Çeşme

Ooooh, that last post was BITTER! Sorry about that. I think anyone who knows me well will be able to figure out that last week was not my best week. Completely and utterly overwhelmed, I did waaaaaay too much crying. I’m much better now though, since we had a weekend off and I spent it in one of the prettiest places I’ve seen yet! (I’m sure you’ll get a chance to agree w/ me after Chris posts pictures J )

So, we went to Çeşme (pronounced Chesh-may) for the weekend, thank to a classmate of ours and her and her boyfriend’s generous invitations! Çeşme is a very popular summer destination, and for good reason! Beautiful warm Caribbean-like water, lots of shops, restaurants, and events, and lovely weather with constant breezes, it’s definitely a place I’d like to be too! We took a bus there on Saturday afternoon and stayed until late this afternoon. We went to the bazaar that they have there on Saturdays, and I bought 4 dresses, one long one and 3 shorter ones. Jeans and even capris are just too hot when it’s mid-90s. Bazaars are fun though; I really like the variety of things to see in them! Anything from fruits and veggies to window squeegees to clothes to textiles to shoes to kitchen items. It was hot, but the breeze was nice and made it a little more comfortable. We then headed to the pansion to drop off our things and head to dinner. Dinner was ABSOLUTELY amazing, but unfortunately I can’t even really tell you what it was, since we had so many new things and I didn’t do any of the ordering. All I can say is lots of meat, Turkish pizza, thick yogurt, pita bread, and pure deliciousness.

We then headed to a little village on the outskirts of Çeşme. Again, I can’t really remember the name of it, I will see if I can find out. Anyways, it was gorgeous, lots of stone buildings and little boutiques! Chris took pictures, so even if I don’t know the name of it, you can see how cool it was. Anyways, then we were running late to the concert, so we headed there.

The concert was in an ampetheater (sorry, no idea how to spell that and I’m not getting any suggestions from the dictionary) and was apparently one of the most famous pop stars in Turkey. We were so fortunate to get to go! And I can see why he’s so popular; I’m a fan now too! I got excited when I kept hearing his songs on the way back to Izmir today! We had an absolute blast there though; it was such a fun performance and so cool to be outside and feel the breeze and see the city! A definite highlight for me! We snacked a bit after the concert (I got to try stuffed mussels w/ lemon and a new flavor of ice cream, it was gum flavored, like the real gum. can’t really describe it b/c we have nothing remotely similar to it in the US), and suddenly it was 1:30AM! Sleepy time for the lazy Americans…

This morning was another fun day. We woke up and had breakfast provided by the hotel. We then got a tour of Çeşme from our classmate and her boyfriend. We got to see both of their summer homes, and go wading in the Aegean. Beautifully warm water (although she thought it was cold, I thought it was so much warmer than Lake Michigan or Lake Huron!) and crystal clear. We got to eat (is anyone besides me seeing a pattern here?) at a place known for their burgers: milk-fed calves’ meat. Can we say delicious? Then it was time to catch the bus back.

We found out the hard way that we should get tickets for the bus back WELL in advance. We stopped at the ticket office at 2 before we went to eat and were told all buses were full until 10! Whoa, popular place. Keep in mind, this is just buses going back to Izmir, not any other cities around here! We were lucky and able to finagle 3 seats on a 5:00 bus (again, thanks to our classmate!) so we got back at a decent time.

Anyways, an absolute FABULOUS weekend with some much-needed relaxation and distance from homework. However, I DO have lesson planning to do, so I need to wrap this up. I will try to blog again next weekend, but right now we’re just too busy during the week to keep up with this. Plus, the stuff we do during the week is boring. Lesson planning, observation, and class time for us, in addition to some written assignments and such. Blah blah blah. Hope everyone had a happy 4th!

btw, I'm posting this under Chris' name, but it's really Barb. Sorry about the confusion!