Turkey Day

Well, I meant to do a quick update post-Thanksgiving and pre-Amsterdam, but obviously that did not happen. My apologies. Here’s the first part. Amsterdam update still to come.

Thanksgiving was fantabulous. I was pretty stressed about it, because we were cooking for seventeen people and neither me nor Charlotte had made most of the foods on the menu. We did it though! And by we, I mean mostly Charlotte because I was in class (Danish final test successfully completed, for better or for worse) and as those who know me well can attest, I am not exactly terribly efficient at, well, anything [e.g. she peeled about fifty potatoes to my ten]. Everything turned out wonderfully though, even our HUGE (9 kilo) turkey, despite the fact that we did not get it until Thursday morning, and were unable to brine it according to the recipe. Altogether, we made turkey, stuffing with bacon, onion, and sage, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, green beans, gravy, cranberry compote, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie. Not bad if I do say so myself. Although Shuyao did not make it because she was already on her way to Vienna for a study tour, Scarlet did make it just in time for dinner (despite a brief moment in which I believed she was lost in the cold and the dark without any way to contact me). I explained the holiday and the food ot everybody, since they’d never tried most of it before. Everybody seemed to really enjoy it though, and although I could not understand 90% of the conversation, I did hear a lot of “laekkert”s and the whole experience was very hyggeligt. We had decorations courtesy of Karen’s sister who lives in the U.S., and one of the little girls took home a paper turkey to show her kindergarten class the next day. ADORABLE.

Overall it was one of my better Thanksgivings, and certainly the biggest one I can remember having–funny that it happened in Denmark. Experiences like this definitely make me look at my own culture in a different way though. I’m sure I’ll be reflecting on this a lot more as I prepare to return to the U.S. in less than 3 weeks (CRAZY) but being in Europe for a semester has really allowed me to look at American culture from the outside. There are things that I wish were more like the Danish system, and things I definitely miss, but most of all it’s just really cool to be able to see it as a culture at all. I think as Americans we have a tendency to see ourselves as the center of the universe, and as bland/non-defined, maybe partially because our culture is so globalized. Being here has really allowed me to see my own culture for what it is, both the bad and the good parts of it, and it’s a perspective I hope to be able to carry with me even when I am re-immersed back at home.

our giant turkey, pre-cooking, with pen on top for scale

on the door to greet the guests

Famous for a Day

So you remember what I said about that new refrigerator from Bingo Banko? Didn’t exactly work out that way. I’m sure you’re shocked and dismayed. I did get a couple of (separate) full lines though! Unfortunately that happened when we were going for the whole board… Still, it was a really hyggeligt time with my host family. Speaking of hygge, that concept has been so integrated into my vocabulary, I’m going to have a hard time not using it all the time when I go back home! Just the other day I was talking to a friend from home and I just said “hyggeligt” without even thinking about the fact that they don’t know what that means. I think I might even have more culture shock returning home than I did coming here!

On Saturday I also got to skype with my friends Lauren and Kendall from home. It was really nice to talk to some familiar people, since it’d been a while since I’d skyped with anybody, and I’d been feeling just a touch homesick (the most all semester actually) after returning from travel break and still having a month left to go. Now I am quite revived and back in the Copenhagen spirit–just in time to be whisked away to Amsterdam for the weekend. I’m sure it’ll be really fun, but it’s definitely not going to help my ever-struggling motivation to do schoolwork!

Sunday was the DIS julefrokost, or Christmas lunch. Danes have these meals several times both before and after Christmas–at work, with different groups of friends, and then with family during actual Christmastime–so it actually wasn’t weird to have one in November (they don’t have Thanksgiving as a buffer for Christmas spirit, so decorations are going up all over the city,and Christmas spirit is in full swing–makes me really confused about what date it is!). The event was huge–about 500 people, including DIS students, staff, host families, Danish roommates, friends, buddies, etc. I went with my host family, and successfully met up with Shuyao and Scarlet. We ate a lot lot lot of all the traditional foods–flæskesteg, sild, rugbrød, fiskefillet med remoulade, risalamande, cake, and lots of candy. Then we played the Danish Christmas game, although this time none of us won anything because we were sitting in the middle of the long table–way too vulnerable for gift-stealing. We were hopeful for the Christmas tree raffle, but no luck there either (it was not our week for winning prizes). At the end of the meal, we had a group sing-along of both American and Danish Christmas songs, including “12 Days of Christmas” and a Danish song where you join hands and run around (usually the house, but all 500 of us ran around the giant warehouse-type room) singing over and over, faster and faster until you can’t go anymore. People were a bit hesitant at the beginning, but by the last song everybody was having a good time running around. It was oddly hyggeligt even with so many people. I also got to see Lacey and Frida (her 8 year-old host sister) again, and Frida actually remembered me and wanted to say hi to me! Yay! She even gave me a piece of her candy, and didn’t want to leave until we were leaving (I think she had been hoping I’d be going home with them. So cute!).

Then last night I had my TV debut! That’s right, I’m a star now! (Not really…)

What actually happened is that my Danish family took me to see a taping of The Voice (the Danish version, obviously). You may not have heard of it, but the first season in the U.S. happened last spring… it’s a singing competition like American Idol, only during auditions, the judges are actually facing away from the singers, so they can’t judge them based on how they look, they only hear their voice (hence the title). I had never been to see a taping of any show before so I was really excited. The premiere of the show is happening this Saturday, so the episode we saw is actually not airing until January, but my host mom promised she will let me know if we show up and will try and send me a Youtube link. The actual taping was interesting… we had a lot of waiting time, and they had to film some of the scenes a few times so we had to repeat our excited faces/clapping several times. My hands hurt by the end. Also, they had an apparently very funny guy entertaining the audience (probably to keep us happy so we are smiling during the takes) but of course he was talking in Danish so I couldn’t understand any of it. I mostly caught a lot of “Fantastisk!”s from the judges… but that’s about all I understood. Still the singing was really good, and the songs were all American songs that I recognized. It makes me really want to watch the show now… I’m curious to see how they put together the shots and how they choose to edit it. We’ll see if we show up on television!

On the way home, one my (home) family’s favorite Christmas songs came on–”Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer”. If you haven’t heard it, you’re missing out. My host family had never heard it before, and they thought it was pretty funny. It was nice to have a little taste of the home holidays and share it with people here.

