Bilkent University!

A little over a week ago, our study abroad program officially started, and we arrived at Bilkent University in Ankara. For 10 days, we have had delishus food, a beautiful gym complete with weight room and track, single bedrooms with kitchens and private bathrooms, and amazing lectures from world-class faculty.

We are studying economic development in Turkey. But our lectures have also focused on the Ottomans, Turkish history and language, foreign policy, domestic politics, and economics. So, naturally, we are all experts on Turkey now. Enjoy this 10-minute explanation of stuff we've learned in our lectures and books during the last 5 weeks!

And get super jealous of this BA campus:

Our dorms are called the "Bilkent Hilton":

This is where we eat breakfast everyday!

These are the campus dogs. One is Toprak (meaning soil), and my super tired, it's-midnight brain cannot remember the name of the second.

Also, just FYI, we visited this mosque, which is the biggest in Ankara:

Bilkent is like a city. There are shuttles to go from Bilkent to Ankara, and they take at least 30 minutes. There are like 5 restaurants/cafés near our dorm, and we have supermarkets and a mall on campus. One of the program directors for Bilkent told us students can enter Bilkent as freshmen and never need to leave campus until they graduate. That's cool, but I am definitely happy to leave campus now and then.

XXOO

SPEAN in Madrid!

(FYI: This happened like 3 weeks ago. And it turns out I only have like 4 outfits for the whole summer, so you're about to see some repeats.)

Until a couple of days ago, my brother lived in Logroño, Spain, and my sisters visited him during June. And since Madrid is just about my favorite city in the world and I miss speaking Spanish everyday, there was no way I was going to let this family reunion be sans Julia. Here are the highlights:

PICTURES:

Cola cao is Spain's hot chocolate. A little packet of chocolate powder mixed with steamed milk is just about the most perfect thing ever.

Napolitanas (basically, chocolate croissants) were my favorite food when I lived in Spain.

 

El Parque de Buen Retiro is a huge, beautiful park in Madrid—complete with cats! 

My siblings and I went to the small lake in Retiro and rode the boats!

It was the Year of the Selfie.

Also, Krista and I climbed to the top of Palacio de Cibeles for this view of the city:

Plaza Mayor is one of my favorite places in Madrid. It's perfect for an overpriced drink.

This sign says, "Any pretty girl want an ugly guy so that no one will take him from you, and if you don't, I'm sorry, my love, because you're the one who will be missing out":

VIDEOS:

Here is a nice collection of clips from our incredible boat ride in Retiro. Notice the lovely giant hand. And my rudeness.

While K and I were leaving Plaza Mayor, we passed a huge crowd watching a procession of Christians carrying a religious shrine to commemorate the anniversary of a church's foundation. I was so excited—not only because Anthony Bourdain sees a similar procession during one of his Spain episodes—but also because the skill involved is just crazy. These young men had to carry this shrine through the streets of Madrid for 5 hours, and when they have to turn corners on small, cobblestone streets, their feet barely move.

Here's the view from the top of Palacio de Cibeles:

Watch as I try to Anthony Bourdain while getting tapas (small finger foods) in La Latina. The tapas culture in Spain is completely unique. For 1 to 4 € (depending on the city), you can get a small bite of food with one drink. People typically eat tapas standing up, and they move from restaurant to restaurant for hours. 

Two days in Madrid were not enough. If you haven't been, you should go ASAP. And to Toledo/Alcalá/the rest of Spain.

Besos y abrazos!!

R and J Go to Grand Bazaar

Istanbul's Grand Bazaar is near the Blue Mosque and Sultanahmet. Its website boasts that it covers over 60 streets, a fact of which R and I are not entirely convinced because that's a whole lot of streets. But we walked in several different directions and are positive we did not see the whole thing—so it's possible!

To get to the bazaar, shoppers walk through arches at the end of narrow streets like this:

 

Inside the Grand Bazaar, shop owners stand right outside their shops and try to lure customers into buying hookah pipes, lamps, teacups, coffee cups, clothes, sunglasses, rugs, pillows, etc. We heard things like, "is it my turn yet?" and "anyway, this way is the right way!" from men trying to grab our attention. Oddly enough, once I pulled my phone out to take some video, they stopped... Enjoy this video of some sights from the Grand Bazaar. And don't worry; this won't be our only trip! You'll see me bargain miserably some time in July. ;]

Song is Gino D'Auri "Quelo de Triana." (I really like pretty flamenco guitar music.)

