Campus Tour, Dinner and First Day of Class

The semester has started and my writing has fallen behind as a result. Yesterday we had a very long day with a campus tour and orientation most of the morning and afternoon and a long welcome dinner in the evening. The school is much larger than I thought and they have very nice facilities for entertainment, sports, fashion design, translation, and many more areas. We were introduced to our language teacher and given our schedule and course materials. We are in for a very busy and hopefully productive two months. Courses are roughly four hours a day with additional tours and cultural activities in the afternoon. We had our first day of classes and, though it seemed somewhat slow-paced at the time, we really covered a lot of material. We had about an hour off to do homework and then joined our language tutors in the auditorium for a performance by the school's rhythm club (which of course included a period for our participation). Overall it was a lot of fun. However, between that and finishing my homework at the dorm I have been busy all day and I'm already exhausted. I'm sure I'll find my rhythm soon (though if the drums today were any indication that is meant to be strictly metaphorical). We have some more activities planned after classes tomorrow when we will explore downtown Izmir and the shops at the outdoor market. I will be sure to bring my camera. Plus, there are many more trips planned for the weekends so I'll have a chance to see a lot of the surrounding area. I included some pictures of the sunset from my room, the view from the school's library and a view of the dinner we were treated to last night. They really took care of us with several courses of meat, bread, salad and individual Baked Alaska's for dessert. It was all very nice. I doubt I will be as skinny after this trip as I was after Damascus. I guess it could be worse.