I didn't realize how well (or badly?) 90-degree heat and beer mix until I had already had two beers. If you know me (= drink with me), you know that's plenty to get me nice and tipsy. Oops.
(This was after six hours of class that were so exhausting that at the end when we read a news interview about the Turkish Oscars with the reporter's questions missing, it took until we had read through a whole list of questions like "did you expect to win the award?" and "if you were on the committee, who would you have awarded?" before I realized that we weren't supposed to answer them, we were supposed to put them in the blanks in the article. When the teacher explained, I said "OH!" really loudly and everyone laughed. Seriously, six hours of Turkish grammar can really mess with your brain.)
On the patio at the bar, the guys continuously noted that there were usually only about seven women in sight, three of whom were seated at our table. Gender dynamics in Turkey are puzzling. I'm never entirely sure whether it's ok to sit in an open seat on the bus next to a man or not. I will report when I figure it out.
At the bar, three of us may have tried to sing "The Great Gate of Kiev" from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition a cappella and had a loud(ish) argument about the adagio from Beethoven's 7th. (I still maintain that anyone who calls it "boring" has no soul.) I'm not exactly proud of that, but I feel super American for it. What are Americans abroad if not inappropriately loud English speakers?
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Is that the lonely planet's influence I read about sitting next to men on buses? They said the same about Bosnia, and I found it to be over careful. Maybe in small villages, but in Sarajevo you sit wherever you want. Curious about Ankara though!
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