Bathroom humor

It's only inevitable to have many anecdotes from bathroom experiences when you travel a lot. Today was actually more on the humorous side than the more typical disgusting side. To sum it up without being too, er, explicate, motion lights aren't really the best form of illumination for a bathroom. I just had to sit there laughing as I continuously waved my hand to keep the light on!

Christmas Traditions

Every year for as long as I can remember, if I was in Arkansas the day or weekend after Thanksgiving, my mom and I put up the Christmas tree and decorated the house. It's always been a really fun time that just sets the mood for December. Christmas music, ornaments full of memories, and always yummy food left over from Thanksgiving. This year I decided this would be a great tradition to keep going with my new Turkish "family". It was a fantastically fun night of laughing, decorating, baking, and of course, eating. To add to the fun, we got to do it in more than one language. :-) Merry Christmas! Noel Gunu kutlu olsun!

Beautiful Promise

Election Day

Then Daniel praised the God of heaven 20 and said:
"Praise be to the name of God for ever and ever;
wisdom and power are his.

21 He changes times and seasons;
he sets up kings and deposes them.
He gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to the discerning.

22 He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

Daniel 2:21-22

Sports medicine

Life here is certainly never boring. And you really never know how God will intricately weave life lessons and experiences together. Way back in high school, I discovered that I really loved taking care of athletes. I learned how to properly tape ankles, rest and strengthen muscles, treat sports injuries, and became comfortable being the only girl in a world of guys. Who knew that over 10 years later, paired with a nursing degree, I would be doing all those things for an American football team in Istanbul, Turkey!? (I specify American football, because football means soccer in every other country besides America)

Last week, not only did I get to work 2 football practices, but also 4 basketball games. A basketball team from the states was here playing several Turkish teams around Istanbul, and they carried me with them as their trainer. Thankfully, I wasn't needed for any major injuries, and I had a great time watching a week of basketball. One guy asked me if I got bored sitting through all the games and practices. I answered that, unfortunately, the time that I enjoy that job the most is when someone gets hurt. Sorry, boys!

This isn't exactly how I envisioned using my nursing degree in Turkey, but it's definitely much more fun than a 12 hour day at the hospital!

Fall Flavors

I love Fall for so many reasons. It really is my favorite season. Today some friends and I were able to enjoy one of the many reasons I love Fall...apple season. I'm actually really anticipating pumpkin season, which hasn't arrived in Istanbul quite yet. But until they start loading up the street bazaar tables with the giant white pumpkins, I'll enjoy the apples. For dessert I made a fresh apple crisp. Yumm!! And SUPER easy. I'm not sure which I like better, the taste or the way it makes the house smell. Wait, yeah, it's the taste. Happy Fall!

Office Shananigans

Last week to kick off the new season of The Office, we had a character costume party. It was a fun, albeit slightly awkward (it was an Office party, anyway) evening of Mandi's famous chili and the season premier. However, the funniest part happened on the way to the party. If you can't tell, my character, Jan, is pregnant. My roommate and I decided it would be more fun if I got totally into character at my house and traveled across the city that way. Generally, the Turkish people are very good about giving up their seat on a bus or metro to pregnant women. So we laughed about the possibility of that happening. And, like a Turkish gentlemen, as soon as I stepped on the metro, a man jumped up and escorted me to his seat. Haha. I couldn't even look at my friend for fear of laughing so hard my "baby" would come out of my shirt. I felt horrible the rest of the train ride, though, because it was Friday night rush hour, and the train was so crammed you couldn't move. So here I was, unable to offer my seat to anyone truly deserving because everyone believed me to be pregnant. Oops!

Too early?

When do you start listening to Christmas music? I wrote a few days ago about the holiday week here and how it had really put me in the mood for Christmas music. But, I've typically always waited until Thanksgiving to pull out the decorations and music. Yesterday as I was cleaning up the kitchen and happy to have a little down time, I actually turned on some Christmas jazz. Then, I immediately turned it off. Is it too early? What do you think?

