This weekend has been full of so many new and exciting experiences. It started Friday morning when a friend and I went to Kadikoy to find a giant market. She found it in her guidebook and it said that it was on Tuesdays and Friday. However, we never found it. (Later she messaged me that we were in the wrong place). So then we just walked around for several hours. It is so amazing to walk the streets of Istanbul. So many shops and places to eat! We went to a little café where we had to look up the menu items with our phrasebooks. We probably looked ridiculous but it worked for us. Many restaurants have menus in English but not this one. I ordered and tomato soup-like meal with white beans in it. It was quite tasty. I also bought what I thought was peach tea but when I drank it this morning, it was apricot but it was also tasty. We also walked through a market with lots of fish. It did not smell the greatest. We stopped at a bakery for a tasty treat. However, I was expecting my treat to be sweet and it was not at all. But I have four months to try all sorts of Turkish deserts!
After my friend and I said goodbye, I took the bus back home. Then my flatmate and I and other friend went over to a friend’s house for dinner. The friend lives with a very traditional Muslim family. It was so cool to experience an evening with them. Some of the family spoke a little English but my Turkish friends translated for us. We had so much food. I understand what my friends who are in Senegal living with host families tell me about always being told to eat more! The first dish I did not care for all, yogurt soup. Yogurt is a very key food in Turkey but it isn’t the yogurt we think of. It is a very plain yogurt that they put on many foods. This yogurt soup was very watery and had rice. The second dish was Manti, which is very small dumplings mixed with a tomato sauce and of course, cover in yogurt. I actually had it a few days ago with my Turkish flatmate but this time it was homemade. It was pretty good though there was so much yogurt! The two other dishes were tastier for me. One had rice and the other had chickpeas and beef. Beef is the most common meat and no pork as most people are Muslim.
After supper, we all sat in the living room and talked while drinking Turkish tea. I have drunk so much tea here. I usually like it but sometimes I need several sugar cubes. It was so amazing looking around the room and seeing my friends from so many places. Holland, France, Japan, Czech Republic and, of course, Turkey. The father of the friend went around the room and asked each one of us questions about our country. My flatmamte was the translator. It was very interesting the questions he asked me. He asked about the imports/exports and was very curious about the divorce rate in America. It was so nice to be in an actual home. I talked a lot with this girl from Holland. She asked a lot about the USA and wondered if the movies and TV shows display America correctly. I told her how usually they exaggerate and not all Americans think and act like they do on TV.
Around eleven, people were talking about going to Kadikoy to hang out. At first I didn’t want to go as it was late but then I decided to as it was my first weekend with people and I love being with people. So we took a taxi as it was too late for buses. It was really fun just hanging out with people. I didn’t get home until 4:30 in the morning, which is crazy for me as I usually go to bed around midnight.
After sleeping until noon, I then got ready to meet a friend to walk to another friends house. We were planning on going to Kadikoy to go shopping and to get phones. Kadikoy, you see, is a very popular place on the Asian side of Istanbul. I didn’t want to pay a lot for a phone that I am just going to use for a few months so we went to a store where I bought a phone for 40 TL, which is about 23 dollars. It’s such a old phone and its just really funny looking but it does have purple and pink on it. Then I got a SIM card. I don’t really understand fully what it means but since I didn’t have my passport with me, I could not register it so I can’t use it. I now realize that your passport is very important here. So hopefully I can go to a mall on Tuesday as I have no classes and get it registered. Anyway, another fun time walking around Kadikoy with friends.
Then we hung out at a friend’s house and had supper. It was just wonderful hanging out with my friends. It is funny that I am the expert English speaker as I am a native. I am the one my friends ask how to say something in English or the correct grammar. It is like a big game of charades! It is hard to hang out with people as everyone lives somewhere else. It makes me miss Beloit as everyone is in a few minutes walk for each other so I really enjoyed our time together this weekend.
I have been in Turkey now for about a week and I have grown already. I will save that for another blog as this one is already very long. If you are still reading, thank you! And thank you for all your prayers. I really appreciate them.
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