More clarification on student intern requirements. They are required to work 6 months before graduating. How many hours, or what is the record keeping process, I do not know.
It’s true I’ve been eating cheap from day to day. There is no breakfast. I eat the grain bars I got from back home. One day, I think the first or second day, Erdem treats me to lunch. Another day I graze on fruit and nuts. But honestly with the weather as hot as it is, and the crowds and all the excitement, I don’t feel as hungry during the day hours. I’m more thinking about water and where I am and where I need to be.
But at nights I see to getting a satisfying meal. One day it was lahmacun which is a flatbread with a sort of paste of tomato, ground meat herbs and spices. Another night, similar except in a wrap – spiced meat, onion, parsely, olive oil and lemon. I find that most everywhere you sit down for food, especially the kebap places, there is always a jar of hot peppers in oil. The Turkish love spicy foods.
On the street, guys will sell a spread of mussels, “midye”. Inside they are filled with rice and spices, served with a drizzle of cut lemon before eating. They are delicious and inexpensive. I got 3 for 1 TL. Besides this the other two popular street foods are grilled nuts and corn. Something new to me. You see it everywhere.
This past Sunday I treat myself to Kale café. They offer what I know it as the “Turkish” breakfast. You would have to see the photo. It’s a very basic spread, so colorful and pleasing to the eye. The flavors are perfect. I end the meal with a tea and Turkish coffee, which was quite strong, but somehow different from an espresso and not intimidating.
Leaving the cafe, less than a quarter mile down is I notice a large wall, fortress thing. I go to in the main entrance and from there do some exploring. The fortress was built a long time ago for military purposes of course, to maintain control of the Bosphorus. I go to the top and there are beautiful views everywhere you look.
Then from there, being a Sunday with nothing else to do why not do the tourist thing. Essentially it is 4 major sites - Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, Basillica Cistern, and Topkapi Palace.
I'm not even going trying to describe in detail just how amazing these places are. Nothing I can say would really do it justice.You have to be there. I think about the time and resources that must have gone into the creation. I try to reconcile how religion has been the source of killing millions of people throughout most of human history, yet has produced these and many other places throughout the world that are so moving beyond comprehension.
There was a lot of walking that day. I'm tired when I get back. Tomorrow is back to the pharmacy. Even on a Sunday I am barely getting to bed before 2am. But it's nice because once I am in bed I sleep amazing. Another thing about Turkey is every day you come home like you have been sweating for a week. It's like it becomes another piece of clothing. I get used to it by now. To be clear, this is not a place for people who don't like heat and crowded areas.
For all purposes this pretty much gets us current. At the pharmacy, our big thing going on is this recall I might have mentioned before. The government wants to better track the medicines in production (the medicines it's paying for) so in addition to a 3D bar code they are adding a 2D one. Any box missing the 2D has to be sent back and the pharmacy either gets a replacement or reimbursement. On Tuesday night, these government people came to take the medicines. The next day we got replacement shipments. So we have been busy restocking the shelf. What is more, I think this ordeal has stirred a new interest in Erdem. Lately he has been drawing up designs and buzzing around the place with new ideas for the layout. Add to that, we have actually been very busy with patients. Last week, of course that was Friday and Saturday for me, was nothing like this. So I haven't had as much time to get into discussions with Erdem as I like but I am still picking up new things every day. I don't exactly counsel any patients because almost all of them only speak Turkish. Every once in while we will get some English-speaking people and it's nice they will smile and we will can talk casually. As I've said a lot of the student hosts here, and all the guys at my dorm, speak a broken English, which means, in a sense, I have to speak a broken English.
Next posts I want to get into more pics from the pharmacy. I would like to show what their products look like, and how there are no generics. Everything is a brand and everything is in boxes, no bottles. Tonight the host and us students are going out to dinner. The Egyptian student Ahmed and another one I just met yesterday are leaving in a couple days so there will be some good-byes later.
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