the rain in spain...

İstanbul, Turkey

It's been raining all day and I left my umbrella at what I currently call home. So I got very wet which I'm sure didn't help my fight not to get this cold. But me and my flintstones vitamins will prevail! And tomorrow I shall bring my umbrella when I go out.

I had two interviews today at Boğaziçi university. One was with an old friend of my mom's and one was with the professor of one of my advisors. Yay for connections. I'm currently trying to get an interview (or maybe more than one!) with people in the municipal government. Keep your fingers crossed! I really need to actually talk to someone in the government here.

Yesterday I talked to a professor at Marmara Unıversity. They have lots of different campuses in İstanbul, and I thought I had found a bus that went to the right one, but it turns out it was the wrong one. Fortunatly I was going there from someplace else and so asked directions and some very nice women put me on the correct mini bus and I got to the correct campus. And the interview was really good.

Nothing really exciting going on though. I spend lots of time on busses going to interviews, waiting for interviews, and sleeping and that's about it. But I did find the english language books in the Boğaziçi bookstore today which was very exciting. And I would recommend Good Omens for anyone who hasn't read it. Stay dry

I didn't get lost!!

İstanbul, Turkey

I've returned to İstanbul, and it makes me really happy. I took the bus from Ankara on Monday. Since this wasn't the night bus, and I was awake I actually got to see what it looks like from here to Ankara. There was snow on the ground most of the way, and most of it is mountainous, or at least hilly. As the trees have no leaves the mountains/hills look like they had thinnıng hair that was standing straight up so you could see their very white scalps. Anyways, it was a pretty trip. And I've discovered that if they show action movies it isn't really necessary to understand Turkish.

On arriving at the bus station I had to take a taksi to Aylin's house. I had forgotten what it's like to ride in a turkish taksi. Almost as good as a roller coaster (although I've only ever been on one roller coaster). But they are crazy crazy drivers.

Alikan (Aylin's son) is now two and a half, and while still the cutest kid ever he has entered the terrible twos, which seems to be a little bit trying for his parents. The cat is still an attack cat, and seems to like feet, which reminds me of dillon. The bed I slept in before is gone and now they have a couch that pulls out into a bed. It's very comfy.

I went to the kapılıçarsı (grand bazaar) today to visit Hasan. I managed to find a bus stop, get on a bus that took me to Kadıköy so I could take the ferry to Eminönü as planned. No getting lost or getting on the wrong bus! I have also continued my tradition of buying the best cookies ever to get bus change. It was so exciting to be back on the ferry. I can't really think of any good words. Hasan is doing well, and sitting in his shop (he sells carpets) I felt like I'd never really left. I also visited Murat (he sells brass and copper stuff) and had a slightly one sided discussion about why americans move out of their family's houses at 18 or 22 and how that leads to people feeling more isolated.

And here's the real shock. I took the ferry back (yay!) and after getting on the wrong bus and then being sent to another where I realized I was being dyslexic I got what turned out to be the right bus. I got off at the right stop and found Aylin's building. I don't think I've ever gone some place for the first time in İstanbul and not gotten lost. Although now that I've said that I'm sure as soon as I walk out the door tomorrow I will be lost.

conferences and tea

Ankara, Turkey

I woke up this morning thinking that I had no plans, but as is often the case in Turkey that was not true for long. Standing in the hallway trying to wake up the mother (her name is Nesin) and older son walked past and told me that Belgin had been trying to calling all morning. Turns out she wanted me to go to a conference with her on Sufism and Women. So I put on some clothes and went. The conference was in this huge conference salon as they called it. There were four people speaking including Cemalnur, Dr. Gursoy, and an american guy. It started on standard turkish time (late) with the singing of the national march. I have to say that in terms of people singing along to there national anthem/marches Turkey defiantly beats America. It's in a range that most people can actually sing in with no bloody high notes. I felt a little bit awkward standing there though.

I'm sure that the conference was very interesting, but I only understood a fourth of it. When the american guy started talking it took me a minute to realize that he was actually speaking english. Aylin was translating for him which was very exciting. He went on about the women that had been close to the prophet, and took too long to make his point. He ended up making it as they were telling him he was out of time. When cemalnur spoke I could get the feeling of what she was saying, but none of the words. I think it helps that she talks with her hands.