Also, for dinner we had risengrød, which is basically like rice porridge. You put butter and cinnamon sugar on top. Very unlike anything I’d have for dinner in the U.S., but it was super yummy! You put the butter in the middle so it melts all over the porridge while you’re eating it… perfection.

And now time to eat me some risalamande and study for my Danish test tomorrow! Mostly the former though.

Scandinavia and the World

Here’s a funny comic about the Scandinavian countries: http://satwcomic.com/

Getting in the [Eating] Spirit

Okay, so, yes I did intend to do a little better blogging-wise this week. And yet here I am on Saturday, once again, writing a post about the whole week. My work ethic has not exactly been in tip-top shape since returning from travel break, so there are many things that probably should have gotten done which, well, didn’t. Better late then never though right?

Overall, I’d have to say it’s been a pretty good week, with a few healthy moments of I WILL NEVER MAKE IT THROUGH THIS sprinkled in. Gotta love college. Here are the things I have failed to update about until now.

La Glace: My, was that a good decision. Conditori La Glace is Copenhagen’s oldest bakery, located only a few blocks away from DIS. It is especially famous for its lagkage (Danish layer cake) but all of their pastries are exquisite, with prices to match. One slice of cake costs 52 kr., or about $10. Not exactly in my budget for a regular stop, but definitely worth going at least once if you come to Copenhagen. Last Saturday Allie and I decided to check it out as a special motivational treat. It took us way too long to figure out how to order and sit down (we tried to sit down like 3 different times and kept getting sent back to the counter), but we finally figured it out–when in Denmark, always remember to take a number and then you can make it through anything. So we finally ordered (I got their sportskage (pictured on the right), their specialty lagkage, and Allie got a mocha eclair) and sat down in a cozy little corner to enjoy our expensive goodies. I can’t speak for Allie’s (though she seemed pretty pleased) but mine was just WOW. Danish lagkage is usually a few layers of cake and cream, but this one was just all cream. The middle cream had crushed nougat, and was slightly thicker than the outer regular whipped cream. It had a chewy macaroon bottom and little carmelized choux pastries on the outside for decoration (like a French St.Honoré pastry if you’ve ever had one). AMAZING is all I can say. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back…

Projects/Semesters: This was the I WILL NEVER MAKE IT THROUGH THIS part of my week. I have 3 group projects that were assigned this week which will be due during the same 3 days (in addition to two 8-10 page papers). So some stress is definitely headed my way, especially because the weekend preceding this craziness I will be in Amsterdam, an experience I do not intend to taint with schoolwork. Of course, complain though I might, I failed to get ahead on any of this work even though I had very little homework this week. So you must take my complaints with a grain of salt. Adding to the difficulty of this time period is that Carleton is doing finals now, and will thus be done starting next week. At Carleton we have 10-week trimesters, so our winter break is Thanksgiving through New Year’s. I’m giving up the majority of that break to be at DIS, which is on a semester system. Even though I had semesters in high school, I have grown really used to the short but intense Carleton term, and I thus have mixed feelings about the length of this term. On the one hand, I am so happy to be able to stay in Denmark for four full months, getting to know my host family, DIS friends, and Copenhagen itself all the better. However, that’s also a really long time to be (mostly) consecutively going to class and doing homework. Coming back from two weeks of traveling around Europe and seeing all my Carleton friends’ Facebook statuses about being almost done has not helped either. At the same time, I cannot believe I only have 4 weeks left here (my host family and I just had a conversation about the day I leave!) to do all my shopping, eating, touristing, and enjoyment of Denmark! I guess what it comes down to is I love being here, but not doing schoolwork. Of course, I suppose that’s why they call it study abroad.

Chinese Thanksgiving: On Thursday night, Mariya, Shuyao and I (along with Shuyao’s good friend and amazing cook Scarlet) had a travel group reunion! We (mostly Shuyao and Scarlet) made a Chinese food feast in the common kitchen of Shuyao’s kollegium (the Danish version of a dorm, though it is not connected to any particular school). It was my first time in a kollegium, so I was very intrigued to see another DIS housing option. They all differ, obviously, but this one seemed really nice. Shuyao has her own mini-kitchen in her room (which she shares with her friend Yen) and there is also a DIS-specific common area downstairs, which is where we did our cooking and feasting. It was really fun to reunite with my travel buddies (and Scarlet of course) and to participate in one of our favorite activities–EATING. We had shrimp with bok choy, Mongolian pork, pumpkin noodles, tomato with scrambled egg (Shuyao and Scarlet were horrified when Mariya and I told them Americans would usually put cheese in our scrambled eggs), and a dish with sprouts. LOTS of food. We also exchanged presents from our second travel weeks, and I got an adorable little London double-decker bus magnet from Shuyao.

It was a unanimous vote that i should get the big bowl. I wonder what that says about me?

Networker’s Lounge: On Friday night DIS was hosting an event called the Networker’s Lounge for everybody in buddy networks to get together and meet people from other groups. I had been originally planning to stay in the city after class because I didn’t have time to go home before it started, and I was going to use the current 7/11 croissant deal (2 croissants for 10 kr., or about $2) for my dinner. When I told Lacey about my plan, she scoffed and suggested that I just come over to her house for dinner instead. So after our two afternoon classes together Lacey and I caught the train to head to Skovbrynet where she lives with her host family. She takes the A train (whereas I take the E) so it was kind of exciting to see the different stops and try to pronounce them. There were definitely some Danes laughing at us as we tried to copy the pronunciation of the announcer. At Lacey’s house, I got to meet her host dad Rene, adorable 8-year old host sister Frida, and pet bunny rabbits. It’s always fun to see other housing situations, partially because it makes me realize how much my own house has really become my home over these past 3 months. Over dinner we discussed music and Coen brothers movies (Lacey’s host dad has good taste) and before we departed I dutifully filled out my own entry Frida’s Vennerbog (“Friend Book”) with much translation help from Rene. I think I may be required to give Lacey a picture of me for Frida to paste in there as well… she’s very thorough.

The Networker’s Lounge itself was fun. DIS gave out tickets for free crepes from a little cart around the corner (I got one with nutella, though I was scolded by everybody else for not getting bananas too)–yummy! I also found Shuyao and Scarlet for a bit, and made plans with them to meet up at the DIS Christmas lunch on Sunday. Overall a lovely evening.

