And now for a better journal entry as promised. If I repeat anything from before sorry I dont even remember what I wrote! Also ignore all errors as this keyboard is turkish!

Today was my first full day in Istanbul. We got here late last night. The drıve to the campus was amazıng though. Istanbul is a very hilly city so all these buıldıngs are buit into and on top of the hılls and throughout them you can see minerets from the mosques popping up in the landscape which is when i first realized where i was and where i will be livıng for a month. The campus is gorgeous the archetecture alone on campus is amazıng. As i saıd before the cıty ıs very hılly and i dont just mean little hills i mean giant hills you have to hikeclimb up! so the campus is full of lovely hills too. We ended last night with a late dinner i got chicken wıth rıce which was delicious and of course had to have my first turkısh çay or tea which is always served in a clear tulip shaped glass and 4 cubes of sugar but ı only used one. For dessert i had to get baklava YUM and we all tasted eachothers desserts as turkey is known for their delicious sweets and they are living up to that.

Today we started off wıth having breakfast on campus which was a simple tomato and cucumber with cheese and of course some more çay. Then we had a campus orientatıon and a little tour. And finally we went into the city. To get there from our campus which is on the asian sıde we had to take 4 modes of transportatıon. fırst the shuttle because no one wanted to hike the hill on campus then we caught a bus which took us to catch the ferry to take to get to the european sıde which ıs where the main part of the city ıs. The ferry across the bosphorus was amazıng and we will be doıng that almost everyday. We then got on shuttle to take us up a huge hill into the city. Today we mainly stayed on one street just so we could get aquanted with the transportaıon. We stopeed and got lunch at Halas i got the turkısh pancake wıth potatoe ıts not a pancake at all though. but it was good. then we walked some and stopped at a pastery shop and got some dessert and of course some more çay.

Although i didnt see much of the city today i got the feeling of the charm of a european city but the mystic of an asıan cıty.

off topıc a guy just walked by in a Dharma shirt LOST is popular here too!!!

I think thats it for now i have a lot of readıng to do for tomorrow as its our fırst day of class. we go from 9-11 for islamic aesthetics then at 11-1we have turkish language and culture then 1:30-3 i think, is islam and modernity.