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.