As far as I remember, the last time I posted was a week ago yesterday, and the last day I described was Monday the 22nd. Goodness, this post has been a long time coming. I feel overwhelmed at the prospect of trying to summarize the past week and a half, but I will just hit whatever comes to my mind first.
Several times over the past week, I have come so close to not going out with friends from the program, because of being tired or wanting to save money or wanting to get work done or something like that. But almost every time I nearly said no, I said yes, and I don’t regret a single yes.
On Wednesday evening, my friend Kelsey invited me on an aimless macera (adventure), just for fun. I was feeling tired and sad and I kind of just wanted to nap, but I’m so glad I said yes. Part of my tiredness came from my sadness, and part of my sadness came from loneliness. But although in retrospect it made perfect sense to spend time with a friend to cure both ailments, at the time my weary brain thought it made more sense to stay in. But I went out with Kelsey, and we walked along the Bosphorus until we reached an adorable café right by the shore. I was happy to rest by the water and treat myself to a dinner out, since I have mainly been relying on cold bread, cheese, and canned beans for dinner to save money. It was a rather Americanized restaurant, and Kelsey got a salad with smoked salmon. I got tost, which is basically the Turkish version of grilled cheese. Even though it was pretty much the same nutritionally as my normal cheese-and-bread dinners, I got it because A) it’s yummy and warm and B) I was saving money for dessert. For dessert we got Bailey’s Irish Cream lattes with ice cream, and they were perfect. Then, in true Turkish fashion, we ended the meal with a cup each of Turkish tea. We spoke Turkish about 75% of the time, and though we couldn’t say very complicated things to each other, it was lovely to practice. And it was even lovelier to spend 2 or 3 hours relaxing over dinner. Unfortunately I didn’t take any pictures that night, but here are pictures of the Bosphorus from a couple nights later, beautiful as ever!
I don’t think much happened on Thursday. On Friday, two things happened that I want to mention here: the TLCP hosted a 3-hour private boat tour of the Bosphorus in the evening, and the U.S. Supreme Court legalized marriage for EVERYONE, regardless of sexual orientation, in all 50 states. Because I don’t have data here, I didn’t hear the news until getting back from the boat tour to the dorm and wifi. Therefore, I will describe the boat tour first. We saw beautiful sites (obviously), and we had a tour guide who explained the history and architecture of many buildings, but the best part was socializing. It’s easy to only talk to the people in your 10-person class most days, so being on a boat with most of the program participants was nice. Picture explanations: The first picture is of the boat we took. The second is of the Savarona, once one of the largest private yachts in the world, and it belonged to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic. The third is of Istanbul’s third bridge (all three connect the European and Asian sides of the city), not yet completed and quite controversial. Thousands of trees have been cut down already, the location is less than perfect, and many people in Istanbul oppose its construction (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yavuz_Sultan_Selim_Bridge). The fourth is the Turkish flag, of course, and the fifth is the famous Ortaköy Mosque. The sixth is a picture of the Maiden’s Tower, one of Istanbul’s most iconic sites, and the seventh is of a boat passing in front of the Old City, or Sultanahmet, a touristic district of Istanbul that is home to the Topkapı Sarayı (Palace), Ayasofya (Hagia Sofia), and Blue Mosque.
When I got back to the dorm at around 8pm, I heard the news from SCOTUS. It truly was a historic day and moment, and amidst all the excitement, one of the things that struck me most was how much I can like a person with whom, on this issue, I so greatly disagree. One of my closest friends here, and the guy I spent the most time talking to on the boat tour, is a Catholic who does not support the ruling. Shortly after getting back to the dorm on Friday evening, he posted what was, in my opinion, a gracious and diplomatic Facebook post disagreeing with the SCOTUS ruling. This friend and I do not discuss our beliefs on these issues, which is perhaps why we still get along so well. And while it may be obvious that people who disagree on such issues can still be good friends, in the liberal/artsy/Northwestern/yuppie-bound college world in which I live, almost everyone I know holds values and beliefs quite close to my own. Therefore I have come to truly value this program, not only for the Turkish I am learning, but also for the opportunity to meet so many new people and be reminded of such simple truths as the fact that friendship can (sometimes) withstand ideological differences. Now, on a lighter note – here is a picture of George feeling accomplished about being ready to publish this blog post:
Alas, I only wrote about Wednesday and Friday. Now I must do homework, and I will post about my weekend and this past week soon enough. İyi günler!
Correction – In a previous post, I spoke of going to Rümeli Hisarı. The correct spelling is Rumeli Hisarı.