Huh, that was a long title...anyways I havent posted in a while and honestly nothing notable happened until Thursday, and I have simply been procrasinating ever since...even this post will probably be done over the course of this entire day because I really want to get everything in and not forget anything becuase I've got lots of stories to tell. So I hope that you either:
A) Have some time
B) Are a fast reader
C) Enjoy reading these enough to consider it worth it
D) have superhuman abilities to gain knowledge on an entire subject just from reading the title
E) all of or any combination of the above
So this past week has gone fairly well, my Turkish is still improving (of course) and i defiantly feel comfortable at school. bored but comfortable. So as I stated nothing really happened until Thursday which would have been Thanksgiving for all you USers.
3 other exchange students and I decided to skip school and go around İstanbul sight seeing. Skipping wasn't a big deal because 1) none of us do much at school anyways, 2) we got permission from our families and 3) It was Gabe's last week here. Yes unfortunately Gabe has decided to go back home. Gabe is another AFSer from the US and we will all miss him. But we did have a lot of fun thursday.
I got there about 2 and half hours early because my parents had to go to work, so I walked around the city, listening to music, from 7:30 to about 10:00. That was very boring but I got to know the the area I was in fairly well so it worked out. When they arrived we all went to McDonald's to eat because it was close. The group consisted of Gabe, Morgan (girl from Alaska), and Nampom (Thailand). After we ate we went to starbucks and got coffee. While in line a group of girls behind us were all speaking English. That made my day. It felt so good to here English in the background that wasn't being spoken to me. Afterwards we got on the tram and proceeded to Sultan Ahmet. This is a large mosque and I got pictures! Don't worry I'll post them.
After checking out Sultan Ahmet a little Gabe went to a souvenier shop nearby to buy gifts for his friends and family back home. I got bored quickly but Gabe insisted we spend about an hour there. But I did find a hilarious bracelet that I bought for 1 YTL.
For those who can't read whats on the bracelet. It says "I <3 Iraq". I thought this was funny and look forward to showing it in the USA. hehe. Okay after that we got a taxi and went to the grand bazaar. This place is insane. It is soooo crowded and there are tourist everywhere. For those who don't know what a bazaar is, it is pretty much a shopping mall without rules. People set up shops and sell pretty much anything they want. You can and should bargain for prices. If you so much as look at a person selling something he will try to pull you into his shop and cell you stuff. It's ridiculous. There is nothing like it in the USA. I'll post pictures don't worry.
At the bazaar, Gabe had a large list of things to buy, and we all ended up buying things for friends and family. I bought a key chain for my friend Will because he collects them and I promised him I would get him one and i bought a present for someone and I'm obviously not going to say what that is here because the person may read this.
While at the Bazaar I accidentally dropped my cellphone and by doing so it had turned off for the first time. When I turned it back on I learned that I needed a pin # to turn it on...crap. I didn't know the pin number. And now I don't know my parents number to find it out because their numbers on the phone. And now I cant contact them to tell them where to pick me up. Naturally this stressed me out. Luckily I had my afs contact card so I borrowed a phone and called my counselors...no answer. I then called the AFS office and got my dads number from them. Problem solved.
Unfortunately this wasn't the only unintelligent action I preformed that day. You see at the bazaar i bought a cell phone card so I could get more counters. My cell phone is a pay as you go so you need to buy the cards, scratch off the thing on the back to reveal the number your supposed to call. Unfortunatly I scratched a little two hard and scratched about six of the numbers off. Way to go eric. Luckily though a friendly man helped me out and brought us into his shop and called a number and was able to get my counters. I'm not going to lie though, despite the kindness it was a little creepy. You see he approached us, looked at the phone, grabbed it and beckoned for us to follow him. Well now i certainly didn't have a choice, so the four of us went into his shop where he told us to sit and be quiet. He was on the phone for 10 minutes. 10 awkward minutes. But I got my counters so it worked out.
After we were finished shopping we decided to head back to Sultan Ahmet and eat. So we got in a taxi and headed down. Unfortunately the driver was a complete butt head and tried to cheat us. First of all he charged us 20ytl when our drive there cost 10ytl. second when we handed him the twenty he slickly switched it with a 1ytl bill and puts on a sham of getting mad at us for trying to cheat him. This was very stressful but eventually he figured out that we knew he was trying to cheat us and accepted his money.
That's pretty much the end of Thursday, I didn't get to eat with them because I got picked up earlier and went home. Okay so now onto Saturday.