Bingo Banko: I believe I have brought this up before, but I’ll explain it again–a wonderful show that I wish we had in the U.S. Bingo Banko is basically a gameshow for the whole country, because anybody can play. All you do is print out bingo cards (Danes call them “plates”) and tune in at 8pm on Saturday. Throughout the show they do crazy games (everything from beaver racing to tattoo Pictionary) and numbers come up every once in a while for you to mark on your bingo cards. There are 3 chances to win: one row, two rows, and a whole card (3 rows). The prizes are huge (sometimes you get a chance to risk your prize and play for a better one, but you may end up with just a rubber glove filled with soup). I’ve played twice, once with Søren, and again last Saturday with Charlotte, but so far we have not won. Tonight is the last game of the season, so we’re going to go all out and have cards all over the floor. New refrigerator, here I come.

DIS Julefrokost (Christmas lunch): Tomorrow is the DIS Christmas lunch. There were originally about 500 spots and they’re all sold out, so it’s going to be a HUGE event. DIS is providing some food, and everybody is asked to bring a dish and a wrapped gift worth about 10 kr. I’m excited, though a little curious about how such a huge lunch is going to work. Most people are going with their host families (including me) so it’ll be a real range of ages and cultures. I’m also hoping to find Shuyao and Scarlet somewhere in the masses, so we’ll see how that goes. In any case, I think it’ll be really fun with hopefully a lot of good food.

And now time for me to return to all that work I’ve been putting off all week.

I also updated my Danishness page this week so check out my new reflections on Danish culture!

Vi ses (hopefully sooner than next week)!

Sahlep Satisfaction: Study Tour to Istanbul/Travel Week 2

When I first went to the Copenhagen airport to begin my next travel adventure, I was still honestly still a bit sad to have left Prague. But Istanbul soon proved to have its own advantages (for starters, we got a complimentary full meal on the plane both ways–Turkish Airlines is a new favorite). (For those of you not caught up on my life, this was an optional study tour, for which I took a 1 credit class–Turkey at the Crossroads.) On the way to our hotel the first evening, Koray (our guide) was explaining the layout of the city to us. Our hotel was in the New City, which is actually from the 14th century. Throughout the trip we were surrounded by so much history it was amazing. And we’d find out so casually, like “Oh by the way that monument you’re standing next to is over two thousand years old.” It was just crazy. Rather than give you a blow by blow retelling of the whole week (and leave you sitting here for an hour reading all about my life) I’ll just talk more in detail about the highlights of the trip.

Transportation: Rather than go around by bus, we used public transportation, which allowed us to see more of the city and the people. We used both cards and “spoons,” which come from the fact that the transportation passes used to be actual little spoons. Here’s a picture of my dear little spoon:

Topkapi Palace: An old palace from the days of the sultans. All of the walls were covered in intricate tile designs, particularly in the Harem where the Sultan and the women servants lived. Of course, it was all missing all the lavish tapestries and decorations and it was still unbelievable. It’s hard to imagine how amazing it would have looked in the past. We stopped in the treasury and saw a HUGE diamond that was actually originally found in a trash bin and sold for about 3 lira before anybody realized it was a diamond. We also saw some old weapons including some swords that were so huge it was impossible to imagine somebody actually using them. Mosques: There were mosques everywhere. Luckily there weren’t any right next to our hotel so we weren’t woken up at 5am every day, but it was really cool to hear the call to prayer every once in a while while we were exploring. Plus they were beautiful to see in the landscape.

our view from one of our lunch places. nbd.

Turkish Rugs: As an extra treat we got to go to a rug gallery where we basically got a sales pitch on Turkish rugs. It was actually pretty amazing, as they explained just how much labor it takes to make each rug: the women can only weave for 4 hours a day because the work is so detailed! The salesmen just kept pulling out rugs, handling them as if they were as light as feathers. We were all really tempted to buy them, but even the little baby ones cost as much as 350 lira. Not exactly in my price range… Turkish Bath: One of my personal favorite parts of the trip was our visit to the Hamam, or Turkish baths. DIS paid for our basic entry, and I decided to spring for a soap scrub and an oil massage because how often do you visit a Turkish bath anyway? It was definitely worth it. As for clothing when we were there, we each got a pair of disposable underwear and a towel for the bath portion. At first it was a bit awkward but we all got used to it pretty quickly after being surrounded by half-naked women (the men had a separate section for the whole process). The only weird thing for me was that I had not brought my contacts to Turkey, and I couldn’t wear my glasses into the bath because they would just steam up anyway. So I was sort of blind the whole time and couldn’t see people’s faces very well (sorry if I gave you any weird looks!).

Anyway, first we all laid down on a hot stone while we waited for soap scrubs. You got tokens to indicate what services you had paid for, and every once in a while a large Turkish woman would come over and point to one of us, indicating that she would do our scrub. I think they were pretty used to guiding tourists around who don’t speak Turkish (according to Maja, our professor, it’s mostly tourists at the hamams ever since houses got running water), because the woman who did my scrub just tapped me and pointed when she wanted me to do something. After our scrub, we were told to go sit in a separate room with a large warm tub to soak in. It was really pleasant for a bit, but after a while all the steam and humidity and heat were starting to feel like a bit much, so those of us who got massages headed over to the next stage in the process. We went into yet another room where we got new big hot fluffy towels and sat to wait for our massages. This took a while and I was one of the last ones picked, partially because I couldn’t see the womens’ motions (since i still had no glasses) when they came into fetch us so I was slower to react than the others around me. I briefly wondered if the massage was worth all the hassle, but once I finally got there I was so glad to have gotten it.

My masseuse was really nice and a bit cheeky. She made fun of me for my ticklishness because I twitched every time she got anywhere near my feet and she kept insisting that I relax more. When I was done she poked me on the nose and sent me on my way. The whole experience was definitely something I will remember for a while. I never get massages or anything for myself at home, though after that experience I’m tempted to do a little more self-pampering. Everybody came out of the baths in such a good mood and our class was buzzing about it for the rest of the week.

Armenian Village: On one of the days we got to sign up for one of three different small group visits, to give us a chance to see a part of Istanbul without the whole group of 26 tromping around. I chose to go with Maja to see the Armenian Village (not actually Armenian, or a village, but just a neighborhood in Istanbul) and to talk to her sister and her sister’s mother-in-law, a clinical psychologist who had lived in the area for several decades, about their experiences living in Istanbul. There were seven of us in the group, and it was really nice to talk in more intimate setting and finally hear about someone’s personal experiences in Turkey, rather than a lecture on politics or current events (though those were really interesting as well). We also got delicious cakes and sahlep (my new favorite drink–elaboration forthcoming), and Maya read Matt’s future in his Turkish coffee grounds.

there were so many jellyfish! no swimming for me.

