monday and tuesday were pretty uneventful.
on monday i woke up 730 am which was very weird indeed! it was cloudy and rainy still.
i relaxed, coughed a lot from my leftover sickness, watched a movie, lemony snickets unfort events, ate leftover chicken, finished the book i had started reading on the plane - the red tent, amazing every time i read it. check it out for yourself! i also read a bunch in my turkey travel book cuz i hadnt done that at all yet. i did stuff online and then i took a nappy from 4-1130pm. lol which would have been about the same time i would sleep at home - 5 am-noonish. so i guess i didnt trick my biorythm clock all that much.
i ended up staying up all night monday night and chatted with my friends online since it was monday day for them. i also blogged a lot and took care of email stuff. kristins alarm went off at 6 am so i boiled her some water for coffee and watched the sunrise. it was really pretty and a beautiful sunny day. i spent a lot of tuesday morning trying to figure out my wardorbe dilema for the ball on saturday. online shoppping in turkish isnt all that conducive. then someone decided to paint in the apt lobby downstairs so all kinds of nasty fumage accumulated in the lojman and i got a huge headache. so i opened the windows and went to bed.
kristin got home from her midterm around 8pm and i woke up at some point after that, my headache was better but still there. i putzed around online some more and went to bed around midnight. not really all that exciting of a day!
oh sometimes i can hear what i think is the call to prayer. thats kinda exciting!
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
sunday nov 1st
while the rest of the world was preparing for and enjoying halloween, im 11 hours ahead of portland now, i was at the mall with kristin. we rode the bus down and met up with one of her teacher friends jacee (shes from georgia and this is hr third year in turkey). we were dress shopping for the marines birthday ball that we are attending this saturday. it was pretty much like a huge mall youd expect to see anywhere, but unlike our malls they have stores for everything- washer/dryer, tv, clothes, food, toys, etc. whereas we have bestbuy and all that for electronics, and our bestbuys arent IN the mall. oh and starbucks is everywhere, and more rain and clouds..... did i really travel halfway around the world?!
me on the skybridge walking from the bustop to the mall. buildings of ankara in the background.
the mall had displays of cars everywhere, American cars, old classic mustangs and Cadillacs, it was really funny cuz everyone was enamored and taking pictures of all the cars, i was thinking ive ridden in like half of these! i was tempted to take a pic of all the turks taking pics, but i didnt.
needless to say i didnt find a dress, kristin did though. and we hailed a cab back towards the lojman, but decided to head to real, the grocery store, first. real is pronounced ray-ahl. we got stuff to make chicken and green salad, some fresh pineapple and a few other staples like cheese and spaghetti sauce. kristin isnt very familiar with 'cooking locally' yet and everything was in turkish so unless its painfully obvious its hard to know what it is youre buying, hence the fairly american meal. we hailed a cab home and i cooked us the chicken while she prepped the salad fixings, it was a yummy dinner! after spending some quality time on facebook it was time to go to bed!
me on the skybridge walking from the bustop to the mall. buildings of ankara in the background. the mall had displays of cars everywhere, American cars, old classic mustangs and Cadillacs, it was really funny cuz everyone was enamored and taking pictures of all the cars, i was thinking ive ridden in like half of these! i was tempted to take a pic of all the turks taking pics, but i didnt.
needless to say i didnt find a dress, kristin did though. and we hailed a cab back towards the lojman, but decided to head to real, the grocery store, first. real is pronounced ray-ahl. we got stuff to make chicken and green salad, some fresh pineapple and a few other staples like cheese and spaghetti sauce. kristin isnt very familiar with 'cooking locally' yet and everything was in turkish so unless its painfully obvious its hard to know what it is youre buying, hence the fairly american meal. we hailed a cab home and i cooked us the chicken while she prepped the salad fixings, it was a yummy dinner! after spending some quality time on facebook it was time to go to bed!
funny picture from before i left
for part of my vacation prep, before i got sick, i went swimsuit shopping, i needed a suit that fit, all my others are now too big and scuba diving with a bikini that has a knot in the back isnt comfy, so i wanted a one piece. pretty much nowhere in portland sells swimsuits in late october. so i found out i had to go to a sporting goods store, but they were full price and i wanted to pay clearance price. i decided to look at the kids sizes since womens stuff was all too big and theyre cheaper, so i really quick tried one on and made bethany take a picture. this is at dicks sporting goods in washington square mall.
