Hi there! My name's Katie, and I'm a college student studying abroad in Istanbul, Turkey, for 3 weeks. Here's the start of my adventure:)
I left my house with my parents a little after 8 am on Wednesday. We made the drive up to Jax and met one of my best friends for a pre departure breakfast. Cracker Barrel french toast is the shizzz man, and it was a nice peace out America thing. Made it to the airport, and awkwardly waited for the other students to arrive. I hadn't met them before, so eventually I gave up and went through security solo. They always find something to double check, and this time it was my right pocket andddd I got bomb residue tested. Yay TSA!
In DC the departure gate was right across from the arrival gate, so that was super nice. There was an adorable family who ended up traveling the whole way with us, the mom and dad were native turks and the kids (13 and 5?) were awesome. They were super nice and helpful. The DC flight left at 5:45. on time, and I tried and failed to sleep. Weird times, and super turbulence. We made it to Zurich an hour early, which was nice because we had no idea where to go, so the extra time cushion was good. Even though it was 7:30/8 am Swiss time, it was 1:30/2 on our body clocks and we wanted to sleeeeppp. Zurich was a sleek airport, very European feeling, and this time I got patted down by security. Legit pulled aside hands all over patted down. Ahh well. The flight from zurich to Istanbul went off without a hitch, dozed a bit but I am a zombie right now.
Getting through Visa control in Istanbul took patience and $20, and then getting through passport control took even more patience. Good thing we were too tired to care too much. We found our student TA person, and hoped on a uni bus. The ride was an hour and half ish to the uni from the airport (due to the airport being on the Europe side and the uni being on the Asian side) and unfortuantly I did not have my camera to document some of the really cool things we saw on the way (straights of Bosporus, anyone?) . We got to the school, and got keys for our dorm room. They're making an excpetion for us, and letting the girls stay in the traditionally male dorm next to our guys. It's summer and we're american, so the cultural taboo is slightly lessened. The shower is JUST like the Mykonos shower, for better and mostly worse lol. However, the uni is beeeyooouuutteeful, and I put pictures up on FB:)
That's all I have for now, it's been a loonngggg 28 (almost 29 hours now, as it's almost one in the states of the day after I left), and I'm going to shower and pass out. Love to my family and friends all across the world:)