XOXO

Harbiye!!

I took these pictures/videos like a million years ago, and after having shared that R and I lived in Harbiye, which is one of the neighborhoods in which The Museum of Innocence takes place, it seems fitting that you finally get to see what Harbiye looks like! Our colleagues said Harbiye is a really nice place to live, but R and I might disagree only because our particular building was blessed with mold and about 150 big, fat, hot dog-shaped slugs, of which I am dreadfully averse.

In any event, our neighborhood was beautiful, and you'll see in some pictures what I referenced in my first post after arriving about the new city being built right on the old—new, beautiful buildings share walls with decrepit, empty shells. Some buildings had beautiful tiling in varying shades of pinks, blues and purples, and most had a bowl of cat food on the stoop. Because, of course, there were cats everywhere, including our angel, Leah. *insert hearts-in-eyes emoji*

 

And this is where R and I lived for one month! In the luxurious "Istanbul Suites", not complete with air conditioning, working dryer or oven, but 100% complete with crazy landlord, wonderful Italian roommate and lots and lots of oatmeal.

And there you have it! Two blogs in one night! My my, aren't you lucky?!

XOXO

When U Really Behind on Blog Posts...

So the great internship adventure is over, and it was a mess. But the great class adventure is about to start, and we may or may not be staying in the swankiest, cushiest dorms ever in a university the size of a small city that has three—THREE—elementary schools, middle schools and high schools. Also we get breakfast and lunch. In short, Bilkent University in Ankara is dope.

But more on that later. The important thing is that I have about 15 blog posts that my dedicated fan base has yet to see. And since I'm not Anthony Bourdain and don't have a BA editing team to do all the fancy work for me, I might have to scale down and give you the photos and clips separately rather than in cute—albeit blurry—videos. I know it may not seem like it, but those take hourrrsss. And if we wait til I have the time to make really high-quality videos about the stuff I've seen, you'll be pumpkin-carving and pumpkin spice latte'ing, and this summer experience will be long over.

So, without further ado, the less fancy version of the things that have gone on in the past three weeks begins with an R/J trip to Topkapı Palace. Cerca 2.5 weeks ago. (Just FYI, these blog posts have not necessarily been in chronological order, but you probably guessed that cuz u smart.)

Topkapı Palace was the home of the Ottoman Sultans until Sultan Abdülmecid I decided to move to a different palace in 1856. I'm trying to figure out exactly when it was constructed, but different pieces are from different centuries and the books I have are not clear. I believe the first occupants were Byzantine in like the 6th century A.D. at least. Anyway, in typical Ottoman style—and something I saw when I visited the Alhambra in Granada, Spain—the palace is a collection of many small buildings, gardens and fountains rather than one big palace.

Below is the "Gate of Salutations" or Bab-üs Salem in Turkish, which is really similar to Arabic, btw. According to "Istanbul: the Ultimate Guide", the gate was designed to intimidate foreigners, who had to leave their horses outside and whose heads might end up on spikes, Game of Thrones style.

 

 

The palace has an incredible view of the Bosphorus, which it sits directly above. If you look closely enough, you'll see a very old brick wall that I think is where the palace grounds end. The same guide book says the palace lost land over time to various nations and development projects.

 

Also pretty sure we only saw like 5% of the entire palace and gardens—and photos weren't allowed inside. But we'll be going back with the group, and hopefully we'll see some more stuff.

This last picture is of the best-selling product in Istanbul apparently: the selfie stick. R and I met the most wonderful woman on holiday from England, and she described the city's fascination with these sticks as "f***ing mental!" I think they're hysterical.

If you're still with me, then stay tuned because several blog posts bout to happen.

For more on Topkapı Palace, feel free to Google it/forget about it til we go back in a couple weeks/read the guide book by Saffet Emre Tonguc & Pat Yale.

XXOO 

Oh yeah—music is Las Minas (Tarantas) by Gino D'Auri.