Last Tuesday was a national holiday here, and as such the school organized a field trip.
The bus ride there was about 3 hours long and on the way we passed through Kocaeli, a small town on the sea. It reminded me of the days I was searching for an internship; the days when I wondered what Kocaeli might look like and what it might be like to do an internship there. Further on our journey we went up the winding roads of a few mountains, in the valley of which was the picnic area. Of course they had only one lane and at times I wondered whether our big bus would make it around. It was a long way down and it seemed that we were quite often very close to the edge. Of course being close to accidents is a frequent occurrence in Turkey, but I still marvel at the drivers' abilities to prevent them.
Arriving to the picnic area we were greeted with breakfast and then began playing a multitude of games from volleyball and football to potato sack races and tug of war. Initially we also tried to fly a kite, but despite our persistence were unable to get it in the air for more than a few seconds. Meanwhile, a small boy flew their kite effortlessly beside us. Perhaps it was the nature of the Kite: it had a smaller surface area and was a bit heavier. In any case, the games went great and at one point we also made our way down to a waterfall in the forest. The way was not properly managed and as such the children could only go to one point, after which their parents refused to let them continue. Some brave parents and their children went to the bottom as a few of us also did to take photos and enjoy the view. The water was quite cold, but in the heat of the afternoon, it was quite refreshing.
Upon our return we ate again and afterwards I had the privilege of playing with a Canon EOS DSLR and taking some fabulous photos. The reality is this, a point-and-shoot will NEVER have the aperture (depth in the picture) that can be achieved with a DSLR, especially one with a great lens. Either way my time playing photographer was cut short by the calling of my students to play one game or another. I can honestly say I really enjoyed these games. I played volleyball with the girls and football with the boys. I spoke to them in English and got my answers in Turkish.
In terms of meals, after the morning omelette we had a choice of fish or meatballs for dinner. I chose fish; fish that upon arrival no longer looked so appealing. However, I tried it and to my surprise, it was absolutely delicious. In fact I could have probably had a second. They had a stone oven in the cabin that I would attribute the tastiness of the food to. In the evening we also had a pizza type dish that I couldn't get enough of.
The whole experience really reminded me of my travels in the mountains of Romania. One thing that I found very unique however was the fact that all of the houses had solar panels. This was odd for me because we are talking about houses in the country side, houses far from civilization. While I sat marveling at this fact, deep in my thoughts, one of the small girls came and sat beside me, went through my purse, combed by hair and subsequently fell asleep in my lap. Needless to say, when she woke up a few hours later and didn't see her mom right away, she began to panic.
Since we got home late from the trip and my regular Ferry from Kadikoy was no longer working, I ended up discovering a faster route home with the Metrobus and Metro. It's only taking me about 1 hour now, rather than 1 1/2 hours to get to and from work. I find the public transportation system here in Turkey to be very well organized. There is a universal pass called the Akbil, onto which you can load money and get onto any type of public transportation. The Metrobus has it's own lane on the highway and the Mercedes-Benz busses come and go every 5 minutes. The Metro is also surprisingly clean and has quite a bit of security. In fact, you have a man standing with a metal detector checking everyone with large bags. Instead of garbage bins, they have some shallow containers in which you can see all of the garbage, again to prevent bombs and such.
The rest of the week was both fun and tiring. On Thursday night we went to watch the Eurocup finale between Ukraine and Germany. Having played well, I was content with Ukraine's win. I went with my roomies, Lora from Ukraine, Daniel from Romania and Amine from Morocco. The coach for the Ukrainian team is Romanian so clearly we were all impressed.
Friday night the LC held a party at She-Va, a rooftop club with fabulous house music. It was a good time and needless to say I couldn't stop dancing (when the music is good, I can't stop). Getting home late and waking up early, the following day I worked for 9 hours with a small 1/2 hour break for lunch. It was quite exhausting and so Saturday night was spent resting
Sunday we went to have breakfast in Bebek, a rich area bordering the Bosphorus. We also met up with a few other interns and ICX members. We had "menemen" basically an omelet made in a small round pan. It was quite delicious. After breakfast we took a walk through some neighborhoods and up a hill to a grassy area overlooking the Bosphorus. Here we talked about our countries and sang our national anthems while enjoying the view. After dinner Rejep, Abey and I also walked around Beskitas, the place where I used to take the Ferry from and had some ice cream. Then it was to Taksim to do some shopping. If only every day could be like this...
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