Glorious Tuesday.. for how long will the awesome streak continue?

Tuesday was glorious. In the afternoon, I met up with Pınar Y., a friend I met in Boston while she was on vacation there. We hung out together in Ortaköy and it was really fun. First, we joined in a monopoly game with Kuthan and Hazal. I was starting to get the sensation I was going to lose. Then something incredibly fortunate happened. No, I didn't land Park Place (in fact it was a strange İstanbul version of the game, but no, I didn't land Etiler). One of the guys who works at Destan came over for a chat with Kuthan and Hazal. Since they are such regulars, they know all the people who work there. Anyway, they got to talking when he said to them that he was looking for an apartment and a roommate. Short story shorter, we're going to get an apartment together. This is really good for me for a few reasons:

1. from my interactions with my new friend, he seems cool, and would likely make a great roommate
2. it will lower my rent payments/expenses tremendously
3. he doesn't know much English but wants to learn. I don't know much Turkish and I want to learn.

I was reluctant to get an apartment with a roommate at first because you don't know who you can trust and if I got a difficult roommate it could nearly ruin my time here. Anyway, we left Destan to go look at an apartment. It was alright, but we'll look at others on Thursday.

Feeling pretty great, Pınar and I left to grab some beer. We went to a place with an awesome view.
It was such a relaxing evening spent together there. We played backgammon and checkers, talked, joked, and caught up. Pınar is so kind. She wants to help me with the apartment hunt and so she will join us on Thursday's excursion. Also this weekend we are planning to spend some time together in Taksim (basically the most happening part of town). Finally! I can't believe I still haven't spent any time in Taksim yet.

The night ended in a strange and brutal way. Kuthan and I joined a bunch of guys in a pickup football game, with the game starting at midnight. I was wishing I had eaten more because I was hungry and weary before the game even started. Also, the other team was much stronger than ours and we got our asses kicked. The turf was rougher than most and my knee was shiny and blood smeared by the end. At one point as I was going for a header I got kicked in the face. I ran so much and I was exhausted the entire time. We lost 11-3 and I felt as if I had been beaten up by a group of ruthless people. Still it felt sort of nice. In a way the defeat was refreshing. The point was to run, get exercise, hang out with friends and have fun, and that we did.

Now I feel as if I will sleep into the morning of the next day.