Turkish Hospitality

Today I got to host two very good friends in my home for the afternoon. My goal was to make them feel as comfortable as possible by attempting to follow the hospitality that I've always received at my friends' homes here. Here's how the afternoon went:

~Keeping with Turkish tradition, they brought me, their hostess, flowers
~we started with a glass of water

the meal~
tomato and cucumber salad
stuffed grape leaves
baked chicken with zucchini, eggplant, onion, garlic, and carrot
Turkish rice (not sticky and with tiny little pieces of pasta)
bread

~after putting away the food, i started brewing the tea
~while the tea brewed, we chatted
~once the tea was ready we each had several glasses with a piece of baklava
~a couple more hours of good conversation

~finally, before my friends could leave I offered coffee, which is typically not served until the end of a visit. i should have offered Turkish coffee, but i didn't have the supplies needed for Turkish coffee. Thankfully my friends were gracious and actually excited about my hazelnut flavored filter coffee!
~once the last drop of coffee was gone, my friends made their way home

It was a great afternoon! And it's fun to honor my friends by following their traditions of hospitality.

I'm officially an old lady!

I just complained about the kids popping fire crackers outside all day long. Maybe it's the similarity to small bombs going off every 25 minutes or so that's causing my old lady irritability!

Sugar holiday

Today was the first day of the holiday following Ramadan, affectionately referred to as "sugar holiday". After 30 days of fasting, everyone is celebrating. For the kids that means a week of candy and money. For the past several days the stores have been fully stocked with every kind of chocolate and candy you could ever imagine. I wish I had taken pictures. Now the bins of candy are running low. This week is kind of like halloween, thanksgiving and christmas all rolled into one. The neighborhood kids can expect to be fully spoiled by everyone they encounter. They can even go door to door wishing strangers a happy holiday and expecting candy and/or money in return. Schools are closed all week. Many businesses are even shut down. It really is a fun holiday atmosphere seeing families out shopping together and visiting friends and family. Makes me want to turn on Christmas music...but it's only September!

cooking overseas

I never really "cooked" in America. I "heated up". It was quick. It was easy. It was not cheap. And it was not always good. Here, that's not an option. Yes, it takes much more time. But, it tastes so much better, and is so much cheaper. It also feels like a great accomplishment when you're done. Some of my latest successes...

~Turkish beans and rice
~chips and salsa
~brownies
~lasagna
~banana pudding
~maple syrup and waffles
~hashbrowns
~quesadillas
~mashed potatoes

And, thanks to Mom's import service...Pecan crusted chicken. You can't get pecans here, so I'm pretty excited about my newly arrived pound of pecans for all my favorite holiday desserts. Thanks, Mom!

eh hem...pay no attention to the date of my last post

So I turned on my tv this morning only to find the Arkansas - Alabama massacre showing on FoxSports. Yes, I get FoxSports. Random, I know. It's not exactly the FoxSports we all know and love back home. This one shows hours and hours of cricket. But, thankfully it also shows American football on the weekends. I have NEVER seen them show an Arkansas game, though. They really should have passed on this one, though. Shameful...

Turkey Wins!!

I've found myself in a lot of crazy situations overseas, but I think tonight might be the craziest so far. Since I know most of my readers have no idea what the Euro 2008 is, I'll give a little background.

Euro 2008 claims to be the second biggest soccer tournament in the world, after the World Cup. In a shocking come back against Croatia, winning by penalty kicks, Turkey put themselves into the semi finals next week. This is Turkey's first ever trip to the semi finals.

So, all that to say, things have gotten a little crazy here in the city, because Turks LOVE their futbol. I was watching the game at a friend's house, and decided I would splurge on a taxi home, just to be safe. Actually after midnight, that was pretty much my only option to get home anyway. I was a little nervous on the ride back as my taxi driver very excitedly honked his horn with all the other thousands of cars, as he continued to speed up with excitement while listening to the goals being replayed on the radio, and as he seemed to be paying little to no attention to the perilous road he was driving down. Then, we turned on to a side street which forced him to slow down, so I relaxed. I even laughed while sitting at a red light he did a special little back and forth cheer with the car sitting beside us. Cute. Then, we turned down my street. There's where the real excitement began.

