tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-53482281258602270392024-03-12T19:43:59.808-07:00Kate's Turkish DelightKatie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-28089712295839888222010-03-26T16:57:00.000-07:002010-03-26T16:58:19.861-07:00Essays are Cool!Right, so I def suck at this!! Finished a wonderful chapter of my life called Istanbul almost a year ago, and I still haven't gotten around to tell the finals months! I'm so sorry!!<br />
<br />
BUT!<br />
<br />
I have accidently found a great photo essay of Istanbul that you may enjoy even more than my rambling stories:<br />
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<a href="http://matadortrips.com/photo-essay-the-many-faces-of-istanbul">http://matadortrips.com/photo-essay-the-many-faces-of-istanbul</a><br />
<br />
It captured a handful of great things that make Istanbul so unique.<br />
<br />
Enjoy!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-57955579140864577832009-02-06T06:24:00.000-08:002009-02-06T06:28:58.852-08:00A Series of Random EventsOn Jan. 6th, we celebrated Armenian Christmas! We didn’t have time to exchange gifts before our trip and Mike suggested we do it on the Armenian Christmas Day! We invited Suzie (aka Jeff) and Ginger (aka Grant/Greg) to join in on the holiday! Thanks to Katie’s mom, we had loads of Christmas decorations (tree and a string of colored lights included) to decorate the pad! On top of that, she sent Christmas sugar cookies and icing powder so all we had to do was decorate them with icing and chow down! Since Katie and I had work till 10 that night, Kidman (aka Mike) and Suzy stayed home finishing off the cookies! I guess it’s a good thing these boys have female nicknames! Anyways, after work, we exchanged gifts through cookies and drinks! It really felt like Christmas, especially because these particulars have become my family here!<br /> A few nights later, we kinda threw Katie a surprise bday party at one of our many local watering holes. Katie never does anything for her bday and I knew if we told her, she would try to brush it off and make it another day. So I told her that Ginger, Kidman and I wanted to take her for bday drinks! She blindly agreed to it and we secretly invited the masses! Needless to say, we had quite a crowd gathered for her day! She told me that night that she hadn’t had a bday party since she was 16! So I’m gonna go ahead and call it a successful night! I’m really glad we finally did something for her bday since it’s such a special day that she should really celebrate yearly! On top of that, Suzy had wrote her a hilarious bday poem/story chalked full of inside jokes! He read it to everyone to the tune of ‘Twas A Night Before Christmas’ and the story even fitted the theme!<br /> Next up would be some pretty sweet incidents…literally! One of my classes brought in a fatty bday cake cuz it was this guy’s bday. Then, the following week or two, one girl brought in a fresh baked cake she made for no reason at all. It was still even warm from being so fresh! Then my hilarious level 1 class, that has already ended, brought in baklava! I have this horrible obsession, and I stupidly (well smartly really) told them. Then one day, this kid brought some in!!! They liked making fun of me for liking it, so we all got a good kick out of it! He brought in this huge box too! Now typically, they would bring in a cake or something, but because of my obsession, it was baklava. And bringing in something entails a reason, minus the girl from the other class –uhhh she just likes my class I guess?! Hah! – but he said it was to celebrate getting his driver’s license! Sweet! But Psyche at the same time! Apparently, he was celebrating before he took the test –dumb ass…he failed!! I guess lucky for me he doesn’t know timing for celebrations; otherwise, I would not have gotten any baklava! Mmmm baklava…great, now I want some! I seriously have a piece almost everyday! This website needs to be called Katie’s turning into a piece of baklava, not any of this Turkish Delight stuff!<br /> One of the weeks we went to Babylon (a club in Taksim that always has live music, and it’s smaller so much more intinmate -friends think HOB in SD) to see a well known band here called Baba Zula. They’re a pretty crafty band that plays Turkish music. They’ve been around for like 15 years. They have a singer who plays guitar, a congo drummer, a girl (that Kidman has a crush on) that draws on her mac and is projected on a wall, and every other song or so a belly dancer! They were super entertaining and their music is great! Even Ginger enjoyed it and he can’t stand Turkish music! So I totally thought I went to see this super popular band, they even had a packed building! But when I went to tell my classes, judging by all of their reactions, which was pretty much nonexistent, they are not cool –or no longer cool! Haha! Wow! Did I feel like such a foreigner! Getting all excited to tell my classes this, thought they would be super into it, and all I got was crickets! Lol! But whatev, I like them and I have their cd!<br /> The next big deal was moving!!!!! I think this incident clearly defines bittersweet. Our old flat was absolutely amazing and contemporary and our bedrooms didn’t look out onto other buildings like 5 feet away. The house was in great, newly renovated condition and even hailed painted walls. The location is amazing, we are in the center of coming from either end of Kadikoy and have loads of the cheaper grocery stores near by, not to mention one of my fave baklava places round the corner (oh there goes that obsession)! But the owner of our building must have realized all of this amazingness and told Bulent he wanted back in come February. Luckily, Bulent owns a ton of furnished places all around Moda (neighborhood we live in) and have a few that are empty right now! So he gave us our choice of 2 since he likes us and off we moved…er…uh…I should say he moved us! Ha! We got super lucky! The people before us were moving out on Saturday so we couldn’t move in any sooner. Moving on a Saturday is out of the question for us, however, since we work like dogs the whole day through! So Bulent was like oh no problem, put your bags in a pile on the living room floor (as he motions with his hand a very small area for this small amount of bags we have) and he’ll take it over for us! Saweet! Now we don’t have to lug everything over ourselves!! We’re seriously a few blocks away from the old pad, but the hull over with all of our crap wouldn’t be a pretty one on foot! Speaking of pile of crap…lol! So he motions this tiny little area right, well we don’t even own a bag that small! Instead, he wound up with more than half of our living room floor FULL of bags! I guess you could say we have accumulated quite a bit of things since the move in! –lots of my accumulation is due to papers and papers of material since the book we must use is complete crap (and I mean that crap in a very literal way, not like our load of crap called luggage!) Anyways, the poor guy must have had a heart attack when he walked in that morning! Yowsas!<br /> So this new place of ours is pretty sweet but lacking in loads! First off, its def more of what we thought we were first going to move into. Meaning, it’s old and very Turkish looking. It badly needs to be renovated and the furniture he has in here is pretty old and cruddy. The walls are a yucky white with brown trim everywhere. The living room is huge but they forgot to think about the bedrooms when building –or so Katie and I believe. They built this great flat, and then towards the end, ran out of room and was like oh crap! We gotta build bedrooms still and randomly divided up the space! And I mean random! And the kitchen, dude I swear I’m stepping into my Tante’s cottage each time (Aunt Jemimaaahhhh!)! The décor is crazy! But it’s sweet cuz this one’s bigger so we can fit more than one person in and comfortably! The best BEST part of our flat is right now, we can see the Blue Mosque and the Aya Sofia from our balcony at night!!! Holla!! Our balcony (if you turn right) faces a park (wha?! A park?! In Istanbul?! That’s crazy talk! I can’t even believe it!). There’s all of these trees surrounding it (again, another strange, strange thing here!)!! Since it’s winter, there are no leaves on the trees, so at night we can see across the Bosphorous the BM and the AS! Holla! Plus, we live at the bottom of a peninsula, so if you stretch out over our balcony to the left, you can see the Maramara Sea! Sweet hook up!! I think I can make due with being farther away from everything and all of the other drawbacks I’ve mentioned because of that, easy! Plus Kidman actually has a big bedroom now that has windows to the outdoors instead of my room (though I have the itsy bitsy room now)! And by tomorrow, our second, yes SECOND, bathroom will be working!! Which will be amazing when all of these visitors come and stay –esp at the end of March! That could be an ugly wait! Though only one shower, and for whatever reason, the hot water never lasts! Oh cold showers…mmmmm what a way to end a shower….<br /> So the next part would be to tell you how we completely trashed the place on the second night in, and I mean seriously though! But remember the fact that we got a bunch of old stuff going on in here, so it’s all just waiting to break –right?! We threw an early birthday sort of party play for Ginger. Mike has just gone home for a month (which sucks mucho!) so we needed to do this before he left, which turns out to be the second night in the new pad! Suzie came up with having an interactive play for him. He did it before back at home and decided that we should try it out on Ginger. So he and Kidman wrote an entire script, making fun on of the original Manchester Candidate film, and wrote Ginger as the star of the play. But Ginger doesn’t know it! So it’s this huge surprise, and you throw the person into it and you start the play and stay in character for the whole thing, despite how the person reacts! So we got a group together, even practiced several times, the night of we had props and costumes, and then we surprised him with the play! He reacted great and played along with the whole thing, though in utter shock! It was a complete success and absolutely hilarious! Luckily Jim’s gf video-taped the whole thing for us, so one day you can see this 20 minute play of ours! It’s hilarious! The best birthday idea ever, even if that makes me now sound like one of them drama geeks!<br /> I played Janet Lee from the movie, so my lines were full of super random sentences! Jim is an insanely good actor and played a drunk better than an actual drunk! Suzie played the really controlling mother with the nagging voice and wig and all! Katie played this girl that was obsessed with Ginger. Mike played the push over of a husband to Suzie. Padric, whose like 7 feet tall and super skinny, played a Korean fresh off the boat! Owen played an obnoxious Scottsman, and he even had the duty of going out and dragging Ginger over here in character (btw they are more of acquaintances and Ginger was thinking he was going to find Katie at the bar)! Ben played a Blacksmith’s wife –don’t ask, but he mainly got to scream it out in an old hag voice while selling roses! We had some other characters as well, but not important to mention. So it was a smaller group, but the perfect amount! Everyone was super excited at the end and I think we’re going to make it a bday tradition! Even the guys that weren’t to into it were the ones to suggest such an idea! So much fun and really more touching for the receiver –it’s really a play for one person! Now that is love!<br />K, so back to immediately ruining the house: so of course, we drank after and that night turned into a super crazy night! A chair, a ladle, a long scratch on our table, a hard plastic chair off the patio was broken in many a places, some prop we had for the play, oh and a wine glass! Lol! I have nooo idea! What really got us, is that this one chair that is just waiting to collapse, with stood the test of time (or party I guess) and somehow didn’t break!! So ya, good night!! Now I’m only worried for the actually bday party for Ginger’s that we have to host next week…there’s going to be a ton of people here! Dun dun dun…<br /> A part from that, we’re getting ready for all of our visitors coming! Soo stoked! Manisha is coming next week already!! So awesome! It really sucks that Kidman is gone for so long, and on top of that won’t get to meet two friends. But, it works out great for them because now they have their own room to sleep in!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-48535328423727237672009-01-08T10:35:00.000-08:002009-01-08T11:39:48.924-08:00A Budapestiful Christmas and New Years!Yay! Budapest!<br />WAIT!!!!!!!!!<br />Make sure you read my post below! I posted the one below minutes before this one! These all take loads of time to do! Plus you just gotta read my life chronologically yo!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLtVvsgyI/AAAAAAAAAQo/RuUCVFDNnX8/s1600-h/CIMG8361.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLtVvsgyI/AAAAAAAAAQo/RuUCVFDNnX8/s320/CIMG8361.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288998054696616738" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR9PlXCWI/AAAAAAAAASI/9IudIw3O-bo/s1600-h/IMG_2255.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR9PlXCWI/AAAAAAAAASI/9IudIw3O-bo/s320/IMG_2255.