Final Countdown

I've been sitting here with that song in my head all day. It's very appropriate seeing that I'm leaving for home in less than one week!!!! whoa. On Friday we had a Colombian culture night at the Aiesec office, organized by Andres. It was really interesting, and got me thinking a lot about Bogota. And it just so happens Andres was telling me about some opportunities to teach English in Colombia...No! One place at a time..focus! We also had a little birthday cake in honor of Alexandra and Lee, two of the trainees who had birthdays last week.

On Saturday I woke up to go to work, and stepped out into what is surely the only typhoon to ever have happened in the mountains. It was ridiculous how much it was raining, and the wind! Jeepers. I had walked less than a minute when this car that was driving by stopped, rolled down the window, and said they were going to the metro station if I wanted to hop in. I wanted to kiss everyone at that moment, but all I could manage were a few Turkish "thank you's" and what not. I still walked from my metro stop to work, so I got there looking like I had just stepped out of a shower with all of my clothes on. After work, I braved the pazar, which is no small feat on a Saturday. Though I'm pretty sure there would have been a pazar even in a typoon, somehow the weather managed to go from typhoonous(is that a word?) to sunny and calm, so the people came out of the woodwork in the late afternoon.

Saturday night Berna, Lee, Murat, Murat's brother, and Minne went to a place called Cha Cha near our house. It was the first night that the place opened up the garden part, so there was all this confetti raining down on us, and of course there was live music. We (Berna, Minne, and I) kept saying that we had arranged everything in honor of Lee and Murat's birthday. Since when are there so many friggin birthdays in June, by the way? Sheesh.

On Sunday, Berna, Bensu and I went to a big department store place to look around. It's a really popular social activity here-to go to the malls/big stores like Carrefour, Özdilek, etc. on Sundays. After that, we drove to Mudanya, a town on the Marmara Sea, to eat some fish and meet up with Berna's brother and his girlfriend. It was the first time I had been to Mudanya. Though it was nice, I happen to like Tirilye more-it is a little smaller, without so many cafes and restaurants; but, there are less tourists, and less people in general, and you can find little vendors set up selling things like handmade jewelry, olives, wine, etc.