Istanbul in May

With the end of finals and the beginning of summer brings a bittersweet time for me. On the sweet side, I no longer had to worry about school and classes and could devote all of my energy to exploring Istanbul and spending time with the new friends I had made over the past 5 months. The times were also bitter because it meant that my time in Turkey was nearing an end and that I would have to say goodbye to some of my new friends I had made.

After our last final (on June 10th), a group of us (Alex, Vilena, Gorkem, Ali, Maddy, and myself) went down to Bebek to celebrate. As I have mentioned previously, Turkey is a relatively dry country due to Islamic laws and it is hard to get a decent variety of alcohol at a decent price. Despite these shortcomings, there was a brewery in Bebek that brewed its own alcohol. I think some of the other exchange students had already tried it, but I had not. We decided to go down there and I had the beer sampler, which consisted of 5 different types of beers that were brewed there (enough to give one the chance to try a little of everything to see what they liked).

I may not have talked about this group of people previously. I had only started becoming friends with many of them towards the end of my study abroad experience. Most of them found each other in the Superdorm (where all the exchange kids lived). Since I had not lived there, it was a bit harder for me to make friends with the exchange students (other than the ones I met in my Turkish language class). Maddy and I started sitting next to each other in Turkish Politics class and became friendly that way. I would say she is pretty much how I met most of the others (though I sometimes spoke to Alex outside of Turkish class).

Maddy is actually a very interesting person. Her family is of both British and Turkish origin. She can speak Turkish fluently and is a very smart person with a good sense of humor. I enjoyed spending time with her and getting to know her throughout our classes together. Ali and Gorkem are Turkish students who are enrolled in a dual program at SUNY-Binghamton. They spend 2 years in NY and 2 years in Turkey to get a joint degree from both. I imagine it will give them quite a few more opportunities in Turkey if that's where they decide to end up. Both of them were really nice guys, but also a little nerdy (yes, I realize this is coming from me and many of you would argue that I am kind of nerdy too).

Vilena is also an interesting character. She is Russian but studies in SUNY-Binghamton as well. We had a tendency to butt heads a few times because we were each very staunch in our opinions. I like to believe I am not as stubborn as she is when i am wrong, but what do I know? At any rate, I, unfortunately, don't talk to her much these days because we ended up having a falling out.

You already know about Alex from my description of my trip to Georgia and Armenia. Ohad is another interesting person. He is from Pittsburg, PA. He studied History at Bogazici and LOVED to take pictures. When I say photography was his favorite thing, I mean he would randomly take pictures of people on busses. He was not always popular for his picture-taking. He also was very much into the whole being Jewish and Israel thing. It was surprising to me, given this fact, that he chose to study in Turkey. All in all I thought he had good intentions and what little things he may have done that were odd, I ignored because I knew he was a good guy.

So these were some of the foreign friends I had made during my last month or so at Bogazici. In addition to the outing to the brewery, we also had an evening in Istinye Park (one of Turkey's newest and biggest malls) and found a very delicious Mongolian Grill place. This was surprising because Turkey does not have too many foreign food places (and by this time I was dying for something non-Turkish). It was exactly the same as it is here (except that it was 40 TL for all you can eat where as it might only be 2/3 that in the US). The other bonus of the Mongolian was that in America, you can't have leftovers, while in Turkey you can. I guess that sufficiently corrects for the price difference. :)

I also became friendly with Leesa, a student from Oklahoma. We met and studied together one day in Emirgin Park, which is a beautiful park to the north of Bebek just off the Bosphorus Strait. There was a giant chess board there and tons of landscaping. The highlight of the park was definitely the köşkler (big houses built during Ottoman times). Actually, the names of these houses is the origin for the word kiosk, which we use in English today. I took a lot of pictures of blooming flowers in the park and it was a very picturesque place to study. There was even an icecream place for me to get my favorite karadut ice cream (which apparently translates to black mulberry). I love that stuff and have yet to find a place here in the US that has it (much to my disappointment).

Saying goodbye to most of these friends (with the exception of Alex) was sad. It was nice to have made some new friends from all over the US and the world and I would not forget them soon.

To see some of my pictures from this, see the album entitled Istanbul in May. I also encourage you to check out the Bosphorus cruise photos which featured a lovely afternoon on the strait and produced some awesome pictures.