So my roommate, Rachel, is awesome. She's a linguistics major from South Dakota, and she is very laid back with the exception of anything related to languages and soccer. Due to the nature of the program and the timing of our stay, both these things have been pretty central to our experience.
We realized today that we both look very, very German. Somewhat of a problem for today's match, so we went and bought jerseys downtown in Taksim:
There was a huge screen up so a crowd could watch the game from the square. Rachel and I decided that we didn't really feel like being in a mob, so we went down side streets to shouts of "Thank you for the t-shirt!" and "Thank you for the support our country!" We settled on a döner kebab place:
With oranges everywhere:
Even in the tree:
The street was full of people watching the game:
At Turkey's second goal, the celebration started. There was music, dancing, and fireworks. When Germany scored after that, everyone was stunned. The square was a pretty dismal sight:
With all the crowds, we couldn't be sure to get on the right bus, so we took one as far as we could. Before almost ending up in Asia, we got off the bus and caught a cab. We chatted with the cab driver all the way home, even admitting we were American. I guess these jerseys were good for something, because based on my cab ride yesterday that was with the help of real Turks, the driver didn't rip us off. We then for some reason had a ridiculously difficult time giving him the correct bills and coins, probably making him wish he had cheated us.
1 comment:
Thank you for letting Rachel use your computer to post her things. That is very nice of you and we really appreciate being able to hear from her. She is very lucky to be able to meet such a wonderful person.
(Oh and a word to the wise, in addition to soccer and languages, don't get her started on Chinese teas, Japanese food, or teachers of English. Trust me on this ;)
Rachel's Mom.
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