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289004924990327138" border="0" /></a><br />So off Katie, Grant and I go to Budapest! Yup! Just the 3 of us. We were hoping for more, but due to some unfortunate and uncontrollable circumstances, others could no longer make it. Budapest was super lovely though, it reminded me of a bigger Prague only dirtier. The beautiful, beautiful architectured buildings are creamed with dirt and graffiti. It was pretty sad to see. Also, it was FREEZING! With no snow, any sort of cold just sucks! It made it really hard to want to go anywhere! Not only that, but everything was pretty much shut down the whole time! Everything was closed on the 24th (our arrival date) and the 25th for Christmas day, and the majority of things were closed down on the 26th. So that limited us quite a bit! Also, things shut down early on New Years Eve, like 2pm early, if they were even open at all, and closed the next day –actually we heard most would be closed until the 5th of January! Mainly, people celebrate the holidays with their families in their houses –so it made the town pretty desolate for most of the time. After coming from a busy, crowded, and noisy Istanbul, it felt like the world had ended and we were the only ones left! I was also hoping to make some friends at the hostel to hang out with and leave Katie and Greg on their own, but there wasn’t really anybody until New Years. So that was a bit of a bummer. But the hostel staff was super duper cool and the hostel was awesome! So I managed to talk with them lots! Actually, one of them, Scott, is also a DJ from LA. He literally mapped out one of our nights (Katie and Greg’s place was across the street from the main hostel that I stayed in)! It was such an awesome night! Greg was going crazy white-boy dancing/jumping/flailing about! It was both hilarious and embarrassing! Lol! At one point he came up to Katie and I and was like “Out of the whole year of 2008 this is the best night! The whole year!” Haha!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZSxtoeGDI/AAAAAAAAASQ/3H21jdwZCRI/s1600-h/IMG_2059.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZSxtoeGDI/AAAAAAAAASQ/3H21jdwZCRI/s320/IMG_2059.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289005826409633842" border="0" /></a><br />After getting settled in to our hostels, we walked around looking for open things. We took a gorgeous night walk along the Danube River to Vaci St, the main shopping street, where we were told we should be able to find some sort of restaurant open. Sure enough we did! It was a cozy pub filled with tourists! Naturally, I ordered sausage! And we all got NON-Efes beers! Mmmmm! What a rare delight for us over here!<br /> Christmas day was more walking and wishing for things to be open. I really wanted to go to a Christmas Market while they were still open (most shut for good by Christmas day) and while we were in a Christian country. So we went to the biggest one, only most of it was closed! But! The food places were open, and ooooweeee that was worth it! They had huge, huge sausages, lots of giant and super tasty potatoes, and both white and red mulled wines to warm you up –you can openly drink anywhere there! Oh so good! Afterwards, we walked around the Jewish quarter. On our way back we stumbled upon an Irish bar around the corner from our hostel. Unfortunately it was also closed, but we did manage to go back several times there after! That night we exchanged presents at Katie and Greg’s as we watched super cheesy MTV music videos from the early 90s! Anyways, I called it a night pretty early, wanting to let them have a Christmas night together –so I went back to the hostel as they went out to eat.<br />The next day we walked over to Margaret Island. It has some<br />historical ruins on it and was super pretty just to see lots of greenery and trees, which Istanbul so lacks! We walked the whole of the island and decided that we needed to defrost in a bad way. So we decided to take our chances at the Irish bar. It was open and great! Caught some football (soccer) games and enjoyed cider!!! Yay!!! Cider!! So exciting!<br />The next day we went to the Gellert Bath House. Budapest is known for its natural baths, and I decided it was necessary to go to one! Plus I slept really badly the night before and wound up with a kink in my neck! I got a massage as well, it was only 20 mins long, but well worth every penny and every second! Oh baby! It was good! Otherwise, I’m going to say I like the Turkish baths better. The Budapest ones were just that, baths. The Turkish have some baths, but it’s mainly steam room style as you wait your turned to be scrubbed down and massaged –I guess I just like the massage part of it! Plus, in the Hungarian baths, you have to stare at saggy old women all day that no one should ever have to see nakie. Whether you’re looking or not, there’s no avoiding it! Yuk!<br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLvO3yzXI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/c7DlYeFmNoY/s1600-h/CIMG8428.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLvO3yzXI/AAAAAAAAAQ4/c7DlYeFmNoY/s320/CIMG8428.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288998087211273586" border="0" /></a><br />Then we went back to the same Christmas market and it was opened! So awesome! Lots of tiny little wooden shacks with random arts and crafts for sale along side some amazing food places! Of course we had to chow down on some more sausage!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLvvyLH0I/AAAAAAAAARA/MDVIhyv3kec/s1600-h/CIMG8430.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZLvvyLH0I/AAAAAAAAARA/MDVIhyv3kec/s320/CIMG8430.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288998096046071618" border="0" /></a><br />We even got in a long ass line for this special Christmas treat! It’s this dough wrapped around this round metal thing and slowly turned over the fire. Then you get your choice of cinnamon, sugar, chocolate or pecan toppings. I got a cinnamon one! Mmmm, kinda tasted like the mini donuts on Pier 39, only without the poof in it. Yum! That night we went to Szimpla (this underground, grungy looking, crazily cheap bar) and Corvin (enclosed rooftop club) that Scott had suggested us to go; whereupon Greg had the best night of his 08 ever!<br /> The next day I let Katie and Ginger do their own thing. I took my time getting ready and talked to one of the girls that worked there for a while –actually she owns the place. So that was nice. I then just went over to the nearby mall as I only had a few hours until I had to meet Katie and Greg at the Irish bar. After a few drinks there we hit up a Japanese food place for dinner! Also very exciting –again deprived of any sort of Asian here even though we live on the Asian side! Weird! I think that night we called it an early one and I went back and talked to 2 girls I met. They had all of this boy drama going on and just had to tell me all of it every chance they got! It was pretty funny and I’m not sure why they were so interested in telling me! Haha! They were amusing!<br /> Next, we went to Statue Park. They took all of these giant communist statues that were once placed all over the city to this park on Pest side, located far away and up a mountain, after the war. That was by far the coldest day ever, and I wasn’t so thrilled to do an outdoor thing! Hah! But I sucked it up and it was cool to see the enormous statues! There was frost everywhere but no snow, though it did make it gorgeous!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOTbyj1yI/AAAAAAAAARI/nctI_YeP-WI/s1600-h/CIMG8448.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOTbyj1yI/AAAAAAAAARI/nctI_YeP-WI/s320/CIMG8448.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289000908177528610" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOTiTNIFI/AAAAAAAAARQ/3KHeiMm3Jow/s1600-h/CIMG8452.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOTiTNIFI/AAAAAAAAARQ/3KHeiMm3Jow/s320/CIMG8452.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289000909925064786" border="0" /></a><br />That whole day Katie and I were planning on going for Mexican food! We even had a count down going all day long! We were even more excited because we decided to go to this Mexican place Scott suggested to me. He told me that a Californian guy owns this place! Yay! Authentic! If you can find Mexican in Istanbul you’re going to get yogurt instead of sour cream, need I say more?! But we wound up at the Irish bar for get your body warm drinks before hand and never left! We ended up hanging out with the band that plays there and hangs out there on a regular basis. They were just hanging out at the bar, drinking and talking when they started singing and one was playing the guitar (one guy is Irish and the other is Hungarian that knows English). They weren’t performing, just singing for fun. They even played some Dave Matthews! Katie even mentioned how she likes Jon’s voice over Dave Matthews to Grey Street! I tell you, they’re good! Anyways, they came over and talked and sang some more, their other friends filtered out not too long after as it was a work night. So we really only hung out with 2 of them in the end. It was a lot of fun! Plus we got 2 shots of nasty Polinka, the special and strong Hungarian alcohol. Oy-vay! Nasty! But it turned out quite nice after the cheap shots of it we got on New Years….<br /> Another day I left Katie and Grant to be together and did my own thing. I would have done it many more times, but they needed my money. Greg managed to get a replacement credit card in time, but it only let him take out so much money –good ol’ banks, tell them your out of country and you still can’t get anything out, and Katie had nada, so I couldn’t leave them. Anyways, my day solo I went to the Ethnography Museum, St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the Opera House, and walked up to Castle Hill to meet Greg and Katie at the Hungarian House of Wines.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR8J_qxKI/AAAAAAAAAR4/Ijl2IahCi9E/s1600-h/IMG_2318.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR8J_qxKI/AAAAAAAAAR4/Ijl2IahCi9E/s320/IMG_2318.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289004906310190242" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOT9YDESI/AAAAAAAAARY/o8mOgsAjibQ/s1600-h/CIMG8478.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOT9YDESI/AAAAAAAAARY/o8mOgsAjibQ/s320/CIMG8478.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289000917193134370" border="0" /></a><br />Which major bummer: it was closed!! So we had a warm mulled wine at some place and made our way down Castle Hill, wound up at some hole in the wall pub –had a ridiculously cheap glass of tasty wine and literally ran to the Chinese place! We were doing sprints we would have to do when we were all on sports teams in high school! Haha! Hey! It was cold out! We literally feasted family style at the Chinese place! There was way too much food for the 3 of us to eat, but we polished it off like champs! Hey! We’re deprived in Istanbul! The Chinese food was great, not the usual -but all in all, amazing!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR89zi70I/AAAAAAAAASA/-FYpkPKn5ts/s1600-h/IMG_2302.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZR89zi70I/AAAAAAAAASA/-FYpkPKn5ts/s320/IMG_2302.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289004920217988930" border="0" /></a><br /> A few days prior, Scott also told me about his New Years Eve plans and invited us along! So I was super stoked to have others around that we knew for the holiday! Plus going to a place a dj knows, you know it’s gotta be good! Right?! It was electronic music and was super! Only everyone there was like 15! Lol! Scott has only been in Budapest for 5 months (before that Prague) and has never made it to Traffo, the place we were at. He had heard great things about it –even the hostel staff mentioned how great it is, but once we got there, all of us were like oh crap! It’s a kiddy club! But the music was soo good! Plus we already paid to get in and we didn’t know where else to go and actually make it into before midnight! So we decided to stay! Plus they had free Polinka shots ready to go at the door! At one point Greg came down (dance in basement, enter at ground floor), and said he saw older people waiting in line to come in! So after a few minutes, Scott, Evan and I decided to go check out upstairs to see if other dance rooms were filled with older people. Sure enough, empty, but we managed to quickly grab more Polinka shots on our way down! We proceeded to do this a few more times! Also, some chick knocked over 4 of our beers –which I don’t think she really did, but she felt so bad and went and bought all of us another round! So that was sweet! The countdown was in Hungarian, of course, but I didn’t know the numbers, so it didn’t feel like a countdown, or maybe I was just to drunk to know it… However, we did get a free glass of champagne at midnight!<br />Anyways, stumbled back with really only enough time for a catnap before it was time to leave and catch the plane. By morning, the ground had a good dusting of snow on it, and it was absolutely gorgeous –plus no longer cold! It was a perfect ending, minus the bad hangover!<br /> Unfortunately, we didn’t get to go to Parliament.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOUuBDEII/AAAAAAAAARg/_AGGXKhUs6Q/s1600-h/CIMG8456.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZOUuBDEII/AAAAAAAAARg/_AGGXKhUs6Q/s320/CIMG8456.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5289000930250002562" border="0" /></a><br />I almost went on my day alone, but knew Katie and Ginger would want to do it so I waited it out. The day we were going to go was closed due to the New Years holiday. I also didn’t make it to some other places I would have enjoyed, primarily because it was all freaking closed! But I did really enjoy the things I did see, and have more waiting for me to go back to…in the summer months…someday! The hostel was one of the best ones I’ve ever stayed at and it was super homey, which helped make the holiday. Plus, the morning we had to leave to catch our plane, we were eating our free breakfast at the hostel and this new Japanese guy was sitting next to me. When Katie came, she brought me two leftover packages of ketchup from McD’s from one drunken nights as a joke (Turkish ketchup is not ketchup). This guy immediately pickups up my ketchup without asking or hesitation and opens it up and spreads it on his buttered bread!!! Lol! Katie and I looked at each other in utter shock, dumbfoundment and had to hold our laughing in, I think I teared. We couldn’t tell him since he was chowing down, nodding his head with satisfaction! Plus he even went for seconds!! So he must have enjoyed it! Lol! Yuk! There’s a hungover treat for anyone to see! Yum! Haha! I really do wonder if that next morning he asked the staff for some more of that red spread and wound up confused with jam...lol!