days 3 + 4: welcome to boğaziçi kids

as the days pass by in Istanbul, it's getting more and more difficult to remember what we've actually done. I only remember lots of delicious food (which is the only important part let's be real) and faintly recall a blur of new faces... yesterday we had a tour of the beautiful boğaziçi campus and became slightly more familiar with the winding stone staircases, the super cheap .40 cent/meal dining halls, and the incredibly abnormal abundance of dogs and cats that live on the grounds. following that, they gave us a little (very very long) orientation which was p useful..... I guess

afterwards, we found ourselves famished but thankfully had a traditional turkish dinner to attend complete with a rice pudding for dessert and the company of other foreign exchange students. turkish food is truly one of the best cuisines I've ever tried 10/10 would highly recommend

after dinner, we went on a pub crawl and it was prettttyyyyy wild. hundreds of foreign exchange students being ushered from bar to bar to bar to nightclub through taksim... god bless our souls for staying together and having a great time (kyle and his 5+ tequila shots were the hit of the night... ok just kidding it was the bar they kept lighting on fire... or mayhaps it was watching people down whole glasses of beer to keep up with the crowd?) anyway, we got back at 4 am and passed out so hard, it was blissful. side note: we should probably build a room for karolina at every nightclub so she'll never have to leave. we nearly had to pry her from the grips of the suspender-clad bartenders

we ended up sleeping for around 8 hours and then woke up around 11 to spend some time with our turkish roommate! he took us to a wonderful breakfast place where we each ordered a typically turkish plate spread of vegetables, cheese, jam, honey, nuts, butter, egg, and bread. we also got two plates of a flaky savory dish, one filled with cheese and the other with spinach. they also served us cup after cup of tea (which I don't really care for but everybody else went IN) and bread out the butt (my fav). after, they even brought us some eclairs?? and baklava?? and sekarpare (I only know the name because I stalked karolina's latest post a bit)??? I literally was about to fall asleep on the street, I was so content. we then walked over to a vegetable market and picked up some things for dinner. everything was so fresh (one of the vendors let each of us try a tomato so I bought some eggplant from him. bless his soul) and lively, it's definitely somewhere we'll frequent on a weekly basis.

we came home and relaxed for a bit (made some freshly squeezed orange juice, karolina and i finally made our room presentable, etc) and invited durant over for dinner. kyle made something decent and I made the best bulgur (rice-like grain) in the entire world like seriously you guys a restaurant may hire me for my skills...

everybody is out at a bar right now but I decided to take a night in for myself. maybe read a little, watch some netflix, get my life in order... it's been a hectic couple of days but we're starting to form a nice routine and I'm so excited for everything that's to come

peace out girl scouts..........

"Wet walnuts anyone?"

The past 48 hours have been nonstop. Yesterday was full of a mediocre college tour and tequila shots, while today was jam-packed with a cat orgy and bottomless tea. We met so many more fun europeans last night and I have come to the conclusion that americans are 100% less interesting. For instance, the Dutch have impeccable english and are so freaking smart. Secondly, they can whoop an american's ass in a drinking game. The photo to the right is a fun game we found last night.... Idk how Karol and Prat would do but I could hang. 

Today we gorged for breakfast at Selçuk's favorite spot where he is essentially treated like a celebrity. After this salad/nutella/egg/pastry plate seen to your left, we were given complimentary eclairs, baklava, and some "wet hazelnut" like dessert. Pratibha had never had turkish tea before so I documented the experience below. (left picture is pre-tea, and right picture is post-tea) It was scorching hot so she received 3rd degree burns all over her mouth #prayforprat. After eating our weight in turkish delicacies, we attended a vegetable bazaar where we also bonded with the creepiest cats ever. Clubs and bars aside...the food has definitely been a highlight. Tasting turkish food is like awakening your taste buds for the first time.. like fo real. Also, Karolina hates leaving da club. ok over and out. -KO 

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 

Adjusting

So in my brief time in Istanbul, I have some quick observations to report. 

The Turkish people have a concept coined "yavaş yavaş" which literally means slow slow. I find it to be quite ironic. The Turks will spend 3 hours drinking tea and eating bread, but then go 80 mph swerving in and over side walks in a city more populated the NYC. The first part is great, at least when you don't spend 4 hours trying to get a bus card (should have taken 30 min. max). 

