Translate

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

RIP Seyhan Cafe

Today was, by far, the most depressing and sad day of my entire exchange. I know I've mentioned "Seyhan Cafe" before several times here on my blog. 
This cafe is always the meeting point and hangout place for all the exchange students, but especially for Daffne and I. I can say that easily I went to this cafe at least 3 times a week. And today was it's last day open. [For any of you out there who have ever watched "Friends", it's a US tv series from 1990s-early 2000s, you'll know "Central Perk" which is the coffee place the characters always hangout at. This cafe was OUR Central Perk] *Pictures below:



For these last 6 months I've been in Turkey this cafe has always been a place for us to hangout, talk, study, eat, and most importantly, use their free wifi :) 
(( In this picture I was studying Turkish, drinking my usual Nescafé, and enjoying the gorgeous view of Kadıköy ))

** Side note, Daffne and I went here so much that they would give us discounts on our orders because we, literally, were there 3+ times a week. After a while they picked up on our orders too!

I know you are probably thinking, "It's just a cafe, you'll find another one." No, this cafe represented all the best times here with my exchange family. I can't even start to explain how many laughs, serious talks, good times, and late nights were spent there. Honestly I'm still in shock that they are closing. Oh, I forgot to mention WHY they are closing exactly. They are closing because there is a Starbucks in the building in front of it and they bought the building in order to expand their store front. Ugh, I hate franchises. I can tell you that right now I can count in Istanbul 5 Starbucks off the top of my head. In my opinion, this Starbucks is plenty big, they have two levels plus an outside area. Seyhan was 4 levels, the bottom two being an indepentent book store and the top two being a family owned and run cafe. The fact that it all had to be shut down, and for what? So Starbucks can put in more tables and bathrooms? This cafe ment the world to Daffne and I and we are completely devestated that everything had to end this way. 

So tonight, Gabi, Arthur, Laura, Luis, Hana, Daffne, and I met to have a final "Send off" dinner and coffee. We all ate our favorite things. For me it was the Club sandwich and fries but Daffne always eats my fries, so basically just the sandwich :) After we all finished eating, we went out on the 4th floor/roof level of the cafe. The cold air felt so great while I was drinking my last Nescafé :( We all talked while enjoying the spectacular view and familiar sounds of our beloved Kadıköy from the roof for the last time... This cafe and all the memories I made there will always have a special place in my heart. 

Daffne and I walking out of Seyhan for the last time...

I can't believe this chapter of my exchange is over. And to think I have only 4 months left until I return to the US. I am so not ready for all of this change.

Maggie


Saturday, February 14, 2015

Western Tour

Hello again, 
Sorry it's been almost a month since I've posted, but everything has been really busy around here... So let's get to it. 
We just completed our first Rotary organized trip, which was January 29- Febuary 6. The trip covered cities such as, Pamukkale, Anatolia, Izmir, Bodrum, Fetiye, Kaş, and a few others. We took this medium-sized charter bus and we drove around seeing all these archeology sites, museums, and famous landmarks then stopping at hotels along the way. I'll try and do an over view of the trip otherwise this post would be too long :) 

So the first two days of the trip happened to be Daffne and Luis' birthdays! We bought them little cakes, sang them "Happy Birthday!" on the bus, and finished with the Mexican tradition of smashing the cake on the face of the Birthday person.

Here they are after we smashed the cakes on them! (Daffne's face was a lot worse, but she accidentally cleaned her face before the picture) 

After we woke up on the morning of our second day, we visited the first of many archeology sites. Here are some pictures:

Hana, Julia, and I
Daffne and I

Then, fast forward to the second night we were in Anatolia, Luis and I had a tea party in the hotel. The reason was, since the hotel gives a water heater, bottled water, an tea for free with each room, Luis didn't want to waste the free tea, in Turkish it's çay. So we each had about 6 or 7 glasses of tea before I'd had enough. Such funny memories! In the hotels at night we would all pick a room to go to and we'd talk, drink tea or coffee, and watch turkish movies. I really love this group of exchange students. 


Then another day, we went on a boat tour in Kekova! So beautiful. It looked like one of those places you see in a travel magazine! Here we are tanning on top of the boat:
The next day we took another boat tour, and we got this really cute Americans picture:

Then another time we were visiting the ruins of an old theatre. Gabi asked me to move so she could get her picture taken. I was too lazy to stand up, so I tried to hide the best I could but as you can tell, I still managed to photobomb her picture! Haha
Here is a group picture from a site:
Girl picture from a skii lift type thing we had to take to reach a site we were seeing:
Another girls picture from a theatre in Pamukkale
Group picture at the same theatre 
Group waterfall picture in Anatolia 

Such a great trip! These exchange students are like my family and I am so happy to have them in my life. I really hope I'll be able to go on the second one in May :) 

Maggie