Settling In

So Reuben has all the pictures and he's at pre-registration now so pictures from the past two days are coming soon... These past two days have been amazing! I hope the excitement of being in Istanbul never wears off because as of now I love everything about this city. So yesterday (Sunday) I was super drowsy and couldn’t get out of bed until after 12:00 but oh well I finally let jetlag hit me! Afterwards I had a breakfast of bread, nutella, and fresh oranges from the vegetable market and headed out to find cell phones. Unfortunately since it was Sunday most all stores other than grocery markets were closed so Reuben and I just explored South Campus where all of the departments are other than engineering and a few others are located. Let me just say Bogacizi has NOTHING on Chapel Hill. I thought the hills walking to the Fed-Ex Center and Townhouse were bad…little did I know! I really felt like I was walking up a mountain to get back to my apartment from campus! I had to stop and catch my breath! Also there are cats everywhere! Cats are like squirrels here, they dominate campus, they don’t bother anyone but just lay around all over the city and campus. Anyway after exploring we came back to the apartments so Reuben could meet his Religion TA, Zainab, and I headed to my room to unpack my last bag. After a while they both came knocking on my door to invite me on a walk to Bebek. Bebek is an upscale neighborhood at the bottom of the hill that Bogazici is on; Bebek located on the Bosphorous river front and beautiful! I am amazed how many times I'm just speechless for the views of this city, I literally have seen nothing more beautiful. We trekked down the hill and stopped at a café for çay and simit. Simit is a bagel like bread but much lighter and covered in sesame seeds. Zainab noticed many Turkish celebrities there from TV and movies since the neighborhood is so upscale but I haven’t started reading gossip mags yet so I was mad at myself for not recognizing anyone! Anyway we made the long uphill trek, and this trek literally was straight up the entire hill; probably about 500 feet. After that we just chilled for the rest of the night. We tried to catch the Superbowl but all the bars playing it were 30 mins away so we ended up just going to sleep! Anyway today we found the gym which is the American football team’s weight room under the stadium directly beside our apartments and worked out there/ ran on the track for a while. Afterwards we showered and headed to campus so I could get my id for registration. Everyone running registration was really nice student who were all member of the foreign exchange club. It’s pretty self-explanatory but it’s a club of Turkish students and foreign students; the club organizes events and trips I think it should be a good experience. I got a Turkish buddy who I can practice my Turkish with and hang out with! After that Reuben and I ventured to Cevahir which is prounounced Jevahir, this is the largest mall in Europe. We thought we could quickly look around for a few things but that was impossible in 2 hours we barely got through one of the seven or more floors oh well we have plenty of time to come back! Anyway later in the evening I met a girl from Boston University and the University of Washington. The three of us, Reuben, and some other guys all went out to Taksim which is where pretty much all the nightlife is…we had a great time! In Istanbul apparently it doesn’t matter if it’s a Monday or not everything was open and semi crowded! Pictures to follow…until then <3>