Geocaching in Istanbul

Jessica and I took a break from editing our video yesterday to go geocaching with Kimber, and I decided to throw together a little video of it for fun. I had some focusing issues with my camera and it’s a bit long because I didn’t have any editing time today but it was a great way to get out of the hotel for a bit. I definitely plan on doing this in other cities I travel to in the future.

Turkish Election Video

Jessica Gagne and I just finished our video on tomorrow’s elections. We shot it on a combination of my digital camera and her flipcam using only the built-in microphones and cut it in iMovie, so all things considered we’re really happy with how it turned out. Finding English speakers on a campus where the classes are taught in Turkish was an adventure, and we ended up getting the political science professor to speak to us by wandering around the department until we found someone willing to talk to us on camera. The shots of the AKP rally were a lot of fun, too. I had to claw my way on top of a crowded pickup truck and hold the camera above my head without a tripod to get the crowd shots we used, after which I was covered in grease. Overall I’m glad I got a chance to mix it up and shoot some video here. I’m personally not interested in making video news packages like this in the future, but I had never really done it before so it was a great experience. Isn’t Jessica a natural with the voice over?

Ferry from Asia to Europe

 

Getting to class from the hotel requires us to jump continents, which is a morning routine for a lot of the commuter students and workers here. It costs 1.75 Turkish lira, a little more than a dollar, and the ride is a relaxing 15 minutes every time.

My favorite thing about this city is the amount of time we spend on and around the Bosphorus, especially after two weeks in dry, landlocked Amman. Given the size of Istanbul, it’s amazing how close to the water we are at all times. Today I walked five minutes down from the hotel and sat on the rocks by the shore before renting a paddle boat from two brothers who were swimming nearby.  Just wanted to test out the uploading process with this one, more and better video is on the way.