Birthday Song

I forgot post lovely birthday song video.

Birthday in Istanbul

Yesterday it was my 24th birthday! I'm getting old...hopefully also wiser. Together with friends we had a nice dinner and party. I prepared dinner at my place and after that we went to a Türkü Bar on Istiklal. Since I've never been to such a place before I didn't know what to think about it. I told Hasan, my flatmate, about it and he suggested we could also go to another place instead. On the other hand Miryam was so enthusiastic about it I thought we had to try it. If only for the cultural experience. It turned out not to be bad at all. There was this lovely Turkish woman singing and two musicians; one with an saz-type of thing and the other with a keyboard. It was a repertoire of melancholic and up-beat songs. The melancholic ones were a bit too much for me in the end but the other ones were perfect for dancing. Even our student coordinator from Holland also joined us to dance some kind of version of the halay.
For now I only have the pictures of the dinner at my place, I'll post the other ones later.


The cupcakes that became one huge cupcake




Happy face, not so happy face ;)

Hasan, Polina, me, Marina, Marina's friend, Esther and Miryam

First class and library trip

It looks like the registration process is almost coming to an end. I had my first Turkish class yesterday and it was really nice. Both the teacher and students are really enthusiastic so I hope this time I can really really improve my Turkish. I must say that hearing it all day long is a bit exhausting because I really have to focus all the time. But as time goes by I’m slowly getting used to it as well.
Today we had a trip to a few libraries together with our student coordinator from Holland. It was really such a nice trip. Suddenly we’re getting to know a whole different side of each other. Between the visits to the libraries we had ‘sahlep’ at the Grand Bazar and ate ‘kuru fasulye’ near the Süleymaniye Mosque. I’ve copied the pictures from internet because of course I forgot my camera today…

Registration and Fun!

Last week I’ve been quite busy with the registration at Bilgi. What started so smoothly became a disaster in the end. After I found out that it wasn’t possible to register for MA courses online I’ve been mailing and calling everyone from the International Office to the Faculty Departments. Even our supposed Erasmus Student Coordinator couldn’t help us out and referred us to our actual coordinator...it would have helped if they have given us the right information.
Luckily I had some success at the Architecture Design faculty. Yee! The instructor of a course I wanted to take turned out to be the author of the book I will use as a guideline for my thesis. I’m really happy she accepted me at the course even though she never had a international student in that course as long as she’s been teaching it. I thought this was nice and scary at the same time. Because it means that all the discussions will be in Turkish as most Turkish students don’t speak English very well at Bilgi. Well see how it turns out.
Furthermore I’ve chosen a course at Cultural Studies which Miryam also wants to take, so it’s nice if we have one class together and can help each other out. Unfortunately the department director of Cultural Studies didn’t answer our mails so we still don’t know if we can take it or not. We decided to just go to the first class as if we were accepted at it.
Next to all these registration problems I’ve been having a great time here! Together with Miryam I went to Ikea to get some things for my room. Just going and leaving from Ikea was a little adventure while it was 10 pm when we left and stood in a complete deserted dark parking lot trying to find our way back. The other day we tried to get our student transportation cards. It’s called Akbil and it’s really useful and cheap for students. But since it took us a lot of time getting it I decided to call it Kakbil…I think it suits better. Also we joined the Erasmus Student Club to a trip to Pierre Loti Hill. I still haven't decided if it was nice or not...
Last night we met with the other girls from Holland who will be in Istanbul this semester as well. We had dinner and went for Özsüt where they make delicious deserts. Tonight we’ll go out because there will be several reggae nights to celebrate Bob Marley’s birthday.



At Özsüt with Miryam, Marina and Esther



Marina and Esther



Interesting spelling of croissant



View from Pierre Loti Hill



Istanbul Fashion Week 2010 at Bilgi Santral Campus

There is rain and there is RAIN

So most people, and especially Turkish people, think of Holland as the place which is flat and that it's raining all the time. Well this actually doesn't make any sense to me at all. Because I have never experienced soooo much rain in Holland as I did here in these last two days in Istanbul. It really has been raining non-stop and in the afternoon we were treated with some wet snow as well. All the streets turn into waterfalls and pools. It's really a challenge to make your way though the city. Luckily I've figured out more or less how the public transport and the university shuttles work.
Today was also the registration at Bilgi. All was ok until I wanted to select and apply my courses online. I found out that there just simply was no option to register for the MA-courses. Also they have placed me in the wrong department, History instead of Cultural Studies and therefore I don't know yet who to contact and fix this problem. So tomorrow I'll give it another try and hopefully we can work everything out.

Cold, Introduction and Party Peeps

The introduction day at Bilgi is tomorrow and I’m really curious about all the other Erasmus Students. I think it will be a very nice day…and evening. Just received a mail from the Erasmus Student Group with all the plans for the evening. To have an idea: “Right after that, we arranged a club full of joy and nice music for party people! =) You can join the crew after 23:00 for heading to one of the most known clubs in Taksim: Joker” The only thing is that I have a very annoying cold. I think I wasn’t really allowed to enjoy the nice weather on Saturday so now I’m punished with this nasty cold and headache. Well I’ve brought aspirins and tissues with me, let’s see how far it gets me tomorrow.

At least I’m very happy with all the movies I’ve brought with me. Today…they've been excellent company in my warm cozy room. If I don’t make it to the Joker party I will still enjoy myself ;)

At Last

Yes! I'm in Istanbul! How hard it was to say goodbye to my family and friends, I'm happy that I'm here now. It's strange because I was so busy with preparing to leave I actually had no plans at all for my first days. Luckily I have found the best flatmate in Istanbul who helped me get through the first day. Because...I don't know if you've followed the weather reports; Istanbul was first covered in wet snow and is now thoroughly washed down by pouring rain that goes on the whole day.
But first let me tell you about my arrival. No, first let me proudly tell you that I managed to bring all my winter ánd summer clothes with me in 1...I repeat...1 bag. An enormously big bag of course...but exactly the allowed 30 kg. So when I was picked up by my new flatmate, Polina, we could easily get all my stuff to the apartment. The apartment, which is in Sisli, is very nice. Polina and her friends gave me a very warm welcome-dinner and we've spent a very nice first evening together.
The next day, today, Polina showed me around the mahalle and helped me obtaining my taxmunber. It was a fun and tiring day but I can say that I already feel a bit at home in Istanbul. Now I just need to keep in mind not to try to open the neighbors' apartment's door (they all look the same) and I'm sure I'll survive here.