The Chronicles of BÜ: Days 3 and 4

visual aid 3.0

I'm trying to remember what I did yesterday and today and all I can think about is Şekerpare, a pastry I ate this morning It is a traditional Turkish dessert that is drowned in a lemony syrup and topped with a toasted hazelnut and I believe that I died and went to heaven the second I took a taste. The rest of the meal was equally as breathtaking (I legitimately did not breathe until I had eaten everything in sight - I think I shocked our roommate Selçuk with the amount that I consumed): fresh bread and honey and quince marmalade and Turkish olives and cheese and dried apricots and walnuts and baklava and eclairs and unlimited çay.....all for 6 dollars. Of course, I couldn't be bothered to take a picture before I had to shovel everything into my mouth, but I wouldn't want anybody reading this to get too jealous. Two nights ago we had a welcome dinner for the Erasmus students (visual aid 3.0) and it took my 7 minutes instead of my usual 5 to inhale it. Take a look.

We went on a pub crawl with the Erasmus group after our dinner. Yes, roughly 100 foreigners were ushered around Taksim square, for a drinking tour of the city. Somehow, we lost no one thanks to the expertise of our ESN leaders (bless their souls). The first bar we went to, drum roll please, was called "Rasputin Junior." I've never been more happy with the name of a bar (of the few I have attended in my short existence as a legal drinker). After this we went to another bar that was basically a smoke palace where every breath I had the privilege of inhaling someone else's cigarette smoke! What a joy!  

Today, we went to a bazaar in our neighborhood and to our friend Durant's dismay, we did not buy anything "bizarre." Our roommate is a favorite among the market sellers and local restaurant owners and was shaking their hands and joking with them all. It felt like we were in a small town in the middle of this 14 million person city. Kyle, a cat hater has somehow overcome his dislike of cats and even picked up a cat (probably so we would take a picture of him - see visual aid 3.1). We attended the market with our friend Emily, a beautiful gem from UNC Chapel Hill (visual aid 3.2). 

Right now we are just exploring our neighborhood and soon we may branch out to the unknown world that is outside. See ya laters alligators