Last one. I swear.

          I made it home*. Everyone I traveled with was pretty neat, and I am still amazed at how we got such a great group. Turkey constantly exceed my expectations, especially the people. Our Turkish friends were great, without them I don't know how we would have made it through our classes, learned so much about Turkey, or had so much fun on Bar Street. Look forward to seeing you guys in America!


Some quick random blurbs and a photo bomb to wrap up this blog, more for my own thoughts. These are heavily influenced by my opinion and stuff told to me at the bar, so take it with a grain of salt.

The man himself. Everywhere.

Hookah bars where pretty popular. (I cannot French inhale and I was introduced to Twitter in Turkey #addicted)

• Stray cats an dogs everywhere in Eskişehir. They are very friendly (only the dogs thou not the cats) and people always leave out food and water for them. Most of the dogs have "squatters rights." They are picked up, neutered, taged, and put back where they came from. Many times I would wake up to a viscous cat fight going on outside my window, smiled every time.  The litimus test for being really inebriated is if you pet them. Wash your hands!

How many cats can you spot?

• Traditional ice cream is a little different here, more like gellato then traditional ice cream. Some Turkish people don't like to eat cold stuff without something hot. It has something to do with the idea that the coldness in your throat area makes you more susceptible to getting sick. So they grab a cup of tea after ice cream to warm up.

• Prayer call is five times a day. A water truck blares bares bad ice cream truck music when it drives around town. 
• Turkish wedding are a blast. Each region has a traditional dance they do and guests give gold or silver to the couple. This cake is lit up with flames and is being cut with a sword. Nuff said. 

• I gained a lot of respect for all international students. I was the wide eyed, weird looking, "taking of picture of seemingly common things" student always asking for help. Help out International students. 
• Backgammon is popular. Its played in between classes, at cafes, bars, etc. 

• Turkish girls are hot. çok taş.  They are always well dressed and I never saw anyone wearing sweatpants or running shorts to class. I've thought about it and perused the thesaurus to describe them. Dapper.
• School was not as rigorous as I expected it to be. We usually started class late and finished early. At MSU summer classes are fast paced as there is a large amount of material to cover, and this wasn't the case in Turkey. There wasn't much homework and the grading was tough. A lot of students are scoring at or below 50%. Passing is  around 35%. Lastly just becasue they say the class is taught in English dosen't mean its true.

Turkish prof. explaining a transportation issue. 

1TL lunches. 

• Bread is really inexpensive and delicious here. Bakeries line the streets selling different types of bread and sweet deserts, such as backlava. I will miss this a lot as good bakeries back home are expensive and sparse. The food was great and different. Bread was featured in most dishes and served with most meals, while meat wasn't consumed in as large portions as it is back here. Every Monday there was a massive farmers market were we bought a wide assortment of fruit and vegetables on the cheap. 

Farmers market with so many fruits, vegetables, herbs I had never seen.

Fruit from our  next door neighbor while he practices English and Ross and Caroline  learn some Turkish words.

Soooo good! Ice cream on bakalva.

         TLDR: A once in a lifetime trip. Thanks everyone for making it so great. 

          *Qiangian and I got off on the wrong foot by getting on the wrong bus,  but then the right bus showed up an hour late anyways.  We finally made it to the Istanbul airport and argued with a guy who wanted a huge tip for loading our luggage. In the airport I blindly reached into my suitcase and cut the very tip off my finger clean off on a broken coffee mug I haphazardly packed. When I couldn't get it to stop bleeding I went to find the first aid station. It wasn't all bad as I got to use the Turkish word for scary, korkutucu, I had been practicing all week when the nurse was purging the hypodermic needle. The nurse and doctor both laughed and said that was an usual word for a foreigner to know ( I blushed) and then he stuck my raw fingertip with a needle filled with something to constrict the blood vessels and stop the bleeding. Piç! The bandaged me up and I had to pay 22TL.

           I had some time after leaving O'hare and stopped to take in Lake Michigan with Tyrion Lannister. Megabus was great with its wifi, outlets, roomy seats, $9 tickets, and I made it to Grand Rapids in just under 3 hours. I have some great friends and sisters who were waiting for me with flowers, balloons, and a sign (that said WELCOME HOMO!). It was a great surprise on coming home and I needed it. Lucky guy.