IT'S HAPPENING!

So I have officially spent my first afternoon and evening in Istanbul... It's hard to believe that it's already here. That said, I guess I'll recap from the beginning (not that I've done that much yet, but... pretend like you care).

The first plane ride was neither terrible nor awesome... Apparently when I sign up for a plane ticket, there is a special notice next to my name that says "Seat this guy next to an obese man always," because seriously? Both flights? Anyways, we had individual screens for our seats where we could choose what we wanted to watch. Because I wanted to keep things lighthearted, I started with The Reader (the Kate Winslet movie). That was pretty good, but after that my choices were limited - Twilight or Paul Blart: Mall Cop. I decided to give Kevin James a chance, and in all seriousness that movie was more depressing than The Reader (but for very different reasons). Also, they had an episode of 30 Rock, so at least they got something right. The food was... food. Because I was in the back, they ran out of trays for the last 6 of us, so they found some extra fish meals from business class. Hooray. But it was edible, and at 9:30 at night if I'm still hungry, that requirement isn't even steadfast. Anyways.

I slept for most of my layover in Frankfurt... it was kind of an awkward amount of time. The second flight was much better, I had TONS of leg room because of my seat being next to the emergency (which someone should tell the lady at the Lufthansa desk that that does not, in fact, count as a window seat. Because there is no window on the emergency door). But the new obese man was a very friendly German, so that was good.

The taxi ride was ridiculously long, but it was a good way to see a lot of the city. It's weird, because it's like there are multiple towns almost in the city of Istanbul, each with a slightly different style of architecture and whatnot. The part I'm in is neat, and I think is one of the busier parts of the city. The streets are really narrow though, so it doesn't feel like a big city. It's cool.



So then I went out to search for dinner, and ended up around the corner from the hotel at an open air restaurant cafe thing... I got a salad (HUGE, and there was lots of mint leaves in it) and shish kabobs with roasted vegetables... the meat was seasoned really well and cooked well, and all of the vegetables were good. If I was better I would have taken pictures, but I already felt awkward enough eating alone. Sorry Mom.

Then I walked around for a little bit, and now I'm back at the hotel, of which I've put pictures up. It's nice - for some reason I get two beds... not that I need the second bed, it's just kind of cool that I get it. Because I'm selfish.

But it's almost 11:30 now, and I'm beat from traveling... tomorrow everybody else in the program gets here, so that's exciting. And after looking at how much I've written, I'll keep it way shorter next time. Thanks for reading!


My Room!


The shower isn't enclosed at all... so water gets everywhere. Silly turks. Also, the toilet has a bidet. I thought those were just a myth.