Lectures: Speaking of lectures, we had two formal ones on the trip: politics and current events with Martin Selsøe, a Danish-Turkish journalist reporting on Turkey, and Orientalism and gender in Turkey with Nora Onar, a originally American professor who has been living in Turkey for over ten years.

Martin Selsøe’s talk happened just before lunch, so I think some of us were a bit distracted by the bread on the table, but it was really interesting. He talked a lot about Turkey’s relationship with the EU and its current status with regards to membership application. According to him, Turkey appears to have decided to cease their strides towards membership after comments made by other countries that they would never be able to become full members. He also explained how EU membership is not necessarily the best path for Turkey to take. He also discussed the issues that Turkish journalists face when attempting to report accurately about Turkey, and about the current issues with Turkey’s political leadership system (especially the involvement of the military chiefs). It was really helpful to hear a little more about what decisions and complications Turkey is currently facing so we could understand the climate we were in.

Nora Onar’s talk was one of my favorite academic visits of the trip. She discussed the theory of Orientalism as it pertains to Turkey and really challenged us to think harder about our assumptions about veiled women. She talked about how Muslim women are starting to veil themselves in different ways, with loud and fashionable scarves, perhaps using the veil as more of a religious symbol than adherence to the religious doctrine itself. She also explained the tension between veils as oppressive (i.e. forcing women to cover themselves and protect their family’s honor rather than living independent lives) and liberating (allowing women the freedom to have their own jobs and go out in public without being surrounded by men). It was a really helpful academic take on what we’d been seeing all around us, and I only wish it had happened earlier in the week (rather than on the last day) so we could have had more time to observe the situation in Istanbul in light of the theory we were presented with.

Turkish Dance: Although we did not get to see the Whirling Dervishes, we did get to attend a dance performance, displaying traditional dances from different regions of Turkey, including belly dancing! The dancers were amazing–one of the men walked on the tips of his toes without toe shoes, and there was a woman who isolated parts of her body in ways that I didn’t know were possible. There was even a dance with black light effects. My only complaint about night was a German lady sitting behind Allie and I, who first asked us to switch places so she could take pictures (because I was supposedly too tall even though we’re about the same height sitting down). Then at the intermission she asked us to switch again because she kept sticking her camera over Allie’s shoulder and catching her hair in it (and she didn’t even apologize!). My experience of the spectacular performance was impossible to ruin, however, and the free Turkish delight in the lobby definitely made up for the rudeness of our fellow audience member.

Blue Mosque: One of the must-sees in Istanbul is the Blue Mosque, which was built in the 17th century. The name comes from the blue color that used to cover the whole interior of the mosque–now you can just see patches of the color it used to be. It is still used for worship today, but hundreds of thousands of visitors also come between prayer times. Normally the girls would have had to veil in order to enter the mosque, but because it is such a popular tourist destination, veiling is no longer compulsory. We did have to take off our shoes and carry them around in little baggies though.

it was a bit difficult to take pictures because there were a bunch of cables coming from the ceiling to hold various lights and speakers. also we could only stand in a blocked off area in about half the mosque.

Hagia Sophia: After seeing the Blue Mosque, we just walked across the street to visit the Hagia Sophia. It’s crazy to be typing that. The Hagia Sophia standing now is actually the 3rd one that has been built in the same spot. Of course, this third one (built by Justininan) is still from the 6th century! INSANE. The first one was built by Constantine in the 4th century out of wood and was burned down. It was rebuilt by Theodosius II but destroyed again in the early 6th century in a riot. Some of the ruins from the second Hagia Sophia are still sitting outside the current one though. Though it was originally built as a church, it was used as a mosque for several centuries after the fall of Constantinople. Today it is a just a museum to avoid religious conflict. It is also HUGE. The Blue Mosque could actually fit inside it!

This is actually a mosaic made from hundreds of tiny tile pieces. The silver part that Mary is standing on is very rare because silver mosaic tiles are difficult to make; usually the silver oxidizes and turns black before they can be put together.

Turkish Film: Another one of our academic visits was with Ümit Ünal, a Turkish filmmaker. We watched a literally no-budget movie that he directed, Ara,  and then had a question and answer session. I actually really liked the film. It was the kind of movie that is aimed to make you think, rather than endearing you to the characters or the situation. There were many different vignettes in mixed up chronological order, and sometimes you would see part of a scene and not see the whole sequence until much later, giving you two very different impressions of the same event. A funny fact came out in the Q&A session when Matt asked why he has chosen to film in black and white. Ümit Ünal first said “Well actually it was a mistake” and we all laughed, assuming that it was a mistake in the filming process. It turns out the projector had just started playing it in black and white and he hadn’t wanted to interrupt the screening to fix it!

Lamda Istanbul: Our other visit that day was to Lamda, a Turkish LGBT organization that works with all kinds of issues, and collaborates with leftist, anarchist, and Kurdish movements. There was a bit more of a language barrier for this presentation, because although the presenters could speak English they clearly weren’t very comfortable with it. In the end, they ended up speaking Turkish and having Maja and Şarl, another one of our tour leaders, translating. This was interesting in itself, and a more effective way to hear what the presenters were saying about the situation for LGBT folks in Turkey.

The North Shield: On the way to almost anywhere we passed a pub called the North Shield, about which Allie made a couple comments in the beginning of the week, saying it looked classy and she wanted to go. We ended up making fun of her a lot for this (I’m not sure why) and pretty soon the North Shield was a big overblown inside joke. So of course we had to go check it out. It turned out to be a very odd place–an overpriced Scottish themed pub with a music selection ranging from Jessica Simpson to “Singing in the Rain.” There were chairs with rooster print and rarely more than a couple customers (besides our little group of four). Later we found out that it was not only a chain, but a Turkish chain (but still Scottish themed?). It was really a strange place, but one that will always hold a special place in our hearts.

a second North Shield--the realization that it was a chain

Shopping: Shopping is an important part of any vacation, especially one to Turkey, where you can haggle! I love haggling and it’s always tempting for me to buy things just to haggle even if I don’t actually need them. Needless to say, I did a fair amount of shopping throughout the week, both at independent stores and at the Grand Bazaar (which we went to as a class) and the Egyptian Spice Market (instant Sahlep ftw). I got a lot of presents–many for myself, but also crossed off some final Christmas to-do items. One of the most interesting things about shopping as a woman in Istanbul was the catcalls from the men running the shops. In the Grand Bazaar, I went on my own to maximize efficiency, and got a lot of interesting comments. Everywhere we went was pretty crowded, so it was pretty safe, and most of them were just trying to entice us towards their store. One of my favorites was “Let me change your life today. I’ll give you a deal: only 20 lira for this scarf and me!” In the Egyptian Spice Market Allie and I also got followed out of a store by a man who at first seemed to be offering to sell himself, but then seemed to be offering us money in exchange for something. Needless to say we did not accept.