<br />Upon return, Katie and I showered and watched movies. Mike brought back a giant chocolate cake for Katie’s bday and we sung to her with a match as our candle! Katie finally got 1 of 4 big boxes her family sent her, in it lots of American grub that makes anybody’s mouths water. We enjoyed chips and salsa and then bed!<br />Getting back to work is always draining, but it’s fun to see my classes.Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-50385192657142516452009-01-08T09:48:00.000-08:002009-01-08T10:35:17.678-08:00The Rest of Bayram up till BudapestI gotta few holidays to catch you up on, so much happened in the month of December and all I did was blink my eyes!<br /><br />So we’ll get you finished off with the Kurban Bayram (a sacrificial holiday), which had started when I last wrote:<br />This holiday can be very controversial and most students don’t even like talking about it. I think of it as a horrible yet good holiday. They sacrifice animals and give the most of the meat to the poor, or mainly, those that have less than them. They buy an animal, whether a cow or a goat or lamb, slit it’s throat, let it slowly die, skin it, chop it up, plastic bag it, and give it away…but out in the open for anybody to see -done by the masses (masses of animal load, not masses of people hacking). I believe there’s supposed to be this ceremony for it done with your family, but now they pretty much just hire a guy to do it for them. A few of us were going to go to our friend’s to watch the sacrifice, but fortunately enough, their grandpa had decided not to do it this year. I say fortunately enough, because I saw WAY, WAY, WAY to many slaughterings on the actual day they sacrifice. Michael, Podre and I went to the Greek quarter, Fener, on that Monday to walk around, check it out, and hit up some historical sites. Welp! That’s not so innocent as it sounds! This area of Fener is super poor. People seriously hold their houses up with anything they could find:<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-hrCJcII/AAAAAAAAAP4/7dgHBNhp6Og/s1600-h/CIMG8040.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-hrCJcII/AAAAAAAAAP4/7dgHBNhp6Og/s320/CIMG8040.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288983560601563266" border="0" /></a><br />Since they don’t really have a home, they don’t really have a yard to sacrifice.<br />Firstly, we stumbled on a big group of guys literally hacking away at cows, axe and all, in a yard next to Constantine Lips Mosque. Mike and I were super excited, as we thought the slaughter day had already passed and we didn’t see any (I initially just wanted to see one, I have a strong stomach and have seen some nasty and inhumane things before, so one shouldn’t be a problem…plus it’s for the poor). So at first, it was really interesting to see what they do. Which again, the sanitary laws are extremely lacking in this country. So after sneaking several pics in (if you dare to see any of these pics from my day’s event, please email me, otherwise I don’t want to make you a vegetarian with out you being ready for it!). We didn’t see any sort of ceremony, just large sheets of plastic covering the pavement and one area where they seriously axe the cow to pieces, and another area where they lay the meat in piles. Then an area where the hide is laying before they roll it up, bag it, and toss it –no Indian about them, they throw out whatever’s not edible. So after being stunned and awed and felt we were watching –hiding in bushes, we take off to our next destination. As we are touring about, catching some great churches turned mosques with Christian mosaics fighting to stay on walls, we get deeper and deeper into poverty. Kids rule this area and all somehow seem to know a fair bit of English. They light up and yell hello! at us. The whole day tiny kids were staring in awe and talking to us! They were so cute, except for when they whipped out their fake guns and started shooting at each other! Seriously, all of these boys had a fake gun! One of them was dressed like the Godfather (he was walking with his family and they were all dressed up for something). As we are about to pass him, he reaches into his chest pocket, whips out a real-looking gun, and pretends to shoot someone across the street. I still can’t believe myself. This kid did it like he was from the movies or something –he even had that slow stroll of a walk with all this confidence, all was needed was that background music! Watch out Brad Pitt! I can’t understand why they’re allowed to do this!!!! Anyways, so we had decided to get lost on our way to each place. Instead of taking the main road, we would just stumble our way there through the crazy streets. As we are walking along, saying hello to all of little Istanbul, we would randomly catch a glimpse of more slaughterings. They had to take over car repair garages and what not, as they were the only ones with a big open area. This pretty much means it was street side due to the lack of walls. There were many instances where blood had filled the streets just like a slow moving river reaching towards the drain. Sirin, a Turkish-English teacher, told Mike that just a few years ago the streets were filled with blood, slaughterings everywhere, and the smell was unbearable. We thought this was just an over exaggeration, but after what we saw, we learned very quickly that she was only telling the truth -not even giving full detail! There was a point where Mike tried to walk around a puddle of blood on the sidewalk and didn’t even notice he was only walking in it! Another time I halted in my steps and Mike bumped into me as I jammed on the brakes before I splashed into a big stream of blood. No exaggeration!<br /> We stopped for lunch at this dirt-cheap place, and these kids came in to eat. One of them even came up to us like he was 50 years old to shake each of our hands (I think all of the kids in Fener are in some sort of mafia). So cute though –not the mafia part but how old this young kid acted! Anyways, after we ate our thin-crusted lamb pizza-like-food, Lamacun, and saw a goat shoved into a closed restaurant across the street, we took off to our next destination. Only 2 doors down, I saw the worst thing in my life. It was enough to make the strongest of stomachs puke and was the prime reason I became a vegetarian for over a week. So if you have a weak stomach, which I don’t, don’t read this next part:<br /><br />There were several cows being cut by a big group of men. One of them had its neck cut open; we must have missed the slit of the throat by 2 minutes. The worst part was this young cow was facing us, so we had a clear shot of its blood gushing out of its neck. Pieces of it coming were out as we had a good look into its neck. Only now, and I strongly urge you not to read this part, it wasn’t dead. It laid there still, but every few seconds, it would try to move, struggling to stay alive. It proceeded to do this, for what seemed like a lifetime. What made it super eerie was these animals don’t make any noise, they just seem sad, knowing they are about to die. So this cow struggling for its life didn’t even make the slightest peep of pain. There was this other cow, dead, right behind it and these guys were kinda struggling, trying to cut its leg off. These people just seemed like it was a natural, every day thing to do. -That was another amazing thing. They didn’t even really change their clothes! There was this one guy nicely dressed whom we talked to for directions. As he was directing us, actually he ended up walking us half way there (I tell you these streets are crazy!), I noticed that he had drops of blood on his shirt! Actually, that was a warm up! We saw these two little girls at one point, probably aged 5 and 7, they were so excited to see us and they started staring and talking to us. One of girl’s finger tops were all stained red and she was sucking on them. No joke! For the rest of the day, we were trying to figure out if it was really blood or not…<br />On our way back to the ferry, we walked by this dumpster, piled high to the brim of bloody bags with, no not a cherry on top, but 2 cow hooves attached to its ankles. In an open bag next to it were cow guts. The gut looked like it was ready to explode the gasiousest of farts. So needless to say, Mike and I, and Podre for that matter, got our sacrifice-seeing share. Just the very first one would have sufficed for a lifetime!<br /><br />*OK TO READ NOW:<br /> The rest of the night I was really disturbed and trying to figure out if I could put a piece of meat in my mouth again. Now you might be thinking this happens all of the time in actual slaughtering houses to the very meat we buy and eat everyday. But after witnessing such an inhumane way to sacrifice these poor animals, with the eerie silence and the sheer amount of massacres I saw that day, I think my questioning is allowed! Even just questioning it is being nice! I think the only reason I can, which I have to keep reminding myself, is we saw a family of gypsies all carrying sacks of meat over their shoulders they received as donation from some passer-by. That was really nice to see the end result in that way. I only wish I saw more that one family being donated to to help ease the disgust…<br /> On a lighter note, we did get taken in by this mosque’s caretaker and shown one of the rooms he has locked off. Apparently 2 big emporers were buried there which they have marked off with caution tape, no engravings or headstones. We were also shown tiny remains of a mosaic that was done in the Byzantine times. Apparently there are a lot of secret things buried through out various mosques and you either have to ask the caretaker, hoping he’ll take you in, or be at the right place at the right time to get grabbed in to be shown! Pretty crazy!<br />All killings a side, my holiday was pretty relaxing. It’s nice just being a tourist here! We even got to go out on the weekend, which are our busiest days, so we’ve never got to experience this wild nightlife we always hear people raging about! We hit up Taksim, the big clubbing area, both Friday and Saturday night! A bigger group of us went out on Friday and we went pretty much all night! It was loads of fun! We wound up at this café turned club and danced the night away! Actually, I should say laser sworded the night away! They had glow sticks all over the ground and I immediately pick it up and started laser swording people! Others followed suit, even the 2 Turkish people I befriend (one of them jumped into our group picture and when I looked at it I thought it was hilarious! So I ran and hugged her laughing as I would have done the samething!)!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-hKwwZrI/AAAAAAAAAPw/WiHkxdGTB-A/s1600-h/CIMG7946.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-hKwwZrI/AAAAAAAAAPw/WiHkxdGTB-A/s320/CIMG7946.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288983551938684594" border="0" /></a><br />For the whole night I made sure my friends kept sword fighting, poking at them if they stopped to real dance! Unfortunately, on the way back to catch a dolmus (or mini bus that’s really just a giant van), Katie and Grant decided that they needed another beer and disappeared before we knew they were gone. Somewhere along the way, the 2 of them were pick-pocketed. Losing both their money, credit cards and ID. Katie also got her residency permit stolen. Luckily they weren’t hurt, they just somehow didn’t feel or were aware that anything of the sort was being done to them. The biggest blow was Budapest being a little over a week away and me being the only one with money. Luckily Katie was able to get her residency permit expedited, so she had no problems leaving or entering the country. A part from that, we all had a great night and Katie and Grant even came out the next night! No one got their things stolen, but Katie did manage to lose her phone at the beginning of the night! Can you say bad weekend for Katie?! Though the phone thing was inevitable for her: something always happens to her phone right around New Years!<br /> The rest of the week was pretty quiet as it got super cold and was pretty rainy. We spent most days in and recovering from the night before. I did manage to hang out with Chloe one day and we grabbed some “Mexican” food (boy is that hard to find) and went to a really weird art museum –which has become our tradition. We always wind up at really strange museums and walking out not to long after going what the heck did we just see?! Always good fun! I also got some more sightseeing in, most importantly, the Blue Mosque!!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-ke1e3VI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/6Gx1MvJq5pM/s1600-h/CIMG8234.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-ke1e3VI/AAAAAAAAAQQ/6Gx1MvJq5pM/s320/CIMG8234.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288983608866823506" border="0" /></a><br />I’ve been meaning to get there for quite some time, but I wanted to wait for the tourist season to die down and go on a day I had loads of time to really appreciate it. That day I also went to the Mosaic Museum and some arts and crafts building thing, both were a major let down. Yet I did see the Basilica Cistern, which is by far one of the best pieces of history I’ve seen out of all of my worldly travels! Something about just felt so real.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-jngO6vI/AAAAAAAAAQI/4txlGK6oxys/s1600-h/CIMG8165.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-jngO6vI/AAAAAAAAAQI/4txlGK6oxys/s320/CIMG8165.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288983594013747954" border="0" /></a><br />Oh! And another day Katie and I walked around a whole different area of Sultanhamet, which was super gorgeous and it felt way European! That was great! We kept trying to look for cafes at the top of hotels for good views and we almost got sucked into getting a Turkish bath! We somehow slipped out and wound up at some other place with this super gorgeous view of the Blue Mosque and Aya Sofia. Saweet!