Afterwards there was tea, because that's what's done and I got to see most of my sufi family. It was really nice to see them all again. And it was great to see the look on their faces because I hadn't told them that I was going to be there. Yay for my sufi family. I'm excited about going back to Istanbul and seeing all of them. In case you are wondering, I was adopted into a sufi group when I was in Istanbul in May and the teacher of the group is cemalnur.

They ordered pizza tonight for dinner. I think pizza here might be more exciting. They put corn on their pizza! And the um italian kind had secuk (turkish peperoni if you will) on it. And the mom (her name is made visne (sour cherry juice)! I guess I talk about food a lot, but I've decided that when I get back I'm going to figure out how to make some of the turkish food I really like.

It's Christmas eve, and although I'm going to have the whitest Christmas I've had in a long time it doesn't seem at all like Christmas eve. But I hope you all have been good this year and maybe santa will visit you. Because I still believe in santa; as my mother says santa is the people that love you. Happy christmas eve!

interviews oh interviews

Ankara, Turkey

I had three interviews today and they all went really well. Yay! I kind of don't feel like I should be talking about what people said in my blog though, so if you want to find out about them you can read my thesis someday insallah.

I'm now staying with a family that is friends with Canguzel's family. However, I am very bad with names, and turkish names are once again proving to be worse than american ones and so I know the daughter is named Ozge but I can't remember the names of the rest of the family. But I have to say that the four year old is really cute and I feel bad because I can't talk to him.

Anyways, today Ozge was very nice and came with me to all the interviews. And I got to meet her friends at this chinese resturaunt that also had sushi. She goes to an international school, as does her brother (the 16 year old one, not the 4 year old) so they both speak fluent english which is really nice. Some day I really will learn turkish!

While I was at METU (middle east technical university) I got to see Claire and Oktay which was very exciting. Claire (who is brittish but now speaks fluent turkish) is in the process of starting up a dissabilities probgram at METU which seems to be a challenge, but also very rewarding. Apparently it's the first program like this at a Turkish university, but now there is another one that is starting up as well.

At the state planning office once again I talked to a woman I had already talked to and then the man I was going to interview was very late. Ozge left and eventully he showed up at about 5:30. Apparently there was some problem with the licensing of his car and something and he had to wait 3 hours. He gave me a ride home after I interviewed him which was really nice of him. It was kind of funny though. The neighborhood I'm staying in is confusing, and so he stopped somewhere and asked for directions, which turned out to be bad. So he went back to the same place to try again. We did find it eventually, but the directions he got the second time were exactly the same as the first time, and still wrong.

I was very late getting back and so missed dinner, but they saved some for me. And it was manti!!! Manti is my favorite turkish food, or perhaps food in general by the way. If you haven't it's turkish dumplings in a yougurt sort of sauce and well, it's really good. And it was homemade! Yay!

what a long strange trip it's been

Ankara, Turkey

The walkabout is over, so you'll just have to think of the title as My research trip: A most unplanned adventure. I don't seem to be doing well at staying in the country.

I don't know where to start. But I've just discovered how to put the keyboard on the english setting instead of the turkish setting, which seems to be a start. It's been a long crazy trip and I've already had my first interview, although have only had 6 hours of sleep in a bed since I left.

The flight to philidelphia was all nice and normal, but then my flight to munich was delayed by 2 hours. First the plane got there late, then the caterers (whose food wasn't good anyways) took too long and then they had to fix the navigation system, test it extensivly and do some paperwork. In short, by the time we had landed in Munich my plane for Istanbul had already departed. So the lovely people of Lufthansa rerouted me through Berlin and then I got to take a turkish airlines flight to Istanbul. I have to say that turkish airlines beates US airways on food, hands down. But then, is that really a surprise?

