I think I found my niche!

Today I finally feel like I have a handle on the city. I think it may have something to do with the scavenger hunt yesterday, or maybe it just comes from being in the city for a few days. We got up late-ish this morning, and all caught up on our blogs and ate our usual breakfast of ekmek (bread) and Nutella. And cherries today too! The fruit here is AWESOME - especially the cherries and apricots. Then we rode the tram, using our akbil of course, to the front of Hagia Sofia. There we met William, who led us to our classroom. This classroom doesn't even come close to comparing to any classroom at UNC - not even the Global Center. It is an old medrese built by the architect Sinan (remember him from the scavenger hunt?) in 1559 during the reign of Suleyman the Magnificent. How appropriate that it is here where we learn about Turkish history. Now, the medrese boasts several classrooms/exhibitions rooms that are used to teach, make and sell traditional Turkish handicrafts.

The owner of the school took us on a tour, and we got to see some marbling in process - it was amazing. They put blobs of paint in a tray of water, flicked their paintbrush in it a few times, and somehow transferred it onto the page as a beautiful work of art. They also taught calligraphy, ceramic/tile painting, gand music. This place felt like an oasis of the real city - after doing a lot of "touristy" things (which are very necessary as intro to the city) I am ready to become a real Istanbullu. Clearly, seeing the "must-sees" are necessary, but it was such a treat today to be in such a historic yet untouristy place. Or at least I thought it was untouristy.

We got some Turkish chai (tea) and some lunch and started our discussion of the reading material. My classmates are so informed! Not that I ever doubted their intelligence, but I was very impressed today. I feel a little bit behind - I'm pretty sure I'm the only person who is not a History, PWAD (for non UNC students, thats Peace, War and Defense) or International Studies major here. I feel like everyone has a background in history and international studies that I don't necessarily have. But I'm sure that it'll all work out (right, Carver?)

After our intense and intellectual discussion, we wandered out into the city in search of baklava and Turkish coffee. On the way out, we saw three kittens curled up in two different pots with trees in them! Two kittens were snuggling in a pot, and one was by itself. After a small photo shoot with the kittens, the men outside this Nomadic art restoration place began talking to us. We asked him a good place for baklava and he pointed us in the right direction. I don't think I will ever cease to be amazed by the hospitality of the Turkish people. At the dessert shop, we got a sampling of three different types of baklava and I tried some Turkish coffee. The baklava and the coffee were so delicious! The coffee is so thick because they make it with the grounds - when I got to the end of it, the grounds were all in my teeth. Gross! Amanda said it was like "instant British teeth." Emily caught it on film and you can check it out on Facebook, if you dare...

After some dinner from Simit Sarayi, a chain restaurant that sells different types of simit, we headed up on our terrace, where we met up with our Turkish friends from the third floor. It is so fun to try to communicate with them - they are far better at English than we are at Turkish, but we are getting better by trying to talk to them. We just found out that we can actually get YouTube here! The Turkish government banned the site because of some Greek videos insulting Turkey. But these Turkish guys found a proxy sever that allows them to get around that ban and they just showed us how to do it! How exciting. Since our plans for going out with them fell through last night, we decided to definitely do it tomorrow night.