The whole reason I was happy to be in a taxi was because I wanted to avoid walking down my street. It tends to get a bit extra excited during events like this. But, as we turned the corner, the mob that greeted us stopped us in our tracks. There was no driving down that street. The driver frantically asked me if there was another way to my apartment. I said, no! I have to go down this street. He apologized but said there was no way he could drive through that. So, I seriously almost asked him to pray for me, but refrained, paid my money and faced the mob. I quickly ran to the sidewalk and pressed myself against the building, under the nearest awning as I heard guns going off just feet from where I was standing. I actually didn't really know what to do when I heard the guns being shot, but as I watched several people duck and run for the awning, I decided that was probably a good idea. Gravity can be dangerous. Anway...I stood there a bit in shock for a few minutes, trying to figure out what I should do, when the mob seemed to disperse a bit. I took that moment to shoot the gap, and walked as fast as my flip flops could take me. If not for the dangerous flying bullets part, it was a really fun cultural moment.

I'm home safely now, listening to the serenade of chants and car horns. Did I mention that it's 1:30 am? Congratulations, Turkey!! Good luck against Germany next week!

hotel health care

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of caring for a quadriplegic while she attended a conference for a week. It was great to use some of the nursing skills God has given me, and it was also great to get away from the city and see some of the more beautiful parts of Turkey.


The Aegean only a few miles away from Ephesus















The view of Akcay, a town rumored to have the best air in the world. :-)

boat trip

A day on the Bosphorous is definitely one of the highlights of living in Istanbul. Every summer that I've ever spent here, I've been blessed to go on at least one boat trip up to the Black Sea. This summer I'm actually getting to go on two. This past Saturday's trip was a real treat because it was a nice small group of good friends, good food, and Dr. Pepper!! It was also sad, though, because it was our last day to spend with our good friends, Byron and Karen. Thanks, guys!

The water was too cold for my taste, but the weather was just perfect for soaking up some sun and beautiful scenery. Doesn't it make you want to come visit??? :-) I'll be waiting.















The Black Sea

someone must have prayed

Thanks, friends. I know someone must have prayed about the heat because yesterday a wonderful cool front came in. It was a really fun day. Some friends and I went to one of my favorite spots in the city where there is a jewelry/acccessory bazaar on Sundays. It's a cozy little neighborhood right on the water where ever Sunday they set up at least a hundred booths selling hand-made jewelry, scarves, paintings, purses, etc. There's also ladies making gozleme, kind of similar to quesedillas, and of course all the cay and coffee you could ever want. As we were perusing the jewelry stalls, the clouds darkened, it thundered a bit, and a cool wind blew through. This is absolutely my favorite kind of weather! By the time I got home and got my windows opened up, I was actually a little bit chilly. Ahh, sweet relief. Thanks to the Lord for sweet little blessings just when we need them.

More daily life

Early, early this morning I woke up and thought, wow, it's way too quiet. I'm one of those people who really needs the noise of a fan to sleep. So, the silence of this morning was so loud I woke up. Then I realized, oh crap, the electricity must be off and I needed to bake some food for a boat picnic today. It was then that the stuffy heat of summer in Istanbul overtook me and I began pleading with the Lord that the electricity would be restored ASAP. Ok, so when you're hot and cranky at 5 in the morning, life becomes a bit more dramatic.

This does bring me a to a simple prayer request for all of you blessed with the gift of AC. The next time you're enjoying the beautiful breezes of air conditioning in your home, in your car, in your office, in Wal-Mart, in the restaraunt...remember your friends sweltering in 88 degree heat with a fan that runs only if the electricity is working. :-)

On the happy side of living in Istanbul in the summer...I'm going on a boat trip on the Bosphorous today and next Saturday. It will be absolutely beautiful and I'll post pictures later. Happy summer!

Culture shock means...

~ it suddenly feels like every person on the bus makes a point of touching me
~ all 15 million+ people in the city are staring at me
~ my heart races every time i have to pay a bill, make a phone call, buy anything, ask a question
~ i leave my house full of joy and 5 minutes down my street i'm frustrated again
~ the grass is greener in America
~ no matter how grammatically perfect i say something, no one will understand me, EVER
~ if it can go wrong, it will
~ mini bus drivers are in a conspiracy to kill me
~ every smoker in the city is trying to blow their smoke in my face

Ok, ok, so most of these are a bit exaggerated. But I'm definitely at that point in a different culture where the way I perceive things are not always the reality. Sometimes it is, but not usually. Thankfully I'm a child of the one true God who can beat culture shock and false perception. This world is not my home anyway...not even beautiful, perfect America. :-)

