Turkey - Day Two

Our professor finally made it to Turkey at midnight last night. She was stuck on the tarmac at Dulles trying to get to JFK for three hours. She missed her connecting flight, which was a direct flight. When she got to JFK she sprinted to her next flight option but, even though the plane was still there, the gate was closed and she wasn't allowed on. She got the next flight to London and had a 9 hour layover, just enough time to get a $150 day pass at a hotel for a shower and nap. Instead of hanging out with us this morning after breakfast, she had to wander around Istanbul to go suit shopping. To add on to the fun, she's 3 months pregnant (and had to find maternity clothes), has 150 undergraduate exams to grade, and hasn't returned our drafts of our deliverables with feedback yet. Poor woman can't catch a break.

After a class meeting and a guest speaker this afternoon, we headed to the Ortaköy area, which is by the water and, as our professor described it, a great place for dinner, shopping, and people watching.

Purdy.
Famous stuffed potatoes. This picture doesn't do them justice.
This gives a better idea of the height. My arm was tired after holding this while I ate.

Remember how I said my professor can't catch a break? Well, she decided not to join us at Ortaköy so she could continue with her work, sleep, and you know, take care of her unborn child. Unfortunately, we made tonight a little more exciting than she probably would have liked. The bus was going to pick us up and take us back to the hotel at 9:30. After having one drink (I swear, just one drink each) at a pub, we headed to the potato stands around 8:30 or so.

After one bite, one of my classmates collapsed in the middle of the street. She was out for a minute or two before waking up. In the meantime, we called our TA, but he was on a dinner boat, so it would be a little bit before he got there. We had broken up into smaller groups, so we didn't have our native Turk with us, so another classmate ran off to find her. In the meantime, we ran to the police down the street and they called an ambulance. One of the vendors gave us water for said collapsed classmate. Lots of Turks stopped to help. By the time the ambulance arrived, she was awake and sitting on a bench, with a rockin' knot on her head. The paramedics told her to throw up. Huh? It wasn't the food, she was sharing the potato with another classmate, and we were all eating them. Before she collapsed, she said her chest hurt.

The ambulance left because her pulse was back to normal and she was awake and we didn't trust them. Our Turk drove her, her closest friend, our first responder classmate, and our TA to the hospital. TA called our professor, who of course hopped in a cab to go meet them at the hospital. (Added drama - there was bickering as to whether we should call the prof because the TA was slow to do so).

Is the suspense enough? Classmate is fine. As some predicted, she was just fatigued and dehydrated. Apparently she hadn't slept in two days, and wasn't keeping up with the water, and something similar had happened to her one time before. Gotta keep drinking water when you are traveling, I've been told. I think they left the hospital about a half hour or hour ago.

By the way, apparently I'm not so good in crisis mode, especially during my first trip abroad. I was like a deer in the headlights with shaky hands. I stood back and let other people handle the situation. Better to not be in the way and not give wrong opinions on solutions. So don't get hurt or sick if you travel with me. I won't be much help.