Lilly Farahani-Ankara Week 1

We have finished our first week in Turkey! This is my first time traveling to Turkey, and I'm excited for the adventures that awaits for me. Our first day there we made a friend who goes to TOBB universitesi and he took us around Kizilay, which is a part of Ankara. I finally got to try Iskander, and it was a great meal to start Turkey off with.







The food at the dorm is very plentiful and also all of this was only 7 Liras meaning $3.50! I'm going to miss how much food we get for so little money.







I've never been a fan of coffee,but I've become obsessed with Turkish Coffee. The coffee below is from a nearby cafe called Moda. I always get mine with lots of sugar! (cok sekerli lutfen!)

I wish I had packed more warm clothes because it has been pretty chilly here. Most of the other students have been wearing big coats and boots, while i've been getting interesting looks for my choice of sandals and more summery clothes. It is 50 degrees though, which means the summer clothes come out in Michigan. The girls at TOBB dress up every day which forces me to not get lazy and wear a tshirt and jeans.

The dorm is much nicer than the dorm I stayed in my freshman year. We have our own private bathroom and a huge closet. We also have a maid which comes twice a week and cleans our room. Our laundry is even done for us for a measly 5 liras!

The students have been extremely friendly. We each get 6 conversation classes a week that are 50 minutes long.The students have been helpful in taking us around Ankara. Next week, we are going to be able to run clubs where we will get to know the students even more.

We only work Monday- Thursday, so we were able to travel to Cappadocia Thursday night. We stayed there until Sunday. The city seemed like it was out of a fairytale. We stayed at a cave hotel called Kismet hotel. The man who owned the hotel, farroukh, became a close friend of ours during the trip. Our first day there we traveled to the highest point in cappadocia called Uchisar Castle.

The view at the top of the castle was unreal.You could see the entire city. While we were up there it started hailing and we had to take refuge in a little cave. Katrina and I tried to escape the hail and go back down and the hail was coming down so hard that it was actually painful at one point.

When we went to dinner that night we ran into a group of students who had just graduated from UofM's med school. We have ran into three groups of people who were umich alum. It was amazing how prominent the michigan alumni are everywhere. Never thought we would run into so many in a little town in Turkey.

I loved all the various dried fruits and nuts in the markets. It all looked so good, and it was hard to decide which ones to buy. 

On our final day in Cappadocia, we woke up at 6 am to watch the hot air balloons. I couldn't believe our view.













There were a lot of stray dogs around Cappadocia. There was one dog that stole my heart and I bought it raw meat at a local restaurant. I never thought feeding a random dog would lead to him following me around after. Naturally, I had to name it since it followed me around, so we named the dog Bunyamin.

After that long vacation, we are back to working at TOBB. I cannot wait to see what else is in store for me in Turkey.