Beginning of Backpacking: Istanbul

Day One

After many trials and tribulations, I finally made it to Istanbul! I arrived on Monday afternoon and was launched straight into the hustle and bustle of Istanbul. Met by Nathan and Andy at the airport, we took public transportation to our hotel, the Titanic Comfort. Due to worries about safety caused by the riots, we had decided to stay in the same hotel as Andy's family. It is a fairly nice hotel in the not so glamorous neighborhood of Sisli and it would be our home base for the next few days. That evening we went with the Lopez family to support Mikey at the u20 soccer World Cup. The USA tied France 1-1. Nathan and I then finished off our night with a celebratory dinner to kick off our trip in Sultanahmet, the cute old city area with the historic sites.

USA vs France u20 World Cup

Day Two

Everyone was tired and slept in. Nathan and I then headed to the Spice Market and ate some Turkish Delight. We then went to the Grand Bazaar and did some shopping and wandered around the incredible set up. It's a massive marketplace, all in a giant building, but it actually more calm and organized than many other markets I've been to. We shopped, ate, and stalked the U20 Spanish soccer team who happened to be there. We then met up with the Lopez family for a sunset cruise. We floated peacefully on the Bosporus and Gold Horn- it was a great way to get a feel for the layout of Istanbul. It really is a huge, sprawling city.

On the Bosphorus  

Spice Market

Day Three

Wednesday was our big tourist day. We went to the Blue Mosque, Hagia Sofia and the cistern. All three places are architectural wonders. I enjoyed the spookiness of the subterranean cistern and the historic significance of the Hagia Sofia, but it was the Blue Mosque with its six minarets and grandeur that was my favorite. Nathan and I then walked across the city to Galata Tower (an old tower) and the Beygoglu district. This is the more modern and hip area, with a lot of stores, cute restaurants and night clubs. The main street was was filled with a bustling, youthful crowd. It was cool to see an area that contrasted so much with the tourist filled historic area. 

Blue Mosque with Andy and Nathan

Day Four

Our last full day in Turkey was spent mostly exploring Topkapi palace. It's a pretty big grouping of buildings filled with a bunch of different sections and exhibitions. It was interesting to visit, and I liked the domed rooms and mosaics everywhere. However, not as awe-inspiring as other palaces I've seen. After taking some last time to soak in the sights of historic Istanbul while relaxing at a roof top restaurant, Nathan and I headed to another soccer game. With a pretty big, mostly Turkish crowd we watched Spain beat France 2-1. The next morning we headed to the airport to catch our flight to Slovenia and begin backpacking in earnest. 

Conclusion:

I love Istanbul. This was my second time visiting the city and it affirmed how great it is. With its interesting history, mix of East and West, friendly people, busy streets, and always available doner meat (like gyro), Istanbul is definitely a stimulating city. It's a beautiful place with a vibrant, international feel and I can't wait to go back.

An Overly Long Account of Illness

When I was in ninth and tenth grade, I would get sick all the time. It seemed like I was always in and out of the doctor's office with bronchitis and sinus infections. I asked if something was wrong with my respiratory system since I so often had issues. The doctor said nothing was wrong with my body, just my lifestyle. Thanks to a hectic St. Stephen's life, lack of sleep and stress left my body an open target for infections. It just turns out that my respiratory system is t weak spot and first to fall. 

Fast forward to senior year, and I can't really remember the last time I was sick. I finally got a better handle on my schedule. Still sleep deprived and stressed, but not nearly as much. Instead of staying up until 1 to finish homework, I would just call it quits and crash earlier. The extra sleep helped my body out, and it seemed as if my days of constant illness were behind me. 

On Sunday morning in El Salvador, I woke up with an itchy throat. This quickly developed into a progressively worsening cough, joined by a headache which turned out to be a fever. Instead of playing with kids, I spent the next few days in bed, sleeping off an incessant fever and feeling lousy with congestion and a cough. It seemed as if my old friend Bronchitis has once again reared its ugly head. Thanks to great care from my chaperones, friends, and Asaprosar staff, being sick wasn't too miserable. I took some antibiotics (amoxicillin), slept, and hydrated like crazy. 

By Wednesday afternoon I was feeling well enough to go out. I attended the birthday party for the kids that afternoon and the two parties on Thursday. I was excited to be back in action and spending time with the children, and I wasn't even feeling that sick anymore, just kind of tired and run down. 

We arrive home on Friday night, and the chaperones advise my parents to take me to the doctor just for a check up and maybe some more medicine. It seems kind of pointless to me- I'm obviously on the mend. But to be safe, I head to the doctor Saturday morning. I'm diagnosed with an upper respiratory infection, given different antibiotics, and sent on my merry way. And that was the end of that.

Well, or so we though. I wake up Sunday morning with a rash on the back of my thighs. Barely anything, but itchy. I think it isn't worth any attention, but my mom is concerned it could be an allergic reaction to the medicine. We head back to the medical center and see a different doctor. He says it looks like I'm allergic to the antibiotic, but he's not sure I should be on antibiotics anyway. Since I'm still congested, he thinks it might be viral and runs a blood test. The blood test comes back looking suspicious, and he notices my swollen lymph nodes. Time to run another test. As he suspected- it's mono. Joy. (Mono is called glandular fever outside the US)

There are many wonderful things about mono. One of which is that people notoriously can be sick with mono for weeks, even months. Another fun fact is that mono, when mixed with penicillin or amoxicillin, cause awful hives to break out all over the body. The doctor didn't know why, but apparently that's what happens. So considering the fact I was mean to be leaving on Friday for a backpacking trip, none of this was good news. 