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-jH2WK0I/AAAAAAAAAQA/3mnWW9m1Cy8/s1600-h/CIMG8145.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWY-jH2WK0I/AAAAAAAAAQA/3mnWW9m1Cy8/s320/CIMG8145.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288983585516563266" border="0" /></a><br />The whole week off came and went way too fast as most holidays do. Within a few days I got a call from one of my favorite people in the world’s friend saying he was in town. Lauren goes to Yale and has a friend that decided to up and travel over this way. She gave him my contact info and sure enough, he did! He was staying on the Euro side, but after talking with him and finding out how he was already annoyed of being haggled after 2 just days here and how he just loved to hear English, we thought we better bring back to our side where he can have beers with our English speaking friends! He got wasted that night and crashed on our couch –thanks to Raki! Though most people got wasted that night….Jeff (also known as Suzy) taped any and everything to Mike’s bedroom walls and ceiling when we got back from the bar! Lol! We’ve been slowly taking things down as we need it: say a shoe for example, the toilet bowl scrubber, ladle…! Lol! Zahir stayed a few more nights at our place and then went off to Cappadoccia –which I almost went with on my days off, but since I had to supply the money for the upcoming and Budapest trip, I decided it was best for my bank account not to go. All in all, it was really neat to meet one of Lauren’s good friends from Yale (can’t wait for you to visit Laur!)!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZAGM8-iiI/AAAAAAAAAQY/bFiL3nhTZvI/s1600-h/CIMG8332.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZAGM8-iiI/AAAAAAAAAQY/bFiL3nhTZvI/s320/CIMG8332.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288985287693601314" border="0" /></a><br />Anyways, that Wednesday me, Jeff, Mike, Ginger (also known as Grant, er Greg) and the other Katie went to see the Whirling Dirvishes. That was super disappointing and I struggled to stay awake, and Greg won’t admit it, but he fell asleep. Now don’t get me wrong, I love their way of worshipping God, but for someone watching: snooze fest! They make it appear on pictures that they whirl super fast, but they do it pretty slowly and the songs last a lifetime! Ouch! I think we were overcharged but I must say it was pretty cool to at least witness it. Plus I learned a little bit about it before going, and it’s quite interesting.<br />That weekend one of my classes going to end and my students wanted to have a party. They came in with this giant gourmet cake, with lit candles that they made me blow out; some chips, and soda! Now most students just want to leave after the exam but they wanted to stay and say bye to me! They were really upset when they found out I couldn’t be their level 3 teacher! Though it might be a good thing, because on this cake they stuck a card in it that reads, “We love you Katie! Don’t forget we!” lol! CRINGE!! Haha! They also kept telling me not to forget them and wouldn’t believe me when I told them that I wouldn’t!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZAGR_MWOI/AAAAAAAAAQg/zXZxz8Jj1eE/s1600-h/CIMG8340.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SWZAGR_MWOI/AAAAAAAAAQg/zXZxz8Jj1eE/s320/CIMG8340.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5288985289045072098" border="0" /></a><br />That Sunday, my friends Jim and Owen invited us over for an “Egg Nog Soiree”. Another thing I miss about Christmas here is no Egg Nog. So the boys conjured some up alcohol and all! Mike and I rushed over after class with Jim –whereby Owen greeted us with a giant bowl of it! We also convinced our Turkish-English teacher friends, Sirin and Yelize to come and try some! The next day Yelize wanted more! Jim’s gf, Basak, was also there. We were supposed to have Timtams (amazing Aussie cookies. Jim is an Aussie and this boy doesn’t shut up about them. His parents only send him one package at a time and he has to continually hide them from Basak cuz she’ll eat them all on him!). Basak remembered that we still didn’t have our Timtam day so she busted them out! I don’t think one can say enough about them! Soo soo sooo tasty!! Must have more!!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-51042561853618987092008-12-23T07:09:00.000-08:002008-12-23T08:04:36.150-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SVD_h6uLeGI/AAAAAAAAAOo/rbxKObnG3UI/s1600-h/CIMG3237_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 230px; height: 400px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SVD_h6uLeGI/AAAAAAAAAOo/rbxKObnG3UI/s400/CIMG3237_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283003321069303906" border="0" /></a><br />Another dear and loved family member of mine has passed as I'm away on my adventures abroad. My grandfather, Allan Campbell, has passed on Dec. 19th. At a mighty age of 92 his heart of a horse finally gave out. As it makes me yearn for home even more during this Christmas season, I have been able to find peace and happiness in knowing that it was for the best as the last decade of his life can be defined as a vegetable. I know I speak for the entire family when I say we have loads of hilarious memories of him that we will cherish for the rest of our lives. I will never forget his deep voice and a mouth bearing no teeth in each summer (visit) morning as his caved in face would say "Why hi-lo there Ky-tee!" and freak me out at my young age -year after year! He will always be loved and we all will hold each memory dear and deep within our hearts until we meet him again. Until then, he will be truly missed and will remain the basis to which I can say: I am a Campbell.<br /><br />I wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas and a love-filled New Year! Enjoy your time with all of your friends and family. I can't wait to see all of you again and I <span style="font-style: italic;">order</span> each of you to not die while I'm gone!!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SVEK7mM-JdI/AAAAAAAAAOw/08BFupiQiBs/s1600-h/CIMG4572.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SVEK7mM-JdI/AAAAAAAAAOw/08BFupiQiBs/s320/CIMG4572.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5283015856865813970" border="0" /></a>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-24960941088033353742008-12-09T07:18:00.000-08:002008-12-11T10:01:30.119-08:00KetchupAre you ready for a whirlwind tour of my life since Oktoberfest? Well strap your pants on! Stand up sit down, do a little dance, brush your teeth (proven fact that it helps you read better -like coffee stunts your growth and I’ve been drinking it since the 3rd grade and I’m giant!) go on, do it and read:<br /><br />1.)Oktoberfest was nothing short of <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jfDVr3UI/AAAAAAAAANg/Td82RzaWJbM/s1600-h/IMG_1541.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jfDVr3UI/AAAAAAAAANg/Td82RzaWJbM/s320/IMG_1541.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277835567192333634" border="0" /></a>Ahh-mazing! Both of them! Katie and I went to Munich and Stuttgart. Mom, you are worried about losing me to Istanbul, well it’s got nothing on Stuttgart! <img src="file:///Users/katie/Desktop/IMG_1541.JPG" alt="" />It's gorgeous and I feel so at home in Germany! Unfortunately we didn't get to tour around Munich because by the time we arrived and got situated, it was time to drink! We met some really fun people at both fests and had a crazy time drinking with them!<br /> Oooo speaking of feeling so at home I think I can pick up the language really fast! At the Stuttgart Oktoberfest, we hung out with a group of Germans. At one point they started speaking in German instead of English and I was able to participate in the conversation -though I only spoke English back. But they kept replying in German and the conversation kept on for a while! I guess the alcohol just brought back all that I had lost from when I was little....<br /> We also enjoyed real huge tasty sausages atleast once a day, and trust me when I say I mean more like twice a day, not to mention the real, freshly baked buns that come with it! Wooooweeee!!<br /> Everyone was so holly and jolly while drinking together! And these costumes they wore! So many people in the traditional dresses and laiderhosen! Awesome! All ages<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jdyKrC1I/AAAAAAAAANQ/9kaN6JepZhk/s1600-h/CIMG6828.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jdyKrC1I/AAAAAAAAANQ/9kaN6JepZhk/s320/CIMG6828.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277835545402870610" border="0" /></a> too! There would be groups of people my age and walking around like it was normal! Even men covered in tattoos; you know the ones that try to be all tough and then they have laiderhosen on! Haha!<br /> In Munich, I went on rides that one sober would have problems going through! We met some crazy English boys on a bachelor party weekend at the Munich Oktoberfest, and they were absolutely hilarious! They were also responsible for me going on these rides I should have died on (I'm not sure what happened to Katie at that point. We were walking and suddenly she was gone! Apparently she met some group of Spanish or English girls and hung out with them!)!! One in particular was a fun house...er...“fun” mountain we’ll call it. I’m not sure how I survived it, nor really remember waiting in line for it, but I did have the bruises to show for it! I also thought I could wrestle with one of them, who is a really really big guy, needless to say I wound up thrown over his shoulders! The beers were huge and tasty, but as if that wasn’t enough, we even got served apricot brandy shots with whipped cream on top in little mini beer mugs. Again, like the rides, why this was such a good idea, we shall never know. Apparently, the gigantor mugs of beer were not enough!<br />Here’s a clip of merry men!:<br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwOl-4Kxi2_hNYS76XWe86oSPRgfRsvFzaD51gAwbJaNbE5lqWClflURY910_GgM0FE-FXwy3iAjT7P7hra7A' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />Need I say more about this? Didn’t think so!<br />And these “tents” are sooo massive they put Costco to shame! Honestly, this video doesn’t do it justice! You can’t see all of the seating on the side and the second floor, and people are still crowded in the aisles with nowhere to sit! There’s even lines up out the door at night!! Not to mention the fact that there are <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jes_7s4I/AAAAAAAAANY/cdUmKXbwfAg/s1600-h/CIMG6835.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6jes_7s4I/AAAAAAAAANY/cdUmKXbwfAg/s320/CIMG6835.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277835561195516802" border="0" /></a>atleast 12 tents that size!! Amazing!<br /> The beer here is a grand and vast selection. I’ve gotten used to having only one brand of beer here in Istanbul and then I go to Germany and they have tons of it extraordinarily lined up and referidgerated at each corner store! I even saw a few grandpas getting an early start at crackin open a cold one at no later than 8 am! Now that is love! It def gives coffee quite a competition!<br /><br />2.) Next up: film festival! One of my friend’s, who has already upped and left to go to India to extend his yoga career, invited me to the film festival to catch one of the movies. We saw Rachel’s Getting Married. It was a good movie but a bit of a downer because I was expecting the film festival to be this huge event with carpets and famous people and this huge building full of movies, but it wasn’t. It was just unusual movies for a week long in an old theater. We saw the <span style="font-style: italic;">Surprise Movie</span>, apparently they don’t tell the viewers what they will play until that day, which is the last day. But I must say it was a really cool experience to be able to be apart of a film festival, even if it was no Cannes!<br /><br />3.) Then Katie’s bro came to visit! Lots of touristic things were done with him and lots of drinking as he is a thirsty boy! That was fun! We even managed to be first on the ferry, which he really should be made famous for. People here rush on and off the boats like nobody’s business here. It doesn’t make any sense, nor are they all really in that big of a rush! Old men are even jumping ship before it’s tied to the dock! It’s unreal! We happened to be first waiting for the next ferry to come, and as people piled <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mYxc3zaI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/JBOGVqOcJqs/s1600-h/CIMG7510_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mYxc3zaI/AAAAAAAAAOQ/JBOGVqOcJqs/s320/CIMG7510_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277838757846306210" border="0" /></a>on top of us, we decided to try to be first on! I thought it was going to be rather easy, but men seriously started running, giving us a bit of a challenge! Lol! I even brought him into one of my fave classes (who were level 5s, they can speak fluently) and had them ask him really weird questions in order to surprise and catch him off guard! One of them asked him if he were a fruit what would it be and he replied a pineapple! After he left I made them write a personal ad for him and they all had it as one of his major selling points! It’s great!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mXHnMaWI/AAAAAAAAAN4/GRwtjS8L-zM/s1600-h/CIMG7489_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mXHnMaWI/AAAAAAAAAN4/GRwtjS8L-zM/s320/CIMG7489_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277838729435441506" border="0" /></a><br /><br />4.) We also thew a Halloween party!! That was awesome! Especially since it was the first time for some of our Turkish friends -they don’t celebrate it here!<br /> I was no other than the colonel from the KFC! The white beard with stache, glasses, and a big gut -no less were worn! And let me tell you, it attracted all of the women! So fellas out there, if you want to attract<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mWpIw6SI/AAAAAAAAANw/NUb7Cj4OGDo/s1600-h/CIMG7508.