28 Days of Lentil Soup

I have now been in Turkey for a month.  The best part, by far, has been the delicious food.  I eat çorba on a daily basis (at least once) along with literal tons of freshly baked breads, chocolate puddings with hidden cream puffs at the bottom, eclairs, baklava, pomegranates, and blackberry yogurts.  I have noticed that whenever I talk to family and friends at home, the conversation consists primarily of my meal choices and the delicious desserts I find at the pastanesi I frequent.  YUM.

I suppose I should discuss other things as well though.  School is going well... we are on our way into March, but I don't seem to have a definite class schedule.  I may be taking International Relations, Political Anthropology, or Byzantine Art and Architecture... but nothing is official.  I am definitely taking Turkish though, which is turning out to be much more ridiculously difficult than I anticipated.  We spent a good 30 minutes last class attempting to pronounce ü, u, i, e, a, ü, o, ı, ğ, and worst of all ö (which for some reason seems to have an 'r' sound in it somewhere). I am hoping that once I learn the basics the rest will come a bit more easily.

I haven't been able to do much outside of classes and restaurants.  The weather has been depressing and cold - I haven't seen the sun in about two weeks, and it even snowed on Saturday.  Once it warms up a bit, I plan on spending more time down in Bebek - right on the waterfront.  Or studying outside in the quad, rather than just being cooped up, and well into the 5th season of Desperate Housewives... Which just unfortunately jumped forward 5 years into the future, while also jumping the shark I fear.