snow!

It is snowing! Yesterday when we were on our way home from Canakkle we saw snow on the ground and I was thinking "of course it finally snows while i'm on the bus and cant enjoy it, Luckily it is snowing here today and I am in front of my window watching it as i type this. My roommate also told me to call my work before I go in b/c most likely they will cancel school. It isnt even sticking, but she didnt go into work today so its probably legit!

My trip to Canakkle can be summed up in one word: cold. It was like home. I finally got winter. We almost missed our 6 hour bus ride but made it with 4 minutes to spare. we got to our hotel, one of the guys got a hair cut, we had a nice long dinner, then we were going to watch the movie "troy" but all feel asleep by 9. The next morning we got up enjoyed a wonderful turkish breakfast (probably my most favorite thing about turkey)and headed to catch a dolmus to troia (troy- dolmus= minibus) the wind was so terrible i literally almost fell over a few times. We kind of rushed throught the sites as we were too cold, and didnt know a whole lot about what we were looking at. We got the 12 bus back to canakkle and got lunch, we missed our next bus to Istanbul and took the 3 oclock one. We saw a lot of snow on our way home and by a lot i mean a quarter of an inch. There was a man who had a gun on his hip that sat 2 rows ahead of us. We decided to not annoy him. We were in the last row of the bus, The bus had satellite tv and I watched New Moon in turkish, since i know that movie so well and my knowledge of turkish, I understood it pretty well. then we watched music videos. All teh favorites of the turks. 4 destiny's child songs, 3 enrique igleses. 6 Jennifer lopez. 4 Mariah carey, Marc antony. and a few turkish songs intermixed along the way.

We met a young turk that sat by us and he had the same shuttle as me on the way home so we talked. Hes a captain on a big ship and travels the world. We had some really interesting dicussions about culture and corruption and politics. It was nice to have that talk, he was very level headed and knowledgable. Then i hit my stop and walked home. Over all not a bad trip i can say i've been to troy now!

today it is snowing, it is the same temperature as it is in Minneapolis. Apparently the whole city will shut down. Bettina came and told me to call my work before i went in b/c she assumed it would be canelled. (its flurries) She wasnt going into work. At breakfast bulent said all public schools were cancelled. They looked at me and said"this is probably a joke to you huh" Yep, i reply amazing.

I think everyday I go back an forth with my plans for next year. Seeing the snow today and reading the Star trib made me miss minneapolis and the way people care about the enviroment. I get so annoyed that recycling is unheard of here. I talked about donating blood in one of my classes the day and they were appalled that I would do such a thing. I miss the feeling of giving back. Maybe here that is handled in a different way that I have not experienced yet, but i miss knowing that I can do something to change the world. Something as simple as biking instead of using a car. I did decide that if I am going to stay in Minneapolis (or any city) next year, I am buying a nice bike with my bonus.