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mWpIw6SI/AAAAAAAAANw/NUb7Cj4OGDo/s320/CIMG7508.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277838721254746402" border="0" /></a> some honeys dress up as an old fat man! It somehow does the trick! Grant had an awesome costume too! He went to the extent of shaving off half his head, beard AND even one of his<br />eyebrows! LOL! He was 2-Faced from Batman, so it was only necessary!<br /> The cops even came, our neighbors didn’t call on us, they drove by and heard the noise. Luckily our Turkish friends simmered them down and away. We also shut off the music to keep them from coming back! So that was a bit scary, especially since our Turkish friends left immediately there after! One of our friends had forgotten her ID at home and jumped in Mike’s wardrobe when she had heard they came! LOL!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mXuh2IuI/AAAAAAAAAOA/YUcTSf_ULp8/s1600-h/CIMG7491_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mXuh2IuI/AAAAAAAAAOA/YUcTSf_ULp8/s320/CIMG7491_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277838739881992930" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mYTUkCXI/AAAAAAAAAOI/vc_2DJ5lWcc/s1600-h/CIMG7494_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6mYTUkCXI/AAAAAAAAAOI/vc_2DJ5lWcc/s320/CIMG7494_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277838749758392690" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />5.) We tore it up on the dance floor at this reggae bar one night. Katie and I met up with Dylan and some of his friends since it was one of his last nights here in Istanbul (same guy I went to the film festival with). Since it was a Wednesday night, the club was pretty bare so we got the entire floor to ourselves doing ridiculous dance moves! Awesome! But then later on this group of foreign high schoolers came in, we made some of them and left!<br /><br />6.) Unfortuneately, we all had to say goodbye to Natalie. I was lucky enough to get to know her for these past few months. We go to do some touring around Istanbul together and lots of other funs! I was also very lucky to get the chance to go to some of her dinner parties! She is an amazing cook! She had been living here the past few years but decided that Istanbul is no longer her definite place. She is from a Carribean island and will be there until she goes to teach in Mexico. Needless to say I will def go and visit her in the near future!<br /><br />7.) I also went one night with Jeff and Mike to a Turku bar. Jeff writes for the Time Out Istanbul magazine and was doing this bit about Turku bars and had to go to several. It was a lot of fun. There’s lots of varieties of traditional Turkish music, and this tiny interior decorated cabin bar had great music! It was funny at first because this couple that was singing kept parading their famous friends up on stage to let them sing a song one after the other! One of them spoke English and since we clearly were the only foreigners in the bar, she made a point to use her English! It’s funny, everybody here wants to be a professional singer, they all think they have this amazing voice (hmmm...a bit like me, but they are scarily proud)! As the night went on, people got drunker off nasty Raki (you know it as the Greek Ozo) and started dancing. The waiters randomly pulled out these huge drums which swung over their shoulders and started pounding away to the songs! One of them even started traditional dancing with the customers! It was great! They tried to get us to come and dance which naturally, I was itching to do, but by that point it was getting close to my leaving time (hey, I had a class to teach the next morning and once I get started on a dance floor good luck stopping me!) So needless to say, I held back! But we are planning to go back for more and discover others! I can’t wait to do some traditional dancing!<br /><br />8.) There were lots more inbetween, not to mention the butt load of work I’ve been having, but lets jump to the Thanksgiving feast! That was amazing! And yes, I can officially say, I have had turkey in Turkey! Wahn wahn! We ran into the 2 guys that were hosting at the grocery store the night before. One’s british (which they don’t have this holiday) and the other is American. They asked me if we were vegetarians because the dishes we were both bringing were just vegetables. I was like no, why would you ask that?! And they’re like well no meat! So I told them how the only dish is really just turkey and they were quite surprised! I def had my doubts about the dinner after that convo but man, did they surprise me! Such a <span style="font-style: italic;">huge</span> turkey and it was soooo moist!! Also, the brit made a cottage pie (which I learned is a shepard’s pie but beef instead of lamb) so that was super tasty! It has been a while since I’ve had one of those! Plus, he said how I can call him up for the recipe or if it’s too hard to make, I can call to order and he’ll whip one up anytime! So naturally, I told him he better get ready for some phone orders! Which I should make one soon….<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6qg70M8OI/AAAAAAAAAOg/gtuHakMJkWA/s1600-h/CIMG7119.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6qg70M8OI/AAAAAAAAAOg/gtuHakMJkWA/s320/CIMG7119.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277843296113979618" border="0" /></a><br />9.) We finally made it to a hamam!! Soo cool! Not being a tourist has its perks as we only had to pay a quarter of the price the tourists do over on the other side! Woohoo! Though I imagine the experience is a heck of a lot longer and perhaps a little more sanitary! Anyways, Jeff’s 18 year old niece and her friend were visiting and he wanted to bring them to one. They divide the girls and guys into separate hamams, so he asked us to escort them. After a strong “pull” of my leg I went with these two sheltered, innocent, conservative, young girls from the south – Georgia!! Ahh! At hamams, you are pretty much naked. Being that they were visiting a male, they had no idea what any of the details of what they were in for! They give you a room with windows, to change out of your clothes, but these 2 wanted to get naked in a bathroom! It turned out not to be possible for them to do so since the bathroom was in the bath part and you aren’t allowed with your clothes on! Katie and I had out bikinis and we dropped trou immediately. Ok, so you’re not super naked. You are completely except for you keep your bottom underwear/bikini on – so topless. The girls had no choice but to get over it and had to deal with going in their underwear. So we go on in and there’s this customer that happened to speak English there! She was super nice and explained everything as we didn’t know what the heck to do! As she was explaining to us, it was her turn to get scrubbed and washed down on the giant marble slab in the center of the room (Everyone sits along the outer edges of the wall next to their own marble sink so you can constantly wet your body down. The room is quite hot, sauna style, but not so sweltering.) So as she’s explaining to us, this old saggy fat women was scrubbing her about in her chonies as well! At one point she put this English speaker’s face right in her naked chest so she can scrub the back of her neck! And this woman just keeps talking acting like it’s a normal thing to practically motorboat this half naked woman! Lol! Luckily, she didn’t do it to us, as she new we were first timers! She did give us perma wedgies though! Each and everyone of us! Hey she had to make sure she gave us a good ass scrubbing! Oh man, you should have seen all of the nasty black flakes of skin that come off of us! Especially after living through the nasty heat of the summer here in such a dirty and polluted town! Wait, I guess I shouldn’t have said that after talking about an ass scrubbing! Haha! Our entire bodies were flaking! But so soft afterwards! I didn’t even have to put lotion and I tell ya, way smoother than a baby’s bottom! Delightful! They even wash your hair and give you this wicked head massage! Unfortunately the massage isn’t as long as I would have enjoyed, it was more of a tease than anything! But nonetheless, it was super relaxing! Katie and I are def planning on going back! And earlier to, as we went close to closing time, so we think that’s why the massage was kinda cut short. The girls seemed to loosen up after a while too, I think they found it to be an awkward delight in the end!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6qf3uWMEI/AAAAAAAAAOY/AMwFg2jMzcI/s1600-h/CIMG7101.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer; width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/ST6qf3uWMEI/AAAAAAAAAOY/AMwFg2jMzcI/s320/CIMG7101.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5277843277835808834" border="0" /></a><br />10.) Alright! I'm stopping there! Hopefully it'll be sooner than later the next time I write on this thing! Sorry guys! I'll just stuff myself in a canon for you!<br />What can I say?! Time flies and then all of the sudden it's been months since I've written! Hope you're all well and Happy Holidays!!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-76130489063642154132008-09-26T11:37:00.000-07:002008-09-26T12:49:09.904-07:00Vunda-bah!<span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);">So we only had one night of internet-well, ok so it seems to be on again off again. Definitely not cool, an evil trick, my mouth is still watering from the little taste of it that I was able to indulge in. Also, that video is not going to happen. I’ve tried several times and it’s always a no-go. It has dawned on me that I might just know why: Youtube is banned in Turkey, so I think putting any form of video online is just not cool with the Turkish government. I’ll keep trying, but in the mean time, I’ll take some photos and post them…one day…</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06iTz5bbI/AAAAAAAAAMY/brEMunceVds/s1600-h/CIMG6465.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06iTz5bbI/AAAAAAAAAMY/brEMunceVds/s320/CIMG6465.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250417101691776434" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06in-sQ0I/AAAAAAAAAMg/4GY8P4IogYM/s1600-h/CIMG6616.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06in-sQ0I/AAAAAAAAAMg/4GY8P4IogYM/s320/CIMG6616.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250417107105760066" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">So the very first night I got teased with the internet was also the day I ventured off into the Haghia Sophia (Aya Sofya). Despite the inside center of it being currently under construction, it was breathtaking. Though I’m still not sure if I feel ripped off or not for the 20ytl they charged me to get into a house of God. So I made sure I got my money’s worth and stayed there for a few hours! I’m really glad I did though, because there is sooo much detail everywhere, that you really don’t see it until you just sit and stare. Plus it was a cloudy day, and since I stayed there longer, at one point the sun came out and lit up the church. It was gorgeous! Oh and I stuck my finger in the healing hole, it didn’t come out moist. But then we all already know I have no ailment that needs healing, right!? Plus, another little bonus, there was some photo shoot going on and it happened towards the end of my visit! It was just one model. The dress however, oy vay! It was this sequenced gold mess and they even stuck red tights on her! But she was beautiful, hence the modeling career I sa-pose!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">On my way back home from the Aya Sofya, I even got my own little photo shoot! Hahah! Or so we have yet to see! I got off the ferry and saw this long line of people that ended at this trailer, which appeared to be handing out a styrofoam pack of food asking for no money in exchange. Do I need to say more?! I mean I know free when I see it and I jumped right in line without a moment’s hesitation! Haha! While standing in line, I looked at the trailer to try to figure it out. I saw this giant Turkish word written on it that looks very similar to the French word for beef. So I immediately assumed some fast food place is opening up so they were doing some great marketing by handing out food, etc. Sweet, I’m getting free beef, right?! Well this one newspaper reporter eyed me and came right on over. Unfortunately, she knew English. She didn’t ask me really anything that I think would give a good story –just what I’m doing here, how long I’ve been here and how long I’ll stay. Then, and a little more importantly I must point out, she asked me if I knew what was going on. Haha! I told her I saw free food being handed out and got myself into the free line. She then told me it was for Ramazaan. She has very poor English, so I thought she was just telling me that they had been waiting to hand out the food for iftar (the time that allows you to break the day’s fast during Ramazan). But it wasn’t until my treck home that I realized that they were handing out free food for all of the people that were fasting! Haha! Woops! They took tons of pictures of me too and made sure they had good ones of me getting handed the food from the truck! Lol! Jeez! All of these people actually fasting, and little ol’ me comes barging in to snag some more food even though I can eat at whatever time pleases me! Unfortunately I don’t think I made it in though. It’s been over a week now and I have given up checking the paper (she honestly doesn’t have a story on me)!