The City of Constantine

So I am in Istanbul! And blogspot.com is blocked, so I'll be sending my blog entries to my mom to post here. It's inconvenient, but I'll still be blogging!

My last few days in Nice were fun. I had tea with three classmates at a friend's apartment on Thursday, which was great fun; we represented Spain, Italy, Australia, and the US, but the common language was French (with a bit of Italian, Spanish and English thrown in!). I love polyglot situations like that.

On Saturday I went to Italy. I had been meaning to go, and finally just hopped on a train (~40 minutes) to Ventimiglia, right across the border. There wasn't much to see there, so I hopped on a bus to San Remo, which had a cute old town just begging to be explored. It was so much fun just being in Italy; I love border crossings in general, but it was also great to just note the little differences between the two sides of the border. Linguistically, I was confused—I can understand a bit of Italian, but can't speak any at all, so I made do with French, English, and some "grazie."

I enjoyed wandering around the narrow, windy streets, taking in views of the ocean, and drinking wonderfully rich Italian hot chocolate (another difference across borders!). It was raining the whole time I was there, so by the end of the day I was pretty soaked. But I'm strange, and I don't mind being rained on. I just bought a cannoli, boarded the bus and the train, and admired the scenery on the way back to Nice.

Sunday morning started at 4:30 AM—I was at the airport a little after 5, for my flight at 7. I flew over the alps to Zurich, and then to Istanbul, and went to a wonderful hotel, where I stayed for the next five days. Strangely, Istanbul was channeling Minnesota, and it snowed heavily for most of my stay. I spent a lot of time relaxing at the hotel, drinking apple tea and mentally preparing myself for the semester ahead. I also visited a few of my dad's friends, who are all wonderfully hospitable and kind. I did some wandering around old Istanbul, which often culminated in getting lost.

Istanbul has certainly presented its share of culture shocks: one of the biggest so far is the fact that around 85% of people on the streets are men. I went into a shopping mall the other day to look for a coat, and found that all of the stores catered to men (not sure if that's a usual occurrence, but it certainly seemed very different from the US!). It is strange, but doesn't feel threatening. Nevertheless, I've gotten good at ignoring shopkeepers calling after me to try to get me to come inside and buy their products.

I also tried my hand and shopping and bargaining, because I was in desperate need of waterproof shoes and a coat. I managed to do some successful shopping (with a bit of bargaining—I'll work on it!) all in Turkish! I'm really excited to get to practice this crazy language.

Today (well, Thursday, when I wrote this) was the official start of my study abroad program. I've gotten to know the other students a little bit; we had lunch, then an orientation session (involving a detailed powerpoint presentation on what to do in the case of an earthquake), and a short walk around Istanbul. After a nice Turkish dinner, I'm back in the hotel room with my two roommates, who are also on the program. Tomorrow is our first lecture on Istanbul's history, followed by a visit to some pretty amazing historical sites! I'll keep you updated :)