Sidewalks and more Finance

Alhamdulillah, I've almost been in Istanbul for a month - I arrived on 9/12, having left the states on 9/11. Subhanallah, time flies.

I've been busy with essays. Alhamdulillah, I think the Kellogg and Harvard apps are near completion, pending feedback from Ali and Mian. Chicago still needs a bit of work, but I've got a week to finish these things.

I've been noticing that while Istanbul has been endowed with more sidewalks than my city of Bloomfield Hills, I haven't been really walking on them as much as I would have thought. Too many ups and downs - the sidewalks typically aren't smooth and don't end with inclines into the roads - there are lots of steps. Also, lots of cars, garbage, and other obstaces dot the sidewalks. Another thing I've noticed walking around is that you really have to keep your eyes on the ground quite a bit, and not just to follow Allah's instructions. I've stepped in quite a few puddles (given the rain, although alhamdulillah, the weather has been better lately) while wearing sandals, I've missed random steps, I've barely (thankfully) avoided dog do-do, and have almost tripped on low lying chains. Beware pedestrian - you have more than the cars/traffic to keep an eye on.

As I went on Sunday to get my money changed, I discovered that my favorite doviz/exchange place was closed on Sundays. I had to go to mall for an exchange - that doviz was still open. The bigger the mall, the worse the rates you get. Anyways, so I changed USD 40, if I remember correctly, as rates had improved, I got back a bit over YTL 50. Ironically, as I am taking a pounding in the US stock market and the world economy goes to hell, I am actually benefiting perversely here in Turkey. People are fleeing to the dollar in these bad times I think, so last week I got YTL 1.2 for each dollar, today I changed YTL 1.4 for each dollar of my USD 160 - a big jump! Perhaps they are using the dollars to buy US treasuries as a safe investment. What a wierd world. Another week like this, and my rent might actually fall below USD 1000 per month. By the way, my favorite doviz was also not open after 8 when I went by earlier in the week.

Alhamdulillah, I got my phone exchanged today as well. I hope this one doesn't have any problems. The last one had a tempermental microphone.