the san diegans left, and i began to fly solo. i moved into my apartment in cihangir on akyol sk. after a couple of days of living in the city, really on my own, my family came to visit! everything has been moving very very fast, and i'm so happy to take a second now to recount important moments that have really kept me going in the hullaballoo of my new life in istanbul.
- today, on a bus back form eyup when a guy got up from a sort of complicated sitting situation to try and allow me and my sisters to sit together.
- simit, cay, and pastries next to the bosphorus with my new roommates
- my mom bringing me literally an entire box (large printer size) of filipino food to last me my next 5 months in istanbul
- my sister bringing me all the american snack food indulgences that i l-o-v-e-d as a kid (and still very much do)
- getting great gifts from hamish via the fam
- getting facebook messages from best friends back home
- my flatmate volkan meeting my family and trying to explain how nice it is to walk down the stairs from our apartment just after waking up, maybe spotting a dolphin in the boshporus and how happy that makes him
- finding out that volkan ( a 27 year old financial controller and masters student) has played starcraft for the past 12 years and still plays it. often. (also he plays the bass and guitar, hahaha).
- every single time my other flatmate aysha (she is half belgian, half english, and (sadly for me) about to return to belgium for her masters in humanitarian aid) breaks out in laughter and says, "ahahahahahhahahahaha I LOVE turkey!!"
- whenever someone flatters me with a compliment on my turkish
- walking around sultanahmet again - knowing and talking to everyone we walk past
- trying to ask how to renew my akbil (metro pass), and the metro guy writing the prices on his hand to explain it to me
- sharing this view...
- ...with my family
