Life in Istanbul

My goal was to write a post every weekend, but unfortunately I didn't get around to it, especially because my weekend was so busy!

Last Tuesday, I started my internship! I am working for Doğan Burda Dergi, a joint venture magazine and media company. The first few days were pretty slow because I am a new intern and this is also the slow season of the year. I am working in Corporate Communications, and they are trying to give me more event-type things because that is what I am interested in. Work has picked up in the past few days and I have translated a few articles, worked on some presentations, and sat in on several meetings about a huge event they are planning for September (it is still in the first stages of coming together). The great thing about sitting in on the meetings is that I think that I really do want to go into corporate events because I have enjoyed listening to what they have to do for planning. The department I am in is pretty small with 5 employees, a manager, and another intern, but we are on a floor with a lot of other departments and I have enjoyed getting to meet new people. I am still not quite sure what exactly everyone does, but I am learning more each day. I work every day from about 10 to 6, but I have left early every day so far because of the slow work day, which is great because I beat the rush hour traffic. I take the bus to commute to my internship and it takes about 15 minutes with no traffic. I work in the Trump Towers in Istanbul, which is pretty cool :)

Trump Towers

My entrance pass to the building

After work I usually go home and relax or hang out with friends. On Thursday I met up with an adjunct professor at GWU who teaches a few MBA courses about Turkey. He lives very close to where I live so it was really convenient to get there. Also, he lives at the top of an apartment building on the top of a hill so I took some great pictures of the city.

View of Istanbul - Kadiköy (Asia) on the left across the Bosphorus and Sultanahmet on the right

Beşiktaş with Sultanahmet in the background in the upper left

Waffle!

Friday evening I hung out with a friend who I met last summer because we both did CLS together in Izmir. He has been in Istanbul for most of this past year doing research and it was great to catch up. We went to Ortaköy, the next neighborhood over, and sat at a cafe for a while and then got waffles - Turkish style with chocolate and fruit. They were delicious!!

Saturday during the day I met up with one of my friends from high school in Samsun. It was really good to catch up and see what she has been up to this year. We walked to Ortaköy, because it is so close, and sat at a cafe and then ate kumpir, Turkish baked potatoes which are filled with all different types of ingredients such as peas, corn, olives, pickles, sausage, mushrooms, Russian Salad, mayonnaise, and ketchup. I eat mine with peas, corn, and olives - no ketchup or mayo on my potato :P.

Ortaköy

Saturday I met up with my friend Mireille, who I stayed with the first night I was here, and we walked to Kabataş to get on the tram to go to Karaköy to eat supposedly the best baklava. To me, most baklava tastes the same, but I do have to say it was delicious! After, we went to Taksim and walked around on Istiklal Caddesi, one of the most popular streets in Istanbul.

Karaköy at night

BAKLAVA!

İstiklal Caddesi, Taksim

Sunday I hung out with another friend from Samsun and while we were hanging out another former classmate came to meet up. It was really good seeing them and I really hope I can see them again since we are all in Istanbul before they leave for the summer.

Unfortunately I was feeling under the weather Monday and left work early to rest. Yesterday I stayed home and slept and rested the whole day. For some reason I got a really bad cold and I think it was because I really needed to rest since I had such a packed weekend. Luckily I am feeling much better today and I am back at work.

One thing I haven't mentioned is the heat - IT IS SO HOT HERE! If you look at the weather it will say it's only 75 degrees, but it feels like 95 because it is so humid and I am mostly wearing pants. I honestly don't know how women in burkas do it because I start sweating the moment I step outside. Luckily in the morning it isn't too hot yet and during the day I am in a air conditioned building, however when I leave in the afternoon it is so hot! The worst part about this is that it is only going to get hotter... I'll survive somehow.

On another note, I am going to Samsun next weekend! I spent my gap year in Samsun so it has a special place in my heart and I am going for the weekend to see my host family and some friends. I am really excited! More to come soon!

First Few Days

My first few days have been 2 things: exciting and relaxing. Thursday during the day I met up with a friend who I was with last summer in Izmir and we walked around Taksim, a bustling part of the city, and sat at a cafe and played backgammon. After a few rounds, I started to get my moves back and was as good as new. (Backgammon is very popular in Turkey and I learned last summer while I was in Izmir. Thursday evening I moved in to the apartment where I will be staying for the duration of my stay in Istanbul. I am renting a room from a university student, Ece, who I found through an AFS contact. While I was in Turkey in high school I came with AFS, an high school intercultural program, and after reaching out to my contacts in Turkey, Ece and I came in contact. I am really happy living here because this is exactly the type of situation I wanted to live in. I have all the freedom I like, which I hadn't gotten from living with host families, and I am still living with a Turk so I can speak Turkish all the time and I have someone to talk with :).

Friday I relaxed a lot because I really hadn't had time to relax since school got out. I finished exams last Monday and I flew to Turkey Tuesday. Therefore, these past few days I have spent a lot of time relaxing. I went to an AFS Turkey Volunteer meeting with Ece Friday evening and I met a bunch of her friends, who were all awesome because they had all done exchanges in different parts of the world. Saturday day was spent more relaxing, and really catching up on sleep because I was pretty jetlagged. Saturday evening I went to one of my GW friend's house party. It was somewhat of a scavenger hunt finding the place, but it was a lot of fun. Sunday was 19 Mayis, which is the day that Ataturk landed in Samsun

Today I decided to go exploring and I walked all around my new neighborhood.

I made it!

I arrived safely in Istanbul with all of my luggage :). One of my friend's from high school from my gap year in Samsun picked me up from the airport and we took public transportation to my friend's house where I am staying tonight. Tomorrow, I will go to the place I am staying for the rest of the time I am here. I know this is super short, but I am extremely tired since I didn't sleep at all on the plane last night and I have been running around all day trying to figure things out and catching up with friends. I am off to bed, but I wanted to be sure to post that I made it here safely :).  Görüşürüz! (See you soon)

One week!

In one week from right now I will be on a plane going to Istanbul. I will have packed up my room, studied and be done with all of my finals, and probably be watching a movie haha. I have an internship this summer in Istanbul for 7 weeks, which I am very excited about. The final details are still being worked out so I will share more later, but for now I will say that I am extremely excited and I can't wait to be in Turkey again! Most of the people I tell that I have spent time in Turkey assume I have been in Istanbul, which is not the case. I have traveled to Istanbul many times and have done all of the tourist attractions at least once, but I am excited to experience Istanbul as a temporary resident for 2 months. Dört gözle bekliyorum!