The Asian Side: While the majority of Istanbul is in “Europe”, there is a part of the city, primarily residential, that is technically in Asia. So on our last evening, we took a private yacht cruise (WHAT?!) around the Bosphorus and over to the “Asian side.” In reality the two sides are pretty much the same–if anything, the Asian side seems more like Europe than the European side. Still, it’s pretty cool to say that I went to Asia for dinner. While we were there, we also went to the top of a huge hill (Istanbul has many, including a large 70 degree slope–half slope, half stairs–we had to climb every day to go anywhere from our hotel) where we could see all of Istanbul. The city is HUGE. According to Koray, it stretches (at minimum) 50 km. on either side of the Bosphorus. Plus the whole thing is basically city because they are really no suburbs, so most of that is apartment buildings rather than houses.

this doesn't really do justice to how huge the city is, but you can get an idea. also, it's important to note that this was only one side of the hill--on the other side, the city stretched out for a while as well.

Atatürk’s Death Day: Thursday was the anniversary of the death of Atatürk, the man who basically secularized Turkey and is still identified as a major leader figure in the country. At 9:05am on that day every year, all Turks stop what they are doing for a full minute and just stand still, remembering him. We were told about the moment and sat to watch it happen. It was so cool to see people just suddenly stop in the street, and cars refuse to go at the green light. There were some people who obviously didn’t know what was happening, and were weaving their way through the stopped crowd or honking their horns at the cars stopped in the street. I would have taken a picture, but obviously everything is stopped on film.

FOOD. You thought I’d neglected my favorite topic didn’t you? I was just saving the best for last! There is a lot to write about, so I’m just going to show you the typical foods we enjoyed on our many meals.

All of our meals began with a sort of tapas appetizer, called mezes. Basically bread with all this stuff (usually communal--in this picture we each got our own). It was next to impossible not to fill up on bread and toppings before we got our real food.

We usually got at least one börek--usually filled with just cheese, but one of them had sausage in it too. Some were small (like this one) and some were quite large--almost a meal in itself.

Not sure what this was, but it was filled with meat and it was delicious.

These were eaten like shrimp... just grab the tail and bite the rest off. Just like popcorn?

I never ordered fish, but it was always served whole, complete with lots of bones. I witnessed some pretty creative maneuvering from people trying to de-bone their fish.

Turkish meatballs. One of the common menu options. Usually came with a grilled tomato, a jalapeno, and either rice or french fries.

What we theorized was lentil or some kind of bean soup. It was really finely ground so the soup was really smooth. Quite delicious!

Döner--the Turkish version of shawarma. Basically, the meat is cooked on a rotating spit and bits are shaved off as they are cooked. Very tasty!

Cay (pronounced "chai") tea--typical in Turkey.

Apple tea in a typical tea cup. We got served tea or coffee on almost all of our visits. Apparently real Turks don't actual drink apple tea though--it's only for tourists.

Sahlep--my new favorite drink. It's made from orchid root, which makes it a bit thicker, but it tastes like sweet milk. You put cinnamon or nutmeg on top and it is SO GOOD. I bought some instant Sahlep to bring back--we'll see if it tastes as good as the real thing.

Turkish coffee: I never ordered it because I don't like coffee, but apparently it's like coffee only thicker and stronger (and often with a lot of sugar added). It's served in a little espresso cup, and when you're finished you turn it upside down for a few minutes before allowing someone else to interpret the grounds. Maja found everything from a couple sitting on a car to a seal and a "lionness" in this one.

Baklava: very tasty! The only difference I noticed in Turkish baklava is that it's often made with pistachios instead of walnuts.

Turkish delight--definitely not for everyone. It's kind of like a gelatinous cube with different flavors, and sometimes nuts inside. Personally I think it's tasty (depending on the flavor) but some people were not so taken with it.

a piece of cake--called "pasta" in Turkish, which confused us a lot at first. this one was caramel flavor and was mostly cream on the inside. yummy!

I don't remember the Turkish name for this, but it was one of my favorite desserts. Basically really gooey pudding-like substance. This one was burnt on top (on purpose) but you can also get one with cinnamon (my favorite) or a traditional one with chicken (sounds weird but is apparently tasty).

This one is milkier and thinner than the other pudding (basically sweet rice pudding), but also has cooked top. Yum-tastic.

So that concludes my trip to Turkey! I have to say, as much as I enjoyed my two week travel break, it was definitely exhausting and I am glad to be back in Copenhagen with my host family. The more unfortunate part of returning is going back to classes and homework! I only have five weeks left here (crazy!) so there are many final projects, papers, and tests awaiting me. Plus I am going to be so busy fitting in all my last bucket list items, hanging out with my DIS friends as much as possible, and enjoying the holiday season in Denmark! A big event on the horizon is cooking Thanksgiving dinner for 16 people with my host mom. I’ve never even really helped cook Thanksgiving dinner before because my dad always handles it all, so it’ll be interesting. I think me and Charlotte are starting to realize what a big task it’s going to be, and freaking out a bit, but in the end I’m sure it’ll be really fun. Then I am going to Amsterdam for a weekend with Allie, possibly having a friend visit Copenhagen, and then it’ll be finals! This is going by so fast! Though I will be happy to go home again for break and then to be back at Carleton, I will also be so sad to leave my amazing host family, and Copenhagen, behind.

That said, I still have not finished unpacking (oops?) and I have a lot of homework to get done today, so my sappy reminiscing will have to be cut short for now. I will try to keep updating regularly in all the craziness of the next few weeks, but it’s definitely going to test my (somewhat lacking) time management skills.

[Also, check back soon for an update on my "Danishness" page. I have been slacking on that front recently, but I hope to add a few more items in the coming week so stay tuned!]

