countdowns, "some nights," and other recent happenings.

It's a typical Wednesday.

I'm at the best coffee house this side of Istanbul - and by this side, I really mean this side: as in the Asian side, and not the European side. Kafeinhouse, which provides me with everything I need to be productive in the sense of homework, online housekeeping, journaling, etc. Not to mention the baristas can make a mean latte, and they have great sandwiches too. Throw a great mix of 50s american music, cozy and comfy chairs, and internet access and you can find me here a good four nights a week if not more. Everything I need to really survive basically.

I have three countdowns running on my dashboard that help keep me in check with what is coming up. First up, if my 20th birthday which is approaching in a short 7 days. As in one week from now, I am closing the chapter on my teenage years and moving on into that weird space in between 18 when you are officially declared an adult, and 21 when you really become an adult. It's all so weird really, thinking about myself being here on earth for two whole decades - all that I've done and seen, accomplished and loved. Plans are up in the air for next Thursday. I'm up for anything, granted that I still manage to get a full night's sleep for classes the next day - the last day of classes at Yeditepe. WHAT.

Next on the countdown list is till I return to the states come May 1st. I have 55 more days until my plane touches down in LAX and I greet my parents at the airport, get thrust back into life in the United States, a typical Dinuba "summer" and suddenly have to face everything that I know and knows me. Part of me is really excited to be back where I understand what is happening and I know the familiar, to eat pancakes and talk in English, but part of me is ridiculously scared that I've somehow managed to change over this semester and I'm not going to fit into that "American" mold that I left behind. It's going to be weird, no doubt, and I'm not sure I'm ready to experience that just yet.

The last countdown I have running is until I make the familiar and loved trek back up the mountain top to a place I love, and that loves me. Calvin Crest 2012 begins in 94 days, and I know this summer is going to be so incredibly different, but I am excited for what it hold. I can't wait to be back in that place, to be around people I somehow only get to see once a year but know me so incredibly well. I'm leading the girls up at Outpost this summer, and even though that was completely unexpected, I find peace in the fact that it was in no way unexpected to God.  He picked me and will prepare me for this position, so I trust in him. I am beyond excited to see how he uses me and the rest of this staff during the coming summer.

Alright. In other news, if you haven't download Fun's new album, "Some Nights" stop reading right now. Yes, right now, go download to it and listen to it while you read the rest of this post.

It has been my go-to-music for the past, I don't know...week since I download it. It gives me hope, and I don't know why. Listening to "Why Am I the One" while I bus back to Yeditepe just makes me smile. It gives me a link back to life in the US, since all of my friends back at Westmont are listening and rocking out to this album as well.

I love good music. If you now me, you know that I can lost in a song forever. As a singer/songwriter myself, I appreciate music, intentions related to music, and a final product that simply takes your breath away. That's what "Some Nights" have done for me. Incredibly good album, a great listen, and probably my go-to album for the rest of this trip.

Okay. So other cool stuff I have done in Istanbul over the last couple days, along with some photos...

Sampling the largest baked potato I think I have ever seen.

Friday night ice skating with friends at Capitol Mall, four stories of amazing shops and food!

Another beautiful Sunday, which I spent going to the Istanbul Modern Art Museum and Van Gogh exhibit!

A classic American chevy, with Turkish interior. How's that for cross-cultural!

Probably one of the most amazing art exhibits I have EVER seen.

Starry Night - my favorite Van Gogh piece :)

Monday field trip to visit Chora Church, and soak in the beauty of their mosaics and frescos!

Exterior of the church

Amazing interior shots!

"What do statues do anyway??" - Emilie Whitman

I love my ridiculously cool and blessed life.

Respectfully submitted,
Leah

sunrise...sunset.

Early morning wake up calls, and late afternoon commutes back home create the best opportunities for sunrise/sunset shots. Here are a few to help you soak in the beauty of Istanbul that I get to experience everyday!

A shot of the sunset during our first week in Turkey. This photo was taken on the coast of the Bosporus in Ortaköy near a fishing spot for locals.

During our two week stay at the Manzara apartments, we were treated to amazing views overlooking the Golden Horn from our balcony. Here is a sunset shot from the days of 7am wake up calls for language lessons.

Another sunrise shot from Manzara, on the first day we woke up to snow-covered rooftops in the city. Hooray for a never-ending winter!

Excuse the poor quality of my iPhone - here is a sunset shot on the ferry from Eminönü back to Kadiköy, a commute I make quite often and when taken at the right time, creates amazing views of Sultanahamet. 

