Hoş Geldiniz! ("Welcome")

I believe this is somewhere above Serbia.

From Washington D.C. to Bursa was a 22-hour trip, beginning with the shuttle to the airport, and ending with the car to my host family's house. In between I somehow slept enough to not be a complete wreck right now. I don't really understand how either. The most interesting part of that trip, hands down, was the brief layover in a Swiss airport, which was spent mostly going from one gate to another. The train between gates played cow sound effects and had a stereotypical film of a swiss woman in the mountains printed on the tunnel walls so that it animated as we flew by.

Unsuprisingly, the Istanbul airport was way busier than the one in Ankara!

After the airport, the bus drove past this stadium, which is where Galata Saray, my favorite Turkish football (soccer for heathens who don't use the metric system) team plays.

One of İstanbul's many bridges

The ferry was a much needed opportunity to stretch, get some air, and make sure I wasn't confusing the words for 'certain' and 'doubtful.'

The other interesting thing that happened is that on the bus/ferryboat to Bursa, Mesut, director of our program and a thoroughly likeable individual gave us all cookies that he and his wife baked specially for us with our names on them. Adorable and delicious!

:))

After arrival, I met my host family, and got acquanited with my new digs for the summer. The surrounding apartment complexes share a swimming pool. I have a TV in my room. Etc. More importantly, the food is delicious, everyone is super nice, and I believe only my host mom speaks a little English. The language pledge is mad legit. I also know and understand so many more things than at the beginning of last summer. This is absolutely fantastic for my Turkish learning, and means that whenever I'm writing these things I'm really taking away from my many opportunities to speak and study Turkish! (It's ok, I love you all. And you can use google translate, right?)

 Me and my host family upon first meeting. They are grandmother, mother, and two kids.

Additionally, there is also a host nanny who is from Georgia (not pictured), and yes I am going to take this as an opportunity to try and learn a bit of Georgian too. It sounds a bit difficult.But, if I have any success I'm sure I'll make my phonology professor proud.

On my second day, I had a traditional Turkish breakfast of tomato, cheese, bread, egg, and olives (well, ok, skipped the olives.) Went to class, took the hideous Tömer placement test... and took forever doing it. Hopefully I will be in the right class this time....

After that, there was some uninteresting orientation Q&A, and then I met Uğur, my conversation partner, who studies German language education even though he doesn't like German as there are jobs availible. Together, we were supposed to go on a "scavenger hunt" around Bursa, which really was an excuse for him to show me useful things, like where to change money, where to put money on my phone, and where his favorite çiğ köfteci is (sadly closed for a month).

I got to see a lot of Bursa, and I love what I've seen so far.
Here are some pictures for you to love too:

View from classroom building window #1

Part of the market in the old part of the city (which is beautiful!)

Extremely good statue of Atatürk

That's all for now. I may or may not update this post with more pictures. For now, it is time for me to study... or go swimming. Hmm. Difficult choice.