Orientation continued all week.  Thursday there was a mandatory meeting for all the exchange students.  We all received packets of all kinds of information.  After lunch, there was the second half of the meeting and campus scavenger hunt planned, but none of the CIEE students went.  Half the group went to get their resident permits so the other half decided to do something more interesting.  A small group and I were able to convince our mentor to take us out and around Istanbul and get us off the campus.  She tried to hurry us up and get off campus because she didn’t want to be seen skipping the meeting and the campus tour.  We made it to Beşiktaş, where she took us before, but this time we took the ferry across the Bosporus to the Asian side of Istanbul.  We got off in Kadıköy.  We walked through some of the side streets not really knowing where she was taking us.  We made so many turns that I was she really knew where she was going.  After a little while, we broke out of the side streets with the tall apartments, offices, and restaurants from either side and could 

see the ocean again.  At the bottom of this hill my mentor showed us this restaurant out in the middle of the water with a walk way leading out to it.  This was the surprise she was taking us to.  The restaurant also serves as a ferry port throughout the day.  We took a table and ordered some hot drinks to warm up a bit.  It was very nice to sit around and talk as we watched sailboats pass by and the sun set over the ocean.  Once it began to get a little dark we left to head over to a shopping district nearby to see some of the lights and people preparing their stores for Valentine’s Day.  Eventually it became a little too cold and we decided to head back to campus.  This time to get back we took a dolmuş across the bridge between the two continents.  It was a really interesting view from the bridge at night time.  All the wires that held the bridge up were covered in lights that would slowly change colors. 

During the day, Friday wasn’t really special.  It was what was happening at night that everyone was getting excited for.  The International Student Society would be hosting a party in Taksim (which is big on night life) for all of the exchange students.  As shuttle after shuttle began to arrive the small 2^nd story club began to fill up with students.  Once the place was packed, it took a while for everyone to get dancing.  There was a huge line of shoving elbows and raising hands as people fought to get drinks from the bar.  But once the line faded everyone moved to the dance floor.  People began climbing and dancing on tables as they were looking for places to move around.  After four or so hours it began to get very hot and people were getting very drunk.  A few of us went outside to cool off and visit.  While sitting at a table outside of the club we were approached by this woman who was so excited to see us.  “Are you guys American? I love America.” She declared.  She had been an exchange student in high school.  She showed off her over-sized heart shaped “drunken glasses” to us and continued to talk about her time in America.  We told her we had been dancing which set her off on a hysterical rant about the various dances she learned in America.  She showed off her Soulja Boy moves as she made us sing the song to her.  She loved dancing but told us that “the grinding” was not a dance and was disgusting.

Location: Kadıköy Istanbul Province, Turkey