Big City Nights

Well, here I am again. So much fun since last I have typed anything here. Flying was a trip. I liken it to a bus ride, except whenever the plane would hit turbulence, and my first thought would be to feel like I was on a bus and a bumpy road, I would then remember that I was 37,000 feet in the air and be mildly uncomfortable. But really it wasn't that bad. Not too long either since I have done the bus trip to PCB twice now in the last 3 years. This has nothing on that.
Turkey is amazing. I love Turkey. The city is enormous. Driving a bit over an hour from the airport to the hotel showed me a bit of that. I was expecting big, but how big, I don't think I was prepared for.
I have been eating traditional Turkish foods, which includes a lot of things I would not have thought I could eat. But I am enjoying it, which is somewhat surprising. We will see if it gets old quickly or not. But food is really cheap and quite good for the price. Although I do not think I need to worry about losing too much weight like I was planning.
Yesterday was our first day trying to learn some language. As soon as we got here I asked Berna to teach me to say "thank you" and "hello" because I could not stand not being able to thank people. But yesterday we learned a few phrases such as our name, where we are from, and good day. The other two we learned, which were of most importance, was how to say "I am trying to learn Turkish" and "This is all the Turkish I know right now." These phrases were important since the way we learned was to practice these phrases a bit then go out on the street and talk to random people to practice our speaking. One man told me he loved me once he figured out what we were doing. It was humbling, to say the least.
Also, the first day we were here we had a scavenger hunt to acclimate us to a few things we would need or use frequently (the ferry, the tram, grocery store, etc.). This was fun since we had to ask random people on the street for directions. Also a nice humbling experience. But then, I think that might have been the point of the tower of babel, but I could be wrong.
So far we have just been doing things to get us used to the area. I still am not totally used to being here, but I am getting there. We moved into our apartment today, so some normalcy is being developed.
The city is huge and a bit crazy. So alive. People are everywhere. Before leaving, when I was back in East Lansing, there were hardly any people there once school let out. Now I am here and floods of people are everywhere. It is amazing. Traffic is wild. No rules. Kind of freaky really. The city is massive and while I think I have my bearings a bit I am not so sure. I have a feeling as I am here longer that will get better.
This week is going to be the first week of checking out the campus, which I am really looking forward to. I am excited to see what happens.
Okay, that is all for now. Keep checking in. If anything exciting happens I will keep you posted (there may be a pun somewhere in that, but I really am not sure). If you are reading this then assume I miss you.
Until again!