So I have been in Milan for about 6 days now. I am in a new apartment with 7 other girls, and one boy for the time being. Yes there are nine people living in my apartment right now. We have one shower, and two toilets. Its fun.
Went to orientation and such on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday I had nothing to do while most other people started the beginners intensive class. So I slept, worked on my paper, and yeh...just did nothing basically. Its good.
I have an aggravating cough right now, but hopefully it will clear up soon. Today and tomorrow I am going to try to finish my paper. It is due really soon and I am still only on the 12th page. Its not hard, I just have no motivation. I am in Italy... Writing a paper is not exactly the number one thing on my to-do list..
07 February 2009
02 February 2009
Italians do not understand Turkish...
So I made it to Italy. I am in my apartment, which is really messy :( Apparently there are two boys already living here, and two more are supposed to come... There is one other girl, and she already wants to go home. She is going to ask if she can move. Tomorrow is orientation, but I am not really sure how to get there.. Anyways, first I need to upload the pictures from Turkey.
So I went to Ankara and my friend, Ahmet, helped me find a place to stay and helped me out a lot. His family is originally from Adana, a city in the southeast. They have wanted to take me there for a long time, so last week I went with my friend's littlest sister, Nalan. We saw all the family and did a lot of traveling. This is Ahmet:
This is Nalan:
This is Ahmet's aunt, his dad's sister:
And his cousins:
And his dad's parents:
I also met his mom's parents, his dad's brother, and a couple other people, but not sure of their relations.
So we traveled 7 hours on a bus on Monday to get to Adana. That night, we went to the aunt's hours for dinner. The next day, we returned for breakfast, then spent the day traveling around Adana. I saw a huge mosque, a rock bridge from ancient Roman times, and the family.
The next day, we traveled to Mersin, Tarsus, and Kızkalesi. Mersin is a harbor town, Tarsus is where Paul is from, and Kızkalesi has a castle in the ocean and the caves of heaven and hell. There is also Asthma cave there. So we spent 11 hours driving around and exploring. Then we went to the uncle's house for dinner.
The next day, we rode the bus back to Ankara (another 7 hours). I spent a night there, then the next night I went to Eskişehir to pick up some papers. Then waited until 2am at the bus station to catch the bus to Istanbul.
Saturday, Ahmet picked me up from the bus station at 8am. We met his friend, then went to find breakfast. We ate at this really neat building on the shore of the Bosphorus. It had an old elevator and a little roof top tower. We went to the top and it was a really goood view.
After breakfast, we picked up Ahmet's cousin who flew in from Adana. Then we drove around all of Istanbul, then up to the black sea coast. We returned to Ahmet's friend's house, ordered pizza and waited. Then Ahmet's other cousin came and then another of his friends came. We ate pizza, hung out for a little while, then drove to Taksim square. Its a really busy place. Something like 3 million people walk around there every night. We hung out there for a little while, then drove to a cafe and hung out til the wee hours of the night.
Finally, we went to Ahmet's cousins house. I met yet another aunt and uncle, then slept for 3 hours. Then, it was time to head to the airport. My bag was 35 kilos and the lady said anything over 32 was not accepted. So I took out a few things and got it down to 31.8. I got out of the charge, but not really sure how.
The plane to London was 4 hours, then an hour or so wait, then 1.5 hour flight to Milan. Finally got to my hotel around 7pm and met a guy from my program. We tried to find dinner, but almost every place was closed. Its a bit odd going from a Muslim country to a Catholic country. You have to change your scheduling a little bit. i.e. do everything before Sunday when in the Catholic country.
There are a lot more pictures to load, but I will put them online and post the link later.
So I went to Ankara and my friend, Ahmet, helped me find a place to stay and helped me out a lot. His family is originally from Adana, a city in the southeast. They have wanted to take me there for a long time, so last week I went with my friend's littlest sister, Nalan. We saw all the family and did a lot of traveling. This is Ahmet:
This is Nalan:
This is Ahmet's aunt, his dad's sister:
And his cousins:
And his dad's parents:
I also met his mom's parents, his dad's brother, and a couple other people, but not sure of their relations.
So we traveled 7 hours on a bus on Monday to get to Adana. That night, we went to the aunt's hours for dinner. The next day, we returned for breakfast, then spent the day traveling around Adana. I saw a huge mosque, a rock bridge from ancient Roman times, and the family.
The next day, we traveled to Mersin, Tarsus, and Kızkalesi. Mersin is a harbor town, Tarsus is where Paul is from, and Kızkalesi has a castle in the ocean and the caves of heaven and hell. There is also Asthma cave there. So we spent 11 hours driving around and exploring. Then we went to the uncle's house for dinner.
The next day, we rode the bus back to Ankara (another 7 hours). I spent a night there, then the next night I went to Eskişehir to pick up some papers. Then waited until 2am at the bus station to catch the bus to Istanbul.
Saturday, Ahmet picked me up from the bus station at 8am. We met his friend, then went to find breakfast. We ate at this really neat building on the shore of the Bosphorus. It had an old elevator and a little roof top tower. We went to the top and it was a really goood view.