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">So I was planning on risking my life to the Black Sea of Kilyos this past Thursday. This beach is supposedly dangerous to swim in, but then again the Turkish are really picky about where they swim…but Wednesday night blew in a wonderful thunderstorm (truly, wonderful –it was huge and I love it!) and left Thursday morning drousy, so the big group of us (apparently my last adventure to the beach sounded really enticing and a bunch of people were up for a round) decided to ditch the beach. After a morning nap (we woke up at 6:30am only to fall back asleep again), Michael and I decided to explore. We found out that the Istanbul Modern Art Museum is free on Thursdays and were planning to get in on the free the following week. Now that we had an open Thursday, it was off to take advantage of the free (what I’m so good at) and do a ridiculous walking tour my Istanbul guidebook has. Well we didn’t make it through the whole museum, we got too hungry and left. We were so comatosed (I think from those fluorescent lights) that we decided that we shouldn’t go back in to finish it off, even though it’s the temp part of the museum and the most interesting. So we decided to do my walking tour. We had to do it backwards though, as we were at the ending point of the tour. Oh dear God that tour they got going on! Haha! We’re still cracking jokes about it! We got a lot of check marks off atleast! The tour just offered things to look at for a few minutes and then you keep trecking, only most of the things in it were missing. Like 2 fountains at separate locations, which are typically quite big and hard to miss, were instead, nonexistent. Even more peculiar is that these fountains “have been” there for a few hundred years! We were definitely on the correct route, otherwise we would have never found our way to Taksim, and there were a few existent things that we were able to see. The best part is in the “hall of mirrors” (another grandiose error, well almost completely), is that there are a ton of shops in this hall and lots of ones with antique pictures, advertisements, and postcards. You best bet there were ones of Ataturk, one of the coolest ones yet, and Michael purchased it and added to the collection that is called home! We then went to a bar to enjoy non-Efes beers (this is a rarity here). Oh but back to the trip to the Black Sea- who knows if that could even happen until next Spring! Ever since Wednesday night it has been raining and cold. No there was no gradual shift of seasons, it was like someone flushing the toilet during your steamy hot shower! Bam! Ice cold never sounded so wrong; only it never went back from the slapping cold! So it’s a little hard to be optimistic at this point.</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">Because I have seemed to be a wanderer this whole week, the next day, I found myself back in Taksim. I happened to wander by a bar that has 3 lyra beers! My second gold mine find! I found “Heaven” (it’s our local watering-hole here that I found right by work about a month ago while I was wandering around Kadikoy. This place has 3 lyra 70cl beers –which is about half the price around here! It’s so cheap I started calling it Heaven and it has stuck with everyone ever since! A group of us often find ourselves there after our night classes. As soon as the waiter sees us walk in he immediately turns around to go fetch our giant beers!….I suppose I really didn’t need to give an explanation of why this place has been renamed. Oh, and I’m pretty sure he often undercharges us!). So now that I found this other place, but over in Taksim, we are all itching to go test it out! It’s on the other side, so it makes it a bit of a hike. But because it’s on the other side, this is even more of a mind boggler. The other side is much more expensive, so to find such a price just doesn’t sound right. So I’m excited to actually venture over there in search of truth! Actually, speaking of venturing and beer, Oktoberfest is just around the riverbend!! Holla! I’m stoked!</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06iivGfsI/AAAAAAAAAMo/6-ma2epTUHU/s1600-h/IMG_1425.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06iivGfsI/AAAAAAAAAMo/6-ma2epTUHU/s320/IMG_1425.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250417105698193090" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">This week has even more wandering, some hardcore wandering too. Plus I even got to enjoy an Indian dinner at Natalie’s. It was sooo delicious! She invited me and a group of friends over to feast on delicousness! She is an amazing cook! On the weekend, a group of us went to another Fenerbahce game. We had some pretty good seats too! Plus not as many people go to these games, or so it keeps turning out that way, so there wasn't half as much groping going on! Another day, I went with Grant, Mike and Jeff to this museum in Istanbul, but it takes over an hour to get to (yup this city is giganto) to go check out the Dali exhibit. I pretty much left as soon as I got there though cuz I was so sick with hangover! Haha! The museum just seemed to intensify the pain. Plus I had to be back for my night class and I was worried about how bad traffic was going to get and being late an all. I found out later that night that Grant saw me resting up against this wall holding my face and he thought I was having a moment! That Dali man, he just makes you weep! Haha! Jk! I made myself go through the first floor (which is that big) since I had to pay to get in and all the time it took to get there, but the longer I stayed the more I had to force myself to stay. So I just gave up! But no worries, I was much better after a Simit and loads of fresh air from the ferry back! Haha! I don’t normally get hungover, boy that one was a doozy and out of no where too! I did some other wanderings too, but those were the highlights!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">Welp! That’s it for me! The next blog will be all about Oktoberfest and it’s glory!</span><br /><a style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06i4kyc2I/AAAAAAAAAMw/FKXqdpT4RpQ/s1600-h/CIMG6370.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SN06i4kyc2I/AAAAAAAAAMw/FKXqdpT4RpQ/s320/CIMG6370.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5250417111560516450" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(102, 255, 153);">Yup, your eyes do not decieve you. 27 bucks for some jif! Sad part, that's the norm if you are able to find the wonderful spread. Wahn wahn!</span>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-89899539501209420202008-09-14T09:07:00.000-07:002008-09-17T14:34:40.523-07:00Beach Me Like A WhaleCheck it out! An update in light speed time! Wazzah!!<br /><br />So I finally videod the flat! But I forgot to mention in the video that we call it “the Smooth Sailing Mac Pad”. Haha! Yes, we are geeks! I seemed to have forgotten to video the sailboats on our balcony railings as well; hence the <span style="font-style: italic;">smooth sailing </span>bit. Mac because we all own Macs, the same ones. Also, it might help as you watch this masterpiece if I explain the delay of my videoing. It is because we had to Ataturk-arize our flat. Which is still not even complete because I still need to get a poster for my room! He’s the father of Turkey (direct translation actually. The Turks go nuts for this guy). He’s freekin everywhere here –no joke! He holds the key to Turkish history. There are a ton of strange posters of him for super cheap here! Example: him throwin back the Raki!...unfortunately we don't have that one -work in progress. However, I think it's key to note that the poster you will see in the bathroom came with the flat, not any of these Ataturk posters (mind is boggled).<br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And now for the feature presentation:</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EfREGObI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/VVcLEo5_tdc/s1600-h/IMG_1408.JPG"></a><br /><br /> Ok, so the game! Crazy madness! I went to one of the qualifying games with some friends: Kevin, Jeff and Grant (well Greg, but I call him Grant). It was Turkey against Belgium. Super exciting game, minus the fact that I didn’t see any young fat boys whipping off their shirts for an exciting play. Our seats were pretty sweet! We were on the lower level kinda behind one of the goals! Booya!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EeXHik4I/AAAAAAAAAL4/uPZzLpHt7dU/s1600-h/CIMG6401.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EeXHik4I/AAAAAAAAAL4/uPZzLpHt7dU/s320/CIMG6401.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245924429348901762" border="0" /></a><br />So their system of letting us into the stadium, I tell ya, I now know what’s it’s like to be a cow, sheep,…etc (or as our students would say “blah blah blah” ). Absolutely ridiculous! The turn out was huge, unlike the Fenerbahce game I saw a few weeks ago! Butt loads of people! It took FOREVER to get in, and people here don’t have that personal bubble us westerners so cherish. So if you are right up on some stranger they won't even know it, they probably even feel more comfortable touching you. Lots of the Kurnel sandwiches going on (oh yes, new nickname to add to the books! Grant crowned me so to differentiate between <span style="font-style: italic;">the two Katies. </span>Classically awesome part is that everyone always says it with the title “the”! Haha! Oh I made up the spelling btw, there’s accents and such, but ya). Mmmmm the Kurnel, it’s what’s for dinner. The boys weren’t to thrilled either. I think Grant put it perfectly when on our walk back, he asked if I got groped. Of course I replied affirmatively and he was quick to agree with how they (the boys) all did too! Not many females go to the game, so the guys got sandwiched a lot more than they were ever hungry for! So there was a lot more action than night than we all could ever imagine! So in the giant stadium hall, being herded along, groped, not walking as other people do it for you and we finally get pushed through the gate -yes! The male security guards pointed me toward the woman security guard to go get groped some more (awesome!). Even though I made sure not to bring any change or other such objects my superhero arm could chuck, I decided to wiz by them -yup opted out for the special grope. [Turk security guards are just there for the job, so they don’t care if you walk through a metal dector and it goes off or not. Safety first!]. So we somehow found four seats in our general area. It was packed with by-standers on our lower level. The pounding and pounding on the huge metal-sliding doors of all the angry people demanding to get in was still a constant. We were a bit worried, it sounded like a huge outburst waiting to explode! Almost towards the end of the first half, it finally subsided and no one was hurt. But the action in the stadium didn’t stop as the crowd was cheering like mad! I def cheered every chance I could, hand gestures and all! If I was able to pick up on what they were screaming, I was doing it. The first half was kinda sucky though, because Belgium made it look like they were playing with puppets, or maybe because Turkey made it seem they didn’t care to win. Either way, it was a pretty uneventful first half with some close plays at hand. The second half, however, got goooood! They were finally tied and that’s when they started whipping out the drama and playing dead when they got “hurt” in a play. It was awesome and so ridiculous! Even a fight between two opposing players almost busted out! It was great! The ref kept having to try to break them apart and then attend to the “hurt” player rolling around (note: he was able to shake of the agonizing pain within seconds of finally getting up to walk). Then the coaches almost got into it! Hah! All in all, an exciting game despite the closing tie! Not to mention more intense groping that followed on our way out of the stadium –note: we did wait about 10 mins for it to clear, or so we thought. On the way out, you have to go down these stairs, and it’s dark and we couldn’t see them, you just know they're coming as you're in a the thick of all of the fellow sheep, sorry people. I felt like a buffalo that was being herded off a cliff by a bunch of Indians. Kevin and I were seriously worried for our lives, we didn’t know when the steps were coming and we couldn’t see anything below us! By fate, I guess the Indians weren't hungry, we wound up in the middle and found a railing in the middle of the steps before getting pushed down the stairs. At one point I wasn’t even holding myself up, yes that’s how close we ALL were.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1Ee0VuU_I/AAAAAAAAAMA/QbMCyjDjMXk/s1600-h/CIMG6407.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1Ee0VuU_I/AAAAAAAAAMA/QbMCyjDjMXk/s320/CIMG6407.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245924437193020402" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Another Day:<br />I was invited by my friend Natalie to go to the beach on one of the islands nearby with some others. She had also invited Nelly (an older, hilarious woman that says the most random things super loudly at any given time. Example: she looked at me one morning in the teacher’s room while I was reclining -all stretched out in an office chair: “Boy! You are really long!!!” This is almost 2 months in working there, she has seen me many times before, and she says it with her funny accent in a voice like she’s never seen me before. She unintentionally made the room, full of us teachers, and there’s no way you can’t hear her, crack up and in sheer confusion!). Also, Ibrahim one of the nicest, Turkish office staff guys, whose English is quite good. We all thought we were going to have a relaxing day on the beach. ARRRHNNNNN!!! (buzzer sound). On the ferry over, Natalie mentions how she knows this beach and recommends renting bikes as the walk is quite long. I’m down! I miss biking soooo much! Ibrahim is game as well, but Nelly, ohhhh Nelly. She starts freakin out, and here's the clencher: not because she can’t ride a bike. No, because she can’t go down hill. Yup, take a second…processed yet? K, so she can ride a bike, but down hill is the big issue -you know, what should be the easy part of cycling? So we take 20 minutes convincing her it will be fine. Hahah! Oh dear! Literally, every 5 minutes we end up waiting for Nelly to catch up. We all have to stop and wait and wait and wait. Then we get a little bit scared because she was so worried about biking that we start to think that she may have fallen. Well because this is no flat island, no we had a bike ride up and down and up and down and up and down these mountains, that we are much too tired to actually ride back up a dang hill looking for her. So Natalie immediately volunteers Ibrahim to go looking for her! Haha! He’s just as tired and hot as we are, but that didn’t matter –he would, however, do it each time she demanded. Luckily for him, Nelly would be just around the corner by the time he was summoned to go find out if she was alright. So after what seems like forever, we get to this beach Natalie knows of. What do I see but a house just along side the curvy road situated on a cliff. Yes, I said cliff. No little hill down to the beach or walk down to it. No, this adventure Natalie had in store for us gets better.