I have also had the luck of running into quite a few Bostonians (three of whom I have the incredible pleasure of blogging with. I am so blessed they allowed me to join them on this beautiful blog)

I have had the Joy of developing a gluteus maximus with them as the streets of Istanbul are either up or down a hill to various sites, clubs, mosques, palaces etc. It is weird, but I find it bizarre that i haven't been to one of the those cool market places yet.

The place we get to study at is a real beaut. So here here is a nice pic of the campus, and also a super hipster black and white overlooking the Bosphorus. 

Kyle is currently teaching me how to cook, while Pratibha is cooking rice (apparently she eats it a lot....). I usually have a meal plan that is unlimited, this is a hard switch up for me. But the food here is delish and I will gain a few pounds for sure here. 

Pratibha is very sarcastic. It is hard to say something clever like Karolina. She likes to say smart things like see ya later alligator, after a while crocodile. 

Either way hoşçakal (Bye)

day 2: rolling turds and metro card struggles

day 2 in istanbul started off sunny and bright, but slowly turned into another day 1.... slightly rainy, cloudy, and pretty brisk :-( but it was still a grand old time trekking up and down hills with the crew (karolina kyle and a new bff), with me trailing a fair distance behind as always. I obviously haven't prepared myself for these spontaneous mini hikes but I'll get used to it eventually (or I'll hop on karolina's back ok perfect)

we started our day off with a delicious breakfast made by our very own in-house chef, kyle...fruit salad and eggs with some questionable orange juice on the side that may or may not have gone bad? who knows, we're still alive and kicking so it must have been fine. but I may just stick to the apple juice while we're here. r.i.p. prat + orange juice

after breakfast, we made our way back onto campus and walked along the river, stopping at a cafe for a short coffee break (ok so only karolina drank coffee but she is a working woman and she damn well deserves it). then before we traveled to taksim, karolina and I grabbed something to eat at a nearby restaurant for lunch (we get hungry nearly every hour or so). we both got the vegetable special which came with rice and yogurt and it was honestly one of the best meals I've had in my life... very authentically turkish and filling, only for around $4??? what a dealio

then we hopped onto a bus followed by the metro which took us to taksim where we had to get our student metro cards. but instead of taking around a half hour (which it should have), it took us around 2 hour...... language barriers and many other complications later, we finally managed to get our cards, which is going to make traveling around istanbul a million times cheaper and easier #bless

then a group of us found ourselves in the middle of taksim, amidst a slight drizzle, with nothing to do. we walked up a hill along lines and lines of cute shops to a pretty empty bar and spent a little time in there, just talking and drinking... kyle went a little wild with a 6 shots for 20 lira deal while karolina and I enjoyed breathing in some niiiiice air! ya!

we came home around 8 and decided to eat at a nearby burgerhouse that served craft beers and played a lot of the killers, muse, etc... aka me in middle school... it was quaint. after stuffing ourselves with vegetarian burgers (I'm pretty sure they just stuck mozzarella sticks in the middle and called it a day but it was pretty wonderful anyway) we came home, drank some red wine + coke (what a combo!) and watched fight club and fargo. and we decided to silently murder kyle halfway through the semester because he didn't like fight club. what a huge dweeb

the end....xoxo.... gossip prat

The Chronicles of Nutella: Day 2

As to avoid looking like a slacker like usual I am forced to write a blog post about the very interesting day we had yesterday. Here goes:

1. We made a friend from Raleigh (shout out to Durant). And a few others from about 20 different countries and states.

2. We stood in a line for 3 hours waiting for our student cards - I got yelled at in Turkish about why we couldn't get our cards because we had the wrong documents. 

3. We visited Taksim and it was everything I imagined and more (as in there was a huge Shake Shack in the middle of it).

4. Finally got around to watching Fargo (what better to do in Turkey than watch classic American movies?).

Here's a picture of my first Turkish coffee (most definitely not my last):

"Sounds like you drank all that wine "

Doggie Escort Service

After an early wake up call on behalf of my jet-lagged brain... I made some breakfast for the sleeping baboons. We all quickly woofed down some pomegranate fruit salad and eggs before heading to campus for some more exploring. Mother Nature decided to let up on the rain for a generous hour so we again, walked down to the water with our new Kurt Cobain doppelgänger friend, Durant. 

