going to the beach!

so i decided to head to the beach for the weekend. bought a ticket for me and my friend to Bodrum. its on the western coast of turkey. if you know of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the mausoleum of mausolus was there. nowadays, its known for tourists and yachts, but i am pretty sure there will be limited tourists at this time of year. ill post pictures when i come back (either monday or tuesday). hope you guys all have good weekends :)

İstanbul'dan döndüm

Got back from Istanbul early this morning. Was a pretty lazy trip. Once you have been to the historical sites its tough to have the motivation to find something to do, even though the city is full of sites to see... Anyways, hers a few pictures from the weekend.

We took the night train from Ankara. Got to the train station on the Asian side around 730am. Took a ferry to Europe. On the way, I got splashed by a wave, so my shoes and bottom of my pants were wet all day. And now my shoes smell really bad.

You can see three of the major sites in Istanbul in this picture. The farthest mosque is the Blue Mosque, the next is Hagia Sophia, and then Topkapı Palace

On Friday, while the new kids were on a tour, we old hats decided to go hang out in the gardens between the Blue Mosque and Ayasofya. So we look to our left and see the Blue Mosque...

Then look to the right and see Ayasofya.

Pretty amazing location to hang out.

Or to dig for dandelion roots - whatever your pleasure

I've been in there twice, now, soon to be three times.

Yeh, its alright...

One of the nice things about Istanbul is there is a lot of green and scenery even though its a huge city. It also seems to have a bigger variety of animals - like cranes. You can sort of see them at the top of the tree.

This was an art exhibit in the metro station. This the Ottoman symbol.

Its made from nails and wire.

Pretty neat

This sword belonged to Fatih Sultan Mehmet the Conquerer of Istanbul

Asia

Big ship with Asia in the background

Big ole bridge

Galata Tower

Oh and in case you are wondering, I was told that Ali's famous sword, the one that is divided so it looks kind of like a snake tongue, is not at Topkapı Palace. Either the sword itself, or the fact that its still around, or the fact that its housed at Topkapı palace is a rumor. Or maybe all three...Not completely sure.

Class tomorrow....:(

snowy day at odtü

To give you a better idea of why I hate going to ODTÜ so much, here is what happened yesterday. My class starts at 940, so I left my house at 830 which would normally be ample time for me to arrive . To catch the ODTÜ dolmuş, I have to cross a busy road and wait on the opposite side. So I was literally in the middle of the road as the first dolmuş drove by. I get to the other side and wait for 25 minutes for the next dolmuş. Its full so it drives on by. So I start walking. I walked for probably 20 minutes then waited for the next dolmuş. It came five minutes later and luckily stopped. I squeezed into the pack of people standing and tried to hold on as we swerved through traffic. We finally got to the stop on campus and then I walked the 15 minutes to the International Relations building and got to class one minute before the teacher. I will probably have to go through this every time I go to that class.

Anyways...

After class I went with my friend to the mall on campus so she could get some passport photos. We found this guy hanging out on the trash can. Hes really big and real clean. Most of the wild cats on campus are clean.


He followed us for a ways

Then he found new people to hang out with

This is outside the entrance to the mall on campus. Theres an atm for every bank.

The "river"

Apparently the kids at ODTÜ are the smartest kids in Turkey. This is the pitiful snowman they created...

I am off to Istanbul tonight. My group is heading their as part of the new kids orientation, so I am tagging along since its free. Ill be back on Monday morning.

it snowed again today

This is me getting ready to head into the snow.

This is the fourth straight day that it has snowed here. Granted, it hasnt been continuous, but still. Thats a lot of snow, and a lot of disgusting brown slush/mush that I have to walk through :(

I did my federal taxes the other day and found out I get a refund this year! Not much, but so much better than the 900 dollars I had to pay last year. Hopefully I will be as lucky with the state.

My one class at ODTÜ starts tomorrow morning. I am not too excited about heading there at 830 in the cold cold morning just so I can trudge across the enormous campus in the snow. I'll take pictures so you can get a little bit of an idea.

I got my exam back today for the last elementary Turkish class (took it last friday). I got a 95. Dont be too excited, the class isnt that academic and I got to use a dictionary on the exam. But I think my grade was the best in the class. Today in class we played Taboo. I went first and got the word "deprem," which means earthquake. I didnt know the words I was not allowed to say so it was easy not to say them. Anyways, I said "dunya dans ediyor," which means "the world is dancing." No one understood me but the teacher. Finally, after time was up, I said it in English and the whole class said "OOOOOOOOOOHH!" ..... But they knew the Turkish words, so I dont understand why they got it when I said what they were already saying in their heads. Whatever. The teacher thought it was a good way to explain it.

Almost sleepy time.

its still snowing...

and its not expected to stop until thursday.

snow pictures

went out for a bit tonight just so i could take pictures for you all.

my street

bliiiiiizaaaard

so on my way back to ankara last night, my bus had to stop 3 times because of snow and such. and its still snowing. there is at least half a foot of snow on the ground. pictures coming later

lazy days

the new americans are going through their orientation (like i did the first couple of weeks i was here). so i have been tagging along any time a free lunch is involved. last saturday we went to the kale (citadel). i had already been there, but i knew that the lunch would be delicious. not much has changed there minus the piles of snow and ice.

makes for some challenges when walking around.

especially on the top of the citadel.

it was also really windy this day.

so standing on a 2 foot wide concrete wall thats like 50 feet above the ground was a little nerve wracking.

but being up there gives you a nice perspective of the city. at the very top of this picture you can see the bottom of some mountains.

i was trying to go to edirne this weekend. its the most western city of turkey, about 25 minute drive from bulgarian border. but unfortunately, there were no more tickets when i went to the bus office today. so i will try again later. instead, i am heading to eskişehir tomorrow, just for the day. nothing too exciting there, but i need to get out of ankara.

ill post more pictures when i come back. peace

"I dont want to go to America! They shoot you in the mall there!"

sooo...it seems that Turkey is safer than America these days.

stay safe please.

thanks.

ive actually been busy here. the new group of americans arrived this weekend. there are 18 of them, plus 6 year long students. thats a big group. they seem pretty nice so far. its kind of fun to watch them experience all the things i experienced when i first arrived here. its also nice to be able to show them around a bit and help them do things and such. i showed them downtown last night. i got a couple of my turkish friends to join us. one of my friends was just there to hang out with me because he does not know any english. i managed to talk with him most of the night, with the help of my dictionary of course, but its cool to be able to understand most of what people say. but dont be fooled. i dont know that much turkish. he was just being nice and speaking slowly and simply.

as for that presentation on richmond i was supposed to give last week....i didnt make it to the class due to severe jet lag and sleep schedule weirdness. so i am giving it tomorrow. i had a lot of help on it....so its really good. maybe too good. whatevah

i will only get to take one class at the university this semester, thanks to turkish classes. so its another vacation semester basically.

i got my schedule today. were going on four trips, tentatively. our first is to istanbul on feb. 21. then kapadokya again sometime in march, and then there are two trips planned for april, one to amasya and trabzon, and one to antakya. hopefully those work out

now i must go because i have class tomorrow which means i am waking up at 8am or so. night