Still alive, promise.

I made it here. After a cab, plane, two buses and a car. I'm finally settling in. It's been a little more than a week. I have so much to write about but I feel like I never have enough time to actually get on the computer. I'm going to try to write some post on my ipod while I'm on the train next time. 

anyway.

I love Italy.
and
I miss the chaos of Istanbul.

Varese is really nice. I think I'm going to really like it here. We live super close to the city center, so that's convenient. The kids are great, I love love loooooooove this family. The baby, who i look after the most, took no time in getting used to/attached to me. It's great. I love him to bits already. The girl, who is 3, is still getting used to me I think. She understands English very well but wont speak it much with me. So we're just giving her time. She'll do it when shes ready. She speaks to me 1093752 miles a minute in italian though, so that should help building my language skills ;) hopefully ill be taking a class here soon...

the municipality building in varese. amazing view :)

i went to milan last week. ugh. i love this place.

hopefully this weekend i'll be going to visit my first host family. if not this, then next. I'm really looking forward to seeing them. Also looking forward to making some new friends here. I miss all my Istanbul pals :(

promise ill be posting more soon ;)

Pictures of me standing in front of various things

i don't know what to do with my hands, ok?! pictures are awkward

Maiden Tower

I've lived 10 minutes from the tower for 3 months and it's taken me the whole 3 months to actually walk down to it and take a picture. The weather was so crappy we didn't even walk the whole way there. It counts that I saw it on the ferry twice a day sometimes, right? ;)

there's a few version of a legend that go with the tower... the one i remember involves a snake. A emperor heard that someone was going to try to kill his daughter or something so he locked her in the tower. Then one day someone smuggled a snake inside a basket of bread and it bit her and she died. 

that was the story I was told when I got here. I have no idea if it's the real one or if it's true or what,  haha.

anyway here is a nice picture of some fisherman:

love letter to istanbul

xoxo

Tomorrow is my last full day here!

I can't believe I've been here 3 months. It doesn't seem possible. I don't want it to end, but at the same time i'm ready to move on to the next adventure. I've eaten tons of amazing food, met so many wonderful people, and seen such beautiful sights.

*sigh*

I hope to write a lot of things down about my time here once I get to Italy.
right now though I'm going to log off and go get some rest so I can enjoy the day tomorrow (even if it's going to rain :-/) we're getting waffles!!!! om nom nom.

Istanbul Archaeology Museums

 Istanbul Archaeology Museums/İstanbul Arkeoloji Müzeleri are overwhelming. haha I'll be straightforward. But for the price, you can't beat it! We went Tuesday and neither of us knew the price before hand. It's located right in the heart of all the tourist attractions, and directly next to Topkapi palace, so I was already prepared to pay a lot. Nope! 10 Lira! Score! for 3 museums  A lot of things were under construction (along with everything else in the city at this time of the year, womp womp) but still. h-o-l-y c-o-w. There was so much! I didn't even get to half way through the second building and I was ready for a nap. So much to take in a read. Everything is ancient. I think it's amazing to see all of that kind of stuff since we don't really have it in america since we are such a young country. 

apparently pre-nups have been around forever. I wish the text would have shown up better :(

"tiled pavilion"

inside the pavilion. I die. gorgeous.

only 10th century. no biggie.

a few random pics.

Because I am doing nothing today. Sitting here getting my things ready for my trip and doing laundry. I'm on my 5th cup of Çay I think. haha, oops.

ready to go!

I dont even know why I bought halley. It's gross. But for one lira, i'll take it. Chocolate is so expensive here :|