Tagged

Now that I've been tagged twice, I guess I'll comply. Peer pressure... :-)

four jobs i've had:
1. American Eagle sales associate
2. Optician
3. Surgical/clinic nurse
4. Church receptionist

four movies i've watched more than once:
1. Moulin Rouge
2. The Princess Bride
3. Gone With the Wind
4. The Money Pit

four places i've lived:
1. Istanbul, Turkey
2. Chicago, Illinois
3. Breckenridge, Colorado
4. Fort Worth, Texas

four tv shows i watch:
1. Grey's Anatomy
2. Cemberimde Gul Oya
3. the office
4. Chuck

four places i've been:
1. Cologne, Germany
2. Bregenz, Austria
3. Paris, France
4. Antalya, Turkey...favorite place in Turkey, so far!

four of my favorite foods:
1. french fries
2. chicken parmesan
3. Dad's grilled venison
4. bbq brisket

four things i'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. visiting America!!
2. seeing Angela in Paris!! (and Chris, too, of course)
3. boat trip to Black Sea
4. seeing my Turkish improve

four friends i'm tagging:
1. Sherry Stout
2. Allison Brake
3. Heather Speigel
4. Rebecca Alexander

Intercontinental moving

So here's how the move went down yesterday. Raise your hand if you've moved from Asia to Europe in one day. :-) Raise your hand if this is not the first time you've done it. :-)

8:30 -- leave house to ride bus for 30 minutes to new neighborhood

9:00 -- sit and wait 20 minutes for friend to come clean new apartment

9:30 -- go to store to buy cleaning products

9:45 -- get keys from landlady upstairs and make major cultural and language mistakes, fun times!

10:00 -- finally leave new neighborhood in Europe to go to Asian neighborhood to let the moving guys in. HUGE thanks to Steve,
for already being over there since 10 was the appointment time

10:15 -- get off metro to wait 15 more minutes to catch 1 bus to Asia in order to catch another bus that will take me to the right place

11:00 -- FINALLY arrive only an hour late

1:00 -- get back on a bus to meet the movers on the other side, the European side, that is

1:45 -- walk very fast from the bus stop because the movers are already there and waiting

2:00-2:30 -- fight with the moving guys about how I actually want my furniture to be placed. more of a friendly "discussion" you might say. again, thanks to Steve for his mad "discussion" skills.

4:00 -- finished, for the day. more to be moved the next day

Ahh, life in Istanbul.

Olive, anyone?

One of the many reasons Istanbul is so interesting is it's use of merchandise districts. One street sells nothing but lamps. Another sells only rugs. And another will be plumbing supplies or veggies or meat, or in this case, olives. As long as you know where the particular area is that sells what you need, you can check 10 different stores all on one block to find the best one to suit your need.

Cultural tidbit from mymerhaba.com

Today my friends here in Turkey are celebrating Mevlid Kandili. Here is some info on this holiday:

The story of Kandil
The five holy evenings on the Muslim calendar are called Kandil.
During the Ottoman Empire Sultan Selim II of 16th century lit candles
on the minarets of the mosques in order to announce these holy nights
to the public. Since this calendar is calculated with the revolution
of the moon around the earth the dates of the Kandils differ every
year.
Mevlid Kandili - The birth of Prophet Mohammad (March 19, 2008)
Regaip Kandili - The beginning of the pregnancy of Prophet Mohammad's
mother (July 3, 2008)
Miraç Kandili - Prophet Mohammad's rising to sky (July 29, 2008)
Berat Kandili - The forgiveness of the sins (August 16, 2008)
Kadir Gecesi - The Koran's first appearance to Prophet Mohammad
(September 26, 2008)

These nights Muslims usually worship and sing Mevlit, a poem written
for the birth of Prophet Mohammad. Kandils were holy days when young
members visited the older members of the family, however today the
Kandil greetings are made with phone calls. Some restaurants serving
alcoholic beverages may be closed at Kandils. Most of the pastry shops
and bakery sell Kandil Simidi (special small crispy bread ring strewn
with or without sesame seeds). In some apartments the neighbors hand
out helva (a special Turkish dessert made of semolina or flour) or
lokma tatlısı (again a special Turkish dessert made of fried dough
with syrup).

Chicken, Sheep, and M&M's

As I've said before, transporting around the city is never dull here. Today was definitely no exception. I was hanging out in a district of the city that is pretty far away from where I live, so I decided rather than taking a slow bus, I would take a dolmus(dole-moosh): shared taxi, home. Although getting home fast was my desired intent, I soon regretted that desire.