Hej hej for now!

From Unicorns to Disneyland: A Magical First Travel Week

Welcome to my mid-travel break post! I promised I’d give you one so here goes… I’ll try to give you a sort of highlights reel/general overview, but basically everything about this first week rocked so it’s hard to separate the “best” moments. See if you can pick out some of the major themes (*cough* FOOD *cough cough*).

Saturday 10/29 [CPH to Paris]: Day One

Saturday airport logistics went quite smoothly—we all got to the airport on time, checked our bags, and were at our gate with about a half hour to spare. Of course, there was a brief moment of potential concern when one of the airport workers told us our gate didn’t exist (of course, Shuyao and Mariya’s first reaction to this news was: IT’S LIKE HARRY POTTER. IT’S MAGIC!). Luckily he was wrong, and our gate technically existed, although it wasn’t much more than a big warehouse stuck out about 15 min. walk from security. We actually got to walk out on the tarmac to our plane for that reason though, which was kind of cool (though a bit chilly). I was a bit nervous for our time in Paris, because I was the only French speaker in our group, but I hadn’t taken any French classes for almost two years. As soon as we heard the French people around us on the plane though, I felt so at home! It was the most of a country’s language I’d been able to understand so far, which was very exciting.

Our first night in Paris, once we were taxied to our apartment because the trains were apparently wonky, we immediately set out in search of dinner. We found an AMAZING crêpe place and thoroughly enjoyed a delicious dinner, after which we found a little market where we picked up a bottle of wine, and some cheese and crackers. We spent the rest of the night snacking in front of French TV in our cozy apartment.

best crepe of my life

wine and cheese in our apartment--so Parisian!

Sunday 10/30 [Paris]: Day Two

Sunday morning first thing we went in search of a boulangerie, and didn’t find one for a bit (a difficult feat in Paris) but finally stumbled upon a place to get fresh croissants—yummy! Then we walked back up to Sacré-Cœur, about 5 min. walk from our apartment. There were a LOT of steps, especially including the ones to get up to the dome, but it was definitely worth it for the gorgeous view. For lunch we headed down the hill again to find the Café Des 2 Moulins–where Amélie works in the movie! It was really cool to see the café in person, and our waiter (obviously very used to tourists) was hilarious. And we had our first French crème brûlée–delicious!

our crazy waiter

After lunch we went into the center of Paris to meet Shuyao’s friend (who is studying in Paris all this year) at the Arc de Triomphe. She basically gave us a full tour of Paris in just a couple hours, and it was really helpful to get a sense of the city with someone else who knew what they were doing (especially because we only had a metro map to guide us). Along our way we stopped at Ladurée, the most well-known place to get macarons, and boy, was it worth the twenty minutes in line. The four of us shared a box of eight flavors, each taking a bite of one and passing them all around so we could all try each kind. My personal favorite was pistachio, but they were all super light and tasty.

At dinnertime, we parted ways with our wonderful tour guide and Shuyao, Mariya, and I had dinner in the Latin Quarter. We each got the three course dinner special, which for me consisted of soupe à l’oignon, duck confit, and tarte aux pommes. It wasn’t the highest quality French food, but it was still good (especially for the price). After dinner we had a second dessert (obviously) of crêpes at a nearby crêperie. I got one with Nutella and whipped cream. It was very fresh, so it melted all over the place, but it was SO yummy!

Just when we thought the night couldn’t get better, we stumbled upon a street artist doing paintings with spray paint. We ended up watching him make an entire painting, which was really cool because you couldn’t tell what he was making until it was basically finished and it looked amazing. We ended up each getting a painting as a souvenir because it was just too special to forget about.

coolest experience ever

Monday 10/31 [Paris]: Day Three

Monday morning we tried to make it out to the Louvre first thing, but we ended up not making it there until about 10am, by which time the line was clearly over an hour long. Rather than wasting our whole morning waiting, we decided to come back later, and instead took some pictures before heading over to the Centre Pompidou. There the line was much shorter, plus we got in free thanks to our EU Resident Student status (WOOT). Even in the “smaller” museum there was tons to see, and we spend a few hours going through just the permanent exhibition. It was fun to see the mix of older and newer art, especially since it was organized chronologically so you could see the progression of how artists have pushed the boundaries for the last one hundred years.

Of course, after tromping around in a museum for a few hours, we were pretty tired and hungry, so we went over to L’As du Fallafel, which is supposed to have some of the best falafel in Europe. It definitely lived up to expectations. It was also really nice to have a different kind of food (i.e. not the same meat, cheese, and potatoes you find in much of Europe). We did a bit of shopping and exploring as well before heading over to the Louvre to try again. We got a bit distracted taking pictures with the pyramid, though, and by the time we started to head in, there was no line, but the museum itself was actually closing in 20 minutes. So we took a few pictures from within the pyramid and took a look at the gift shop, but did not manage to see the Mona Lisa.

Our next stop was the Eiffel Tower, obviously a must-see when you go to Paris. We chose not to go all the way to the top (about a 3 hour endeavor) since we’d already gotten a pretty good view of Paris from Sacré-Cœur, but instead just took the stairs to the first level and then took pictures on the lawn. It was very surreal to be at such a famous monument, and it still hasn’t really sunk in that we were actually there.

it's US! and there's the eiffel tower in the background...

For dinner we went to our favorite little grocer near our apartment and bought some pasta and veggies to cook. It was wonderful to have a hyggeligt little dinner at home (we’d missed hygge a lot since leaving Denmark) and our cooking did not taste too bad, although we way overestimated the amount of pasta we needed.

Tuesday 11/1 [Paris]: Day Four

Tuesday morning Shuyao and Michelle (who’d joined us Sunday night) left early for Versailles to meet another of Shuyao’s friends studying in Paris this year. Mariya and I decided to stay home instead since we’d seen a lot of castles in the past few months, and instead chose to go to the Musée d’Orsay. We started off the morning in a nice leisurely way, stopping in a boulangerie for some baguette which we ate on the way down the hill to the metro. Perfect morning. Of course, we also got drawn in by a macaron store on our way to the museum, and just had to get a few. I found my new favorite flavor–Praline (hazelnut and almond)! It was a good thing we stopped for a snack because we had to wait a while in line (as always) to get into the museum, and it began to sprinkle a bit while we waited. Of course, we had both contemplated and then left our umbrellas in the apartment, so we had no rain protection, and were not particularly inclined to buy an expensive umbrella from the street vendors passing them out nearby. Luckily, the rain held off for the most part until right after we got under the covered roof of the museum, at which point it began to pour. Perfect timing!