I got met at the airport (at 8:30 pm turkish time) and taken to the ulusoy bus station. The bus left at 11, and there was a bit of confusion as I tried to explain that Canguzel's mom, Inci, had my ticket, but would be getting on the bus in about half an hour. The guy was nice and decided that I could stay on the bus. Inci did get on the bus later and explained everything. It was really nice to see her. There was some falling asleep and then some snow. We stopped half way there (2:30 am) at a rest stop and had some yogurt soup. And then I remembered why I love turkey so much. The bus arrived at 5:30 and we got to Inci's appartment/house at 6 where I got my sleep in an actual bed.

Some sleep, food and a shower can do wonders for a person. And then I had my first interviews. I don't think I'm asking the right questions. And I was trying too hard to stay awake to think of some better ones. But they were really nice and told me I could come back Friday if I have any questions, and also found me someone else to intervew Friday. So it should come out okay.

I can't think of anything profound. The icicles at the rest stop last night were 1 meter long and it's been below 0 (in celcius) since I got here. It's kind of nice to see snow. I'm still a little confused on what time it is, and how I lost a day, but oh well. Another interview tomorrow, hopefully it will yield more information.

more photos

Old town tallinn

Bryggen - cool wooden houses from the middle ages in Bergen

Somehow the bus got us from down there to up here

it's a fjord!!

sunset over the baltic sea

emily on the paddle boat in prague

old town warsaw

frank zappa memorial in vilnius

highest point on the oslo bergen line

The european bank of the bosforus - click on this one!

photos from istanbul

the black sea...looks pretty blue to me

sultanahmet cami (the blue mosque)

galata tower and a ferry

looking back over the bosforus

the brunch my sufi family held

Marma and Patlican, my turkish cats. Shhh, don't tell Dillon

Aylin and Alikan, the cutest kid ever

the end

Chapel Hill, USA

My adventure has come to an end. I really don't believe it. When I left it seemed like I was going forever, and how can forever be over. But somehow it is. And I will start school again in a few weeks. So back to the real world or at least the student world I must go. And to all of you I met on my travels, if you're ever in the south east of the US you should visit me!

The saga of the journey home. I spent my last day in Berlin at a concentration camp. Possibly the most depressing experience ever. Words cannot really describe it, it has to be experience. And since all these amazing writers have tried to describe it and haven't been able to do it justice why would I be able to? After the hour and a half return to the main train station we discovered that the u-bahn line to our hostel was shut down so we had to take the substitute bus. Then upon returning to the hostel we realized that our station was the problem one. There were 10 police vans surrounding it and the whole area was blocked off. I still have no idea what happened there. There was no bus back to the train station so I had to take a taxi. Then took the s-bahn to the airport and had a nice uneventful flight to the london luton airport. When we got in I was in a hurry and immigration had taken a long time so I grabbed my bag and took the shuttle to the train station to discover they had cancelled the train. 5 of us took a taxi to kings cross, very squished in there it was. Walked to the LSE dorm so that I could stay with emily's friend there for a few hours. When I got there (it's 1:30 in the morning) I talked to him and then looked in my bag and realized it wasn't mine. Oh crap. The girl whose bag it was - Julie had her planner inside so I called her and she called me and somehow we managed to get in touch. By some freak coincidence she was flying out of heathrow the next day, so I'd be able to get my bag back to her. However, she had taken my bag and realized earlier and taken it back to the airport. My flight was too early in the morning to get back and forth to luton and pick up my bag. So the next morning I flew out of heathrow without it. The flight from toronto home was delayed 2 or so hours and I saw the remnants of the crashed plane on the way out.

My bag is currently residing in Eynsham with Margaret and will come to boston with her in a couple of weeks. And somehow it will get to me. What a mess. I feel so stupid.

On the weirdness of being home. Driving for the first time in 6 months - why are they letting me behind the wheel of this big machine? Mexican food - yay!! My cat - she actually remembered me and doesn't even seem too pissed. Milk from a glass bottle - so much better than milk from a box. Language - everyone here speaks english? I could talk to all of them? Really? But the weirdest thing is going to be after a bit when I'm still here. Then I think it might sink in that it's actually over. Because I don't really believe it yet

Emily!

