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.