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.

home away from home

amazingness of white chocolate covered hazelnuts and toffee ness that i found in the cupboard!

the upholstery on the furniture. pretty, but not the comfiest, the pillows are super stiff

sitting on the couch looking straight across, the patio is there on the right behind the curtains

sitting on the couch in the living room looking towards the kitchen, that doorway behind the chair goes into my bedroom

the back porch aka the dryer that goes with the washer which is located downstairs in a separate area, im assuming a laundry room type place

the lil white tiled kitchen, everything but a microwave, and a baking pan

dont drink the tap water! leave this empty container outside the front door with 5 lira and the water fairy will leave a full one in its place.

cherry/apple juice, yumm yumm in my tumm tumm

local food, some sort of meatball esque thing, yummmm eeeee.

in case you couldnt tell, this is the sink area in the bathroom.

the lil white tiled bathroom, notice the odd cropping in the wall above the necklaces...

the view out the living room window

the view out the back patio window, see the bus stop?

the outside hallway into the apt lobby, i ringed the bell there on the left, its loud.

the threshold into the house and into the kitchen and bathroom, pretty pick marble.

the kitchen counter marble or maybe its granite, i dunno.

the window in the kitchen that opens to nowhere, theres one in the bathroom too (above the necklaces and also seen there across the empty space of nothingness).

there ya have it - kristin's lojman!

wed ens day

so today i woke up at 6 am. unacceptable! i peed and went back to sleep, or tried to for awhile anyways, was finally successful and slept till about 9.

it was insanely windy today. like tornado strength.

i created this blog this morning, and spent some quality time on facebook. yeah i know grief for being online constantly while im on vakay. go ahead judge me, but november is a hugley insane month for advocating one of my passions and im missing out on several big events in the states, yet still have my hands in a bit so im doing what i can from here to be involved with my commitments and all that fun stuff! and yes that was vague on purpose due to the public-ness of my journal. anywhooo

i decided to take some pics of the lojman. i took a nice long hot shower. i cooked something from nothing- a 'talent' that continually marvels kristin. todays creation was chicken carrots broccoli and salami on a bed of balsamic and garlic pasta with feta cheese on top.

when Kristin got home from school, her, Faruk and i went down the campus to a shopping area, kinda like a small mall or strip mall and had dinner. i had something that was similar in texture to a meatloaf yet it was kebap style and tasted nothing like meatloaf, it was quite yummy and had a nice spice kick to it. dinner was served with rolls and a salsa type dip and a creamy mint dill dip, i put the dill dip on my kebap thingy. my dinner had rice, a steamed tomato (yuck) yellow small peppers, onions and 2 more forms of bread and a green steamed pepper. i ate the rice and picked at the bread, im just not a straight up pepper and onion fan, if its mixed in stuff thats fine, but to just eat it like a side dish doesnt really work for me. K and i shared a lentil soup in a bread bowl, i think that makes 4 diff types of bread at dinner! the lentil soup was real smooth and creamy, almost like a squash soup, the flavor was real mild, it was yummy. after dinner we had traditional tea with sugar cubes, i luv that other countries use sugar cubes! we had nice conversationals and then kristin and i jinxed each other by asking for the check please in turkish!

after dinner we went shopping for something for me to wear on saturday. Kristin bought some sweaters, shes not used to the 'cold' coming from AZ the past 7 years. i found a shirt that could work with her black pencil skirt if we dress it up with shoes, an updo and sparkly jewelry.

then we went to the turkey version of home depot to look at paint, kristin wants me to help her paint and decorate the lojman. we admired 6000 dollar showers and bright purple tiles and over toilet shelves and other such home depot esque things, the paint selection was definitely not reminiscent of home depot.

cab ride home and some puzzle making ended the evening. oh yeah and we tried to determine how to get me to anitkabir. kristin doesnt want me to just go out into the city 'blind', apparently the bus system is not user friendly and theres no direct shot to just 'go there', so i tried for a long time to find specific directions to the mausoleum, no such luck, we studied some maps and such and talked about other things to do and places we need to find me directions to so i can start adventurizing!

my belly is full, my back is sore, im having a hard time leaving my broken retainer alone, and theres chocolate in the kitchen. and so ends wed ens day.

oh i almost forgot, i learned today that one is not sick here in turkey, one is ill, sick is a penis, i have definitely not been a penis.

monday/tuesday the 2nd and 3rd

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!

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!

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!!

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).

Merhaba Ankara!!