Prague, Czech Republic

I bumped into Emily on a street corner last night and we went to a hostel and decided to travel together. Okay, so that's not exactly how it went. She said she was getting in at 9:15 and I assumed for some reason she was getting in the train station. I was supposed to get in just before that so I emailed her and told her I'd meet her there. Then I realized there are 4 train stations. Then I found out she had actually taken a plane and so was not at any of the four train stations but I should meet her at the hostel. So getting directions from the loverly william I got to the right metro stop and as I was wandering around looking for the hostel I bumped into Emily who was also looking for our hostel. And now everything is all good, except it's a bit hot here.

Vilnius needs to do something about their hostel advertising. Getting in on a sunday evening with no place to stay (not so smart I know) the tourist office was closed and there were no signs for hostels in the bus and train stations. There are usually signs! I was about to give up and go on to poland but a nice woman at the news stand had seen a hostel on her way to school and took me there. And now I'm glad that I decided to stay. I went to the museam for genocide victims which I think might be the most disturbing museam I've ever visited. The building used to be the headquarters of the KGB and the Gestapo (but not at the same time) and part of the museam is the preserved prision in the bottom. So you can see the cells and where they tortured prisoners and even farther in basement is the execution chamber. They have lists of victims but what I found most disturbing was the photos of the guys that actually were involved in the KGB and executions. How could someone do that to other people? Oh, and most of them had no profession and only an elementary school education.

I met a nice italian guy who coaches kids in basketball on my way into the museam and later I ran into him again in the cathedral as he was starting this walking tour thing. So I went on the walking tour with him which was good, although his booklet had two copies of the map and was missing eight pages describing the things you were walking past. So it goes. Then I got on a bus and took a 9 hour trip to warsaw, spent 5 groggy hours there trying to see something and not seeing much and then another 9 hours to prague. And wow is it hot here. But the rain has gone and I'm going to have clean laundry soon!

rain

Nida, Lithuania

The rain has been following me since I got to Tallinn. I think that it's rained, or usually poured at least once a day, sometimes it rains all day. It has been cooler which is nice and happy. Between Estonia and Lithuania there's latvia, so I went there too. Riga, the capital, is a good place. Like Tallinn it has a great old town, but this one feels a lot more real and lived in. They also have freedom mounument that has armed guards protecting it...hmmm. My hostel was painted all orange and was named fun friendly franks or something like that. One of the guys staying there is a computer science grad student at UNC...the world gets smaller all the time. His backpack got stolen somewhere, so now he has a russian man purse. There were also 4 finnish guys that I went out dancing with one night. I don't know about all guys from finland, but these ones could dance. I think european guys might in general dance more than american guys.

Last night I got into Palanga (a little bit north of where I am now) and got a room in this woman's house. She lives with her mother and father who are grandparent age. And they don't know any english, but they're really nice. When I was trying to ask how to say thank you the lady called her friend who spoke english because she thought I was trying to ask something important. They make it really hard to get to Nida (which is on the curonian spit) from Palanga. You have to take a bus to klaipeda, and then walk (or in this case take a taxi because it was pouring and we had no map) to the ferry dock. But that ferry place had moved so we had to go somewhere else. And then you have to walk into town (3km) and get a bus that goes down the island. Fortunatly I met some nice dutch guys making the taxi part easier and the rest more laughable.

So this spit is kind of barrier islandish, except much bigger and spanning two countries. And between the spit and the mainland is freshwater, not brackish water. You can take this hike up in the dunes so that you have a view of the lagoon and the balitic sea at the same time. It's pretty awesome. This should be longer but I need to go catch the bus so I can do that whole thing in reverse now. Oh, my hair is really short now.

and there was much rejoicing

Tallinn, Estonia

The new harry potter has arrived! And although I may have missed the potter parties at home, I found it in a bookstore here and umm finished it last night at about 2 in the morning. I was reading it in this bar/cafe that's kind of in the town hall and on the main square. I think I might have looked kind of funny with my beer and harry potter, but I had a great time. And there were a bunch of drunk britts singing. Why don't americans sing when they get drunk?

Tallinn is great. Or at least the old town is great because I haven't really seen much else. Although Sweden and Norway were beautiful, after having lived on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 5 days, it's nice to be where the food is cheaper meaning I can eat more exciting things like estonian pancakes...mmmm. I went to a free concert thing yesterday which featured dances of the middle ages complete with people dancing in period costumes. The last dance was so modern for it's time that it was banned by the pope which is pretty funny when you see it 400 years later.

