Let’s See…

After the kraken scare the seas calmed and I went below the deck again to try and nap/reflect on life in general. I dozed off for a bit and alternated between sleeping and going up on the top of the boat to chat with folks. When we pulled into Bebek pier, our boat started rocking fiercely, which was pretty fun for me trying to get my shoes on. We disembarked and then I realized I didn’t have my iPod, which I let a girl borrow. I jumped back onto the boat and checked to see if she took it with her or left it there, and she of course kept it with her, which was cool. A group of us planned on catching cabs up the hill to campus, so we walked toward Bebek at an exhausted, leisurely pace. On the way, I happened to notice a line of balloons floating on the water some distance from the sidewalk. I’d heard about such things before, and immediately started looking for the gun.

Turns out there wee two guns: a pellet pistol and a pellet rifle. Tim and I paid the guy the 5 YTL it took to shoot 12 rounds at the balloons, and proceeded to destroy probably 15 balloons between us. I still have a good eye from shooting the old .22 in the scouts, apparently, because i hit 7/10 and let Michelle shoot the other two. When we were finished, the guy tried to cheat us and get us to pay a lot more. I was pissed so I had Tugçe come over and argue with the guy, which she did successfully after about five minutes of fast Turkish that featured “gerçekten, abi.” (Really, man.) We cabbed that shit back ups the hills and decided to meet in 40 minutes to go to Akmerkez to eat food, presumably Chinese.

I had heard Chinese was expensive, but when Dane, Katherine, Brad, Michelle, and I got to the restaurant in the mall, it was about 25 YTL per person. Awful. We opted, in lieu of a China Buffet, to hit up the Pizza Hut that had the all you can eat buffet. Nine pieces later I was stuffed and took a bit out of the pickle that I put in Michelle’s old soup to keep the security force from peeking onto my plate and chargin me the extra 5 YTL it cost to eat a salad. When I realized that the soup was obeying laws of physics, and that the same volume of soup wouldn’t cover the gerkin, I said the following out loud in Turkish a tacky Borat accent:
“But I did not order the gypsy soup!”
Michelle leaned over the table and scolded me, reminding me that most people here don’t know what gay men and, and they certainly don’t sell them anywhere here. Not even the bazaar. Anyway, she said to me “Kevin! Everyone here speaks Turkish!” I am an idiot, but you all already knew that. We hit up some t-shirt stores because all my laundry isn’t finished yet. I ended up being served by an incredibly gorgeous woman at the Levis stuff to mix and match with. I like some of the outfits, but most of them I hate. I got the shirt and we were on our way home, when we saw a sweet motortricycle parked on the sidewalk. It had Arizona and Turkey plates. We checked out a music store on Etiler, and when we got home we watched “Wet Hot American Summer,” which never fails to make me laugh. It was really fun to just sit around and chat. But now I am utterly exhausted, so I think I will leave it at Sunday morning for now. Peace out!