Turkey

November 11, 2006 *Istanbul, Turkey*

I’m sitting here in my room on the ship, leaning up against my window eating Turkish Delight. It’s our last night in Istanbul. I loved this port city and I loved this country! We depart for Croatia in about an hour.

This was one of my favorite ports. I got to hang out with a much smaller group of friends and for the first time since traveling, I didn’t really leave the port city. We went out to bars three out of the four nights we were here. The night we skipped the bars was the night we hung out at Starbucks and talked for a while before heading back to the ship to get some sleep. Jess’s parents were in town and they took us out to dinner one night -- that was a lot of fun. A bunch of us took a ferry down the Bosphorus and stopped at a little seaside town. We walked around, ate lunch and then walked up to see castle ruins. One day I had an FDP (Faculty Directed Practicum) -- basically it’s a Semester at Sea day trip you take with your professor. The professor leading the trip will relate what we do and see to what we’re learning in class. This specific FDP was lead by my history professor and was titled, “Ottoman Capital.” We walked around the city and saw the Ottoman Capital walls, the castle ruins, different mosques and the spice bazaar.

Most of our days were spent doing whatever we wanted. We would stay up late and sleep in until 8 or 9 and then start our day. We went shopping a lot, ate good food and found Hookah Bars. We went to the internet café three or four times. Istanbul was really our time to relax and since we didn’t have any major plans, it was nice to do what we wanted, when we wanted without conflicting opinions on what to do. It’s hard traveling with a big group, which is what I do almost every port, so hanging out with just a few people was great.

The city of Istanbul is similar to any European city that I’ve seen. Which is basically cities in Germany and France. The streets are brick and some cobblestone, there are mosques everywhere, and the people wear dark colors. The Turkish men are actually really attractive and look a lot older than they are. The men really loved us “American Girls” and a bunch of the SAS girls loved them, too.

The weather in Istanbul is kind of similar to a Manteca winter. Sunny and 40-50 degrees daily but much colder nights. It was so strange to go from extremely hot and humid India to mild Cairo to really cold Istanbul. If anything, the weather is getting me really excited about going home in December. I’m looking forward to Christmas and my roommate and I have already started listening to our Christmas music.

The day after tomorrow we’ll be in Croatia. We’ve reserved a beach house for 4 nights and 5 days for 12 people. I’m really excited! The weather isn’t too great in Croatia right now but it will still be so awesome to hang out at the beach and in the awesome city of Dubrovnik. Our house has 5 bedrooms and each bedroom has a bathroom, a living room, family room, 2 kitchens, DVD/CD/VHS player, internet, washer and dryer and more. It has an ocean view and outdoor seating. It’s right near the water and right in the Old Town of Dubrovnik.

We are in the process of figuring out our Spain plans. Most of my friends and I are going to the Barcelona Soccer game on our last night in Spain. I’m so excited -- I’ve heard that the games are insanely fun. I can’t wait! So far our Spain itinerary looks like this:

Spain
Day/Night One - Cadiz, Sleep on ship
Day/Night Two - Morning train to Seville, Wine Tasting all day, Overnight Stay in Seville
Day/Night Three - Barcelona, Sleep in Barcelona
Day/Night Four - Soccer game in Barcelona, Sleep in Barcelona
Day Five - 6:55am Flight to Seville, Train to Cadiz, Spend day in Cadiz

So back to Croatia. We have 4 nights and 5 days and then we’ll be back on the ship. Once back on the ship, we have 4 days at sea and then we get to Spain where we will spend 4 nights and 5 days. THEN we’ll be on our final stretch home. Time is seriously FLYING by. Between Croatia and Spain we have the Students of Service Charity Auction on the ship. Between Spain and home we have the Ambassador’s Ball which is the biggest night on the ship. It’s a huge Prom like event where everyone gets dressed up, eats amazing food and has one last really special night on the ship.

As of right now I have less than 10 days of classes left and 2 days of finals. It’s hard to believe that the semester is coming to an end. It’s hard to believe that in 25 days I’ll be living a completely separate life…

As sad as I will be to say goodbye, I’m getting anxious to see my family and friends, oh and that boyfriend of mine (Hi babe) and to readjust to, well, life. I definitely have been living in a fantasy for the past 20 years and it will be nice to get home and live with a new outlook on life. I have heard numerous stories about people becoming really depressed when they get back to America after Semester at Sea. I’ve also heard that people have really hard times discussing what they saw and experienced with people.

As of right now, I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get home. I don’t know if I’m going to want to tell people every detail because no matter what I say, nobody except the people on this ship will know what I went through, what I saw, how I felt. And do I really want to explain everything? Will that take away from what I’ve seen? And already now (we were just talking about this yesterday) I feel as if it’s hard talking about certain things. How do I go about explaining myself when someone says “So how was it?”

Amazing.
Incredible.
Life-changing.
Best three months of my life. EVER.

Well, I still have 25 days to figure out what to tell people and to fully digest what it is I’m doing right now. I live on a ship and I’m traveling the world. Sometimes, I still don’t think this is really happening.