As we sped around curves, jerking this way and then the other, we came to a 4 lane, busy city street. The traffic was backed up pretty bad, so our driver decided he would just use the lane of the oncoming traffic. No big deal, till there was oncoming traffic! After coming to a complete stop while staring down a taxi in a lively game of chicken, we finally nosed our way back into our lane. One would think this would be enough to keep one's dolmus in the proper lane. Wrong. After waiting impatiently for a whole 5 seconds, the driver darted back into the oncoming traffic only to get stuck there at a red light. This is when the very friendly motorbike policeman turned on his siren, shouted something that NO ONE could understand over a loud speaker, and then proceeded to calmly ask the driver to please not do that again. Tamam, the driver said, or ok! Ouch, that was quite a slap on the wrist. Let it be noted that by this time, I'm laughing hysterically on the inside, trying desperately not to make noise as the other passengers probably wouldn't find it quite as humorous as I did.

Moving down the road, we make it to the interstate highway, or I guess you could call it the intercontinent highway here since we would take it across the Bosphorous from Asia to Europe. Anyway, it's a major 6 lane freeway that we were traveling quite freely on. We weren't driving so fast, though, that I didn't have time to do a double-take when I saw a shepherd and his 50 sheep grazing on the side of the highway!

As I continue to giggle to myself, thinking, wow, this has been quite the road trip, we crossed the bridge to my side of the city and prepared to take the first exit. Only, when we came to the exit, there were at least 6 cars coming toward us in reverse! This actually got 1 Turkish passenger to exlaim an "Allah, Allah" under his breath. Roughly translated to "Holy buckets, I don't believe this!!" :-)

At last I made it to my stop and decided I needed a Pepsi Light and a snack to recover from my trip. This is when God blessed me with finding a snack size bag of Peanut M&M's...a perfect, surprise ending to a very surprising trip.

My Favorite Turkish Man...

the POSTMAN!!! The one who delivers the mail in my neighborhood is great. So far he's brought me every single package my wonderful mother has sent me!! That's not always the case here. Here are some pictures from the fun package that came today. Happy early St. Patrick's Day! and THANKS MOM!!

the package and all it's glory! By the way, the card that my MOM sent me played the song, "Whoop, There it Is". haha! Classic! She certainly has eclectic taste in music. The Easter card she sent me played Chris Tomlin's "Indescribeable" Love it!


Dr. Pepper Soda POPS!! Brilliant! Definitely my Lucky Day.






The Peeps were slightly decapitated...but still, umm, fun. Who really eats Peeps for the taste anyway?

Such a mix

Today I was walking around a neighborhood here in the city looking for an apartment to rent. While my friend and I were marveling at the giant skyscrapers that surround this particular neighborhood, we had to jump out of the way of a tractor pulling a cart of potatoes for sale. I'll say it again...in the middle of this incredibly giant, metropolitan city, we were nearly run over by a John Deere tractor selling potatoes. Ok, it might not have been a John Deere, but it was straight off the farm in Texas. And that reminded me that it's also not highly unusual to see carts being pulled by mules, either. Just put it on the list of possible modes of transportation: taxi, car, train, metro, tram, slow boat, fast boat, short boat, trolley, minibus, regular bus, and oh yeah, tractor or mule.

Sites on my walk home from class

If you click on the last picture and look really closely, you'll notice lettuce bigger than they guy's head!

Snow scenes

Did anyone really sleep?

Turkish breakfast

Mmm...black olives, cucumbers, tomatoes, honey, jam, bread, helva (no idea what it is, but it's good!), cheese, and cay.

More slumber party pics

After dessert we had Turkish cay and even did Turkish breakfast around 11:30 the next morning. :-)

Slumber Party

Here are some fun pics from our slumber party a couple of weeks ago. It was such a fun night, reminiscent of junior high days! One of the highlights was making a very special Turkish dessert. One of the girls who came is from Hatay, which is a city here known for this particular dessert, called Kunefe. It's shredded wheat with a special cheese in the middle drowned in syrup. Sounds weird, but it's delicious!! While we were making it, one of the girls and I were supposed to be shredding the homemade cheese and then melting the homemade butter. Well, a kilo of shredded "something" later, we realized that we had just shred the butter instead and had already sprinkled it all over the dessert. It made for a hysterical moment, especially at about 10 o'clock at night with 10 other girls crammed in the small kitchen. Oh well, we all decided an extra kilo of butter could only make it better! :-)

SNOW DAYS

mexican food.dumb and dumber.snowball fight.boston cream pie.pancakes and BACON.peppermint cookies.nap. Mmmm!

