great stuff and some great jewelry including some woven earrings that are only made in Trabzon, a city in Turkey. The ladies specialize usually in woven gold wire jewelry. Overall it was a great time.

The next day we got up late, had a great lunch and headed out to go visit the tourist places. We went to Aya Sofya (an old church that was turned into a mosque after the Ottoman takeover of Constantinople). We went to the Blue Mosque as well as Topkapi Palace. After that we practically ran to the spice bazaar before it closed that day. There were so many people there; not only was it a Saturday, but it was also the first nice weekend we've had here in quite some time. Sunday we went to Rumeli Hisara, the fortress I put pictures of from when I first got here. We walked along the seaside for a while and then took a bus to Besiktas where we took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul, marking her first time to step onto the Asian continent. It was a momentous occasion! I took her to see my church, we walked along the sea there where she could take pictures, sat on the rocks and watch people play the gypsy games for a while. After that we walked around and talked about life for a while as we made our way back home. We stayed up the rest of the night because at 4am we left my flat  and took a cab to the airport so she would be able to catch her 6am flight to Frankfurt. From there she would fly to London, London to Chicago, and Chicago home to Tulsa. All in all she left at 10pm OK time on Sunday and arrived around 11pm OK time Monday.

Aside from the fact that two days later we are both battling sickness that is incredibly not fun I believe that she had a great time and I know the week as a whole has been one of the best since I've been here.

Today was the first day of a conference that I am attending on the EU. It is specifically geared towards EU enlargement and the economic crisis. It is incredibly interesting and it is a certificate workshop so it will also be something that I can put on my CV and resume that will definitely be a great thing for my applications to grad school. There are a lot of participants in this program. In my breakout session in which 9 of the 40 participants are in there were the following nationalities represented: Latvia, Spain, Italy, Germany, Finland, Turkey, US, Norway. The Director General for EU enlargement was the keynote speaker and we had some great pannelists as well. I'm looking forward to the other guests we will have this weekend, such as the EU liaison for Croatia. Anyway I will probably update about all of that on my next blog post.

Also, due to the wonderful people of the TSA and their ridiculous rules.. I was not able to bring my extra jar of peanut butter back here with me so, the pb that I arrived here with has finally been bled dry. I feel like I am in the depression or something with the way I was conserving the last creamy goodness of the jar. This is what it looks like now. I should be able to survive this last 4 weeks without pb but who can be sure... if I don't make it, now you know why.

                                                                                  

TULIPS!!!

So the month of April is the Tulip festival and I went to the biggest garden/public park area to put them on show today. It was a bit chilly, but for one of the first sunny days in a while, I decided to take the opportunity. So I hope you enjoy!

The rest here are just some pictures I took of things I saw on my way back.