Nothing too interesting happened in class over the week. My students have their final next Monday, and we have to finish our whole book, so like other classes we pretty much had our noses to the grindstone finishing 2.5 chapters. Yesterday, though, I did the weekly music medley and featured Nas & Tupac's Thugz Mansion. To help contextualize the song, I made a powerpoint presentation on urban poverty in America with slides on 2pac and Nas, new terms from the song like "the ghetto," and pictures of the deceased African-American artists mentioned in the song. My students really liked the song and they learned a little bit about another side of American culture. I liked the song, too, and I liked reading the wikipedia articles about the deceased artists. --They were all so amazing! Did you know, for instance, that Marvin Gaye had a 3 octave range? Wow.
Today I did some housework and then went downtown to meet Kristina for a going away lunch. Margot, Deven and Firat were there, too. We ate at Kervan--a pide and kebap restaurant near Karizma that I'd never been to before. It was quite good, I'll probably go back. I'm sad to see Kristina go but I'm happy because she gets to go home and I think that's the best thing for her now. Inshallah we'll meet again soon--as she said, Portland's not far from Vancouver (BC--wish it were WA)!
After lunch, I walked to the bazaar to buy some produce and passed what looks like the grand opening of a Besiktas (Istanbul soccer team) fan center??
I don't know what was going on exactly but they were playing loud music (I think Besiktas cheers?), had wedding flowers and there were a bunch of people loitering around. Who knows?
After getting my zuccinis, clementines and carrots (a nice experience because the produce guys recognized me and asked where my tall friend, aka Margot, was), I walked home to move my laundry around. On my way, I passed another instance of random Turkish drainage work, and I took a picture to share with you all:
Running right across the middle of Gazi Pascha, where there were a ton of people out walking and enjoying the pleasant Saturday weather, two guys decided to rip up all of the cobble stones. Now, I'm sure these guys were working for the city in some capacity, but I thought it was so funny because I'd already passed another repair site like this in my 10 minute walk from the bazaar, and I've seen at least half a dozen drainage/cobble stone repair crews out this week. It's so funny! On Thursday, there were some guys jackhammering on the other side of the pedestrian bridge to get the stones up (or maybe just destroy the stones), and another time this week, there was this huge steamroller-type thing which was cutting the stones on another part of the same street. Never once was anyone wearing a uniform or using safety equipment. Everytime, pedestrians were just expected to watch where they were going and not fall in a newly-created hole. Ah, construction here is so different and so interesting.
In a few minutes, I'll be leaving to go to my first ever Turkish cinema! Margot and I were invited out to see the new Twilight movie. I'm pretty stoked. I'll probably get some popcorn and ponder who's hotter, Jacob or Edward, and at the end of the movie be happy that I'm in love with a human and therefore have a very slim chance of ever giving birth to a half-vampire with magic powers.
All the best & happy Saturday,
-Annika
p.s. I found this picture as I was uploading my Besiktas images. It's from last weekend's shopping trip in Istanbul. I had Rebecca take my picture because I was just SO happy to see a reference to my little hometown halfway around the world. Isn't it great? I love it! 
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