Lessons Learned

So I think I finally reached the outcome of my Dr. Pepper shower in the airport last month. Last weekend my hard drive suddenly disappeared. And, all I could figure out was that the Dr. Pepper had finally wreaked its havoc. Of course, who knows, it might have died anyway, but I'm going to blame it on the Dr. Pepper! :-)

Thankfully there is an Apple service store here in the city. It took me 2 hours of walking around in a giant circle to actually find the store, but it's here, and it honors my warranty! So, after 4 trips to the "teknik servis", and after immense frustration as I tried to communicate computer language in Turkish, the ole' Macbook is working again. It was frustrating because I don't speak computer language in English much less Turkish! Yikes! And the really weird thing was that if I called the shop on the phone, there was an English speaker. But when I was actually in the store, no one spoke English. Now that it's all behind me, though, I guess I could say it was actually an encouraging thing to know that with courage only from God, I was able to work through something really hard and get the results I needed...a fixed computer.

One really good lesson in all of this was the reminder that the grass is not always greener in America. Sometimes I find myself comparing things here to the way things are back home, and when I'm really having a pity party day I tend to think everything in America is better. But, in this case, there was an Apple repair store within 30 minutes of my house. Back home, there isn't one single Apple store in the whole state of Arkansas! :-)

The best lesson I learned, though, was to remember that my joy comes from God, not my circumstances. If I keep my gaze on Him, no matter how frustrating life can be, my joy is eternal. Easier said than done, but completely possible with the Him.

A Turkish trip to Sonic

Although some of you may not fully understand the glories of Sonic, many of you absolutely get it. Most of my life a daily or almost daily trip to the Sonic for a cherry vanilla Dr. Pepper or Slush or Cherry Limeade or some other flavorful soda was a foundational part of my friendships. So over here Sonic is one of my American treats that I miss. However, it has occurred to me that the local cay (chai=tea) house is my Turkish Sonic. Most days are not complete without visiting with a friend over several glasses of cay. Here are a couple of pictures of the typical glass of tea and the oh so comfy table it is shared on.

City Travel

One of the beauties of this city is the many modes of transportation available. Of course, to the inexperienced traveler this could also be a not so beautiful part of the city. And, there are also those days when just the prospect of having to take more than 3 types of transportation is enough to keep you locked in the house longing for a one red light town. Last week I needed to travel from the Europe side of Istanbul, where I live, to the Asian side of Istanbul, where my friend works. To get to her I had a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, a bus, a boat, and then a trolley if I wanted to be lazy and not walk to the top of the hill. I thought it would be fun to sit on the outside of the boat so I could take better pictures. I was able to get some pictures. But I froze in the process. So, when I got to the trolley option, I opted to walk so that I might regain the feeling in my legs and feet. So, here are some pictures of my frozen boat ride. It took about 15 minutes to cross the Bosphorous.

The nitty gritty of city life

I was looking back over my blog for the past few weeks, and I realized I tend to write about the good and fun things. Although I guess the airport story wasn't all that good and fun. Well, at any rate, I want to be sure I paint a fair picture of this exciting life the Lord is leading me through. :-)

Nikki, you'll appreciate this, and I'm even going to steal your vocab. So, last week I was meeting a group of friends to go to a museum here in the city. We had just eaten lunch and were headed to the museum when one of my DAILY fears was realized. A sky rat bomb hit the bull's eye. In laymen's terms...a nasty, disgusting pigeon pooped right on my head!! This city is FILLED with sky rats. EVERYWHERE. And people feed the dirty rodent's with wings! They say it's good luck to be pooped on. Who is THEY! And my answer to THEY is that sure it's good luck, you're luck can't get much worse once you get bombed!

Soft Towels!!

Today was a great day. The whole 2 1/2 years that I lived here before, I never had a dryer. So, crusty towels and crisp jeans were just a part of life. BUT today thanks to my great friends, Billy and Liz, I was able to bring home my first dryer in the 'bul! Actually, it's the first dryer I've ever owned. Guess I'm growin up, kids. :-) Now, does anyone know where I can get dryer sheets in Istanbul?

