I'm not woken up by the 6am call to pray anymore so thankfully I can sleep til 7am now! However, depending on whether or not I feel like taking a shower (and if it's a no it's because I showered the night before.....) I might hit my snooze for 30 minutes so I sometimes get up at 7:30. I immediately make a cup of coffee or tea, whichever one I feel like. The coffee is Nescafe and is in a jar and you add hot water to a couple of spoonfuls that you put in the mug...it's a weird concept to me but I also was not a huge coffee drinker in the US so I don't know if that is also really weird to anyone else. It just seems like more steps than it needs to be? With milk and the powder creamer whatever it tastes OK and will get the job done. As for the tea goes though, it's always a much more enjoyable experience when I'm in the mood for tea because the tea here is really, really, really, really, really, really REALLY good.
My school provides breakfast, lunch and a snack so I have most of my meals covered. The plus side is that I don't have to really worry about groceries. The downside is that I'm surrounded by food - GOOD food - and since it's new I feel like I have to try everything. Because of this, I have actually joined Curves about 5 min from my school (and yes - they have Curves in Turkey!?)
Breakfast usually consists of a combo of about 2-3 of the following items:
-hard boiled eggs
- tomatoes
- cucumber
- turkish feta
- Simit - bread twisted into a bagel looking shape sprinkeld with sesame seeds..not considered a bagel here though - look it up
- olives
- crepe
- cheese
- special k
- honey
- jelly
- this weird molasses substance you put on the Simit
Lunch consists of any of the following:
- Chicken cutlet
- macaroni
- green turkish soup thing
- meaty soups
- turkish meatballs
and more meals to be had/some that i just don't know what the name was so i can't describe it here, sorry :/ all you need to know is that it's all good:)
*90% of the time there is yogurt present
*95% of the time there are tomatoes and cucumbers present
Snack consists of any of the following:
- carrots
- cucumbers
- popcorn
- Simit
- apple cobbler - accidently ate 3 pieces of this - don't judge me because the "pieces" were small squares so it was sort of OK, yet it was still 3 "squares" so maybe not OK..
- chocolate flan-like substance cake thing
- whatever we make on our cooking day (tuesdays), which has included pumpkin pie, pumpkin soup, and something else but i forget!
Dinner is usually tomatoes/cucumbers in pasta with bread followed by yogurt/honey/strawberry jelly for dessert OR whatever Deniz has made that night. We discussed having me buy my own groceries when I moved in, but I have literally gone to my little market about 3x and it's usually to buy more produce and chocolate (bc that too is amazing here). Within 5 minutes of walking in the door, Deniz will usually say "you hungry? I make soup, you have some.." and the next thing you know I have a tray of food in front of me. It's a blessing and a curse living with this woman. She's teaching me how to cook Turkish meals, but she doesn't seem to have a concept of portion sizes. I asked if we could do my first lesson this week (being stuffed peppers) and she was like 'oh yes of course! ok, how many nights do you want to have leftovers for?' and I was like oh I don't know, maybe 2-3 max? And she goes ok, you eat maybe 2, 3 peppers per night? I would get 6 peppers...no, get 10. Yes - you will buy 10 peppers, 1.9 billion lbs of ground beef and a field of onions. It reminds me of my big fat greek wedding and how all of the adults always give their opinion plus juuust a little bit more...It's like I'm asked for my opinion - I give it - then I'm given a revised version of my opinion in return and that is now what I have to work off of.
SO, basically what this means is that Kelsey needs to work out 7x a week otherwise she's going to be obese when she gets back to the states.
I'm getting along with the other teachers really nicely. Its becoming more of a challenge for me bc there is SO much Turkish spoken, not to mention the turkish teachers are really close so they sort of end up doing all of the planning together and I'm left cleaning up for the next activity or filling time btwn activities while they prepare, but I'm going to ask them if I can be more involved with the planning from now on bc it's starting to get on my nerves. Other than that it's really ncie working with them bc it's fun working with native Turks annnnnnd I'm learning new vocab words each day!
In the evenings I usually come home, eat, and then talk to friends online. That sounds SO lame, I know, but by the time I get home I'm usually pretty beat and just want to relax. I'm leaving the weekends open for most of my sightseeing, exploring, etc... I also feel like I'mm still settling in though so once I feel more settled I think it'll be easier for me to do things after work. Since I joined Curves I've also started going to the gym after work, but the only downfall is the distance from my apartment which isn't AWFUL, it's just not super convenient. I live on a compound at the top of one of the hills in Istanbul (I think there are 7 hills), so the complex itself is really residential, but once you get outside you hop on a bus 5 minutes and your at the Bosphorus with a bunch of restaurants, etc... Whenever I want to go anywhere though I always have to plan how I'm going to get there and back. I can't just leave my apt when I feel like and go catch a bus or minibus or something bc the transportation is really random here. It's plentiful in terms of the number of busses/minibusses, but there are no timetables listed anywhere - in bus stops or online - so it's always an overestimation of how much time it will take me to get somewhere which obv adds on time to any trip I take!
Like I said, on weekends I try and explore/hang out with friends. So far I've been to the Grand Bazaar, a traditional Hamam, and I've seen the outside of the Blue Mosque. The Hamam has been my favorite thing so far, even though it was probably one of the most uncomfortable things I've done in a long time! You are basically given a spongebath by an old turkish woman in her bra and underwear - sometimes just underwear. Historically, these were places that a lot of people went to for showers/baths bc it wasn't common to own them in your home. Nowadays showers/baths in houses are obviously a common thing so people dont use the Hamam's anymore out of necessity more so than they do for something fun and random to do. They are probably more touristy than anything, but it really is an unbelievably relaxing 2 hours and I highly recommend it to anyone that visits Istanbul - for women AND men! Once you get over the fact that a half-naked woman is scrubbing you down, it is smooth sailing from there. I can't tell you what it's like for guys, but our friend Stephen went with us and he didn't seem traumatized when he came out so I don't imagine that it was that bad for him either!
Things with my Deniz, my roomie, are going well...like I said she is teaching me how to cook/feeds me so I can't complain there. Hasn't walked around naked in awhile so I'm appreciative of that. We also do some language exchanging so that's nice too!
That's all for now - more to come later. Hope everyone had a nice Halloween:)
Much love!
