Shopping

I finally decided to hop on a bus and see some other parts of Istanbul. I went over to the nearby super-trendy and expensive Etiler neighborhood to check out their giant upscale shopping mall. It was a really fun experience, even though most stores were way out of my price range. I always have fun wandering around malls, regardless of how much I buy. They also have a huge food court filled with Turkish and American food. I had some delicious KFC, possibly one of the best things America has given to the world. I wish I had pictures to show you all, but the place was swarming with security guards and I feel like they would have looked at me funny for taking pictures of a mall. The entrances all had airport-style security, with the bag-scanners and everything. I guess since terrorists have targeted shopping malls in the past, they don't want to take any chances.

I went back to the kebab place for lunch yesterday, and things were okay. No more flirting. Very businesslike. And get this- my kebab meal is now 2 TL more expensive! I can't complain, because I realize now that I was getting a discount before. Oh well.

I pipetted some things today! That's been about the extent of my contribution to lab. Hopefully I can do more on Monday, once everyone is back from vacation.

To keep things pretty, here are some pictures from the park near by house:

The park is sitting at the top of the big 15th century fortress along the water, which you can walk around in. Probably more pictures of this later.

I'm not sure if I can continue to have cute kittens in my posts forever, but I'm certainly going to try:

Unfortunate/funny discovery of the day: The Istanbul bus system has a very excellent interactive map system for planning your route. However, it uses Google maps, which is banned here. Good job, guys.