The Harvard Cafe

Tonight, Abby, Grace, and I went to the Harvard Cafe. Sacrilegious, I know. But I heard their quesadillas were good, and we wanted to try somewhere new anyway. Please try not to judge me any more than I'm already judging myself. 

The restaurant had a loooovely outdoor seating area with a secret garden-esque ambiance. Grace and I had already begun eating when Abby arrived so she quickly looked over the menu and called a waiter over to order. She asked this man walking by if she could go ahead and order. He responded by telling her that if he saw a waiter, he would let him know that she was ready. 

Yep. Abby tried to order food from this poor guy on his way to the bathroom. The best part was that he actually found a waiter for us and sent him over. She claims that because she got there late, she didn't know what the waiters looked like. I countered by pointing out that this guy was wearing cargo shorts. She came up with a couple more excuses to explain her hilarious mistake but we weren't buying it. 

The guy came over after we were finished eating and asked if we needed anything else. I tried to tell Abby to get his number - I think he liked her. And a funny guy in on the joke sounds like a catch to me. 

NPH

A couple weeks ago, Abby and I went with a couple friends to the Fine Arts Festival at Robert College, generally accepted as the best high school in Istanbul and founded by an American (whatup!). Doesn't a "Fine Arts Festival" sound legit?

It was basically a lawnparties for high school kids. Food, music, alumni, and a mechanical bull. But I got to wander around campus. We looked at the library, and the second floor was definitely museum quality. 

Here is a copy of a telegram that Samuel Morse sent to Robert College in 1863. Except they faced the stupid thing towards the balcony so I couldn't read the insightful thing that Morse dot-dashed. 

This was just shelves of old stuff. The oldest thing was found was from 3000 BCE. Hey-oh. Old stuff warning. A lot of stone scrapers and tiles. 

You can see the actual library in the background of this photo. How cool would it be to study surrounded by all this old stuff? And what do you get for the school that has everything?

Neil Patrick Harris. 

Winner Winner

Monday night Grace & Co. (that's what I call the massive crew that she rolls with) went to a concert in Taksim. After the concert, we went to another bar and had another round of drinks. As we were leaving, we ran across this street vendor. 

He was selling Turkish rice, which has a mystery ingredient that makes it the best rice in the world, with chicken on top. 

This stuff was so good. I'm not generally a street food kind of girl but for 2tl, the price was right. It was the first time I've seen chicken and rice being sold in a cart with wheels but I promise the next time I'm around Istiklal, I'm going to find this guy. 

Blue Hair Saves The Day

Last night I was sleeping, dreaming of Dr. Pepper and Chick-fil-A, when I heard this huge CRASH. I woke up with my heart racing, and in the dark, I quickly assessed the situation.

We have a built-in ladder leading to the attic. It's pretty weird, I know, but whatever. The cover to this little opening fell. Abby came out to help me put it back up but we couldn't find the screw that was holding it up.

I thought I did a pretty good job of jamming it in there, hoping it would be secure until morning but my efforts failed. Some time after I fell back asleep, I heard another huge CRASH. 

This time the piece of wood bounced off the counter and rolled (moved three feet somehow?) towards me. Ahhhh!!! Luckily, the only one injured was the roll of paper towels.

This morning we looked for the missing screws to no avail and eventually secured the cover with our blender box. We'll buy new screws, we just haven't gotten that far yet. And you might be interested to know that while that opening was uncovered, I slept in bed with Abby. I am not sleeping anywhere near a creepy hole into a creepy attic. Plus, there are birds up there. 

Karpuz

On Tuesday I bought a huge karpuz. Abby doesn't like watermelon (what?) so it's a one-girl mission. It's Thursday today, and this is how much progress I've made.

I just hit the heart tonight so I'm really excited for tomorrow. I've been averaging a little more than an inch a day. 

Yeah, I see the jagged lines. My knife is all wonky and cuts at an angle. I evened it up before putting it back in the fridge for the night. It's a marathon, not a sprint. And as an added bonus, for the first time in weeks, I feel hydrated.

Seagulls

Last night I met up with an old friend from Turkish class, Kemal, aka Simon, and his friend Angele. They were visiting from Greece and had been traveling around Turkey seeing old ruins. Angele mentioned that one of the reasons she wanted to come back to Istanbul was to see the seagulls flying over the mosques in Sultanahmet. I was like, "What? I have no idea what you're talking about."

Tonight, Abby, her friend Şükrü, and I went touring around Istanbul in the middle of the night. Şükrü took us to Sultanahmet, and I was able to see what Angele was talking about. She said that the birds and the lights create crazy shadows on the mosque. While I was skeptical last night, it seemed pretty cool tonight.  

It was a phenomenon that I didn't even know was a thing until last night. Thanks, Angele!

Party Bus

Tonight I had to get to Taksim to meet an old friend from Princeton/Turkish class. I was supposed to be there at 10:30 but I was running late. While I was waiting for the bus, a smaller van/bus thing pulled up and announced that it was going to Taksim. It seemed full-ish and a girl who had been waiting with me got on so I figured, what the hey?

This baby was like a party bus. For an extra .75 lira, I got to ride to Taksim in style. I'm not sure how legal/kosher this method of transportation is but it certainly did the trick. If I had taken the official bus, I would have still been waiting for it by the time the party bus dropped me off in Taksim. 

I'm going to chalk it up to a victory. A shady victory but a victory nonetheless.