I took a boat here from Sweden but instead of getting a bed in a cabin I decided to get a seat in the seating lounge. It was really funny to see everyone trying to sleep there. They were sprawled across seats and on the floor which kind of made it hard not to step on anyone in the dark. There were some nice german guys on the boat and one of them looked like John Lennon. He didn't know who I was talking about when I told him. His name is ingmar which I remember because it was strange and seemed very viking like or something. We were the only ones on deck at two in the morning when you could still see the sunset.

fjords anyone?

Stockholm, Sweden

While it may look like I've been in Sweden since I last wrote I actually did go to Norway. For some reason, I guess because they are printed on flat paper I always think that a country is going to be flat until proven otherwise. Norway is definatly not flat. I stayed with a family friend in Oslo and got to see cool things like the Nobel Peace Prize museam and the Munch (he was a famous norwegian artist) museam. I had no idea that the nobel peace prize is awarded by a committe of Norwegians. The rest of the nobel prizes are decided on by Swedes, but Nobel decided since at the time of his death they were in some kind of alliance he shouldn't let Norway feel left out.

The train ride from Oslo to Bergen which is on the west coast was absolutely amazing. It goes through many mountains, litterally through with lots of tunnels as well as through in a not quite so litteral sense. The highest point was at this town called Finse, and there's a glacier up there. I took a detour and went on the Flåm railway which has the steepest grade of any railroad in the world. It manages to be even more spectacular than the normal rail route. And it goes by this huge waterfall. They even stop the train so everyone can pile out and get misted. They have fake ruins and a fake nymph up on the rocks though which is just kind of stupid. But there's more...a boat ride on pieces of two fjords and then a bus ride that went from the valley where the fjord was up the steepest mountain road I think a bus could possibly get up. And according to the package that this came as, that is norway in a nutshell.

Bergen is a super cute town. There's a fish market where if you look longingly at it they might give you free samples of salmon and smoked whale. Yes there is commercial whaling in Norway, but they tell me they only hunt two species and that it's very highly regulated. There's also a row of wooden houses from the middle ages that are very tilty and cool to walk around. The town or maybe city is surrounded by mountains and so I went hiking one day with this Aussie girl named Teresa. We kind of hiked longer than we meant to and we were at it for about seven and a half hours. So when we got around this big long ridge we had been hiking along we took the cable car down. Fortunatly the fog came up right then so I didn't have to see down the 642 meters.

the library

Gothenburg, Sweden

I think my family is currently in a plane over the Atlantic ocean. Think good flying thoughts for them. The kidnapping of my brother was a lot of fun and he was very good natured about the whole thing. I'm not sure if he's had any vegetables for a week though, unless you count french fries. And according to the USDA they do count as vegetables...scary.

Berlin. Berlin was a good place to go, although if we had been there a few days later we could have gone to the live8 concert which would have been awesome. We stayed at David's cozy little backpacker's hostel which is a great place. Ian found one guy there to play magic with and another guy that he played a million games (okay, maybe not that many) of backgammon with. The guy working there is Greek and he yelled at me (and most of the people there) for not visiting greece. Maybe next time.

There are many amazing memorials in Berlin but one of them made me cry. I don't remember the exact name but it's something to the extent of a memorial to all the vicitims of tyrany and injustice. It's in a building that used to be used by the Prussian military and now it is just an open room with a statue of a mother holding her dead son. And below the statue are buried together the remains of an unknown concentration camp victim and an unknown nazi soldier. And over the statue is a hole in the ceiling so that if it snows outside it snows inside too.

Copenhagen. I love Tivoli!! And look at that name backwards now and see what it says. It's this amusment park built sometime in the 1800s by the king for the citizen of the city. And it has rides, but they are mostly cute and the most amazing gardens and fountains. At dusk when all the little lights go on it's like a fairy land or something. It's better than all those magical worlds I imagined. Words just really aren't describing this well enough. Just go see it. And wow do they have a lot of bikes there. The bike lanes are wider than roads in some other cities I think. And beware of confusing the sidewalk and bike lanes because that would be bad. I only confused them once. At the entrance to the harbor they have windmills!! Yay for windmills!

