Essays and Suleymaniye

Alhamdulillah, I'm pretty much done now with the first three B-school applications. Jennifer Momani and Tipu Mamu gave me a lot of good feedback yesterday in a Skype session, and I made the relevant adjustments today. I hope to submit them all tomorrow, two days before the deadline. That rarely happens for me - I'm more of a last minute guy. Alhamdulillah! Now I just have to get rolling on the next couple.

Osman, Mom, (and Sulayman) and I also had a Skype teleconference yesterday afternoon. Alhamdulillah, it worked pretty well, although unfortunately, we could not make it a video conference. I wonder if we can also see each other on Yahoo Messenger.

After making my to-do list yesterday, I decided to at least tick off something this weekend. I made it out to the Suleymaniye last night, alhamdulillah. I was not exactly sure the best way to go, since public transport does not really go up there. I initially thought to try and take the Metro down, but I saw a bus that said Eminonu, the 74A, and took it down from Mecidiyeykoy. It took about 45 minutes to reach Eminonu both ways (in the evening). About half an hour was stuck in traffic around Taksim - the rest of the trip went quick enough each way. On the way back, I took the 74 bus.

It was around Isha time, so as I got off the bus, I heard the adhan and quickly walked up to Suleymaniye. You can see it from the Eminonu bus stop. It is about a 15 minute (fast) walk up the hill. It can be pretty tiring, as it is a tall hill. I certainly broke out in a sweat in order to make the jamat, but I made it alhamdulillah. I did recognize a bit of the walk, as Omer and I had walked arond the area. The place is huge, but still under construction. Interestingly, a young kid gave the iqamah this time, from that strange platform all these mosques seem to have. He also led the post-prayer dhikr/dua ritual. I wonder if he is the full time guy, if he just was the first one to the mic, or if he is being groomed for the future or what. He know what he was doing though.

I had Fasuliya for dinner at the same place Omer and I ate earlier this year. It was only YTL 6 for the Fasuliya, rice, and some Ayran - not a bad deal. Afterwards, I saw some interesting colored prayer rugs, so I bought a couple - one for YTL 5 and another for YTL 15. I need to figure out how to bargain. I did not want to wait, because there were only a couple of units in the colors I liked (blue/orange and light purple). The walk down was a bit more confusing, since you don't have a huge landmark to guide you anymore.

Unfortunately, I could not get to anything other than laundry and essays the rest of the weekend. I had some Dunkin Donuts for breakfast today - YTL 2.25 per donut (I had a Boston Creme Pie and a Caramel glazed) and another YTL 4.5 for a hot chocolate. I don't think I would repeat - they weren't so great. I keep on getting up too late for McD's breakfast times though. Maybe I should try during the week.

For Lunch/Dinner, I decided to try a smoothie type restaurant near my work and across the street from the masjid close to work (Haji/Haci Namath O-something). Unfortunately, they were not offering smoothies when I went, which was a bummer. The place was a bit overpriced - the Adana Kabab I had was YTL 15 (compared to YTL 7 at the place near my house), and the Ayran was YTL 3.5. Unforunately, I didn't have any change, so the tip I left was only the YTL 1.5 I got back. I think tipping is applicable in Turkey, though I don't know the normal rates - maybe 10%. I've seen my coworkers tip about that much, so I wasn't too far off maybe. I probably wouldn't come back to this place. It was a nice terrace I sat in, but during the next few months, it will be too cold anyways.