Right when we started walking back, an overly friendly stray dog decided to guide us all the way back to campus. The stray animals in the area are all fed and cared for by local businesses and some even have government vaccination tags on their ears. While walking back up the spiral hill of death to campus, the dog ran about 50 yards ahead and pooped in the middle of the street. To our amusement... a lone turd rolled down the hill towards us, past us, and then made a sharp left turn towards Pratibha's toes (see pic upper right). We were all crying laughing while watching this rogue turd come to life through motion. Ya had to be there. After getting back to Hisarustu we spend nearly 2 hours standing in a transportation office trying to get a student metro pass, essentially a Charliecard. After finally obtaining it, we decided to be super American and get burgers, drink wine, and watch a double feature. Our Turkish roommate was floored that Durant and I had not seen Fight Club, so he put that on before going to his weekly futbol practice. After Durant and myself's lackluster opinion of Fight CLub, we watched Fargo, which redeemed our appreciation for cinema. Two words. Frances McDormand. - KO

"Anything specific about him" - Marge

"Idk... he was just funny-looking" - Hooker #1

The Chronicles of Rumeli Hisarüstü: Day 1

After 10 hours of listening to an American guy attempt to seduce an entire airplane with a fake Scottish accent, Pratibha and I made it to Istanbul. Although we both consider ourselves savvy travelers, we were still scammed by the lovely Kurdish taxi driver who drove us along the shoulder of the highway all the way to Bogazici. I thought I would’ve learned a bit from my trip in Peru, but taxi drivers are especially skilled in making me feel guilty. We arrived in one piece, though, and we spotted Kyle swarmed by his new pack of cronies returning from pre-registration. He took us to our new apartment which is 4 minutes away from the South Gate of campus.

The weather was not great yesterday, but at least we aren’t up to our ears in snow like our fellow Bostonians. I’ll take 50 degrees and rainy any day and our campus may be the loveliest thing I’ve ever seen. The other two goobers have provided visual aid of our walk along the Bosphorous (see above), but here is a high quality photo of our quad (#nofilter). My dear mother already posted this gem on Facebook without my permission, but here you go again if you are not blessed with being her Facebook friend (love you mom).

As usual I am the last to post (and pay rent) so I'll step up my A-game (I won't). You'll just have to sit at the edge of your seat waiting to read the latest from yours truly. Humble as pie, I know.

"Don't leave the keys in the door"

Balcony view 

- Not all of us are blessed with the gift of great blogging. So I am not promising that I will keep up with this. But when any of us do blog we are aiming to bring you on-hand live-ish entertainment. Currently, Karolina is producing a “I have not showered in a long time” scent, and Pratibha is pretending to be Katie Couric in the corner. 

These two hooligans arrived to rainy Istanbul this morning, while I was attending the first mandatory exchange student meeting at Bogazici University. Luckily when I was walking back from my meeting, I spotted the two damsels in distress in front of a liquor store (shocking). For the remainder of the day, we walked around to become more acclimated with the university and the hundreds of stray cats and dogs that consider the neighborhood of Hisarustu, home. Karolina even thought it was a good idea to pet one of the cats that had fleas, “it’s bumpy”- she said.

The views from the Bosphorus are amazing even on the cloudiest of days. I’ve been to Paris and London before but Istanbul is in a completely different realm. It is truly a mix between eastern and western culture. To top the day off, our Turkish roommate gave us actual turkish delights and they blow sour patch kids out of the outer. Over the next 4 months the three of us will try and bring you an entertaining and debatably useful perspective of this amazing city. Cheers. -KO

day 1: gooey pistachio men

after karolina and I enjoyed a tear-filled reunion in the toronto terminal surrounded by an army of ipads, we finally boarded our much anticipated flight to istanbul. ended up drinking a little wine, watched a little gone girl, and arrived to this rainy, beautiful country. aka we finally joined kyle in istanbul so he would stop being such a lonely loser and finally have some friends to talk to......... and we've been up for more than 24 hours so we're a little tired and going a bit crazy

but seeing karolina and kyle again has been so nice!!! I've missed them dearly over the horribly long winter break... cooking skills, snl sketch impressions, everything. PLUS the very little food I've had so far has been so delicious and I'm looking forward to eating so much more..... THE STUDY ABROAD 50 tbh

 but we walked a hell of a lot so I'm not too worried about eating bread for nearly every meal of the day. all of those steep hills and winding roads really do work on you... but the views were definitely worth it and we're excited to go back on a non-rainy day...

and at the end of the day, we managed to do a little grocery shopping so kyle and karolina could cook a nice dinner for me because they are my white slaves. the end, more to come...