A Fond Farewell

I leave for Norway in approximately 6 hours. Of course I still have last minute packing to do.

It didn't really hit me that I am leaving and probably never coming back to this place until a few hours ago. Even though we'll keep in touch, I am going to miss the friends I made here very much.

I intend to write a post detailing my experience of going to school here and how it compares to Smith at some point in the near future...

But for now its goodbye and goodnight.

Shit, I had to.

Cheesecake Extravaganza

Neighbor Jake and I made Strawberry Cheesecake the other day. Delish! Our flatmates love us.

Presentation aesthetics... meh.

Summertime

Is for living on a farm in Norway.

Like this one.

I think it is time to brush up on my Norse mythology from first-year seminar!

Dream Log

Journal entry from Tuesday May 31st:

Vivid, vivid dreams last night. Me and a bunch of Morris house (Britte, Emma Phipps + others, Lauren K?) were going swimming in a lake of some sort. There were these little worms/nematodes that apparently burrowed their way into your skin if you went swimming in this lake. I didn't realize this, but then Emma Phipps told me, and she also said that it should take a few weeks for them to come out. I was shocked and disgusted. I then went to take a shower and the worms started coming out. I found that if I laid flat on my back they would come out faster. They were little and yellowish in color. One fell out and wriggled on my neck and I squirmed and freaked out a little bit.

Later, Britte, her mom and her brother and I were all hanging out. Can't exactly remember where - maybe the same lake? Britte had a bunch of sunglasses all in a big jumbled pile, even duplicates. She wanted to give me a pair, but her mom said no. This made Britte sad and I felt sad that she was sad.

Then I was babysitting from a family I think we know from church. They told me to get to the house at a certain time - I did but then fell asleep in the 1989 Blue Tempo in their driveway for 78 minutes. I walked up to their door and I was wearing a royal blue spandex tube dress. I could hear a female voice from inside say "Look what she's wearing" which made me feel self-conscious and inappropriate. Walked inside and they all seemed just as groggy as I was. I apologized for my lateness, but it didn't seem to matter. They had a dozen or so computers arranged in a semi-circle, for some sort of video game. Kind of looked like a computer lab. They were black Dell desktops and the walls of the room were a dark slate blue. Their kid was on one of them though I wasn't sure what he was doing. Then the parents left and I don't remember what happened. But I forgot a bit - when I was waiting by the door, my arms kept getting stuck in my dress, somehow. My nipples kept popping out and I was anxious to get my arms unstuck before someone answered the door (Maybe I was tangled in the sheets while I was sleeping??) Their house was that house on the corner by my elementary school and that little park.

Then Emily Mock was walking through what looked to be the outside part of my junior high school... or elementary? Her mom was leading the way and her little brother was there as well. All of a sudden Emily came across a dead bird (pigeon or crow) and started crying. But it wasn't normal - it was like she had discovered death for the first time and it was also like I was her. Like, it was happening to me, but I was Emily. She was also younger, a child. Her mom told her to hurry up and stop crying. It was like everything she knew about life and death accumulated in that bird in that very moment and it was too much.

The last segment of my dream, I was talking with David and Mom. I was a child again. I was talking about how I missed the house we used to live in when I was real little (and when David was real little too) before we lived with Dad. It was happy and orange and there was sunshine. But then we all moved away and lived with Dad and I remember not wanting to. This part I find particularly eerie - we never lived in such a place. I feel this "house" must have much deeper meaning. Maybe my dream-child self is referring to the womb? Its a place where me, Mom and my brother all shared, without Dad. My dream-child self was already pretty young (4 or 5) so talking about "when I was little" means when I was a baby... or a fetus. This is so intriguing! People say that memories of the womb do exist after all...

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Pt. 3

After a few days of being in Istanbul and walking by the Hagia Sophia multiple times per day, we decided to bite the bullet and stand in the unfathomably long line of fellow tourists. As it turned out, the line moved fairly quickly - guess they want to usher people in and out as fast as possible.

There were far too many people around to get a photo of just you, so here I am with a Mr. Orange.

We also ducked into the Basilica Cistern, constructed in the 6th century under the infamous Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I. This was another instance of feeling like we were in Lord of the Rings.

And we finally made it to the Blue Mosque - for real this time! The Blue Mosque was by far my favorite of all the things we saw in the city. So much incredibly beautiful detail.