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_jIQfJAI/AAAAAAAAALY/ELnfCG_j34U/s1600-h/CIMG6423.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_jIQfJAI/AAAAAAAAALY/ELnfCG_j34U/s320/CIMG6423.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245919013701100546" border="0" /></a> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(The beach we hiked down to)</span><br />We have to hike down this mountain, try that on for size when Nelly didn’t even want to bike! At first, we wanted to plant our bikes on this house’s property for safe keeping (no fences up and it’s a run down home). But Ibrahim had to give his ID card to the bike guy so he wasn’t willing the risk; he wanted us to take the bikes down the cliff with us. So we make the valiant effort down one of the slopes -no doubt, Nelly complaining. Finally Nelly puts her foots down; thank God! So we start to think of another beach we could go to. Just then, the people whom live in the house come out and tell us to put our bikes on the side and they will watch them for us. Ibrahim gives in and we rush to throw them down! Then on the way down, through all of the the trees, Natalie starts freaking out thinking spiders will get her and even almost turns back (I didn’t see any spiders mind you)! Ibrahim to the rescue and we're back on going down the cliff. Meanwhile, Nelly is, of course, far, far behind. Every few minutes we would scream her name and she would scream back. Phew! Though the last part of the cliff was ridiculous! Super steep and all dirt! A bad fall waiting to happen! So we wait for Nelly to catch up and head down the worst part of the cliff (I’m in flip flops mind you). Ibrahim first, we go down! At one point he just risks it and races down. Great choice for him: as soon as he gets down, Nelly decides to decline to go down the cliff. Natalie proceeds to tell her that she will be okay and that <span style="font-weight: bold;">WE</span> will help her down. With that said, she quickly summons <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ibrahim</span> up to help Nelly down the cliff! Poor Ibrahim was a bit hesitant, but a like a true Turk, won’t fight much when he knows he must help a female.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_iuf3q6I/AAAAAAAAALQ/I0OVJDcTGgA/s1600-h/CIMG6426.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_iuf3q6I/AAAAAAAAALQ/I0OVJDcTGgA/s320/CIMG6426.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245919006786300834" border="0" /></a> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(Poor Ibrahim going up the cliff to help Nelly)</span><br />As soon as I’m down to the stoney shore, I strip off my clothes (Woah there! Bikini underneath thank you!) and jump into the water. Perfect temperature on this remote shore, though lots of seaweed and tons of stones don’t feel peachy-keane on the feets! So I’m swimming around and they finally get down and settled (prolly 15 mins later) and Natalie won’t go past all the seaweed, so she beaches it right in the shallow end. Ibrahim, however, makes quite an effort to get out to me! Haha! I’ve never seen someone swim so awkwardly in all my life!! Lol! So he gets in (mind you being a Turk, he already doesn’t approve of the water. Sure it’s a little better than the water on the shores of Istanbul, but it’s still dirty as it is just a short ferry ride away). He starts splashing – er, sorry swimming around. You can tell he’s trying to make this breast stroke of his look dang good; but a quote from Garden State was all that could (and still does) come to mind: “Dude, you look like a wet beaver”. I was trying sooooo hard not to crack up, but that’s all I could think of! He looked soo ridiculous! There was soooo much splashing going on and he was trying to go fast but only got slower! So he did a quciky half moon and scurried right out of the water!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_jdqv4qI/AAAAAAAAALg/6Pda-g4aZJ4/s1600-h/CIMG6430.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_jdqv4qI/AAAAAAAAALg/6Pda-g4aZJ4/s320/CIMG6430.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245919019448394402" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(Natalie trying out her skills as a green monster)</span><br />Right, so this relaxing day sunbathing on the beach, turned out to be maybe an hour's worth of time spent on the beach. We laid out for a tiny bit and then it was time to bike all the way back to catch the ferry! Natalie almost had us go the same way we came, but all I could think of was the hills we would have to bike back up. So I requested the easier way around, which is also the longer way back. Luckily, it was mostly down hill and the scenery was gorgeous.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_joVM8TI/AAAAAAAAALo/0l2F6r5Kc60/s1600-h/CIMG6431.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_joVM8TI/AAAAAAAAALo/0l2F6r5Kc60/s320/CIMG6431.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245919022310814002" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(A few from one of our many stops. You can see Istanbul in the background)</span><br />Only, it <span style="font-style: italic;">was</span> mostly down hill. We now had to wait for Nelly for even longer amounts of time! At some points we would get really worried because we knew she didn’t want to go down hill and so we would start to think that maybe she really ate it hard or rode off a cliff on a turn! These hills are long but not steep, so it’s not like we are putting her in great danger. Thank God for Ibrahim, when Natalie would try to get him to go (it would take more coaxing now that we are tired and this would mean riding up a long hill) Nelly would come within minutes, or be around the corner when he would actually take the challenge. As soon as she would see us she would start laughing forever in her hilarious, loud laugh! At one point we waited so long we found a corner store and got some chips, a drink and sat while we waited! Haha! It was a lot of fun and an adventure I had no idea that could be in store on an island so close! We gave Natalie crap for it and this week we are going to try to go the Black Sea where beaches are sandy and a promise that we will step off the bus and lay out…..On the ferry ride back, we were all so wiped out that we all had to lay down on the long seats! Haha! I really wanted to fall asleep but was scared I couldn’t make it to my other friend’s house for a potluck dinner that was about to start!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EfPHFfPI/AAAAAAAAAMI/Plnzgoq77t0/s1600-h/CIMG6441.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EfPHFfPI/AAAAAAAAAMI/Plnzgoq77t0/s320/CIMG6441.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245924444379380978" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_j3a6xdI/AAAAAAAAALw/sRgzpiMHVDo/s1600-h/CIMG6440.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM0_j3a6xdI/AAAAAAAAALw/sRgzpiMHVDo/s320/CIMG6440.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245919026361320914" border="0" /></a><br /><br /> With the good always comes the bad. I’m really upset to say Mustafa and his family’s life have been turned upside down. I found out the other day that English Time sold the dorms I first lived in to Maramara University. Everyone living there now has to get out so they can accommodate all of the new students that need to move in. I went to go see them yesterday and brought Mike along. I feel horrible that I haven’t visited them since I moved out –I even said I would once a week. Mustafa and Zabede are so depressed. They were such different people. Usually, they are so cheerful and joking around, but this time they were quiet and looked so upset. I tried to cheer them up by finding random sentences in Mike’s super old Turkish-English dictionary. I told them sentences as “he runs up a tree like a cat” and “the arrow sticks out of his arm” in my awesome Turkish accent. Completely random, I know, but atleast they had a good laugh. Don’t ask me why you would ever look in a dictionary for such sentences, but hey, they were there and so I felt it was necessary to use them! So freekin English Time hasn’t told them what is going to happen to them yet. This means Mustafa doesn’t know if he will have a job with them at another location yet or not. They don’t even know what day they have to be out of the dorms by! They are just waiting for a phone call that will tell them they must leave (and don’t forget that this is their home) within a few HOURS. This even could have been today! If not today, then it could be tomorrow or a few weeks from now. They are just waiting for this phone call. On top of that, he might be out of a job! They might not need him at another location. He has no idea what he’s going to do. It sounds like if hey gets let go, they will go back to their hometown (an 11 hour bus ride a way). He thinks he might go back to being a barber or try out some other job. It’s horrible! It sounds like they don’t want to go back to their hometown at all. They are such amazing and giving people, they shouldn’t ever have to deal with such a thing! I wish I could do something for them....<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM086tF7UoI/AAAAAAAAALI/s6JhMuu-5aw/s1600-h/CIMG6325.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM086tF7UoI/AAAAAAAAALI/s6JhMuu-5aw/s320/CIMG6325.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245916120191029890" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Anyways, time for dinner: I think I will have the “no name” please!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EfREGObI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/VVcLEo5_tdc/s1600-h/IMG_1408.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SM1EfREGObI/AAAAAAAAAMQ/VVcLEo5_tdc/s320/IMG_1408.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5245924444903717298" border="0" /></a>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-69194243726059499772008-09-07T04:53:00.000-07:002008-09-07T08:54:21.888-07:00I Got Some Sweet for Your Salty!<span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 0);">So there are a lot that has gone untold as so many things keep happening here, and when I do finally get the chance to blog (yup, it's official, I have crossed over to the dark side and used blog as a verb), I completely forget to update you on such events! So, I'm going to do my best to give ya tha juicy highlights....duhn duhn duhn!!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">We made it to the islands a few weeks ago. They are just off the coast of Istanbul and you can actually see them from our side. They are one of the few places Istanbulus (love that word!) will actually go to swim around here (Istanbul water is just too dirty for them so they must go to the Black Sea or head down South).</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfJ98RqQI/AAAAAAAAAJI/ib1UOweNr1U/s1600-h/CIMG6338.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfJ98RqQI/AAAAAAAAAJI/ib1UOweNr1U/s200/CIMG6338.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243279753528584450" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfKXdZEMI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/A6KdcRE72-s/s1600-h/CIMG6339.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfKXdZEMI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/A6KdcRE72-s/s200/CIMG6339.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243279760378368194" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">It's just a ferry ride over, but for us of course, a very interesting one! We were left standing on the giant ferry as it was jammed-packed. About half way there, this fairly big group of Arabs (they were on a tour, but most of them were all related to each other) rearranged themselves and told us to come sit down. Little did we know, this meant we were going to get videotaped and photographed with almost all of the men in the group -each got their own photo sitting in between us. This random event immediately began as soon as we sat down, though it started off innocently. These two cute, young girls (one poor one's name is Banana) started videotaping us and then wanted a picture with us (we learned rather quickly that they speak better English than our students! Eep!)! Then all of the sudden, 5 cameras whipped out and their older, male family members were taking turns, jumping in getting their very own shot with the 2 of us whities! Haha! We barely had time to blink let alone even think about saying yes or no to the next lucky dawg! At one point, they even dragged this old man over from around the corner to take a picture with me while Katie was talking to this other guy. They were all laughing and were so excited as they told me how they were going to show his wife when they got back, and how she will make him sleep outside for a night because of it! Not only that, but they were planning on posting our picture all over their town! Haha! So weird! </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(51, 204, 255);">Here is a pic of us with the 2 bamboozlers/hornswogglers:</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfKXdZEMI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/A6KdcRE72-s/s1600-h/CIMG6339.JPG"><br /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8c2KzFI/AAAAAAAAAK4/NOnpXvyDiXM/s1600-h/IMG_1058.