I'd just like to share that of the countries where I've been to the doctor I think Sweden is winning for cure achieved (and cute doctors). However Italy does have a strong point in it's favor as they have yet to make me pay anything. There were pigeons flying through their hospital though.

I'm not really sure what there is to see in Gothenburg. There is a really big super nice public library with free internet access. Guess where I am. This is my second day here, I've just kind of been hiding. Ocassionally I feel it's necessary to take a few days to hide. But don't worry I'll be back out again soon and I'm going to Norway to take a look at Slartybartfast's creations...the fjords!

sliding down waterfalls

Vienna, Austria

So since I've written we were in Slovenia. The population of the entire country is only 2 million people, and the entire country is full of the julian alps. It is a very cute country though. So a couple of days ago we went white water rafting which was fun but not as exciting as it could have been because the water was low. So my crazy brother heard about canyoning and decided that he wanted to go and that I had to go with him.

Canyoning invloves hiking which is actually more like climbing up to the start on very steep river banks, sometimes pulling yourself up by ropes or holding on to cables so as not to fall. The outfit for canyoning is a full wet suit, including shoes and gloves, a helmet, and a diaper type thing to make it easier to slide without tearing the wet suit. At the start you go in the water and walk, slide and jump down to where you left your vehicle. The first slide involved sitting down and going butt first down a waterfall. In case I'm not describing very well this means that you can't see where you are going. Then there was the walk up onto the bank and jump into a pool...jumps of several meters or more. The crazyiest thing was the last waterfall - 10m tall. That's over 30 feet, or about a 3 story building. And I went down it. If you don't know I'm afraid of heights. I have no idea how I did it. No idea what made me do it. I can't even believe I really did it. There was time on the way down for a very long and loud "oh shit" which I finished with a few seconds to spare before I hit the water. Wow

Now we're in Viena. Last night we went to this big festival down by the Danube. As Ian said, "I can't believe I came all this way just to go to the state fair." I have to say that it was cooler than the state fair though. And of course it was in german and there were copious amounts of beer being drunk. And I didn't have any of the beer, but I have to say that it's probobly better than beer they would have at the north carolina state fair. And at night they had the most amazing fireworks. Yay fireworks.

So I'm actually supposed to be deciding if I'm going to work at the Edinburgh fringe theater festival but I'm writing to procrastinate. Some things never change. What to do, what to do?

I love looking out the window

Dubrovnik, Croatia

So poor william is sick and the rest of my family decided to stay with him in the adorable little island town of trogir. Which I want to say as trogdor. So this morning I got up before 6 (groan) and went to the bus station to catch a bus to debrovnik. It was supposed to be about four and a half hours but ended up being six. Which means that litterally half of my day today will be spent in transit. But that transit has been glorious so far when I could manage to stay awake. The coast of croatia is absolutely amazing!!! I don't think words could possibly do it justice. Mountains going straight down into clear blue water with few houses at all. And I even got to go through Bosnia and Hertzigovina (forgive my spelling if it's bad) for about half an hour.

Dubrovnik is possibly the most amazing city ever. It's completely walled and then it's surrounded by this amazing water. There are hordes of tourists on the main streets, but if you just turn down a little street it's like a different place. I love taking pictures of the streets and then the laundry hanging out to dry. Which means that later on you can look at a whole lot of pictures like that.

There are no cars in the old city which is great! That's probobly because the streets are too narrow and because there are stairs, so it's not necessarily because they don't want them, but it still makes me happy. I really must go find food now before I fall apart. Oh, they have tiramisu ice cream here!

driving down the road

Zagreb, Croatia

So we've rented a silver fiat "economy" station wagon for our travels. I'm not sure what would happen to me if I went a summer without a driving trip in a station wagon with my family. This one isn't red, but it's still a station wagon. It has a sun roof but we have yet to figure out how to make it open, so I don't suppose that really counts.

