Sunday, my second full day in Turkey, it poured all day long. While this rain lead to productivity that resulted in my new blog, it also made me realize how many fewer options one has on a rainy day in a different country. Maybe not in every country, but in Turkey the options are limited. It would have been nice to watch TV but all of our channels are either not in service or in Turkish. Then there's the movie idea. I made the mistake of not bringing any DVDs with me and because of censorship it's tough to download movies. The minute I connected my internet and began to surf the web I realized how much we take our internet freedom for granted in the States. My first internet denial was with music. Pandora, Grooveshark, and almost every other radio satation I wanted to listen to was restricted due to liscencing constraints. Luckily, after various attempts at working around the system I managed to find an "in service" country station on AOL radio.
The second major, shocking internet denial was YouTube. There is no YouTube office in Turkey. When a video bashing Ataturk - the founding father of modern Turkey - was posted and there was no one to contact to get the video removed, the entire site became restricted. So at the end of the day, my roommate and I caught a brief 10 minute lull in the downpour to run to the corner and get doner kebobs, waited an hour for a shady un-restricted website to download the latest (choppy) episode of the Jersey Shore, and my day was made by Skype.
It was great waking 
up Monday morning to sunny skies. Monday I finally had the opportunity to explore our area of Taksim and beyond. Jill and I had not yet been to the grocery store so finding it was our mission of the day. We began walking down our street, passing the haunted house (pic on left), cat park (more info to come), and Ta
ksim square (pic on right) . We started down the pedestrian only street, Istiklal Cadessi. It was much calmer Monday morning than when we had previously been there Friday night. After walking down Istiklal Cadessi a good ways we found the Metro we needed to take to Metro City - an American-esque mall with a large grocery store inside.
up Monday morning to sunny skies. Monday I finally had the opportunity to explore our area of Taksim and beyond. Jill and I had not yet been to the grocery store so finding it was our mission of the day. We began walking down our street, passing the haunted house (pic on left), cat park (more info to come), and Ta
ksim square (pic on right) . We started down the pedestrian only street, Istiklal Cadessi. It was much calmer Monday morning than when we had previously been there Friday night. After walking down Istiklal Cadessi a good ways we found the Metro we needed to take to Metro City - an American-esque mall with a large grocery store inside. The metro in Istanbul is very basic, with only two lines, so it was no problem getting to Metro City. Inside, there is a large international grocery store called Migros. All 7 senses were needed to pick out items at Migros but so far I think I did alright. The only thing up in the air is the Milk - not quite sure what animal it comes from so I'm hesitant to test it out. After a successful grocery trip and navigating home Jill and I spent the remainder of the evening researching Turkey for our first official work presentation Tuesday.
So far today has been productive. This morning Jill and I attempted to find a "free gym" listed on google. Either it doesn't exist or we had the wrong directions. I don't think it exists. We decided excercise is going to have to be walking the Istanbul hills - no easy task - but buns of steel to come! No I'm off to prepare for work - first training day today. Life's an adventure! XO
Melanie, it's so fun to live vicariously thru you!
ReplyDeleteI love the Mark Twain quote at the beginning of your blog. Keep it in mind when things get nutty and nutty they will. One thing is for sure, you will appreciate home more than you know.
Thanks for letting us share in your adventure.
Love,
Aunt Noreen