beyond sexy right?! and yes i put it on OVER my jeans and my hoodie. yes its a child sized suit. yes im that skinny. but it totally makes it look like i have man junk! hahaha i ended up buying the suit in black and purple later with darcy. yay for kids swimsuits!!
beyond sexy right?! and yes i put it on OVER my jeans and my hoodie. yes its a child sized suit. yes im that skinny. but it totally makes it look like i have man junk! hahaha i ended up buying the suit in black and purple later with darcy. yay for kids swimsuits!!
the flight over
i flew to turkey on friday october 30th, departed at 4:15pm. i flew from portland oregon to san francisco california, then on to munich germany and then to ankara turkey. i arrived in turkey on oct 31st at about 11:15 pm. you can do the math. i didnt have too bad of a layover anywhere, was in SFO for about 4 hours and spent most of that time on the phone with friends or taking a nap.
that is where i ate a sandwich and broke my bonded retainer on the back of my upper front teeth. i didnt realize it was actually broken though until after i arrived in turkey. its not too big of a deal as long as it doesnt break more, knock on wood. i just need to try to find some dental wax to put over the raw metal edge so that i dont keep messing with it.
anywhoo, back to the flying part...
flying out of portland is always a treat cuz im a lover of volcanoes, once we got out of the clouds it was bright blue skies and gorgeous snow covered peaks, i saw mt hood, jefferson, sisters, etc all the way down the line. i loved it. the snow was blowing off the tops of all the peaks. it all looked so peaceful and serene!
flying into SFO was gorgeous, the sun was still pretty high but starting to set so everything was lit up all golden and bright, and it was super clear, we flew right over the oakland hills and the golden gate bridge and the city was beautiful, i saw lots of bridges that i remember driving over as a kid and i saw lots of pretty sailboats in the bay. i might have even seen my old house in fremont, but not sure on that! no i didnt take a picture, i decided to just marvel and enjoy it.
i flew over to europe on lufthansa airlines. they speak german a lot so by the end of the flight i was all sorts of Auf Wiedersehen-ing everyone. we left SFO at about 10 pm on friday so we had dinner and breakfast on the plane and i watched some movies - totally slept thru the ice age 3 movie, not sure why i cant stay awake thru those ones. the food was probably the best ever airline food ive had yet. the flight was just under 11 hours of fly time. at some point in the middle of the night i decided to open the window and take a glimpse of the moon, it was ah.maze.ing! it was huge, round and very orange. there was a cloud bank below it and the light reflected off the clouds in a very calm peaceful way, there was the planets and stars twinkling all around it as well. i decided to try to take a picture of it with mega zoom and at about that time it decided to start setting so i didnt get a great pic and of course it doesn't capture the reality of it AT ALL but you might get a tiny idea of what i saw.the next time i looked out the window it was very much day time and there was lots of clouds. i didnt really look out the window after that. i remember watching the monitor that showed our flight path and sending thoughts to my friend in Holland as i flew over Amsterdam. we landed in munich around 5pm.
my layover in munich was pretty uneventful, i was surprised at how lax security was, and everyone tried to talk german to me. i was unfortunately an ignorant american and forgot that i do know how to say hello, please and thank you in german. oh well. maybe on the way back ill be better at using my foreign language abilities. i exchanged my us dollars to euro and then to turkish lira and got some tiramisu and water for a lil treat before getting on the next plane. i contemplated the apple strudel since i was in germany n all but it looked like more of a diabetic coma then the tiramisu did. and i took another small nappy in the waiting area, i love naps. i left munich around 730 pm i believe. i was in the last row on the plane - snap! so the chair didnt recline and i was surrounded by about 15 cackling-in-turkish lady friends. not complaining, just painting the picture, i pretty much passed out and slept the whole way, i did glance out the window occasionally and saw lights of cities far below. i turned down dinner, wasnt hungry and woke up to being in rain and clouds again, huh, exactly as it was when i started out on this trip! lol the runway was like a lake and the wheels from the plane made huge sprays of water, it made me wonder if they dont get much rain here, cuz surely they would have created drainage paths for all that water. it was about 11 pm at landing time. i was of course last off the plane behind all the slow poke turkish women, and decided to pee before getting my bags. getting my 3 mos visa was extremely uneventful (and i was the only one) and going thru immigration was as well, the guy tried to pronounce my name, he wasnt very successful at it, but we exchanged smiles. then i waited for forever for the bags, hoping i wouldnt have to walk too far with them cuz kristins hockey bag was a beast! i didnt, she was right there on the other side of the sliding door and i didnt even see her at first cuz i wasnt expecting her to be right there, plus i was nursing my hand from the pain of dragging her heavy bag on top of my wheely suitcase! there wasnt very much chaos at the passenger pickup place, i wasnt sure if it was going to be more american esque (calm and organized) or asian esque (a huge mess of people and chaos), it was very american esque. kristins boyfriend Faruk was there, quick introductions, he hailed a cab and we were on our way to kristins lojman (apt).
