It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I got a really really cool package yesterday from the most awesome mom on earth. The package contained a Christmas tree complete with batteries. I decided to spread the holiday spirit by taking the tree to If. Everyone loved it.

As I was walking around yesterday, I passed a store with a blow up Santa in front of it. There was a decorated tree inside the store as well. It was neat.

To add to the holiday feeling, it snowed late last night. There was a layer of snow on the cars when I went to sleep, but when I woke up, there was no sign of it. Snow is coming though. And its definitely getting colder.

I got a new phone number (5543902904). I switched companies because Turkcell is expensive and Avea gives you 500 free text messages.

I have been looking at my classes and the classes I need to graduate. Now that I am a double major, I have about 60 more credits to get before I can graduate, even though I already have 90. I am trying to figure out if I will be able to graduate on time. I will have to overload both semesters next year, take 3 courses during the winter, and take some this summer. Even then, I don't know if it will be enough. It doesn't help that basically none of the courses I take here will go towards my degrees. I also have to get 18 credits worth of honors courses, which means I will have to turn non-honors courses into honors courses by adding more work for myself :). So I may be back in the states next year, but don't expect to see me...ever.

I have to start the third Turkish class next week, even though I haven't finished the second one yet. It meets three times a week, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 9am-1pm. So on Tuesday and Thursdays, I will have 7 hours worth of Turkish class. In addition to that, on Thursday, my Turkish Foreign Policy class meets from 1:40-4:30. This class only meets for four weeks though so it wont be too bad. And then, when that class is done, I get to go home!

I'm coming home!

I bought a ticket home on Saturday. I will be arriving on January 19 and leaving on the 27th. I can't come home during the holidays because of class and such, so this is the best I could do. That's only like...a month and a half away...thats nothing! See you soon!

I spent my Thanksgiving in class and at a bar...

Happy belated Thanksgiving to all. Hope everyone ate lots of turkey. I had soup for dinner. It was delicious soup, but it was no turkey with "all the fixings."

I went to a concert on Weds. night. Saw a group called Baba Zula. They are pretty famous here in Turkey. If you get a chance, check them out. I am not a huge fan of them, but you will get a taste of Turkish music. They play a weird electronic version of classical Turkish music. Hard to describe. The show was decent. Complete with belly dancers. Heres a picture of the band warming up before the show.

This other picture is of my friend Çağlar (pronounced Chalar). I just wanted to show you his shirt. Its a playboy bunny with a Muslim head scarf on. Its a pretty popular shirt over here and it makes me laugh every time I see it. So I thought I'd show you all.

Computer still not fixed. Trying to plan a day for Thanksgiving. I have a midterm on Sunday....The teacher is emailing the question to us around noon on Sunday and we have to turn it in by 10 am the next morning. WHO DOES THAT?? I only go to ODTU one time a week and I would like to keep it that way. But now I have to go there at 8am on Monday morning and then again later that day for a lecture for the stupid CIEE course. BAH. I hate going to ODTU. They dont even have a bathroom in the library. Its no wonder that all the kids there want to leave Turkey to go study somewhere else.

Party in Turkish Class

We had a party in Turkish class last week. We brought food and ate and listened to music. It was a nice break.

It also happened to be package day for a few of us.

This is Abby. We seem to be the only ones that get packages. That dinosaur she is holding is actually a pencil sharpener. It moves, too.

This is Divash. Hes from Nepal. He doesn't get mail. I don't think hes very happy.

This is Tinah. She had just returned from a trip to Paris. She liked my package.

This is Taylor. He likes to sing.

This is Tinah's portrait of Taylor singing.

This is Kian and Tinah's portrait of him.

It was pretty striking how similar these renditions looked.

And this is the awesome Chevy Impala that is being sold across the street from my dolmuş stop. I want it.

sorry for the lack of posts guys. my computer is currently out of commission so its hard to find internet sometimes. hopefully i will get that fixed in the next week or so.

im finally back to normal healthwise. just the usual sniffles from the lovely pollution of Ankara.

i dropped my economics class. i decided it was not worth it to try and learn calculus and catch up on the missed work (from when i was sick). so now i will be taking a third turkish class instead, which is good because i am here to learn the language anyways.

my semester is almost done here. i have a take home midterm next week for my turkish foreign policy class. then there is only about two and a half weeks left in that class. so i will be done with classes before christmas. then classes do not start again until feb. 18. so i have two months off....i will hopefully come home for one of those weeks, but it depends on the money situation. this whole semester has just been one giant vacation. i am used to working two jobs while taking the maximum number of classes, so its quite a different experience over here. i have become very lazy. i do get a lot of sleep though, which is good i guess.

hopefully my computer will be fixed by next week so i can load some more pictures. in the mean time, you can look at all of my pictures from the trip so far here -> http://flickr.com/photos/jehosephat103

hope all is well in the states. görüşürüz

feelıng better now - no more fever! just a cold

got a new camera! - pictures soon

i think my computer is busted :(

back to studying for that econ exam...

good news: i didn't fail my exam

bad news: i didn't fail because i didn't take it - i got a sudden infection which caused a huge fever. i woke up early thursday morning with a temperature of 103 or more. i went to the bathroom to take some advil in order to break the fever, ended up passing out and falling. i hit my head on the way down. the noise from my fall woke my host sister and mom up, so they called my program director. she came and got me and we went to the hospital. they took blood, xrayed my head, hooked me up to an IV with a fever reducer and then a giant bottle of yellow stuff that was apparently for rehydration. then they gave me a painkiller. i got a prescription for augmentin and some medicine to protect my stomach. i spent most of thursday asleep in bed. my fever never went below 101. i woke up around 530 this morning and my temp. was 103.6. took more advil and fell back asleep. my temperature finally fell below 100 today (99.5), so hopefully that means the antibiotics are working. the doctor said if i am not better in three days, to come back. hopefully i will be fine by the end of the weekend.