There are two things that are said for a person to fit into this country -- learning the language and the transportation system. For the past month and a half that I have been here, I have been able to pick up enough Turkish to get me what I needed. For the transportation system, it took the hard way for me to learn. When I say transportation, I am not referring to the Dolmuş or the Taksı, I am referring to the underground Metro. As a whole group we go to Taksim to finally pick up our transportation cards that we have been dying to get. Having this card allows us to ride the metro and the buses, which are a lot easier then hoping on Dolmuş to Dolmuş. As each person in the group received their cards we all split up and do their own thing for once. I decided to head back to campus because earlier that morning, I had spent forever waiting for my residence permit at the police station. My advisor told me specific directions several times, therefore I felt as if I knew how to get back to campus. Did I? Absolutely not. Instead of simply walking down the stairs as told, I thought to walk all the way down the street walking in a complete circle for an hour. Finally I found the Metro stop, swiped my transportation card and stepped onto the Metro. It was my belief that I was going to just go straight from Taksim to my destination; but boy was I wrong! I grabbed myself a seat and sat for about thirty minutes without realizing that I am a complete moron. The metro that I was on would have never made it to where I was wanting to go. I had sat there for thirty minutes going back and forth, back and forth to the place I had just been and to a place that was right next to it. During this time, I had wondered why I was the only one still sitting there when the other Turkish men and women had gotten off the first time. I couldn't help to laugh that I had sat there wasting my time because I was so unfamiliar with where I was at and didn't know how to get to where I wanted to go!
