February 2012
44 posts
i see that tumblr has changed again. still no tumblarity. oh well.
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“I feel compelled to add or so I’ve been told. In Turkish we have a special tense...”
– Orhan Pamuk, Istanbul
everybody back at home is on winter break?
crazy. we just finished the first week of class. back to taksim to celebrate friday.
it's only tuesday!
four more hours of class tomorrow. two on thursday and one on friday. then it’s the first weekend i feel like i have earned in a while. it’s kind of nice to work toward a break, rather than just having a lump sum of break time. it makes sense to me so i don’t care.
i gots simit crumbs all in my backpack. day one of...
i just got my syllabus and textbooks for ontology, one of my philosophy courses. everything is in pdf form! no purchasing textbooks here in turkey! the course looks like it will be similar to the epistemology course i took last semester. well, classes start tomorrow. two hours of turkish linguistics for one hour and ontology for two hours. back on the grind.
birdperchedonatree asked: Hello! My name is Katie. I noticed you are currently studying in Istanbul! That's amazing & I'm super jealous! (I'm from Turkey) :)
yesterday
was a successful day. we found some small bars near campus so we don’t have to always go to taksim. they both had a good atmosphere and pretty cheap beers and drinks. today we walked around the campuses to find the buildings where our classes will be starting on monday. tonight is for relaxing and cooking a good dinner.
classes start on monday, finally, i suppose. i have been in istanbul for almost two full weeks. the time has flown by. i am excited and ready to see what the rest of this experience will offer.
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it is almost 2:00 p.m. and i haven’t done anything today. i suppose yesterday was a successful day—valentine’s day “family dinner” and the walking dead and skins and wine. who knows what today will bring.
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alright,
i think i have decided on classes for this semester. they are: turkish for foreigners linguistics 16th century literature ontology history of philosophy IV (so from kant onward). that’s it! classes start on the 20th. this is the longest xmas break ever.
well, i am exhausted.
last night was fun & exhausting. we hung out in the superdorm and partied with some other students. at around 1 am we decided to go to taksim. we went to bars and a toast place at the end of the night and got back to the superdorm around 5 am. i guess that’s how the turks do it. today is for rest. tomorrow i sign up for classes. and we are going to the grand bazaar.
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last night:
we went to a nargile cafe and bar in taksim with two new turkish friends. after that we ate some “tost” with “peynir” and it was pretty delicious. and then we used our istanbulkart cards to come home from taksim on the bus. but all of the roads were slick and our bus nearly crashed and we had to all get off. so we walked toward besiktas with a turk we met named...
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taksim! again!
i cannot begin to explain tonight. so, one half was friendly and interesting turks. the other half was coping with this weather and snow. i suppose i will elaborate tomorrow. and post some pictures!
we finally got our istanbulkart bus passes!
back to taksim tonight for nargile (hookah) and cell phones. and probably more partying. oh istanbul.
another night in taksim
but better results this time. we started out at a brewery called taps in bebek which is where all of the foreign exchange students were hanging out. we took a taxi to taksim square with a cool girl we met from australia named ezel. she speaks turkish and has been to istanbul already. so, we ended up at a dive bar on the 4th floor of a building in the middle of taksim—called leyla...
i forgot to mention the funniest part about yesterday. the taxi driver on the way home from taksim asked us (americans) if we liked tom cruise, barack obama (“a black man!”) and george bush. our taxi driver liked george bush, which i found odd. he then asked us (four vegetarians) about eating hamburgers with ketchup and mayonnaise. oh, how people perceive the united states—and...
ppendragon asked: yep from istanbul. im running fuckyeahistanbul blog, thats how i saw your tumblr. you guys should come to pub quiz on thursdays in taksim, its mostly the expats and a few turkish friends but its fun. and the more the merrier :)
yesterday was full of activities.
pre-registration coffee and tea at a cafe grocery shopping lots of walking superdorm lounging taksim square dinner with: two guys from paris, france a guy and girl from hong kong and three other americans turk-less in turkey then some odd little bar in taksim more walking then back to the superdorm orientation today! then, a post-orientation party at a brewery
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ppendragon asked: hey, studying in boğaziçi? saw you mentioned superdorm
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istanbul!
flying and delays and planes: friday - saturday saturday night: hotel in istanbul and lots of sleeping sunday: walking around, swimming and room service today: check-in to superdorm. walk for miles in the cold. purchase some food at a grocery store. first meal in my dorm: nutella, raspberry jam and bread with orange juice. i haven’t met any of my roommates yet. i am exhausted. i...
lots of packing. anxiety and nerves. leaving tomorrow. traveling for 24ish hours. landing in istanbul. beginning a five month adventure.