First Day of Class

Today I (mostly) took a break from sight-seeing.  It was the first day of my 4-week language course... my reason for coming to Istanbul in the first place.  The class was hard to say the least.  It is mostly speaking, which I hope will help me with day to day stuff here. 

After class, in search of a new Turkish-English dictionary, I walked down Istiklal Blvd., a major street which begins at Taksim square.  Istiklal is a shopping/tourist district best described as Boston's Newbury Street on LSD.  A mass of tourist traps, high end shops, American chain stores and street vendors where people watchers can spot scruffy American backpackers, Arabian Gulf royalty and everyone in between.  Istiklal is located in Beyoglu, is surrounded by tiny, winding streets which seem to be more densely packed with structures than elsewhere in the city.  This district started off as the home of Genoese merchants and has long been defined by the Galata tower which defiantly rises up from the tangle of streets below.  It was built by the Genoese in 1348 and served as a watchtower for most of its existence.

In current events, good news and bad news.  In good news, they have detained someone in connection with the bomb that went off last Wednesday.  In bad news, the convoy of the Prime Minister and his entourage was attacked again, this time by protesters after an election rally for his party (which is expected to win).  I'm hoping the American media picks up the story so I can find out what exactly they were protesting.  The Turkish media is relatively free, but as I wrote before, laws make it easy for the state to prosecute (and persecute) reporters who run afoul of it.  This may explain why the article from the Turkish paper makes no mention of the protester's motives.

And now, to lighten the mood, a sokak kedi on my balcony.