Walking Tour on Day 2

End of day two and I'm entering another post. Most likely once homework picks up and I know the city a bit better I won't be posting as often, but for now this fills the time. We met up for breakfast with our language tutors this morning and went for a walking tour of the city. I am already amazed at how different this city is compared to Damascus. It's a bit more spread out than the Old City was, though I've seen shoe boxes that were roomier than Bab Touma. Damascus had an immediate charm that the suburbs of Izmir seem to lack, but it is partly made up for in the ready availability of creature comforts. As American as it sounds, it's good to have a shopping mall down the street with a movie theater and a supermarket. I was able to buy some tea, vişne (sour cherry) juice and some cookies to keep in the dorm room. After a long day of walking I came back to the room in the early afternoon and reacquainted myself with the two hour afternoon naps that are so easy to come by in a blistering hot city with nothing to do. I went out for dinner with a few classmates and enjoyed some roasted chicken over a tomato bulgur (or rice, I couldn't quite tell) and remembered that the one thing that could always get me to return to the region is the ubiquity of amazing, cheap food. We have our breakfast and lunch covered in the dining hall of the university, but if the rest of the trip is anything like today we certainly won't starve. The breakfast was the typical hard-boiled egg, tomatoes and cucumber, but lunch included chicken, fries, rice and a syrupy, sweet almond cake that could have filled me up even without the rest of it. Overall a very good spread and probably healthier than my usual diet in the states, cake excluded. Otherwise, today was pretty slow-paced and quiet but a nice way to ease into life in a new city. Tomorrow we have our real orientation when we find out what our weekend trips will be and I'm sure I'll have a post up then (if internet is up, inshallah). The pictures for today show the water park down the street, the central courtyard of the university and a nice view of the sunset over the water from my dorm room. There is a wedding across the street so I'll be falling asleep to the sounds of loud music and cheering (right now it's a woman singing a cover of "I Just Called to Say I Love You"!). Good night!