the many faces of me.

so, i'm here!
plane ride was so so so long, but i had a whole row to myself. so, i watched some always sunny, read some dorian gray, and looked out the window.
landed and made a huge faux pas, i slept. thus my first day in istanbul consisted of me fashioning a blanket out of a pillow case, hoodie, and towel. while sleeping till the evening. dumb Dumb DUmb DUMb DUMB!

i was actually able to fall asleep around 10, but i woke up at around six to the call to prayer, it was so haunting, especially during that time of morning, i saw a woman racing towards a mosque...

oh well, my second day, now that's what i need to spend time talking about...

it started around 11 am, i ventured out with people i met on my plane ride (one of the girls i met actually ended up being my roomie) then we met other americans on the way to breakfast, so four became seven. as we roamed the bosphorus for miles, we passed fishermen/children, parks, mosques, it was all so insanely beautiful we decided: "hey, let's head to the old city". so we headed there, but the mosque was closing down for prayer so we went to the grand bazaar instead. wow.

i have to make a list of all the things that were said to me/all the names i was called:

1. janet jackson
2. whitney houston
3. chocolate lady, will you be my girlfriend
4. i like black woman, SHOUTED at me.
5. beyonce
6. spice girls
7. random english words just to catch your attention. like, "do you remember me?"
8. and then random turkish i don't understand, but sick aggressive men seem to act the same in the US so we got the idea.
9. aww, one of my favorites was a guy who just pointed at the ground and said: "excuse me is that yours", i would turn my head to nothing and he'd laugh like a hyena, it was cute.

basically, i'm taking all of this not in offense, but calmly "in stride" or whatever the phrase is.
i definitely don't see it as racism, more a mix of curiosity with raging libidos.
the turks are as a whole, so far, such a nice people, unassuming, helpful, polite, my experience is good so far...

on the bright side i found my dream scarf, and it was only 140 lira...