Saturday in Zagreb is market day and they have a huge market in one of the main squares with lots of fruits and vegetables, flowers, cheese, nuts, baskets, clothing, and probobly more things that we didn't see. I haven't seen so many people out in a city just walking around since maybe Istanbul. It seems much more alive than most of the places I've been to recently. It makes me happy. They also have lots of cafes which makes William happy. Coffee places do not serve food here. For breakfast they have coffee in the coffee bar and then go across the street to the bakery to get a pastry. Or you get the pastry first and bring it to eat with your coffee. But they have a very high per capita bakery number I think.

They have a church here called St. Catherine's Church. They spell it differently though, but it was still exciting being a Katherine and all. It's a very baroque church with pink walls with fancy white raised plaster designs over the pink and lots of paintings and decoration everywhere. There is also no crucifix in the church.

Speaking of decoration the Hungarians have taken ceiling decoration to a new level. Instead of just decorating the inside they decorate the outside too! There are lots of buildings in Budapest with designs in the tile and some of them are very impressive. They also have lots of animals or faces on the sides of their buildings.

my family!!

Budapest, Hungary

So my family got here yesterday!! And it was really exciting!! And my brother is even taller than ever. They let him grow in my absence...tsk. We're staying on this boat that's also a hotel so they cleverly call it a botel. I'm so happy to see my family! Yayness

I was having internet issues (among many issues) in Romania and couldn't write so now you can pretend I'm still there. I almost missed my train from Sofia to Bucherest. I made it by about a minute and didn't manage to bring any water. I met this welsh cartographer living in sweden on the train. He's traveled all sorts of crazy people, and apparently being a cartographer he has to do a lot of travel now. Maybe I should become a cartographer. Anyways, it's good that I met him because after we got off the train and I tried my ATM card it rejected it. As did the only other ATM in the train station. And both of the change places rejected my turkish lira. So he kindly offered to lend me money, got me some breakfast and I followed him to the hostel he was staying in. It was a pretty nice place run by a canadian family that was partly romanian. The next day I tried about 5 different banks and no one would take my card. And the bank said I had money in my account. So I started freaking out. I went on a field trip with the cartographer and after trying the one bank that takes cards from canadian credit unions, asking in a fancy hotel for a cash advance, and pondering going to a casino, finally found a tiny change place that would give me a cash advance. But I had no money for about two days

Bucherest is one of the weirdest cities I've ever been in. You see Romania had this crazy dictator who's name I can't spell but he destroyed most of the capital and built huge concrete buildings. And then when they kicked him out lots of the buildings were only half done but they never got finished. And then there's the second biggest building in the world. The biggest is the pentagon by the way. At least this one has elevators. It was started the year I was born, but with the materials used (lots of marble) and the size you'd think it was one of those hundred year old palaces. It's not quite finished though. Then there are the few old buildings and arcades the crazy dictator drove past too fast to see or forgot about or something that are still there. And then there are the other buildings that also seem completely out of place. And then everything is in the process of falling apart. So it tried to be planned but it's mostly chaos and it's very strange. But kind of cool in a weird way.

I also went to sighisoara (after I could figure out how to pronounce it to get a ticket there). It's a cute little village and completely different then bucherest. And it's in transylvania. And the birth place of the guy that inspired dracula - vlad tebes - the impaler of turks. They made the house he was born in a bar/resturant which somehow seems wrong to me.

leaving on a um jet bus

Sofia, Bulgaria

I finally did it, I managed to drag myself away from Istanbul. I just keep telling myself that I'll be back and all of those good byes weren't the forever kind. As mom pointed out though I was lucky that I made friends that I was sad to say good bye to. Well...the adventure must go on.

We spent two hours last night - from about 11 to 1 in the morning crossing the boarder. Two passport checks, a bus check and a bagage check that we weren't included in later we managed to cross. I think we were in no mans land at midnight. They were very confused about how I had gotten into Turkey and had to look through my passport numerous times.

I met two french people - Marie and Matthieu on the bus. They are doing an internship in sofia and living in the dorms and at some point during the long border crossing while we were talking they offered to let me stay with them since they had an extra bed. So when we got in at 5 in the morning after almost no sleep I didn't have to think, I went with them and crashed. But then when we went out to get lunch the door lady noticed that I was there. So I have to pay to stay with them now. And the woman who is in charge of such things is taking me and Marie to the police station tomorrow so that I can register and she can reregister. It's something that they make all foriegners do but if you stay in a hostel they do it for you automatically.

