let me show you...

Merhaba!

So I don't have too much of an update this time around because we haven't gone anywhere too extravagant - everyone was busy studying for our Turkish test, which was today. And which was not hard at all. Basically, what I'm trying to say is I'm fluent in Turkish now.

Went to Bebek to study yesterday at a coffee shop. Bebek is a little part of town right along the coast where a wealthier part of the population live, and it shows. The women there look like they belong on 90210. I actually felt scuzzy. I saw only one female with a head scarf on the entire day. Quite the contrast to Sultanahmet, the neighborhood where the Hagia Sophia and Blue Mosque are located. Istanbul really is a modern city of extremes. Kind of like our own American cities...

Anyway, to orient you I figured I'd post a few pictures of Turkey. I don't have a large variety because I am extremely technologically handicapped and had to battle with my camera for a few days.

The pictures of the Blue Mosque during the day and at night, the picture of the inside of the harem, and the picture of Hagia Sophia belong to Jill Humble. She took them. I did not. They do not belong to me. So please don't steal them.

P.S. The food is absolutely wonderful. I am having no problem at all gorging my face away.
P.P.S. Turkish peanut butter is better than American peanut butter. Heresy! you may shout. However, it is the truth.

Allahaismarladik!


Side street near campus


Inside a market looking up into the street


Overlooking the Bosphorus - the land on the other side of the water is Asia


Looking down onto Bebek


A quad-like area on campus


Inside the harem at Topkopi Palace - the Sultan's Mother's apartments


Hagia Sophia


The Blue Mosque at night. The Muslims are celebrating their Imam (whose name is in lights) because of Ramadan.


The Blue Mosque