Monday, August 2, 2010

Istanbul Arrival Friday, July 16

I was so surprised to hear that the Istanbul Sabiha Bokcen Airport was actually the smaller airport because it was so nice inside and it reminded me of Seatac except less crowded. In fact, it seemed as though our group made up the majority of the passengers in the airport. The longest wait was probably at baggage claim. Except it wasn't really all that long and plus, they had a wonderful duty free where I found which my next perfume was going to be (Daisy by Marc Jacobs). I don't think it was any cheaper here so I resisted buying it. One little problem at baggage claim: Rebecca could not find her luggage. I feel really bad because even though it was just clothes in there, I would feel tense just knowing I didn't have my belongings with me. Like Resat said, plan for the worst. A heavily-air-conditioned tour bus picked us up right outside the door and we set off for Bogazici University. Wow, the dorms are amazing. At least compared to the ones at UW. They are like rooms in a fairly nice hotel! We all got split up, 4 girls in each room, and settled down with our baggage. I claimed the top bunk while Yu-Ting settled on the bottom. Not long after, she told us the bad news about her hard-drive getting stolen. It was so sad hearing her voice as she questioned why anyone would want to steal something that is not half as valuable to them as it is to her. The bad news didn't end there. When we got downstairs, we heard that Daniel also got his hard drive stolen along with $1000 worth of cash. This all made me so appreciative of my protective dad. He made sure I had a band AND a lock for my luggage. And all I had in my luggage was just clothes! I guess it would still suck for me to lose all my clothes though. We all needed something to bring the spirit up. Dinner definitely helped a ton. It was amazing. The service was over the top; when Bennett dropped his glasses and bent down to get them, a waiter beat him to it and set it back onto the table before we could all take another breath. After I took one sip of water from my glass, a waiter was right next to me ready to fill it back up to its original volume. There were, I think, ten courses for the whole meal! It just went on and on....and on and on. It was endless. Just when we thought we were finished, there came the incredible baklava dessert. It was like no other baklava I had ever had. Honestly, I despise baklava. But this one I was able to finish the whole thing even after having eaten 9 other courses! Returning to the dorms, we were all too full to move. Tiredness eventually came over many of us and it was time for bed because it will be an early start tomorrow!

No comments:

Post a Comment