We both loved the luxuriously rich red carpet. Mmm!

I suppose this is shaping up to be a shorter, more picture-oriented post than some of my previous posts. The reason is that I've written so much about these travels of mine that I am quite ready to write about new things. Though I do love you, my dear Istanbul. There are also more pictures of myself on Emily's camera, which I hopefully will acquire some day for those who wish to see...

A 6am goodbye.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Pt. 2

Every morning we would climb the stairs to the rooftop cafe of the hostel and eat our free breakfast while looking out onto the Bosphorous, where apparently, if you looked hard enough, you could see dolphins swimming around. Guess we didn't look hard enough. Though the food was nothing extravagant, we were pretty excited about it because neither of us had experienced a free breakfast while staying at a hostel before. One morning we were so excited that we ate 10 rolls between us with jam and butter.

We spent most of our time wandering around and shopping. Or should I say haggling. To be quite honest, by the time our stay in Istanbul was nearing its end, we were both ecstatic never to have to haggle again. For the near future anyhow. Fixed prices - what luxury!

Here we are descending into the depths of the Spice Bazaar, where if you pause, hesitate for just a moment or happen to make the briefest eye contact with one of the merchants, you will be sorry.

Pausing long enough to take photographs in the Spice Bazaar is a daring feat in and of itself.

Later, while eating baklava, we came across a concert of sorts. There was a healthy amount of belly-dancing and Turkish-flag-waving by a tiny, adorable old man.

While wandering, we came across what we thought - mistakenly - to be the Blue Mosque, so we put on headscarves, took off our shoes and went inside. It was virtually empty and we realized that the Blue Mosque is most definitely never empty. And also that almost every mosque in Istanbul is modeled after the Blue Mosque. Nevertheless, being the only ones inside was a beautiful, breathtaking experience. The carpet was soft and cool to our bare feet.

Sometimes at night we would hang out in the rooftop cafe and check our emails or order apple tea. The whole place reminded me of a treehouse, which made spending time up there even more worthwhile.

Emily doesn't like this photo, but I think its cute. My tan complexion, perpetual lack of shoes and relaxed plaid button-down shirt all made me look Australian apparently. I lost track of how many people inquired as to whether I was Australian or not.

Night-time Bosphorous.

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) Pt. 1

Our hostel in Istanbul was located directly behind the Hagia Sophia, but knowing me, I looked at the map incorrectly and confused the Hagia Sophia with the Blue Mosque, which is directly across the way. Can't believe I'm even admitting that. I felt like throwing the rolly-suitcase I've had since I was 10 years old into the Bosphorous after 45 minutes of stumbling and clattering around the surprisingly steep cobble stone streets. After I had correctly oriented myself and as I was clattering past the open square in front of the Hagia Sophia, I heard someone call my name. Startled, I swung around to see who it could possibly be calling my name in such a new and foreign city. My eyes slowly focused on two smiling faces and lo and behold it was my anarchist friends from Budapest! Blew my mind to a million bits. I knew that they were traveling to Turkey, but I didn't know when, and I definitely never expected to see them again in this lifetime. We chatted for a bit before I clattered on to find my hostel (for real this time) and they got back in line for the Hagia Sophia.

Since I still had a few hours before Emily's arrival in Istanbul (separate flights again, sans drama!) I decided to walk around and look for food. There were food vendors selling roasted corn and chestnuts and a million people everywhere. As I wandered I started to notice that Istanbul was probably the "coolest" place I had chosen to travel to on my break. There were a fair number of tourists, but they were different from the tourists I'd encountered in Rome or Athens or even Prague. Lots of alternative and weathered backpackers (not your bland and cliche, fresh-out-of-college "I'm gonna backpack through Europe! Yeah" kind of backpacker,) artist-types and people who looked like they had an interesting story to share or who you could tell had done an extensive amount of traveling in their lifetime. And you know I'm always interested in that.

Istanbul just had a completely different vibe from anywhere else I'd been and I loved it. But I suppose you really just need to experience it to fully understand what I'm talking about.

After walking past window-display after window-display of elaborate baklava and lokum (Turkish Delight) that glistened in the sun like a beam of light from the heavens was shining right on it, I caved.

15 lira ($10 USD) later...

Then Emily arrived and we went on an evening walk.

The call to prayer is beautiful.