A shot from today's sunset, and my favorite so far. The weather was rainy and cloudy all day, until the skies cleared in the late afternoon and gave way to this spectacular sight to end the day. 

some things never change...

March 2012 - Istanbul, Turkey                                 March 2011 - Ventura, California

Annie Hausler, everyone.

Our friendship has spanned a year's worth of hilarious moment, pink sin water, next-door-neighbors, church buddies, sour path watermelon fanatics, and now - an amazing semester together in Istanbul. Love you fanners. May the great adventures and memories continue for many years to come!

çay thoughts.

Nothing says time to write an insightful and reflective blog entry like a cup of steaming çay on an overcast afternoon.

Quite possibly the Turkish equivalent of a Starbucks, where I study/blog.

It's Wednesday afternoon, my homework is done and I have an hour and a half to spare before we head off to our service project this afternoon, so here is a more reflective entry on recent happenings and how I am processing all that this semester is presenting me with.

We're more than halfway through this semester, through this life-changing four months, through this trip that once looked so huge and scary, and now feels like home. When did that happen? When did Turkey suddenly become "normal" and everything in the US seem unnatural and weird? When did I finally come to terms that I live here and that I'm not going to step foot back on American soil until May? Somewhere along the lines I stopped feeling like a tourist and found myself feeling at home here where everything was completely unnatural at first. Somewhere in this trip I found myself full of joy and happy to be in such an unfamiliar place - something I usually get stressed and scared about. And now - I love it. I love being in a place where I can't understand the conversation next to me because my Turkish language skills are still pretty low. I love seeing people different than me, seeing the sunset over a skyline dotted with minarets, hearing the call to prayer and being a religious minority. I love feeling different.

Now that we are in our final stretch back at Yeditepe I am coming to terms with how quickly this semester has passed by. I remember touching down in Istanbul after a bumpy plane ride from Germany, our team peering eagerly out of their airplane windows to catch their first glance of Turkey. I remember being greeted by Dana, Kurt, Jim and Heather at the airport, feeling so accomplished that all of us and our luggage made it safely to Turkey. Moving into Manzara and beginning Turkish lessons. Eating my first tavuk doner pide and having my first cup of çay. Our daily lunches with our language teachers. The first trip to Sultanahmet. Everything felt so new - unnatural and different.

And look how far we have come.

Truly an accomplishment. A significant moment in our lives. Something to feel happy and joyful over. Something to be remembered always. This is what this trip has meant to me so far. Stepping far, far, outside my comfort zone and loving how far I have come. Taking the leap of faith that has taught me so much about myself, and I can't feel anything else except joyful about it. This trip has been amazing so far, and as we enter the second half, which will probably fly by just as quick, if not faster, than the first, I am making it a habit to soak up as much of Turkey as I can. Because when March is over, we leave. And we don't come back. Actually, we can't come back - our visas expire and that means we have to leave the country for at least three months. So...goodbye Turkey till who knows when.

I don't even want to think about leaving this place that I now consider home. It's funny how quickly I consider Turkey home when it took me almost twice this long to consider Westmont home. But the fact is, I love this place, this country, this community and everything else that Turkey offers. I do plan on coming back one day - I don't think I could let myself live if I didn't come back to Turkey at least one more time in my life. Come back "home" to a place that is now dear to my heart.

Okay. Enough with the emotional outpouring of my heart, let's do a quick photo update of the sights I have seen/experienced in the end of my four-day weekend.

Found my way to the Yeni Camii, on the coastline of Eminonu. Beautiful, huge, not extremely touristy and stunning in every way, shape, and form. I also ate lunch listening to the call to prayer from this moque. Amazing stuff. 

More exterior and interior shots of the "new" mosque which is actually 350 years old.

A spontaneous jam session in the Grand Bazaar, with a shop keeper who generously let me play a guitar he was selling (that I was also not interested in buying) and taught me simply chords on the traditional Turkish guitar he is playing in this photo.  

More photos from the Grand Bazaar, from top left moving clockwise: small music shop, prayer beads, turkish delight selection, and a walkway through the bazaar.

Nothing screams "I-LOVE-TURKEY" like a grand selection of Turkish delight for sale. My favorite that I have sampled has been honey-pistachio, super delicious and flavorful!

The best cake you can get from the Galata Konak cafe - a banana creme caramel concoction that will drive your taste buds nuts. And only for 5TL ($2.50)? Worth the hour and a half commute from Yeditepe.