that is where i ate a sandwich and broke my bonded retainer on the back of my upper front teeth. i didnt realize it was actually broken though until after i arrived in turkey. its not too big of a deal as long as it doesnt break more, knock on wood. i just need to try to find some dental wax to put over the raw metal edge so that i dont keep messing with it.
anywhoo, back to the flying part...
flying out of portland is always a treat cuz im a lover of volcanoes, once we got out of the clouds it was bright blue skies and gorgeous snow covered peaks, i saw mt hood, jefferson, sisters, etc all the way down the line. i loved it. the snow was blowing off the tops of all the peaks. it all looked so peaceful and serene!
flying into SFO was gorgeous, the sun was still pretty high but starting to set so everything was lit up all golden and bright, and it was super clear, we flew right over the oakland hills and the golden gate bridge and the city was beautiful, i saw lots of bridges that i remember driving over as a kid and i saw lots of pretty sailboats in the bay. i might have even seen my old house in fremont, but not sure on that! no i didnt take a picture, i decided to just marvel and enjoy it.
i flew over to europe on lufthansa airlines. they speak german a lot so by the end of the flight i was all sorts of Auf Wiedersehen-ing everyone. we left SFO at about 10 pm on friday so we had dinner and breakfast on the plane and i watched some movies - totally slept thru the ice age 3 movie, not sure why i cant stay awake thru those ones. the food was probably the best ever airline food ive had yet. the flight was just under 11 hours of fly time. at some point in the middle of the night i decided to open the window and take a glimpse of the moon, it was ah.maze.ing! it was huge, round and very orange. there was a cloud bank below it and the light reflected off the clouds in a very calm peaceful way, there was the planets and stars twinkling all around it as well. i decided to try to take a picture of it with mega zoom and at about that time it decided to start setting so i didnt get a great pic and of course it doesn't capture the reality of it AT ALL but you might get a tiny idea of what i saw.the next time i looked out the window it was very much day time and there was lots of clouds. i didnt really look out the window after that. i remember watching the monitor that showed our flight path and sending thoughts to my friend in Holland as i flew over Amsterdam. we landed in munich around 5pm.my layover in munich was pretty uneventful, i was surprised at how lax security was, and everyone tried to talk german to me. i was unfortunately an ignorant american and forgot that i do know how to say hello, please and thank you in german. oh well. maybe on the way back ill be better at using my foreign language abilities. i exchanged my us dollars to euro and then to turkish lira and got some tiramisu and water for a lil treat before getting on the next plane. i contemplated the apple strudel since i was in germany n all but it looked like more of a diabetic coma then the tiramisu did. and i took another small nappy in the waiting area, i love naps. i left munich around 730 pm i believe. i was in the last row on the plane - snap! so the chair didnt recline and i was surrounded by about 15 cackling-in-turkish lady friends. not complaining, just painting the picture, i pretty much passed out and slept the whole way, i did glance out the window occasionally and saw lights of cities far below. i turned down dinner, wasnt hungry and woke up to being in rain and clouds again, huh, exactly as it was when i started out on this trip! lol the runway was like a lake and the wheels from the plane made huge sprays of water, it made me wonder if they dont get much rain here, cuz surely they would have created drainage paths for all that water. it was about 11 pm at landing time. i was of course last off the plane behind all the slow poke turkish women, and decided to pee before getting my bags. getting my 3 mos visa was extremely uneventful (and i was the only one) and going thru immigration was as well, the guy tried to pronounce my name, he wasnt very successful at it, but we exchanged smiles. then i waited for forever for the bags, hoping i wouldnt have to walk too far with them cuz kristins hockey bag was a beast! i didnt, she was right there on the other side of the sliding door and i didnt even see her at first cuz i wasnt expecting her to be right there, plus i was nursing my hand from the pain of dragging her heavy bag on top of my wheely suitcase! there wasnt very much chaos at the passenger pickup place, i wasnt sure if it was going to be more american esque (calm and organized) or asian esque (a huge mess of people and chaos), it was very american esque. kristins boyfriend Faruk was there, quick introductions, he hailed a cab and we were on our way to kristins lojman (apt).
Merhaba Ankara!!
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