a few observations for now

transportation -

~the cars are america style with the driver being on the left.
~the roads are american style with the direction the traffic goes.
~drivers typically use the lane they are supposed to be in and ive been impressed with use of signals when merging, i was expecting near death experiences like in the philippines but its been pretty uneventful, it is crazier than in the states, but not all that bad.
~hardly any bikes, no mopeds and a motorcycle here and there, again i think i was expecting more chaos like in asia, maybe in the smaller cities people ride bikes?
~the cars are small, ive been surprised at the number of fords ive seen, and the largest car ive seen is a honda CRV

food -

~pretty blah, must add seasonings like salt, crushed red pepper and oregano, onions, peppers if you want it to taste like much. granted i havent eaten much variety here yet, some meats do have lots of seasonings mixed in them, but everything is really really mild flavored.
~they love their bread in turkey
~if the menu doesnt come with english translations you may as well close your eyes and point to something, cuz theres not really any way of 'figuring out' the description of what it is
~coke light not diet coke, just like in asia

cleanliness -

not as dirty as i expected so far, havent seen a lot yet mind you and i havent been to istanbul yet, but the streets are mostly clean, everyone sets out their trash and it actually gets picked up by a garbage service type arrangement.

here's a biggie - brace yourself - i keep waking up early, on my own.
wth?! early as in btwn 6 and 730 am. gasp

more observations to come FOR SURE later on! ;-)

something just bit me!

on thursday i got stung by a bee! and it hurt! and it didnt die! oh the injustice!

i went to kristins school for lunch, cuz its free, and she gave me a lil tour of the campus, it was so fun to see! we were in her classroom standing by her desk, after lunch, all the kids had just come in from break and suddenly i felt a very painful 'bite' on my left shoulder blade, i jumped and yelled out in surprise and said something just bit me! and kristin was like what? nuh uh and looked down my shirt and a bee flew out! she said you were stung by a bee! and i was like nuh uh, im allergic! she got a wheres-your-epi-pen look of panic/teacher about to save the day and i quickly said not that kind of allergic, but i swelled up real huge last time, i need mud! so we ran outside with a water bottle and i made mud and put it on my back, and she asked a teacher friend/school nurse for some antihistamine or benadryl and then somehow we or i decided i needed an ice pack.

i sat outside for a while reapplying fresh mud every few minutes. it helped a lot and started pulling the sting sensation out, but it def was super painful all day. after i decided i was done with mud, my right arm was starting to ache from holding such a weird posittion, so i held an ice pack on there for awhile fighting the dead arm ache, then sat in a chair 'just so', so that the back of the chair would keep the icepack in place. although that did a number on my back, more pain. i took 1 benadryl cuz i didnt want to knock myself out and i wasnt sure if id swell or what all might happen, so that was the majority of the afternoon.

when i went back in the classroom after being outside mudding myself, i looked all over to make sure there wasnt a bee, i shook the curtains and checked the bookshelves, i did find one, it was on the outside of the window crawling on the glass, it was HUGE, it was yellow jacket lookingish and was prolly about 1 1/2 inches long, and its stinger was massive, i willed it with my awesome mind powers to not fly in thru the other open window and then it disappeared, i was nervous, not gonna lie.

when i decided i was done with the ice i helped Kristin laminate and cut out decimal monkeys and she did some grading. then i watched her be assistant volleyball coach, i knew if i went back to the lojman i would fall asleep and we had dinner plans, so i just hung out watching the high school girls scrimmage and play volleyball in turkish.

this morning i woke up to it itching something fierce, it was starting to itch when i went to bed, but man, all day i have had to fight with myself to not scratch, and sometimes my fingernails win the fight and give a lil scratchety scratch, man oh man does it ever itch, erghhhh!!!

so now ive been stung by a bee 2x in my entire life, the first time being back in my early/mid twenties, ah crap did i really just say that?! im getting old! although that first time i was attacked by yellow jackets and actually got about 6 stings, but i count it as 'one time'.

sorry turkey, not feelin the love from your flying insects.