How bazaar...

It has become clear that our TA, Aslı Hanım is a ninja.  She doesn't walk--she glides.  She runs into stores, tells us to wait for her, and then is half a block ahead of us five seconds later.  She's awesome.

Yesterday, for speaking practice, she took us to the Tuesday bazaar in Kadıköy.  It was crowded beyond belief, but it thinned out in the middle, and Rachel and I ended up staying quite a while.  A picture of the non-crowded part, courtesy of Rachel:

And look at these pants!  These are the best pants ever! 

 Aslı Hanım picked them out for me and then asked my opinion on what pants she should get.  I picked the least gaudy for her.  You know, simple bright purple and blue flowers...

Speaking of awesome teachers, our writing and speaking teacher, Betül Hanım, took us out tonight for ice-cream at Mado.  At Mado, the ice cream actually tastes like the flavor it's supposed to be, meaning that cherry tastes like cherry, not medicine, and the chocolate is rich beyond belief.  They're most famous for their pistachio, which is also amazing.  

There she is, reading our fortunes:

Two of our classmates skipped out on this to hang out with other friends.  To make a long story short, one of them is extremely nice and the other is a bit of a pain.  They were going to see Selim Sesler, a musician I'd wanted to see ever since watching "The Sound of Istanbul" with Brett a couple years ago.  He plays every Wednesday night at a bar in Beyoğlu, and Terese (the nice one) invited me along.  After going to Mado, I met up with them.  

The band was amazing, but I got there pretty late.  Terese told me she was leaving but that Natalya was staying and I could go back with her and share a cab.  But a few minutes later, Natalya was gone, leaving me at a table with a whole bunch of Russians and Norwegians (Natalya's and Terese's friends, respectively) that I didn't know.  I left at that point, but just missed the last bus at 11:30.  So I took a cab.

There are so many stories about people getting ripped off by cab drivers, but with the exception of the pink-shirted, giant sunglasses-wearing driver on the ride from the airport, that hasn't been my experience.  I've learned a few tricks:

1.  Negotiate a fixed price beforehand.

2.  Tell them you're a student.

3.  Tell them you're a student at Boğaziçi.

4.  Tell them you're from Chicago.

5.  Tell them you're a student at the University of Chicago.

Generally 2-5 dramatically change the way people treat me.    

This cab ride was especially fun, because the driver didn't know exactly where the university was.  I got to practice giving directions once we got to Etiler.  On the way, he pointed out all sorts of stores and restaurants that he thought I should try.  

At some point I will write more about the districts I go to a lot, like Etiler (eww!), Beşiktaş (yay!), and Beyoğlu (yayeew!).  But not tonight...