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.
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