Two weeks

Today officially marks the two week mark. I cannot believe I have only been here for two weeks. It feels like I have been here for at least a month. I have learned so much over the past 14 days. I am starting to learn my way around where I live/work. It is not as complicated as I originally thought it was. On Friday, I was given a PPT to edit about the language and customs in Turkey. It was for "survival in Turkey." I wish I would have received this the first week I was here. If I had, I would have realized that the okay sign, the circle with three fingers, is actually offensive here. I think I probably used this sign with at least 20 students interested in going abroad to tell them that there English was "okay!" Hopefully they realized what I meant by this gesture as I was always smiling while throwing up the okay sign.

 I learned a few other useful do's and don'ts through this PPT. Pointing at people is offensive, putting your thumb between your index and middle fingers is offensive, and sitting where people can see the sole of your feet is offensive. Thankfully I don't think I have done any of these gestures. It is very common to greet someone with two kisses on the cheek. This didn't surprise me much, because I have seen people do this and this was also very common in Costa Rica. What I found interesting though is that it is very common for men to greet people in this way. It is also common for men to walk together arm in arm. After I read this I realized that I had seen a lot of men walking arm in arm. I just assumed they were gay. I know I know, I shouldn't make assumptions, but get over it I did. Homosexuality is not as accepted here as it is in the US; however, it seems that in spite of this men are so comfortable with their masculinity that they don't care to show affection to other men. My roommate told me one of her male friends who lived here attempted to take this custom back to the US but was unsuccessful.

Kadikoy

My weekend went by faster than my first one here and I had three entire days off. On Saturday we took the ferry to Kadikoy which is on the Asian side of Istanbul. The boat ride was absolutely gorgeous and only took 20 minutes to go from one continent to the other. The Asian side seemed to be more residential and wasn't as full of tourists. The European side of Istanbul has more touristy sites such as the Blue Mosque. There wasn't a whole lot to do in Kadikoy aside from shop and eat.

 

 

 

Stadium

 

We did go look at the soccer stadium there, Fenerbahçe stadium. I hope that once the season gets going a little bit I will be able to go to a game. I could tell just by looking at the Fenerbahçe store that there were some intense fans. The store had everything from jerseys to birds that were yellow and blue (Fenerbahçe's colors). From the stadium we went to a part of town that had stores and restaurants. Everything was so cheap so we did some shopping. I got a pair of vans for a little under $20. They may not actually be vans, but they look exactly like them to me. After shopping we went and got some food and a drink.

European Side

On Sunday we went to the market again and got some essentials for our kitchen. I want to try and cook more at the house to save some money. We also went to the grocery store. It is amazing how complicated simple tasks can be when you don't know Turkish. I have no idea what to cook here because I don't know how to get the ingredients. The grocery store has a lot of stuff that I can figure out easily such as fruits and vegetables, but I have no clue which spices I need because the labels are all in Turkish. I need to study up on my food vocab for my next visit to the grocery store. Sunday night we made spaghetti. It was delicious despite the fact that we picked up tomato paste instead of tomato sauce.