I again got free admission to the museum, but Mariya forgot her residence card at the apartment so she had to pay the reduced regular student fee. When we got in, we looked at the map and realized just how huge the museum was. All in all, we spent about five hours there, and we even missed one of the temporary exhibits! It was definitely worth the time commitment though, and we both really enjoyed the art. It was especially cool to see the famous Impressionist paintings and realize that we’d been to some of those locations in Paris–just a really crazy feeling.

Since we finished the museum at about 4pm, we were both absolutely starving, and found the first place we could that had a reasonably priced croque madame. Yum yum! Shuyao and Michelle called us during our late lunch and we met back up with them after a quick stop in the Notre Dame. Because it was All Saint’s Day, the church was having a ceremony as we were leaving, and we got to see the procession enter the church while the organ was playing! It was really ominous but beautiful and definitely worth stopping in for. I also really liked seeing the inside of Notre Dame because it was simpler than the other big churches I had been to, which meant you could really appreciate the details of the architecture, and it was very nice to look at.

Mariya's raspberry (i.e. unicorn) cake

Our first stop upon meeting up with Shuyao and Michelle was, of course, a boulangerie-patisserie where I got a chocolate eclair and a Paris-brest. Gotta love that pastry cream! We sat for a while outside under the restaurant’s heat lamps chatting about this and that, feeling a bit Parisian. Soon we were ready for real dinner, and we found another place with a three course deal which was actually much better than the place we’d been Sunday night. I had soupe à l’oignon (better this time), tartiflette, and a scrumptious lemon mousse for dessert. Mariya had a fluffy raspberry cake, which we decided tasted just like unicorns.

Wednesday 11/2 [Paris to Prague]: Day Five

Wednesday morning we went through about three different morning plans, since we first thought we were leaving at noon, then 11am, then we finally realized at about 9:40am that check-out time was 10am. Not exactly our smoothest departure, but we all made it out on time and dragged our suitcases down to a nearby boulangerie to have a final breakfast. First we tried to sit at one table and drag chairs over, but a waitress told us we could not move the chairs, so then we (rude Americans that we were) asked some other people (who had not ordered yet) to move down a seat so we could sit down. We bought some baguette and pastries, moved our suitcases out of the walking path, and finally thought we were settled in when the waitress came back and told us the tables were for restaurant patrons only (as the boulangerie was also an actual restaurant) and we had to order something off the menu if we wanted to stay. So we each got some hot drinks, and I had an oeuf dans sa brioche (basically toad-in-a-hole with brioche–NUMMY), which actually turned out to be great anyway, and a nice farewell-to-Paris breakfast.

Our trip to the airport went pretty smoothly since we were pretty familiar with the metro system, except when we almost got off at the wrong terminal (a few minutes ride away from the correct one). I was sad to leave the French-speaking atmosphere, but ready to go to a quieter city where we could have a less hectic schedule. Plus I was ready to turn over the language-translation reigns to Mariya, who speaks Russian, which is sort of similar to written (though not spoken) Czech.

Our first hour in Prague was a bit of a struggle bus (literally) because first we could not get transportation tickets because we had no change for the machine, and had to allow several buses to pass us by while we debated what to do, sent Shuyao in to buy the tickets, got worried about Shuyao and went to find her, then all almost missed the bus again. Then of course once we got on the bus I definitely fell over onto some poor people seated behind me when I got caught not holding onto the pole when the bus decided to start moving. Not exactly a good first impression.

When we finally made it to our hostel (relatively uneventfully), the nice man at the counter smiled at us and said “Welcome home!” He was a lot like one of the Danish University students working at DIS, and was very sweet. Our hostel itself (Charles Bridge Economic Hostel) was great–very clean with good facilities, and lots of discounts on local happenings. Best of all, it was located literally at the Charles Bridge, in the very center of Prague’s tourist area, and everything we wanted to see, so we didn’t have to take any public transportation the whole time we were there. After settling into our hostel, we (as always) went out in search of food. We ended up asking for a recommendation from the guy at our hostel’s info desk, which was the right decision because we found a great restaurant called Lokal.

Czech food, as you’d probably expect, is a lot of meat and dumplings, but surprisingly delicious ones. Plus for dessert I had one of the best pastries ever–a traditional Czech pastry with cream, basically a slightly flavored cream puff. It was amazing. After dinner we wandered around a bit (basically, Prague at night looks like Disneyland), and even went to a black light show (very strange but definitely a cultural experience) before settling in to our cozy room for a good night’s sleep.

Thursday 11/3 [Prague]: Day Six

We decided to explore the west side of the river first, the side where our hostel was, so we started the morning with a quick pastry run to a bakery recommended by our hostel. I had a yummy apple pastry that was mostly filling with thin layers of pastry on top and bottom. Then we started climbing the big hill up to the Prague Castle (nothing compared to all the steps of Sacré-Cœur). At first we just looked around at all the pretty architecture (and of course took some silly pictures with the castle guards–they were not amused). There were tons of tour groups around, and we knew next to nothing about the Prague Castle, so we found an English-speaking tour group and followed them around for a bit. The tour guide turned out to be really funny, and it was really nice to hear some of the history behind what we were seeing (and for free!). The St. Vitus Cathedral was especially beautiful. Apparently it was designed by the same architect as Notre Dame, so it had a lot of the same elements, though St. Vitus was definitely more ornate, and the stained glass was simply divine.

After finishing our “tour” of the castle area, we headed back down the hill to find something to eat. Along the way we stopped at a cart where a man was making fresh trdelniks, which is a kind of Czech dough/pastry made on rotating sticks and coated with sugar and cinnamon. Delicious and highly necessary if you ever visit Prague. Of course, we still needed some real food, so we walked around looking for a good place, and before we knew it, we were basically right next to our hostel, so we decided to ask for another recommendation.

We were pointed in the direction of a small bar well out of the touristy area. They only had five menu items, all in Czech, so our waiter had to translate them for us. He also taught us our first (and only) Czech word–”děkuji,” or thank you. We kept trying to use it for the rest of the trip, but a lot of people looked at us blankly or did not respond, so I think we may have been pronouncing it wrong. The food was really cheap and delicious, and it turned out to be right near our next stop, a hill with gardens and a tower on top.

