Now it's Turkish Delight on a moonlit night

Speaking of Turkish Delight, it's really not as delightful as the multitude of other things I've eaten so far. I've had Turkish food for every meal and am making it my goal to stay away from American food for as long as possible. They have things like Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc all over the place here. Most frequently seen are Starbucks, though. For some reason, whenever we go to a Starbucks, someone seems to try to talk to us in line and we have to say that we don't speak Turkish. Most of the time they are not actually talking to me because it is relatively obvious that I'm not Turkish (light hair and eyes) but those with darker hair are easily mistaken.

Things have gone well so far. I've moved into my apartment and my room is tiny but it just makes me want to get out and explore more. I had to go out and buy sheets/towels/blankets/pillows/etc which was quite an excursion but only aided my attempts to learn how to get around.

Public transportation here is huge. Istanbul has a really clean Metro, bus, and tram system that is really cheap. To go anywhere on the Metro is about a dollar (1.75 Turkish Lira) for one way and you pay with little tokens that look like poker chips. The bus and tram systems are just about the same but they are usually a lot more crowded all the time.

Yesterday we walked around near my apartment and the university to kind of get acquainted with the neighborhood. It's one of the more upscale neighborhoods in Istanbul and is considered very safe. Many people here speak some broken English since all students at the University are required to know English and speak it in class.

Today we took the Metro to Taksim Square which has a lot of older buildings, embassies, and churches. It is a very nice part of town but the prices are very reasonable and it is very easily accessible from the Metro. I will post pictures when I get a chance.

We have been keeping very busy walking around and exploring but many people automatically try to speak to us in English so it is very frustrating when we are trying to practice. However, I only know how to say polite things (please, thank you, etc), numbers, and some other random things so English is good for now.

A couple of weird things unique to Turkey/not in the US:
-Many restaurants have locks on the bathrooms and will give you the password on your receipt when you buy something (i.e. Starbucks).
-You seat yourself at restaurants and have to call the waiter over when you need help.
-No YouTube ):
-Saying things like "um" and "uh" are actually bad slang words in Turkish. People here look at you like you've just said the worst thing they've ever heard when you say them, even though it's accidental.
-People working in shops (like at a mall) just stand around most of the time. There are so many workers in comparison to customers. In one store we went into, there were employees just standing every few feet from each other looking extremely bored. If you look interested in an item, they will rush towards you and sometimes fight amongst themselves to help sell you something as a lot of their salary is commission-based.

There are probably more but I will list them as I remember them.

Hoşçakalın