First Day of Independence (sort of)

It is approximately 3:15 in the afternoon here with a little bit of drizzle outside. Remarkably, I still find the campus beautiful, even with the grayness of the skies. The temperature remains a cool yet manageable 50 degrees or so.

I had my first trip to the cafeteria today, and the food was quite good. I had a sort of soup with carrots and onions and a tomatoey sauce, spaghetti bolognese (or spageti boloneze, as they say), and pfeferneuse-sized cakes that have absorbed a sweet liquid. It was delicious, but the jury is still out on it with the soggy cake texture -- far more so than Dad's tres leches cakes.

We're going out today to shop, we think, around 4. We don't have any planned activities today, but we are planning on picking up a soccer game tonight or maybe tomorrow with a few of us. I'm sure the Europeans have brought their soccerballs...

As for classes, we start technically on Monday, but we are making our schedules to be from Tuesday to Friday morning so we can take weekend trips and have perpetual four-day weekends. I will be taking "Mythology and Religion," "Contemporary Issues in Turkish Politics," "Introduction to Dance," (I DON'T actually have to dance, thank God), "The Ottoman Empire: 1299-1566," and finally, "Basic Turkish I." The dance class is hopefully going to be a fluff course, but if not, I will take another history course or something. I have 4 75-minute classes on Tuesday and Thursday and my one Turkish class on Wednesday and Friday mornings at 9:30. I may be tired after my long-haul days, but I will be able to rest afterwards.

I went to the Turkish ATM today and my card worked, but I was a little surprised that they give you several denominations. For example, you can enter any amount and it will dispense that money. I wanted to get 50 TL, thinking it would give me five tens or two twenties and a ten or something, but instead it just gave me a 50 TL bill, something that people hate to accept. Oops. I will use it toward the purchase of my paygo phone.