This hill turned out to be legitimately steep, and we definitely burned off those earlier calories. The view was gorgeous though and the scenery was really pretty–lots of trees of different colors, much like New England (according to Mariya and Shuyao–I am a West-Coaster myself). It was nice to get out of the city for a while–there were practically no other people around on the hill, so it was very peaceful. When we got to the top, we saw a funny exhibition on a Czech inventor inside the tower. It not only showed his inventions, but pretty much every available artifact from his life, including his second birthday present, and his older sister’s dress that he wore from time to time.

There was also a “Mirror Labyrinth,” which was fun in a touristy/cheesy sort of way. First there was a hall of mirrors where you couldn’t really tell which way was real, and then there was a room with all kinds of funhouse mirrors that we spent probably at least twenty minutes playing with. There was also a “Magical Cavern” somewhere, but we didn’t end up finding it. Instead we went a bit down the hill to a restaurant with AMAZING hot chocolate. Shuyao ended up having two, and Mariya had two teas and a hot chocolate. I followed my hot chocolate with a ginger ale. I think the waiter probably thought we were pretty weird, but maybe they get strange people a lot with all the tourists tromping around.

That night we met our friends Elise and Stephanie, who happened to be in Prague at the same time, for dinner and jazz. We went to U Stare Pani, a hotel/restaurant/jazz club, since I’d read some good reviews of it, and it turned out to be even better than expected! We all met at 6pm, but the lady at the restaurant told us to make a reservation and come back in a couple hours since the jazz didn’t start until 9pm. So we went and wandered around the Old Town Square, which we hadn’t seen yet, and checked out the Astronomical Clock. Mostly we spent a while catching up while standing in the middle of the square, which was fun because we all got to share about our trips so far.

Dinner was amazing–the jazz show was only $5 with our student discount, and food was all less than $10, but it was all super high quality. I had a HUGE plate of red cabbage, duck, two kinds of potato dumplings, and bread dumplings. Somehow I managed to finish it all (probably because it was DELICIOUS) but I was definitely stuffed afterwards. We also tried the famous Czech dark beer, which was actually much lighter than we expected and quite tasty. Then of course the jazz started, and the night was perfect. The band was really cute–the main singer/pianist especially was really into it and kept making faces, but you could tell they all really loved what they did. They also had about five young girl guest singers, which added a little bit of variety. One of them was only 15, but they were all really good.

definitely one of my best meals ever

We tried to get some dessert, but by the time we ordered it the kitchen was already closed. It was slightly disappointing (hardly a dent in our FABULOUS evening though) but it was probably for the best because we were all absolutely bursting from our dinners.

Friday 11/4 [Prague]: Day Seven

Our goal for our last day was to explore the other side of the river, and we began by finding somewhere for breakfast. We eventually happened upon a cafe, which turned out to be called Choco Cafe, and it had tons of specialty “hot chocolate” (basically melted chocolate in a cup). Shuyao had a plain one, I had one with sea salt, and Mariya tried the one with coconut milk. Obviously it was delicious, but super rich and none of us could finish much more than half our huge cups. We also all tried some “horace rolls” which were giant wafers rolled up with cinnamon, sugar, and cream inside, with (of course) chocolate to dip them in. It was an amazing breakfast, but by the end of it we never wanted to see chocolate again (or at least not for a little while).

Our next goal for the day was to find somewhere for Mariya to get her hair cut, because it would be much cheaper than in Copenhagen. During our search, we wandered through the Old Town Square again, and managed to catch the Astronomical Clock on the hour, when a man comes out and blows a horn. I also got a sausage in a baguette (Prague’s version of a hot dog) with ketchup and mustard which was super tasty. We were also looking for souvenirs/shopping opportunities, and eventually we found this cute little independent designer store, where we wanted everything but could afford nothing. We did talk to the woman at the counter though, who turned out to be a psychologist with a Master’s degree with very good English and a lot of interesting things to say. Before leaving, we asked her for a recommendation of a cheap haircut place, and she pointed us to somewhere we never would have found on our own. It was a haircut/piercing/tattoo place, and while Mariya was looking through the magazines to determine what type of haircut she wanted, Shuyao decided she was going to dye her hair. I decided to join in the spontaneity, but since I’d just gotten a haircut like two weeks before, I chose to get a cartilage piercing! It was all much cheaper than in the U.S., but it was also a very legitimate/clean place, and we were all very satisfied with our results. We spent about three hours of our day there, but the experience was definitely something we won’t forget.

the Golem was a mythical monster said to have been created to protect the Jews in Prague

By that time we were starving (a common theme in our travels) so we looked for something to eat even though we hadn’t accomplished all of our touristy goals for the day. We found a nice restaurant where we all finally tried Czech goulash (very tasty) and got ice cream for dessert. Unfortunately, by the time we were done it was dark and everything in the Jewish Quarter (the area we had not yet fully explored) was closed, including the Cemetary. We did manage to find a good souvenir shop, though, and we got our necessary Central Europe gifts before heading back to the Old Square for some hot wine (very tasty and mild-tastes a bit like juice because of added sugar/cinnamon) our free ghost tour (tickets provided by our hostel). The tour was cheesy, as expected, but surprisingly fun, and we actually learned some interesting things about the history of Prague. It was not a bad way to spend our last night, and we wandered around for a bit afterwards and got our last trdelniks of the trip.

Saturday 11/5 [Prague to CPH]: Day Eight

This morning was mostly smooth, except when we were on the bus and I realized we had an hour less than we thought we did (yikes!). Luckily we made it to our flight just fine, and Mariya even managed to spend her last few koruna on some honey cake in the airport. We had a bit of a surprise when we walked through the gate to board and the tunnel ended at a bus, not a plane. It turned out we had to take a bus to the plane because it was a small jet sitting out in the middle of the tarmac. For a small plane, the ride was surprisingly smooth, and I had the front row with some extra leg space. It was so weird to come back to Copenhagen this afternoon and hear Danish again. It felt like coming home to somewhere I’d lived for years after being gone for several years. Everything felt familiar but somehow different. But it was actually really nice to see my host parents again, and have a homemade dinner (pizza–yummy!) and see my own little computer again.

I still have lots of packing to do for tomorrow–I have to be at the airport at 10am for my study tour to Istanbul!–so it’s time to round off this post. It’s somewhat unbelievable that I’m headed off on another week-long adventure tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be tons of fun.

Until next week!