Dore Music in the Galata district, which I have deemed the guitar center of Turkey. So many amazing guitars, I could have spent hours in here playing and looking at their selection. Okay, maybe I did. But this is absolutely my kind of store!

A sufi demonstration I attended where I got to see a sacred religious ceremony involving the famous "whirling dervishes." How they manage to not get dizzy, the world may never know. It was a refreshing take on Islam and quite the mystifying performance. 

Respectfully submitted,

Leah

Four Day: Days 1 and 2 - Topkapi Palace, Sultanahamet Mosque, Egyptian Spice Bazaar, and more.

Well, I never thought we would reach this point, but we am officially halfway through this amazing semester.

Yes, four-day is finally here!

Cue the celebration for a short break that is well-needed by everyone. A group of girls and I packed up our bags and ventured out from Yeditepe and the dorms, and booked a small hotel in the heart of Sultanahamet - "the old city," where we are spending our long weekend exploring the must-see sites of Istanbul, as well as venturing around an area that we no longer have quick access to like we did when we lived in Galata.

After classes on Friday, we took an evening off and hung around Yeditepe - I took the evening to organize some stuff for this weekend, catch up on some emails/work, and clean up my room. Then come Saturday morning we took public transportation over to Eminonu, and checked in to our hotel. We dropped off our bags, and then ventured out to explore the city on an overcast, but pleasant day. Shea and I headed over to check out Topkai palace and Istanbul's archeological museums.

For starters, Topkapi palace is INSANE. It is literally a palace, full of rooms carrying so many priceless artifacts, decorated as beautifully and intricately as you can image - and I got to explore all of it! We walked through many rooms displaying everything! I saw ancient Ottoman clothing, priceless jewelry (which included a diamond the size of my fist that required its own security guard), a hall of ancient artifacts where I saw hair from Prophet Muhammad's beard, and my personal favorite: a whole hall dedicated to ancient Ottoman weapons. I have never seen so many things that could viciously kill a person in one convient place!

We wandered throughout the courtyards, which were super busy since it was Saturday, and also not raining - which is a rare occurrence. Amid hundreds of other tourists, I took a couple hours to stand in awe of all that Topkapi held. The Ottoman Empire doesn't look very backward when you look at all the stuff they managed to have in this palace by the sea.

We spent another good hour exploring the Harem, which is like a mini palace in itself. This is where the Sultan's wife and female servants and children lived. It was beautifully decorated, filled with pools, baths, and apartments for the individuals who lived there. Really, really, cool stuff.

Shea and I took a late lunch at a cafe near Sultanahamet Square, got some kebabs - as well as chai on the house thanks to our good ol' Turkish! Funny story, people get really impressed when you use Turkish here. Perhaps it's just such a touristy area, they find it really intriguing when a "tourist" can speak the native language. After lunch (and the afternoon call to prayer) we headed back to the Istanbul Archeology Museum for a couple hours and explored ancient artifacts from all over Turkey and beyond. I loved looking at all the different tombs, corpses, and sarcophagi in the necropolis hall on the ground floor. I felt like Temperance Bones, exploring ancient human remains!

We came back to the hotel for naptime (much needed) and then ventured back out for dinner (street food!) later. After a well-rested night, I woke up this morning ready to explore more of the city - this time on my own and have a little "me" time on a new adventure.

I started off going to Sultanahamet square, took some fantastic photographs of the Hagia Sophia and Sultanahamet mosque since today was sunny! I haven't seen bright blue skies in a while. I went inside the mosque and got to look around at this amazing work of art. I managed to coordinate my visiting times so they didn't interfere with the call to prayer, which is when tourists are encouraged not to be inside the mosque as it disturbs those who come to worship there. Regardless, this building took my breath away. It was BEAUTIFUL!

I then walked over to the Basilica Cistern, which is an awesome underground museum of the old water ways in the Ottoman times. It was creepy, wet, and smelled funny, but was super cool. I loved being able to see all this old architecture that is still standing today!

I walked over the Golden Horn, went under the bridge and found a restaurant where I tried my first "balik ekmek" which means "fish bread" and is essentially a fish sandwich. They literally are catching fish off the bridge above their resturaunt, bringing the fresh meat in, grilling it and slapping it on a hoagie roll for you. It is so good! Ate lunch overlooking the Golden Horn/Bosporus - and got to listen to the call to prayer coming from the "new" mosque nearby.

