This morning I was lucky enough to be invited to breakfast by Selnur, our program coordinator. Her and her husband were so welcoming, and I was fed my first ever home-cooked Turkish breakfast which was grand and delightful. We had cups and cups of tea (the average Turk drinks as many as 20 cups of tea per day), and then sat on their balcony to enjoy a cup of Turkish coffee. While looking out on what Selnur described as "the greenest part of the city" and enjoying the fresh air, she showed me the bird's nest right above our heads, and she talked about how the birds have moved in and basically become a part of the family. This was the most exciting part of my morning. For those of you that haven't heard, my family is pretty attached to the birds that have made a nest on our front porch two years in a row. We treat them as guests/family members, and we actually stop using our front door so that we don't disturb the mother bird while she's sitting on her eggs. It sounds a little crazy but it's totally typical of my family.
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| Here's a picture of the baby birds from last year |
Hearing about Selnur's nest gave me this wonderful feeling of interconnectedness, which is my favorite thing to experience when I travel. It just reminds me that no matter how far away you are from your roots and your comfort zone, everything around you is connected and in some ways always familiar. It's a really comforting notion. Sorry for the cheesy title, but I watched The Notebook on the plane yesterday and it seemed to fit.
My first experience with the city was understanding how huge it really is. After my 13 hour journey I was very tired and opted for the easy route, taking just a cab rather than the metro plus a cab. If you saw how comical I looked engulfed in my humongous hiking backpack, dragging my small suitcase and carry-on behind me, you would have probably agreed that this was the right choice. I lost track of time in the cab because the traffic was so heavy and I kept briefly drifting to sleep, but we drove through the city for a few hours before things started to become more and more rural. We ended up in the Sariyer region (I don't think it's really a region per say, but rather the road that travels through the area, but it seems like people use it as a general indicator). Driving by the coast of the Black Sea, everything felt so different than the city we had driven though earlier. It's hard to believe this is all still considered inside of Istanbul. Here at Koc University I'm living on the West Campus for now, which reminds me of North Campus at UMich. You need to take a shuttle to the Central Campus, and that's where prettttty much everything is located. Thankfully, once the students are done with regular semester finals, my roommate Emily (who arrives tomorrow) and I will have a chance to live in one of the dorms on the Central Campus.
Tomorrow I have been invited to go to the beach with Selnur's family, which should definitely be an authentic Turkish experience, and I'm very excited. I am also excited for the day in the near future when I will finally adjust to the time change, right now it makes everything a little more difficult.
Until nest time,
Marina
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