Saturday, we had our weekly language class but this lesson would be Gabe's last. Our teachers were an hour late because they had exams so all of us just enjoyed each others company. When we had the lesson, me and gabe talked pretty much the entire time and didn't pay attention. What can I say, I'm studious.
We all wanted to do something after the lesson but the plans didn't come together so we all just ended up going home.
Today has been a fairly boring day. The day has pretty much consisted of slowly writing this blog, eating, and listening to stand up comedy. I suppose I should just post this already because my mom is hinting at me to finish already.
-eric
PS: only one more week of school until the holiday then i get a week of =D
For those who can't read whats on the bracelet. It says "I <3 Iraq". I thought this was funny and look forward to showing it in the USA. hehe. Okay after that we got a taxi and went to the grand bazaar. This place is insane. It is soooo crowded and there are tourist everywhere. For those who don't know what a bazaar is, it is pretty much a shopping mall without rules. People set up shops and sell pretty much anything they want. You can and should bargain for prices. If you so much as look at a person selling something he will try to pull you into his shop and cell you stuff. It's ridiculous. There is nothing like it in the USA. I'll post pictures don't worry.
At the bazaar, Gabe had a large list of things to buy, and we all ended up buying things for friends and family. I bought a key chain for my friend Will because he collects them and I promised him I would get him one and i bought a present for someone and I'm obviously not going to say what that is here because the person may read this.
While at the Bazaar I accidentally dropped my cellphone and by doing so it had turned off for the first time. When I turned it back on I learned that I needed a pin # to turn it on...crap. I didn't know the pin number. And now I don't know my parents number to find it out because their numbers on the phone. And now I cant contact them to tell them where to pick me up. Naturally this stressed me out. Luckily I had my afs contact card so I borrowed a phone and called my counselors...no answer. I then called the AFS office and got my dads number from them. Problem solved.
Unfortunately this wasn't the only unintelligent action I preformed that day. You see at the bazaar i bought a cell phone card so I could get more counters. My cell phone is a pay as you go so you need to buy the cards, scratch off the thing on the back to reveal the number your supposed to call. Unfortunatly I scratched a little two hard and scratched about six of the numbers off. Way to go eric. Luckily though a friendly man helped me out and brought us into his shop and called a number and was able to get my counters. I'm not going to lie though, despite the kindness it was a little creepy. You see he approached us, looked at the phone, grabbed it and beckoned for us to follow him. Well now i certainly didn't have a choice, so the four of us went into his shop where he told us to sit and be quiet. He was on the phone for 10 minutes. 10 awkward minutes. But I got my counters so it worked out.
After we were finished shopping we decided to head back to Sultan Ahmet and eat. So we got in a taxi and headed down. Unfortunately the driver was a complete butt head and tried to cheat us. First of all he charged us 20ytl when our drive there cost 10ytl. second when we handed him the twenty he slickly switched it with a 1ytl bill and puts on a sham of getting mad at us for trying to cheat him. This was very stressful but eventually he figured out that we knew he was trying to cheat us and accepted his money.
That's pretty much the end of Thursday, I didn't get to eat with them because I got picked up earlier and went home. Okay so now onto Saturday.
Saturday, we had our weekly language class but this lesson would be Gabe's last. Our teachers were an hour late because they had exams so all of us just enjoyed each others company. When we had the lesson, me and gabe talked pretty much the entire time and didn't pay attention. What can I say, I'm studious.
We all wanted to do something after the lesson but the plans didn't come together so we all just ended up going home.
Today has been a fairly boring day. The day has pretty much consisted of slowly writing this blog, eating, and listening to stand up comedy. I suppose I should just post this already because my mom is hinting at me to finish already.
-eric
PS: only one more week of school until the holiday then i get a week of =D
2 comments:
so long...
Hello, Eric. It's funny and like a research to me to read an AFSer's daily life, especially if he's in Turkey, my country:) I entered the exam of AFS at the 8th of November and waiting for it's result nowadays. I was checking some other countries' AFS web-pages and that's how I find here.
It looks like you're doing great -and greater- in İstanbul, I hope that I'll -be- accepted(uh?) for this programme and can do fine like this. Thank you for your expressions. Be sure that they helps to people who have questions
in their minds about living in a different country. I'm from Adana,
a smaller than İstanbul but despite 5th most populated city of Turkey. Well, you can understand how late is the time I'm posting this so I need to sleep. Yours Sincerely, Burak.
Post a Comment