Kaşar Peyniri and other mysterious cheese

So I went food shopping in Etiler. Like real food shopping, not buying Ruffles. And it was by far the hardest thing I've done here (way harder than the physics material, but hey..) I guess that's what happens when you are familiar with neither the Turkish language OR the food culture. Example one: I thought I was buying mini-bagels, because they LOOKED like mini-bagels, but as soon as I tasted them I realized I had made a huge mistake. And, upon googletranslating the label, I discovered that they were called "salted cookies" (the label said kurabiye tuzlu). Salted cookies shaped like sesame mini-bagels.
Example two: cheese. I actually do know the word for cheese (peynir), because cheese is so important to me, but there were so many rows of cheeses--all pale and smushy-looking, because that is how they do cheese--and I was afraid I was going to end up with cream cheese or non-cheese or basically anything in the world. So I bought a little lump of kaşar peyniri and ate some. It tastes like sour mozzarella, like mozzarella that is yogurt-flavored. BUT according to google translate " kaşar peyniri" means cheddar cheese! (I want to bring some 5-year wisconsin cheddar to them and see what happens.) So I'm eating yogurt mozzarella and bagel cookies and while it is quite good, I think I will bring a dictionary shopping next time.

Last night, I went to this amazing balikci (fish restaurant) in Etiler and had the most delicious fish I've ever had in my entire life. No joke. First we had calamari, and then these little anchovy-ish fish that were fried and battered (and that you can eat whole) and THEN I had something called cupra and I have no idea what it is (my muse, googletranslate, says it was bream) and it was crazy. I had to eat around the head and pop out the spine, which is so gross. Oh, and we had raki. I was a little nervous, but apparently if you drink it with fish or other lean protein (instead of bread, which is just a rough trade-off) you don't get headaches. And I didn't! It still is terrible-tasting, though.

Edit: Cherries are also frighteningly good here. Why have I never heard of Turkish cherries? Also, Turkish Delight is as good as everyone (ie. the little boy in the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe) says it is.

In non-food-based news, we had a beer pong tournament last night that I think was organized mainly for the Americans (I guess to make us feel "at home"?). They played 90's American pop the entire night. It was fun.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July! I don't think I've ever been out of the US for the 4th before. I have to figure out how to celebrate! (Ideas welcome!)