Weekend Trips and Cutural Differences

Merhaba!

First of all this week has been great!  The longer I am here the more I love it.

Now I would like to aplogize for my last entry.  I realized I didn't say much, but I really had to go to school. But don't worry, everything here has been great.

First of all this week has by been really good.  But I am going to talk about the weekend.

Over the weekend we went to Troia (Troy) and Çanakkale.  Çanakkale was really fun.  It was a long trip, though.  Çanakkale is a very important town where a lot of Word War I battels took place.  It was really great to see all of this history  up close.  However like I said it was really long.  At midnight we took a seven hour bus ride there and came back to Bursa at midnight Sunday.

On Sunday my host family ans I visited Uludağ.  The mountain in Bursa.  Again it was so much fun.  We just went exploring.  It was great and I took lots of pictures!

This place and this experience is truely amazing.  I am so so glad I have this amazing opportunity.  I am also sorry because I can't\don't have time to write about everything that has happened.  I will maybe try writing about everthing that has happened this week next week.  Although since Ramadan\Ramazan has started I have been over to a lot of people's houses for İftar- or the breaking of the fast.

Since I have been in Turkey for two weeks here are some cultural differences I have noticed:
1. Call to Prayer:
    This is absolutely beautiful and yes it does play five times a day.
2. Food:
    Obviously the food here is different, but it is not just that.  There is so much food here and people offer    you so much it is ridiculous.  Along with this Turkish tea is served at every meal.  I love Turkish tea so much.  I don't know how I am going to live without it in the states.
3. Ramazan:
    For those of you who don't know Ramadan- or Ramazan as the Turks call it Ramazan- has started.  This means people are going all day without food or water. It is really amazing and I can't imagine what it would be like to fast for an entire month.  Anyway, this means İftar, the breaking of the fast.  Along with İftar there is also drumming in the street at 3 a.m to wake people up for breakfeast.  The drumming is actually reall cool and I like it a lot.
4. Driving:
    The driving here is a lot more crazy and crossing the street is jay walking when there is no trafik.  Mom don't worry I am safe and completely fine.
5. Time:
    This is realated to doing stuff.  Turkish time is much more relaxed and sometimes people will say they will do something and we'll end up doing something else.  I actually really like this.  It's fun to just go with the flow and I love waking up and not knowing what is going to happen.  It's great.

That's about all for now.  Tomorrow I will take the bus by myself.  I am really excited.  I will also sort through pictures when I get back to the states.

Hope to update in a week!
Görüşürüz
-Sarah