My friend Kerem

So this post isn't really about something I did, but it is a shorter one about one of the friends I made in Istanbul. One of my favorite people I met was Kerem. He was in my Intro to Turkish Politics class. We met through that wretched group project that I described in an earlier post. We ended up being in the same group because I asked some random girl that I sat next to on the first day of class to be in her group. Truthfully, I asked her because I thought she was attractive and thought being in her group would mean I got to see more of her.

So through this group, I started talking to Kerem. I really liked that he was an intellectual guy and he didn't mind talking to me about Turkish politics or other things I was really interested in. Sometimes, I think some of my friends at Bogazici got tired of the questions I asked and wanted to talk about lighter subjects. Kerem was never like that and was always a wealth of interesting information. We also shared an interest in music and he sent me a couple of neat Turkish music stuff to check out. I was also amazed at how well he spoke English. With the exception of Elif, who actually lived in the US for a while, Kerem was probably the best English as a second language speaker I met in Turkey. He taught himself by reading the Harry Potter books (and even spoke English with a slight British accent).

We worked on our project and at one point I got to spend the night at his house, which was fun. Unfortunately, I wasn't very studious and had difficulty staying up past 3am or so. I forgot what his mom does for a living, but his dad is a trader on the Istanbul Stock Exchange. I thought that was pretty darn cool (bc I am interested in stocks). Also, every member of their family was fluent in English, which was kind of surprising. Their house was really nice too (they lived in Sariyer)



Although Kerem was a pretty studious guy and we only hung out sometimes, I enjoyed his company. Over the summer we met up one day and he took me to Taksim Square. We went to dinner and then to a dessert place. The dessert place was particularly cook because in addition to dessert they give you a little appetizer of coffee bean dipped in different types of chocolate (white, milk, and dark). It was delcious. Kerem also took me on some side streets of Taksim, allowing me to see some places I hadn't seen before (and the pedestrian path all the way to Kabatas).

Kerem is one of those people I still keep in touch with after my time in Turkey. Actually, he was helpful during my honors thesis writing process. He still has another year to go at Bogazici but he definitely has a bright future ahead. I am glad I met him in Turkey and hope we continue to keep in touch.