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Published: September 30th 2008
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Dweebs
With view of mountains from waterfront in Antalya I originally wrote this on Saturday. I didn't publish it because I wanted to have videos and photos ready first, but getting both uploaded has been such a pain in the ass. uplloading to Flickr takes forever from Turkey--Facebook is faster upload, but for some reason at the last moment the upload fails more than half the time. Also, uploading this video is just not working and I can't use YouTube in Turkey. If you don't see the video above it still hasn't worked. Any ideas? Also, if you want to see the promised photos they can be found at the following address:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2324804&l=92296&id=10738138
Earlier photos can be found here:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2324341&l=30e1a&id=10738138
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2317417&l=83aca&id=10738138
As you can see there are some other epic photos taken by my companions included in this post.
I've had a kind of lazy Bayram, but I've gotten some important stuff done, like reading (got about a third of the reading for the semester for Jazz done so far...hmm), working to put the finishing touches on my QP finally, getting on the whole getting-rid-of-bedbugs thing, and trying to find ways of getting money (ChaCha Guide maybe? Not much money though, huh?). Tonight I leave for Scary
Waterfront in Antalya Cappadocia, known for its crazy geology and historicity, for three days. Hopefully lots of pictures and, more importantly, stories to share, eh? Anyway, after that I think I'll be posting more about different aspects of life in Turkey a fewer updates on my everyday life--I'll give you updates, of course, but I think there might be less going on on a day-to-day basis as we finally settle into a groove here. First one up might be a post about the ways in which living in Istanbul is less and, at times, more expensive than Seattle. Cheers!
It's been about a week since I updated you guys. Sorry. It was the first week of school, and then since Bayram started (yesterday) I've been trying to figure out how to deal with a bed bug infestation. Fun! It should be over soon if it's not already, though, so that's good.
Anyway, first week of school? Fantastic. Amazing. I only had 4 of my 5 classes since I missed my econ class and we didn't have the second session of it this week. Jazz looks to be fantastically fun. Philosophy of Freedom is going to be sweet because my professor is
great and it's a cool topic and I've already sort of made a friend in it--Semiha, the cute Turkish girl who keeps chatting me up, hah. Politics of Culture & Identity in the European Union is going to be way more interesting than I thought, partly because my professor is so interesting. He reminds me of Jim Wellman in that he is a very good lecturer, but he is very full of hubris and rhetoric. I think Jim Wellman was doing it on purpose, or was at least conscious of it, whereas Professor Yılmaz is not. His whole goal is to show how fucked up the EU and its attitudes and policies towards cultural diversity are, and he is so unapolagetically biased against it that it's almost charming. My Peace and Conflict class seems similar--Professor Banias basically spent the first day going "THESE ARE MY RADICAL PERSCRIPTIONS FOR HOW THE WORLD SHOULD WORK. COMMENTS?" and completely disregarding every major objection everyone had to her ideas and completely ignoring other important ones. But she will only teach like 3 lectures in that class tops anyway. Peace & Conflict looks like it is going to be amazing--it's going to be team taught
Hadrian's Gate avec bored man
Six times as old as the USA. The gate, that is. by 7 different professors over the semester, including apparently some rather important ones, on the topic of peace and conflict from 7 different perspectives--historical, legal, philosophical, literary, and a couple others I forget. Oh man, sweet. I can't wait to get the syllabus.
Şeker Bayram (or "sugar festival"), the last week of Ramadan, started yesterday. It's a national holiday in Turkey where everyone hangs out with their families and eats candy and nothing is open. I'm excited to go down to Sultanahmet and enjoy the festival atmosphere of the "HOLY SHIT WE CAN FINALLY EAT" festival that happens every night of Ramadan. It was really fun when I went before it was Bayram, so I can imagine what it'll be like now--though the weather has been decidedly shitty for the last several days, so the that will probably subdue celebrations a bit. Oh well. Either way I now have yet another week with which to do something besides school, which will hopefully include:
-Finishing my QP once and for all
-Becoming a Chacha guide and starting to make money
-Going to Cappadocia (maybe spending an extra day or two there than the official Boğaziçi trip is spending!)
-Going
to the Grand Bazaar and spending some more time in the Old City
-Getting a bit of a head start on school reading
-Skype my family
This semester shouldn't be too hard--all I have to do is reading, except probably for my one economics class. No papers (thank God), just tests, which I am good at. Reading and tests...and listening to Jazz and occasionally doing problem sets. Sweet. Sounds like my kind of semester. After Bayram I have two more week-long breaks, one of which I hope to spend in London (40 pounds round trip from Istanbul!!!). That means this semester will only be 11 weeks long, which basically makes it a drawn-out quarter.
More and more I am thinking I am going to stay here the whole year, especially if I can find a way to make some money. This place is amazing and the people I know here are fabulous. I'm friends with one of those people who is so pretty you really just genuinely enjoy looking at them. I'm also befriending a Turkish girl with amazing taste in music, and Turks from the exchange commission who are amazingly welcoming and nice. I'm also friends with
Dan Zimmer, who I am genuinely lucky to have met, even if on the other side of the world despite the fact that we lived less than a mile from each other back in Seattle. I am also friends with Ariel, who will be here the whole year. And Paul and Anna and Yui-san and aosidhfaoih so many amazing people. Just last night on the shuttle from Taksim I met a hilarious Turkish kid from my school named Jam whose use of English swear words was impeccable. My school is amazing and beautiful--every time I talk to a Turk about going to Boğaziçi they tell me how lucky I am, and I agree! This city is phenomenal; the views are more beautiful than anywhere I've seen, the New City (which my school runs a cheap shuttle to and from until 2 AM on weeknights and 3 AM on weekends!) pulses with vigor and hipness and life--just the other night for Gabby's birthday we went to the best club I've ever been to, called Dirty, where they have a room with house and electroclash and another room with 70s funk and soul! The rooftop bars are amazing. The Old City is
Hiking down
Death-defying breathtaking. My neighborhood already feels like home. Rent and food are cheap...even if beer is absolutely not. My roommates are great. The only possible problems are money and bed bugs, and both may be solved very soon!
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anonymous
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The video works with Firefox 3 beta on my mac ... And you are making me want to leave this country more and more!