After breakfast, we picked up Ahmet's cousin who flew in from Adana. Then we drove around all of Istanbul, then up to the black sea coast. We returned to Ahmet's friend's house, ordered pizza and waited. Then Ahmet's other cousin came and then another of his friends came. We ate pizza, hung out for a little while, then drove to Taksim square. Its a really busy place. Something like 3 million people walk around there every night. We hung out there for a little while, then drove to a cafe and hung out til the wee hours of the night.
Finally, we went to Ahmet's cousins house. I met yet another aunt and uncle, then slept for 3 hours. Then, it was time to head to the airport. My bag was 35 kilos and the lady said anything over 32 was not accepted. So I took out a few things and got it down to 31.8. I got out of the charge, but not really sure how.
The plane to London was 4 hours, then an hour or so wait, then 1.5 hour flight to Milan. Finally got to my hotel around 7pm and met a guy from my program. We tried to find dinner, but almost every place was closed. Its a bit odd going from a Muslim country to a Catholic country. You have to change your scheduling a little bit. i.e. do everything before Sunday when in the Catholic country.
There are a lot more pictures to load, but I will put them online and post the link later.
20 January 2009
Internet Problems
Internet has been shaky here. I think its ok now, but I dont want to get my hopes up.
I have not been doing too much the last couple of days. Just trying to get my independent study done. I am now on page 9, so I have at least 16 more to write. And those next 16 will be the tough ones, less about introductions and more about analysis. Hopefully I can get this done before I leave for Italy on Feb. 1st.
My friend Kristin came to visit this past weekend. She was here last year on the same program with me. It was nice to have an American to talk to again, especially one who knows Turkey. She flew back to England today. She is on a bit of a multi-country winter break trip.
So I found out today that my summer internship will be in Cyprus. I am a little disappointed because I thought I would be in Turkey, but I am also excited to see Cyprus. Unfortunately, it is an unpaid internship, but it will do wonders for my resume.
I am about to head out and get some food and hopefully get some work done. I will try to post more now that it seems internet is back.
I have not been doing too much the last couple of days. Just trying to get my independent study done. I am now on page 9, so I have at least 16 more to write. And those next 16 will be the tough ones, less about introductions and more about analysis. Hopefully I can get this done before I leave for Italy on Feb. 1st.
My friend Kristin came to visit this past weekend. She was here last year on the same program with me. It was nice to have an American to talk to again, especially one who knows Turkey. She flew back to England today. She is on a bit of a multi-country winter break trip.
So I found out today that my summer internship will be in Cyprus. I am a little disappointed because I thought I would be in Turkey, but I am also excited to see Cyprus. Unfortunately, it is an unpaid internship, but it will do wonders for my resume.
I am about to head out and get some food and hopefully get some work done. I will try to post more now that it seems internet is back.
12 January 2009
Brillant News!
I got a summer internship! I am not sure where I will be working yet, but most likely I will be in Turkey. Once I know for sure, I will let you know.
It snowed today, but all of it melted before the afternoon. I woke up around 9am and everything was covered in snow. I went back to sleep until noon, and then all the snow was gone so I could not take any pictures. It will likely happen again, though, so next time there will be pictures.
I have not done much on my project, but tomorrow I will be scheduling some interviews. Hopefully after that, I can get some more writing done. It took me like 2 hours to finish a page, and I am still not sure if its how I would like it to be.. Coming out of a semester where I was writing 5 page papers in like an hour, this paper is very slow going for me... This topic is probably too complex, but hopefully it will turn out okay.
It snowed today, but all of it melted before the afternoon. I woke up around 9am and everything was covered in snow. I went back to sleep until noon, and then all the snow was gone so I could not take any pictures. It will likely happen again, though, so next time there will be pictures.
I have not done much on my project, but tomorrow I will be scheduling some interviews. Hopefully after that, I can get some more writing done. It took me like 2 hours to finish a page, and I am still not sure if its how I would like it to be.. Coming out of a semester where I was writing 5 page papers in like an hour, this paper is very slow going for me... This topic is probably too complex, but hopefully it will turn out okay.
09 January 2009
Two Weeks??
So I have been in Ankara since Sunday night. I have a great place to stay and I am working on my independent study. I met with four big time gurus on terrorism and they all said they would give me an interview. One also gave me some articles he had written, only one of which was in English...
I have been here for about two weeks already and I had no idea. I still have three more though, which should be plenty of time to finish my paper.
I met with an American girl who was in the same program as me last year. She is leaving on Saturday to go back to America. Another friend of mine, however, is probably coming sometime next week. She was also here last year.
Not much interesting stuff happening really. Just trying to get this project out of the way.
I have been here for about two weeks already and I had no idea. I still have three more though, which should be plenty of time to finish my paper.
I met with an American girl who was in the same program as me last year. She is leaving on Saturday to go back to America. Another friend of mine, however, is probably coming sometime next week. She was also here last year.
Not much interesting stuff happening really. Just trying to get this project out of the way.
03 January 2009
Lots of Snow
I am currently in Eskişehir watching lots of Law and Order. Snow has been falling all day, and a few hours last night. According to weather.com, it will snow here until next Saturday. One of my friends invited me to go skiing in a week or so, so hopefully the snow will keep up.
Not really doing much but watching movies and sleeping. I am blaming jet lag.
I hope everyone had a good new years!
Not really doing much but watching movies and sleeping. I am blaming jet lag.
I hope everyone had a good new years!
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