Just a small sample of the hives that covered my body

Over the next few days, the rash gets progressively worse. It spreads over my entire body. It looks awful, and itches horrendously. Especially when I'm trying to sleep. A couple more doctor appointments and different medicines later, and the hives are still persistent. No Friday flight for me. Surprisingly, the hives are the worst part. The mono must've been mild because I began feeling better very quickly. The expected weeks of exhaustion didn't occur. 

Whether or not I could travel depended entirely on my health. We were all left in limbo, waiting for my hives to clear up to determine when I could leave. My original Friday departure date came and left, but it looked like things were getting better. Today (Saturday) my parents decided they would risk sending a still slightly itchy and blotchy Danielle to Istanbul. The flights were quickly booked, backpack hastily stuffed, friends texted to say goodbye. It was a whirlwind to get prepared. 

Trying various medications to get rid of the hives

And now I'm sitting here on Saturday night. I'm supposed to be asleep (I still need my rest to recover) but there are so many thoughts in my head I can't. I leave today and don't come back until the start of September. Most of my friends will have gone off to college and I won't see them until possibly ACL, but most until Thanksgiving. These are friends I have been with for the most part at least 8 hours a day, five days a week, for seven years. And now I will see them once or twice in five months. This never really hit me during graduation, but now it has and it feels pretty unsettling. So much change, and I didn't even get to say goodbye to many friends because of the craziness of the mono situation. 

In addition, I leave tomorrow for two months of European adventures. I'm super excited, but also anxious. It's my first time flying internationally alone, and my first time having this much independence and responsibility. I'm nervous, but can't wait. Hope everything goes well! No more health surprises for this gap year please.

Hola from El Salvador

Hola from El Salvador! We're halfway through the trip so I figure it's time for a check in. The trip has been great so far! We departed from Austin painfully early, and arrived in San Salvador via Houston in the early afternoon. It was an overcast day, and when we started driving to Santa Ana it began to pour. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful restaurant and then drove on to the Asaprosar headquarters and moved into our rooms. 

Exploring downtown Santa Ana

We spent the week doing arts and crafts with the kids. There are three different centers and each has a morning and afternoon sessions, so six sessions of arts and crafts in total. We made friendship bracelets, tissue paper flowers, painted rocks and played soccer. It was fun to see some of my friends from last year and make new ones. 

Snack time with the kids

On Saturday we had a day off from working at the centers. In the morning we met with teenagers from the Asaprosar program and talked with them about our lives and our different worlds. We are lunch with them, then said goodbye and headed downtown to do some touristy stuff. We went to the theatre, artisan market, cathedral, and ate paletas (paletas are delicious homemade popsicles that we get everyday, sometimes twice a day). We then went out to a pupusaria, which is a restaurant that serves pupusas. Pupusas are like the national food of El Salvador and are yummy stuffed tortillas, so it was a pretty great day. 

Sunday was a fantastic day. We started off with breakfast at Ban Ban, a delicious bakery. We then drove 45 minutes to the mountain and went zip lining which was a ton of fun. After that, we stopped by a market in a mountain village which was nice but we were all pretty hungry so drove on to the crater lake. It's a gorgeous place, and we ate lunch on a house boat and swam for a little bit. We returned to our home-base to shower, order in more pupusas, and start wrapping gifts for the kids. Unfortunately I have developed a scratchy caught today but hopefully it will clear up tomorrow. 

Day at the lake

So that's a brief summary of the first part of our trip! It's been great so far. Hot and sweaty and tiring, but great! So happy to be here again.

My facepainting masterpiece on Gracie

Graduation Picnic

When my parents asked me what I wanted to do as a graduation party, I had no idea. Big group or little group? Formal or casual? Dinner or brunch? What to do to keep people entertained? I settled on The Broken Spoke, thinking that it would be a fun place to take a big group of people. However, turns out The Broken Spoke doesn't host events for under 21 year olds, so we had to think of something else. 

So instead of two stepping, we decided to have a picnic in Zilker. I thought it would be a fun, casual place for people to hang out, play games and enjoy the scene. My parents decided to go all out and make it a big event, and it turned out awesome. We brought in a catering company that supplied delicious foods and drinks, we scouted out a prime Zilker location in the shade of a big tree, and we rented a U-Haul and hired help to move our furniture out. 

The night before the picnic it stormed and was forecasted to continue raining the next morning. This caused us all some stress, and we moved the start time from 10:30 to 12, hoping it would give time for the rain to pass and things to dry out. It worked out perfectly! We laid tarps down, put rugs on top, set up chairs and loungers with plenty of pillows and decorated the area. People in Zilker were amazed and kept on asking of it was a wedding or photo shoot and taking pictures. 

When everyone showed up, we talked, hung out, listened to music, played croquet and soccer and football, and just had a great time. It was a fantastic party, and a great way to celebrate graduating.