friend and culture.

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it's easy for me to have friends at home. for the most part, we all have the same standards, the same comfort zones, the same ideas about relationships and the same sense of safeness. Leah and I brought that sense of safeness to Turkey, and how could we not? It's all we've really ever known. Yet, we've learned a lot of things, either by people telling us, or by personal experience that we've had to fit into our schema of safeness in Istanbul. Maybe we aren't careful enough. Our new turkish friends (check out new facebook pictures of me), Sercan and Sait Can are really protective over us, and while I appericiate that, it's frustrating that they thing we can't handle ourselves. they are worried that we talk to everyone on the bus and that we are stupidtly wandering the streets...it's annoying. but, they care, and they are nervous about us going out alone. so, last night Leah and I, with Meri and Linda went out alone without any men to protect us. Nothing happened. Nothing but FUN!

and Meri's roommate got me these:




they are little socks that are really thick. everyone here wears slippers all the time.