Spring!

This week has to have been the fastest transition to spring of all time. When I left for Sofia on Thursday night, there was literally snow on the ground, enough to cancel afternoon classes (well, since this is Istanbul, like an inch. But still!). This week has been nothing but sunshine and blue skies, complete with warm breezes and flowers. As a true New Hampshirian (is that right? I can't ever figure it out...), I promptly abandoned all sweaters and pulled out the flip-flops. Who cares that it's only 65 degrees in the classrooms, it's spring!

Incidentally, "spring" in Turkish is "ilkbahar." And speaking of Turkish, we'll begin learning verbs next week! I know-- a month in Turkey and I still don't know how to conjugate? Pathetic. My teacher even said that it'll be our first step beyond "Me Tarzan, you Jane." Which is exciting, but not necessarily encouraging... But after my weekend in Sofia with literally three words under my belt, I'm not complaining.

Until tomorrow, faithful readers!

Bulgaria-- Protest and Pictures

As you can probably guess from the title, I accidentally went to a protest in Sofia. As we were walking through the streets on Sunday, we noticed all the cars honking really obnoxiously. At first we figured it had something to do with soccer, but then we noticed that most of the cars and pedestrians were headed in the same direction and decided to follow them. We found a pretty large group gathered by a statue in front of the EU building; there were a couple of people speaking into a megaphone and police preventing anyone from getting too close to the EU building. Of course, we had no idea what the protest was about, so we were worried we'd get caught between the police and the protesters. As it turned out, we had nothing to be concerned about. Although there were plenty of police present, there was not even a hint of violence, it was all quite civil. After a bit, the protest moved to a major intersection where many of the protesters parked their cars to impede traffic. Later we found out that the protest was about high gas prices, so I guess the idea was to keep as much of the city from driving as possible. But it was definitely a great way to get a taste of Bulgaria and see proof that the brutality of its Soviet history does not continue into the present.

After a full weekend of walking around, we were all exhausted and slept pretty heavily on the bus. But on re-entry into Turkey, I got two more stamps on my passport; I'm starting to look like a world traveler!


A picture from the Soviet park. Apparently some people want to tear it down since Bulgaria is no longer a Soviet republic, but for now it's a place where young people hang out, skateboard, and graffiti the statues.


I don't know what's in that building, but it looks quite European and excellent.


Most of the group at the hostel.


One of the many famous churches in Sofia-- I think this is the one that got partially destroyed by Communists.

Return to Istanbul...

Yesterday was a wonderful day. This is my favorite part of traveling, when you start to get a feel for the city and begin to know your way around. Our group split up, and it was nice to go around and feel like we blended in at least a little bit instead of being the big crowd of oblivious Americans. We went around to an archeological museum with artifacts dating back to the 3rd century AD, which was a fun way to learn about the history of the region. We also stopped by the famous open-air Ladies Market, but the only thing we got was fried dough (which was delicious, incidentally). I also had my first McDonald's trip outside of the US, which was cliched but delicious.

Today will be more walking and wandering, maybe more museums and coffee shops. Then another night bus, so I should get back to campus by 9 am, in time for my 12:30 class. Wish me luck on the quiz I have this afternoon!

Da, Merci

So far Bulgaria has been fantastic. Sofia's quite a walking city (we've been discouraged from using public transit due to pickpockets), and we spent all yesterday jut going around seeing the sights, from cathedrals to open-air antique markets. Good stuff. I think it would have been tough since I was working on so few hours of sleep but fortunately everyone else was in the same boat so we took it kind of easy.

One of the best things about being here is walking around and seeing all the Cyrillic script on the signs. Even though I've been in Turkey for a month, I still sometimes feel like I don't know much Turkish. Being in Sofia, however, has led me to appreciate how much I can say. In Bulgarian, I can say da (yes) and merci (which isn't even Bulgarian but is commonly used for "thank you"). But it's been funny to try to communicate with Bulgarians and say evet (Turkish for yes) before anything else. The language part of my brain is so confused!

Off to breakfast now, getting ready for another big day!

Bulgaria!

Hey everyone, just wanted to update really quickly and let you know that I'm in Sofia! The bus ride was pretty nice, only 8 hours and much more comfortable than an airplane. And I got a new stamp on my passport, though it's not very pretty. But still, filling up those pages!

We didn't get TOO lost on the way to the hostel. I don't think any of us had realized the implications of going to a country where we literally don't speak a single word of the language. It's difficult for us to even read it, since it's in Cyrillic script! But we got some directions and a tram ticket with some heavy miming and made it here.

This is my first trip to a hostel, and I know I'm spoiled. It's very welcoming here, lots of travelers of all ages. As soon as we got in, the hostel staff gave us maps and told us all the must-sees of Sofia. And the hostel is right in the city center, so we shouldn't have to figure out public transportation, which is fantastic. We also get free breakfast and dinner, linens, use of the common room... all for about $15 a night. Fantastic.

I'll update when I can, but just wanted to let you know that I'm safe and excited to be here!

My first trip "beyond Turkey"

So this weekend I'm taking a big adventure to exotic Sofia, Bulgaria! A bunch of my friends and I got together and decided to make a weekend of it-- we're taking a bus out tonight and leaving Sunday night, with Friday and Saturday nights in a hostel near downtown. Supposedly it's pretty cheap to get around there, and it'll be my first trip to the European Union! Hooray!

Unfortunately I probably won't be able to post during the trip, but get ready for awesome pictures and stories next week!

In other news, we had afternoon classes off due to snow-- I had a snowball fight and taught my friend from Florida how to build a snowman. Definitely a good trade off.

Snow Day!

It's been pretty cold ever since I've been here, but the past couple of days have been the coldest yet. It actually snowed a little yesterday with even more today; enough that my afternoon Turkish class got canceled! I guess Turkey is in the same situation as the South with very little snow-removal equipment. And the university is on top of a hill-- think San Francisco steep-- which makes it difficult to get to campus when it's icy. This is especially true since the bus drivers don't seem to know the definition of the word "slow." It's bad enough on clear days, but I didn't dare try it today.

But some of my professors have been saying this is probably the last snowstorm we'll get. Does that mean it's almost spring?