So bulgarian is a very weird languague. I feel like if most languages (like turkish) are codes then bulgarian is a double code. I keep thinking that if I could just read the letters than I would understand what they are saying. But then I realize that I still wouldn't understand. Somehow arabic didn't bother me that much. Maybe it's because the alphabet here looks similar enough to the latin alphabet that I feel like I should be able to read it. They use the cyrilic alphabet here by the way. Getting food this morning was a close your eyes, point at something and hope for the best kind of thing. I ended up with some good food though. Although nothing as good as turkish food. Sigh

football

İstanbul, Turkey

It's been a big week for football. First there was the league championship game between Fenerbaçe (on the asian side) and Galatasaray (on the european side). It's a very big rivalry - think UNC vs Duke kind of thing. Fenerbaçe ended up winning and the streets were full of screaming fans waving flags and cars honking their horns.

Then yesterday the European championship between Liverpool and Milan was held here. The liverpool fans were all out in the bars on Tuesday night when I just happened to be out. They drank a lot and then they all started singing at the top of their lungs. My friend Figen and I were sitting outside across the alley from a big group of them, and inside the place we were at they were playing traditional turkish music and there were people dancing. It was pretty funny. I can only imagine what it was like in Taksim after Liverpool won. Turkey is a long way to travel just to see a football match. Crazyness

cats in class

İstanbul, Turkey

Wow it's been a busy past four days. I haven't actually been home in two or maybe it's 3 days now. And I'm sure you're all dying to hear about what I've been doing. Thursday I visited Burçe at Boğaziçi university. She was an exchange student at UNC last semester and she lived in my dorm. She didn't actually believe me when I told her I would visit her so she said it was like being in a dream that I actually showed up. I went with her to the sailing club meeting and listened to a lecture by a turkish olympic sailor...in turkish of course. There were some pictures which was very exciting. And a total of 3 cats stolled in during the lecture and it was really hard not to laugh as they walked around the front of the room. Then I went to the sailing club's spring break trip reunion dinner where they nailed a white table cloth to the wall to use as a screen to project their vast numbers of photos onto. And the food was amazing! Oh how I love turkish food.

Day the next. I visited one of Efdaluddin's caligraphy teachers who is 80 and speaks Turkish, Arabic, French, English and Farci. He seems like an absolutely amazing person. And he was giving lessons in the library of the Sulimaniye mosque complex which is absolutely beautiful. The have a courtyard and garden in the library which I think is a great idea. Later that night I went back to boğaziçi to see a show in the parking lot where they had put up a big stage. The guy singing was Kenen Doğulu and I think that he must be really famous because all the people there knew all the words to all the songs.

English is a very hard language. I think that if I hadn't been born in a place where everyone spoke english than I never would have learned it. I gave my first english lesson on Saturday. My pupil is the son of the nanny to the adorable two year old son of Aylin whose house I have been staying in for the past two nights. I helped him with his homework (How many times a week do you play football? I play football twice a week) and then asked him questions about life, school etc. When I ran out of questions I decided that it was his turn to ask me questions. I hope I was helpful. I feel like I was kind of inept and have no idea how to teach a language.

Yesterday morning I went to a big brunch held by the Sufi group that has adopted me. İt was in a building right on the bosforus that they say used to hold elephant food in ottoman times. An entire building for elephant food...but then I guess elephants eat a lot. The brunch had almost enough food to feed an elephant I would think and it was all amazing. And everyone sat around and talked and the kids ran around and then Alikan (the son of Aylin) fell asleep in his mommy's arms and was even more adorable. And she had to carry him around for an hour.

In Turkey they have an intermission during movies. I think that's possibly one the smartest things ever. The movie theaters in the US should certainly start doing that. Especially with 3 hour movies. And it would make it possible for them to sell even more drinks since people would be able to go to the bathroom halfway through. You would think as good capitalists they would have thought of that before.