Pictures coming later

I've taken lots of great photos this week! Unfortunately I'm not being able to upload them to the blog for some reason. Hopefully this will be resolved soon.

Travel Tales #1

Picture this:

A 2 lane highway merging with a 4 lane highway
5:00 rush hour
City of 12 - 16 million people, depending on who you talk to

Now picture this:

A city bus traveling down the 4 lane highway starts to exit but decides it is going the wrong way. So it stops, BACKS UP and merges with the other 6 lanes of traffic
No one honks or even seems bothered by this

Picture ME watching from a nearby bus stop, laughing out loud, wishing I had a camera

The cure for Dr. Pepper

I hoped to have "fun" airport stories, and, wow, do I ever have a "fun" story. So, I knew things were going to be interesting when my very first flight was delayed 3 hours. This set off a chain reaction that sent me to a whole different country on the way over here. But, you know, that's fairly normal for airlines these days, so I was ok with that. Having a longer wait in the Little Rock airport now, I decided to sit and watch the Giants game while enjoying my last Dr. Pepper for a while. Mmm, happiness, right??

So I sit down and get cozy with my laptop, ready to send out a few last minute emails to pass the time. Grab my Dr. Pepper, twist the cap and get sprayed from head to toe. Seriously, it felt like the whole terminal had a Dr. Pepper shower. I didn't know the bottle could hold that much Dr. Pepper and spray with such force! I wasn't excited about being showered with Dr. Pepper to begin my 24 hour trip, but I could deal with that. It was the Dr. Pepper that was soaking into the keyboard of my Mac that I was less than thrilled about. In fact, the emotions of just having said goodbye to my family, learning that my flight was drastically changed, and having paid twice what I was once told for my excess luggage began to shower over me much like my Dr. Pepper had just done. The poor guy sitting next to me...when he jokingly said "wow, you can't catch a break today, huh", had a look of terror on his face as I crumpled in my Dr. Pepper pool in response to his comment. Ok, ok, so I get everything cleaned up, and so far the computer is working fine, just a little sticky...I can do this.

About an hour goes by and I'm much more composed and decide, hey, I still haven't had any of my Dr. Pepper, because amazingly there was still some left after the explosion early. So, I twist the cap again, and Dr. Pepper fountain all over again. Yes, again! Same bottle. This time my computer was safely tucked away, but my clothes were not as lucky. This time there were no tears only laughter and disbelief. The guy from the first shower was still sitting near me, only not right beside me anymore, and I had to think he thought I was the biggest moron in the world! OH well. By now I was litterally soaked with Dr. Pepper and because of restrictions on the size and number of my carry on bag, I had nothing to change into. I considered buying a souvenir sweatshirt from the airport shop, but just couldn't bring myself to pay $50 for a shirt that said Little Rock in huge letters across the front. So I head to the bathroom and stand awkwardly near the hand dryer to try and dry some of the giant wet spots.

Moral of the story...an addiction will always bite you on the rear at some point! The good news, though, is that I don't think I'll be missing Dr. Pepper quite as much now.

The day continued with gum on my shoe at one point, a seat on the 46th row in the very middle of my overseas flight, the speaker for the call bell on the plane directly over my seat (yes, that means that every time anyone on the entire plane called for an attendent the *ding* rang out over my seat), bathrooms on either side of my row on the plane, a screaming 5 year old behind me for 8 hours, and to top it off not one piece of my 5 pieces of luggage arrived in Istanbul with me. My prayer life definitely grew on this trip. And, I can joyfully say that all of my luggage was delivered to my doorstep by 6 the morning after I arrived. In fact, it was as I was sitting in the living room praying about my attitude over lost luggage that the doorbell rang to deliver all the pieces!!

So, fun stories from the airport! :-)

Geldim!

I'm here!! I'm here!! It was quite a trip getting over here. I even found the cure for Dr. Pepper addiction. I've already seen lots of friends and can't believe how "normal" it feels to be back. My apartment has an INCREDIBLE view, however it's been pretty foggy everyday so the pictures don't do the view justice.

Ready to go!

Today's the day! I'm flying out in just a few hours. Hopefully I'll have fun airport tales. Till then...