I wandered into the Egyptian Spice Bazaar, which first of all smelled AMAZING. So many spices, teas, dried/fresh fruits, and turkish delight! It was super awesome. I tried a lot of different types of things offered to me by friendly shop owners who were so excited that a Californian girl can speak decent Turkish. My favorite sample had to be some pomegranate-honey-pistachio turkish delight that was...well, delightful! I bought some tea to bring home, and wandered around for a bit before I excited and found myself standing right in front of the Yeni Camii - "new mosque."

I decided to go in and have a look around, and I was so glad I did! It is also a beautiful mosque, but not as touristy as the blue mosque. There were a lot of Muslims doing their prayers in there, so I was careful not to be a typical tourist and disturb them. I am gaining so much respect for Muslims and the Islamic faith since I've been here, and it was amazing to get to experience what a real mosque feels like on the inside. Beautiful designs, and stunning architecture.

Tomorrow brings one more full day of four day, which I plan to spend going back to the Grand Bazaar for more shopping, a bit of time in Galata, a sufi demonstration, and whatever else the day brings. Tuesday we head back to school - homework and all that fun stuff will probably come with it. But for now, let the four day adventures continue!

Respectfully submitted,
Leah

altıncı haftada.

The sixth week is coming to an end.

It's funny how life has settled into such a routine. Where I'm not freaked out over the fact that I'm hearing Turkish constantly. That in fact I can understand some of it. That I can communicate with people in a language I didn't know six weeks ago. That single realization has pulled me into a ton of other realizations about how far I have come on this trip.

That I have seen the sunny streets of the old city of Antalya and snow covered Cappadocia.
That I have stood in awe of the Aya Sofya.
That I have experienced snow. A lot of snow.
That I understand how to use public transportation, from a ferry to the metro to the inner-city trams.
That I can now finally locate which side of Istanbul is Asian, and which is European.
That I no longer have jet lag. Which is a grand accomplishment.
That I have a newfound love for salep, portakal suyu, and elma cay.
The phrase "We are Turkish airlines, we are GLOBALLY YOURS" has a lot more meaning.
That I have new friends, in this trip and down the hall.
That laundry man and I in the dorms are now friends.

And so much more.

Four day approaches next week (although my friends at Westmont get to celebrate this weekend) which officially marks the halfway point of this trip. It seems so long ago that I woke up on New Year's Day with a headache and a sad realization that my time at home was coming to an end. That I was going to have to start packing and I was so sad about it all. And then the nerves began. So intense that I couldn't pull myself to eat - a full loss of apetite anda fear for the unknown that was to come as January 6th quickly approached. My heart beating out of my chest as my parents and I took the airport shuttle to LAX. The last hugs, the final photograph, boarding the plane, and then leaving the states.

And then, I hit a turning point during the 10 hour flight to Frankfurt. Finally, the nerves subsided and then excitement flooded in. Things began looking up. Arrival into Istanbul, settling into the apartments, learning Turkish, exploring the city and then exploring the southwest of Turkey, and getting back into Istanbul and realizing that I'm almost halfway through the semester and I have never more happy than I have in my life.

This has been an amazing experience. I literally don't have words for it.

I have loved every moment. I love everything I am learning, everything I am experiencing, and everything I am taking in every single moment of the day. I knew this semester would change me, but I wasn't expecting to be feeling that change already at the halfway point.

In recent news, we have finished two weeks of courses at Yeditepe, have settled into our dorm rooms (despite the lack of carpet) and have finally gotten a hold on the public transportation into town. We are in our routine, and I love it. Next weekend with four day, a few friends and I have booked a small hotel in the old city to spend our vacation being tourists, something we kind of skipped over since we have been in Turkey. A chance to stay in a nice hotel, a chance to see the sights we haven't seen yet, and a chance to explore on our own. I'm super excited to have a break, and some adventure time on my own.

Here are a few photos from our time at Yeditepe so far.

New friends at the Armenian Girl's Home we are volunteering at

A beautiful shot of the campus on a sunny day. 

Tavla and tea. A classic sabbath at a local cafe.

Quite possibly the world's largest pomegranate 

The gateway home.

Annie's extensive blue collection, in the blue room!

a little pre-lecture movie time with Lord of the Rings

wonderful Valentine's day gifts :)

classic study day in the library!

"It's like I'm breakdancing!" - Shea

Typical dinner set-up when I am too lazy to go the dinning commons

snowy campus!

Annie and a new friend. Which happens daily.

Life here is turning out splendidly.


Respectfully submitted,
Leah