A Long Day of Travel

So we spent the day in travel and here I am, finally in Istanbul Turkey, and all I can say is: WOW.

Even getting on the plane is a more unusual experience than ever before: for the first time in my life instructions, directions, signs, and even the options on the TV screens on the plane - were in a language other than my own. Even logging onto the internet is over whelming because google, facebook, youtube and even the blog website, all automatically switch to the language of the country you are in at the time of log in. Turkish is a language I know almost NOTHING about. The FIE woman who organized the trip for us is originally Turkish but she lives in London - she told us that people here really appreciate it when you try to speak the language. So the other day Julissa happened to stumble across this website for free downloading of language programs so she downloaded a program to learn Turkish! So as a review for my turkish lesson (and for you to laugh at and try to speak) I will put my mini lesson down here:

Numbers
zer0 - sifir (se-fur)
one - bir (beer)
two - iki (icky)
three - oc ( oo-ch)
four - dort (door-t)
five - bes (besh)
six - alti (alt - ee)
seven - yedi (yed - ee)
eight - sekiz (sek - eez)
nine - docuz (doe- cooze)
ten - on
twenty - yirmi (year- me) *dont forget to roll that R!
thirty - otuz (oh -two - z)
forty - kirk (kurk)
fifty - elli (elle - ee)

Words and Phrases:
hello - selam (say - lam)
yes - evet
no - hayir (hire)
thank you - tesikkurler (tes - she - cool - er)
bill - kupur
please - lotfen
turn left - sola don
turn right - saga don
water - su
how many liras? - kac lira?

(lira = turkish money, $0.67 = 1 turkish lira)

*(please note that I have no idea how to put in the accents of dots and squiggles that denote real turkish writing with my key board)


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Upon arrival here in Turkey we spent literally hours in line in the airport to first attain visas and then get through the check in point. Once we got through we couldn't wait to see what Turkey actually looked like, unfortunatly we couldn't see much because it was already getting dark. On the bus on the way to the hotel we did see some pieces of the original wall that used to surround the city of Constantinople (which is now called Istanbul). Once we got into the city further we saw tiny cobble streets and lots of shops piled ontop of one another with millions of beautiful rugs and art and jewelry in the windows. We ate dinner on the rooftop of this beautiful little restaurant where we could see the roof and turrents of a huge mosque and also look down on the small alleyways of shops.

So far I like it here, I can't wait for tomorrow, this is SO exciting I hope I can sleep.

I'll keep you all posted! love you all! <3