whoops

Istanbul, Turkey

So I guess I said I would write and it's been kind of a long time. But I haven't been slacking! There's been lots of Turkish. We've done compound nouns, temporary and permanant posession, location, there is/there is not sentences, and there have been lots and lots of words. Some of them I find more exciting than their english counterparts, so I use them alot. My favorite word right now is salatalik, which is for cucumber.

Other things besides class...yesterday we went on a field trip to the asian side to this place where they make really good yogurt. And it was good. (Yogurt is a turkish word by the way). I had some balli yogurt (yogurt with honey). The day before that a bunch of us went with our TAs to get baklava. And that was also yummy.

I went to Bursa with the sufis last weekend. We went to all the important sufi sites and then they sang songs and prayed in them. It was very interesting, although I felt a little bit out of place. Bursa was very nice but very hot (cok sicak). The ulu camii was especially interesting because the middle dome is glass and it has a big fountain in the middle. I also got to see Ali Kahn (the son of Aylin and Kubi) which was very exciting. He's just as cute as ever, and when I said a few words of turkish to him he got really excited and started talking to me for the first time ever.

Mom and William were back in Istanbul for a few days and I got to see them which was very exciting. One day we went over to a professor's appartment and had tea. The professor was someone they met at the conference. His wife had chicken pox, which was sad. But they were very nice. We had an excellent dinner at a fish resturant under the galata bridge. They had eaten there before and all the people remembered them. And I asked for napkins (pecete) and got them which was very empowering. I've used the word a lot since. And the next night we ate at Devali, which looks over the sea of marmara and has amazing food. And then mom gave me her debit card, which means I've been able to get money. Which is always a good thing.

I think it's been a long time. I went to a Turkish punk rock concert - the band's name was Athena. And the next night we went on a party on a boat. I'm having difficulty remembering other things that we've done, but there have been a lot. And there are always new turkish words...weather words, food words, clothing words, family words, words, words words. Excitement