A Day Out With My Classmates

Stage 3. The last in my catch-up entries. Allow me to share with you the first three sentences out of my journal entry for Monday, October 6.

"Today was so, so, so, so, so good. So good. I am so rediculously happy right now." Apparently I was happy. Here's why- At 10:00 am Sinan came to the apartment and we walked to the bus stop. We waited for half an hour talking, but our bus never came so we booked it to another stop and barely caught the bus there. The bus took us to Bakırköy where we waited for everyone at Burger King. Let's see if I can name everyone who came. Sinan, Sefa, Serbay, Canberk, Hande, İdill, Deniz, Buşra, Nihan, Berksu, and myself. When everyone was there we walked somewhere to catch a train (like the C-Train in Calgary!) and it took us to the seaside. There we caught a ferry to the Asian side. We wandered around there looking for a place to have tea. We ended up at a "cafeteria" with a beautiful view (it sat right beside the water). The menu had English translations of everything, including the paragraph describing the place. The paragraph was near nonsense, although they get points for using the term "fish feast". Sefa had a Coke (no one drinks Pepsi here), Hande didn't have anything, and the rest of us drank tea. Once we were done we took a different ferry back to Europe (Beşiktaş, to be exact). On the way over I attempted to learn everyone's names. I always feel terrible because I can't name many people in my class. It's just so difficult because very few sound like anything.

When we got off the ferry we walked some more and ended up in Ortaköy. On this walk I saw many exciting things. The street we were on had picture after picture after picture of Atatürk displayed. We walked past Dolmabahçe Palace, Çirağan Palace and hotel, and a hotel that had a Canadian flag flying in between two Turkish flags. Obviously I took a picture. It was funny, I was looking at the three flags and it didn't even occur to me that it was unusual until İdill pointed it out to me. My classmates took me to a place that sells baked potatoes Subway style. I'll explain. You get a baked potato that's sliced in half. Then there are a dozen choices of what you can put on it. Olives (black or green), corn, peas, 'American salad', cheese, and ketchup to name some. It was good. Oh. American Salad- potato salad. It makes me wonder what they call Greek salad...

I think that after that we took a bus to Taksim where we shopped for a while. I didn't buy anything, but we wandered around. I ate supposedly famous chocolate. It was good. After we were done there we went our seperate ways. When everyone did the kiss on each cheek thing I was included. This was so increadibly wonderful. I don't quite feel like part of the group, but they seem to have accepted me, which is great. Have I mentioned how lucky I am to have been put in this class? It sounds like the other exchange students haven't been as accepted by their classes. (I love you Class 11 TM - D. Ben sınıf arkadaşlarımı seviyorum!)

Again Sinan and I found ourselves waiting a long time for the right bus. The ride home took at least an hour. We talked a lot (hooray for talking!) and I have a small list of things I have to ask him about once I speak Türkçe, including the history of a section of town because he doesn't know how to say it in English.

When Melek asked me how my day was my answer was "Çok, çok, çok, çok güzel!" By the time we ate supper, I could barely move my legs I was so tired. But it was one of the best days I've had since getting here.

-Maeghan