So a week has gone by working in the university, and it felt really fast. All week, I was working on a research for a professor and I had it completed on Friday. I'm just waiting for the professor to let me know if she wants any addition or changes to what I did.

Throughout this week, the university had a program in which high school kids were introduced to college life. I was invited to join in their activities; which I did. I went to one session which had the high school kids competing in groups to build the tallest tower out of straws which could hold an egg. During that session, I got to meet some of the student volunteers working on the program.

As my host was in charged of the program, and he said he needed help on Saturday, I went to "work" on Saturday as well. My host had to prepare lunch for the kids, and so I became one of the kitchen helpers among the rest of the students volunteers. Well, I cut vegetables, but the bulk of the job was washing dishes....

Sunday was the last day of the program, and my host thought I should join in as well. I went to the program and I was glad I did. The high school students put on performances, and there was much emotions as the high school students said goodbye to the student volunteers. I got to meet more student volunteers, one of whom I remember clearly, for he majored in American literature because his high school literature teacher was beautiful :D Well, I thought it was a curious reason to base a decision on.

I also watched a movie on Saturday, and got to know an interesting practice in Turkey's cinema. Halfway into the movie, the movie will be stopped for 10 minutes. According to my host, he thinks the break is for people to use the bathroom or buy food. Sounds like a great idea to me if the movie is long.

Ok, so still no photos. I'm getting a little lazy in taking photos....

Signed off by Priscilla

First day of work and I feel like I did more than I ever did in my entire time at FIBA real estate.

I had to do research for a professor, and the amount of research I need to do will probably take me days to complete. Since it was my first day, I had to wait for a computer to be set up and arrange for transportation, so I didn't have much time to progress far on my work.

I also spent some time at the dentist. I have a bad tooth for some time now, as my friends in Newberry know very well, and so I asked the people in my office about dental services. One of them immediately got me an appointment today. I wasn't too sure what the dentist said though - I remember hearing the words "cut" and "extract". I really hope I heard wrongly. My host said she will go with me to the dentist tomorrow to find out what exactly he said.

Well, I will try to take some pictures and post them.

Signed off by Priscilla

So today is my last day at FIBA real estate. It's a sudden decision and I know I have never mentioned anything about ending work there at all. But no, I'm not heading back to Ann Arbor yet. I am actually transferred to work for Özyeğin University from next week onwards. It happened just 2 days ago when I chatted with the coordinator of my internship. After the chat, the coordinator offered to have me at the university. Well, I felt bad just leaving FIBA so suddenly, but seeing that they don't have much work for me there, it might be good for me to try something new. And so I accepted it :)

Since it happened pretty suddenly, my supervisor had no idea this is my last day. I told him about it early in the morning, but he only got an official notice from the human resource department in the afternoon. I thought it was quite a sad last day actually - I didn't get to see many of the people I worked with as they were out at various different offices. But, I will still be in Istanbul and I can visit them again.

I'm looking forward to a new environment! :)

Signed off by Priscilla

The final shuttle bus to her home

View from my friend's home (she lives in the mountains)

My friend told me that this is her summer home. She lives in the city area of Mersin, but during the summer, it gets too hot there, so her family will move to the cooler mountains.

The next day, we spent the morning going around the village in a car.

Barbeque!
Lunch outside!
After the heavy lunch at 4pm, we went for a walk.

Feeding goats and cows :)Gathering flowers!

And spent the night watching tv and staring at stars. I saw a shooting star for the first time in my life too.

The next day, my friend and I left her house early. My bus ride is at 6pm, but I need to get to the city. We were in the city early, so we walked around and my friend also brought me around to meet her friends.

In a cafe by the Mediterranean sea

After that, I got on the shuttle bus which brought me to the bus back to Istanbul. The ride was shorter, but it still took around 12 hours. I only got home at 630am the next day. Tired but fun :)

Signed off by Priscilla

Another week just went by so fast! This week, I got to visit Özyeğin University.

A little background on Özyeğin University:

Özyeğin University is a private university founded by the same founder as FIBA group (I work in FIBA real estate, which is part of FIBA group). It is a private university that has only been operating for a year and currently has 200 students. When I visited on Thursday, there was hardly any students around as most of them have left for the holiday. Right now, the university is operating out of a building that was previously a bank while the actual campus is being built.

I was there chatting with the people in the International Office, which only has 3 staff right now. I've only met them briefly when I first came here, so it was great to have more time to know them as they played a part in getting me an internship at FIBA.

I spent the most time with the director of the International Office actually. She showed me around the school (which only took 15 minutes as the school is really small), took me to lunch and we even went to a mall together. I'm afraid I didn't take any pictures of the school, but I might have some later next week when I visit again. I was surprised the director was free to bring me around, and she is a surprisingly energetic lady :)

That is my update for this week at work! :) I'll be leaving Istanbul tonight - not back to Ann Arbor. I'm going with my friend to her home in Erdemli, south east of Turkey I believe. She told me we would be taking a bus for 15 hours...yes, it's a long ride. I'll update again once I'm back! Till then :)

Signed off by Priscilla

Another week passed and nothing much had happened at work. Guess I would just talk about what I did today, like most of my previous posts :)

I had wanted to go to the Archaeology Museum when I went to Topkapı Palace last week, but after touring Aya Sofya the museum was closed. But though it was the first thing I wanted to do, I went to a park instead. Not that I wanted to visit a park; I went down a wrong path and ended up in the park. The park is known as Gülhane Parkı and was once Topkapı Palace's park. The park is really pretty though! There were flowers everywhere and lots of greenery. A good break from the crowd in the city!



After a brief walk, I went to the Archaeology Museum. It is actually a huge museum, or I should say museums. There are three buildings that house the archaeological finds in Turkey.



There is so much to see at the museums. It took me 3 hours to view everything. I started the tour reading all the descriptions, but when I realized there was just too many artefacts, I skipped many descriptions and just look at the artifacts.

The museums have artefacts from





I took a lunch break after the museum tour before heading over to the Basilica Cistern. It is a huge underground place which was used to store water for use in palaces originally. It was cold and dark in there, and I thought it was quite creepy.


Apparently all the columns in the cistern were taken from ruined buildings when it was built in year 532.

Since it was still early to return home, I decided to walk over to the Grand Bazaar. It's a place that has many shops where people can bargain for the goods they want.


It was very crowded with tourists. I had planned to take a tour around the bazaar to see what the shops were selling, but ended up getting stuck in a shop for sometime. I thought it was time to return home and so I didn't get to see much of the bazaar.

Signed off by Priscilla