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8c2KzFI/AAAAAAAAAK4/NOnpXvyDiXM/s200/IMG_1058.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243296013980716114" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 204, 204);">We actually wanted to get a few pics with these guys as a joke, but they def missunderstood us when we asked, and instead they ran out of the way so just Katie and I could get a picture together! Hahah!</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPfKXdZEMI/AAAAAAAAAJQ/A6KdcRE72-s/s1600-h/CIMG6339.JPG"><span style="color: rgb(51, 255, 51);"></span><br /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">The other major highlight is the new flat! As you may have noticed, I still haven't got that video up yet; we got some poster tacking to do ok! Trust me, it'll be worth it once it's complete! Though we did manage to have a house warming party the week after we moved in! No delays there that's for sure! It was fun despite the awkward night (us teachers have weird scheds so no one night is good for everybody)! Here are the pics including a few roomie ones! (Cousins from Winterpeg, do you know my new roomie, Michael?).</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrBLABCuI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/bUqLwAWiZeU/s1600-h/CIMG6345.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrBLABCuI/AAAAAAAAAKQ/bUqLwAWiZeU/s200/CIMG6345.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243292796554644194" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrB7K-zRI/AAAAAAAAAKY/ojhyUBmxdN4/s1600-h/CIMG6347.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrB7K-zRI/AAAAAAAAAKY/ojhyUBmxdN4/s200/CIMG6347.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243292809485536530" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrA4d2EeI/AAAAAAAAAKI/DOHp46A8xh0/s1600-h/CIMG6341.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrA4d2EeI/AAAAAAAAAKI/DOHp46A8xh0/s200/CIMG6341.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243292791579480546" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrCBiDJzI/AAAAAAAAAKg/0uyxeXgH_Ac/s1600-h/CIMG6349.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrCBiDJzI/AAAAAAAAAKg/0uyxeXgH_Ac/s200/CIMG6349.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243292811192903474" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrCuyjdPI/AAAAAAAAAKo/KEL1U40fPIA/s1600-h/IMG_1079.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPrCuyjdPI/AAAAAAAAAKo/KEL1U40fPIA/s200/IMG_1079.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243292823341724914" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8midMBI/AAAAAAAAALA/W3aLHty1CVQ/s1600-h/IMG_1091.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8midMBI/AAAAAAAAALA/W3aLHty1CVQ/s200/IMG_1091.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243296016582389778" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);"><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />We found out from our friend Owen that we had the 30th off about 2 weeks before hand - he remembered how English Time failed to tell them about the national holiday last year so he thought he would let us teacher's know about it! This holiday there by gave lucky Katie and I Wed- Sat off! Booyaaa! So we booked ourselves outta here almost immediately! Our first choice, naturally, was Greece, but with time restraints (it's so close but so far away!!) and prices, we decided to stay in the country and settle for the south of Turkey; this tropical, holiday place every Turk so wildly talks about. We wound up in Cesme which lies outside of Izmir along the Mediterranean. </span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);"><br /> (A house in neighborhood to the left of our resort.)</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPiiuRddJI/AAAAAAAAAJg/VvppHkGS4ac/s1600-h/CIMG6372.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPiiuRddJI/AAAAAAAAAJg/VvppHkGS4ac/s200/CIMG6372.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243283477354083474" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">We went down there thinking it was going to be a crazy scene of packed beach resorts lined up along the clear, aqua-blue shores, just one big party all day long...seeming as our students painted such pictures. Well, I think we picked the wrong spot! Hah! We decided to stay at this 5 star resort hotel -yes, we are teachers after all, 5 star only please! Psh! No, it was pretty cheap considering we got two massive, and I mean massive buffet meals included; there were 2 giganto pools; a private beach with this cool dock; a club in the hotel; all other usuals such as a bar, restaurants, get your-hair-did place, game room, food store, chach-ki shop stores; and then there was even a spa which we got access to (no-no, unfortuntely the bill did not include a massage or any such wonders -just the spa pools, gym, sauna, and steam room). It was absolutely gorgeous though quite remote. This resort left you with no reason to leave! </span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 0);">(View from our room balcony)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPijTXsb-I/AAAAAAAAAJw/q-NyYHNYkvM/s1600-h/IMG_1128.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPijTXsb-I/AAAAAAAAAJw/q-NyYHNYkvM/s200/IMG_1128.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243283487312343010" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">We also went at the end of the season, so it was pretty much empty. Anyways, we still planned on going out, you know at least check out the club at the hotel. Haha! Not soo much! To our surprise, all we could do was sleep there, and if it wasn't that then it was eating! We tried sooo hard to go out after dinner each night but we only kept falling asleep -within minutes of getting back to our ocean view room! lol! Maybe because we kept coming back as blimps from the crazy feast we counted stop scarffing on! One night we even cracked a bottle of wine to let it breathe (now I'm no wine connasieur by any means, just give me the cheap and tasty, but let me tell you: you will do anything to try to make this Turkish wine taste at least somewhat drinkable!). But before our first sip, we freekin fell asleep!! Unbelievable!! Haha! And it's not like we did anything all day! We would just lay out and tan, the most action was swimming in the Med -but that was more floating! Haha! Pretty amazing though! </span> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(View of our private each, lay out on the right or on the giant pillows on the dock.)</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPijKkyBHI/AAAAAAAAAJo/4khbsWyl38I/s1600-h/IMG_1104.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPijKkyBHI/AAAAAAAAAJo/4khbsWyl38I/s200/IMG_1104.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243283484951315570" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);">Oh! Another day, one of the guests even found a small octopus swimming in our beach and took it out to show everyone! So cool! Unfortunately too though, it was a bit hazy and not as sunny and hot as we were hoping for.</span><br /> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(One day we opted to lay out on the dock.)</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPij5rzHuI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/xfvewCCvpDA/s1600-h/IMG_1146.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPij5rzHuI/AAAAAAAAAJ4/xfvewCCvpDA/s200/IMG_1146.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243283497597214434" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(204, 51, 204);"> One day I was getting a bit antsy so we managed to venture into town, man was that tiring! Haha! So all in all, it was more of a detox weekend! It was so great and I guess we really needed the sleep!</span><br /> <span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">(Are you sleepy yet? I want a nap just looking at this view!)</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPikF0nF-I/AAAAAAAAAKA/vRRkH6Qm-e4/s1600-h/IMG_1162.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPikF0nF-I/AAAAAAAAAKA/vRRkH6Qm-e4/s200/IMG_1162.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243283500855400418" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 153, 0);">But have no fear! When we got back Saturday morning, we jumped right back into the norm! We went to our first Fenerbahce game (one of the well-worshiped Istanbul soccer teams -actually the town Fenerbahce is located right next to us), drinks before hand included! It was kinda bummy though, you aren't allowed to drink in the stadium!! What kind of game experience is that?! It did, however, turn out to be a lot of fun! We went with a couple of our other friends and sat in the noisy cheering section! They pound drums, shout crazy songs and never sit down!! It's awesome! Even better yet is to see these boys under 10 get so involved in the game even though you can tell they're not exactly sure why they just yelled what the did! This one fat kid a few rows in front of us even whipped off his shirt at one point to spin it around his head!! Classic!! Hahaha! This other kid, a row before us, always had so much anger whenever Fener messed up! That was hilarious too! He could make his face do some pretty strange things! Yet another interesting thing is this stadium: it barely even looks old and has never been cleaned -well I'm only guessing here but I do think I'm quite accurate! There are sunflower seeds all over the seats and floor along with a thick film of dirt! -note to self: bring a newspaper to sit on next time and don't bring change.They check for change and make you throw it in this box if you have any! That was maddening, I even stopped before hand to get more change thinking it might be handy (like the Euro, they use dollar coins here), so I lost at minimum 6 bucks on my way in! Grrrr! Apparently, I would have thrown all of my change at the players during the game had they let me in with it. Dang good thing they caught me boy! I got a throw from the top of the stadium at an angle not even a pro-American football player could reach! Psh! Actually, I'm simultaneously, working on my next game at Fener stadium -this Wed is Belgium vs Turkey; a qualifier game for the World Cup baby!</span><br /><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 153, 102);">Ramazaan, as I'm sure you all are aware, has already begun. Not too much of a change as there are a ton of religions here. I even think there are more people eating during the day than when these people are not fasting...very confused. Anyways, we take a longer break during our night classes so these starved people can shove their faces with food. They have this special pitta bread everywhere for the holiday, and it's amazing with Nutella! The office staff was chowing down one night during the long break and of course, shared their food with me. One huge difference in Turkey is that everyone shares their food here, no matter what it is. Kids in class will buy a small pack of something and before even having one, will go around offering the entire class some -even if that means they would only get 2 little pieces for themselves! Ooop, that reminds me, here's a pic of me with one of my classes that just finished. Most of them were there that day, they asked to take a pic with me!</span><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8J_VzOI/AAAAAAAAAKw/dm8a_5sQweI/s1600-h/DSCN2181.jpg"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SMPt8J_VzOI/AAAAAAAAAKw/dm8a_5sQweI/s200/DSCN2181.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5243296008918912226" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Welp! I've eaten up enough of your time and I must get to other things on this grand internet! We still don't have at home btw, but are becoming great friends with the guys at this local cafe! Oooo, that's another thing I'm lovin about my new 'hood, there are several stores I pass by each day and they recognize now so I always exchange greetings with them -some of these stores I haven't even stepped foot in! Love it!</span>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-43757111930987030472008-08-24T12:24:00.000-07:002008-08-24T13:03:11.603-07:00Cheerleader/the Dragon Lady<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(153, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:arial;" >It is with great pain and sorrow to report that Joanne Ciannello has passed away on August 18th, 2008. She wasn't just a family friend, but a very close and dear family member. She was a wise and amazing woman. She was always so full of life and had the ability to touch all the hearts of those she came into contact with. Home will never be the same without Joanne. I will miss her immensely, as well as always love and carry her deep within my heart.</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SLG7a-0DFKI/AAAAAAAAAJA/YahNzjfrzos/s1600-h/PICT0008a.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SLG7a-0DFKI/AAAAAAAAAJA/YahNzjfrzos/s320/PICT0008a.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5238173913820894370" border="0" /></a>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-8434348077059486932008-08-15T01:00:00.000-07:002008-08-15T03:23:11.597-07:00Series of Fortunate EventsSorry it's been FOREVER since I've been able to blog, but I am catching you up -starting from way back when I last blogged:<br /><br />So later that same day I helped Zabayda with covering the roof from the crazy rain, Katie and I were hanging out in my room and she and Mustafa came to my door with a bag of small, whole fish –he whips one out and dangles it with joy! They had bought fish (Mustafa’s fave for dinner and wanted me to join them for helping)! I was thinking NO way! Not again! So I tried to tell them I didn’t like balik (fish) and I wouldn’t have any! And Katie was like oh yes! Sign me up! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU7ifY2SDI/AAAAAAAAAGw/fecblEbFadg/s1600-h/CIMG6220.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU7ifY2SDI/AAAAAAAAAGw/fecblEbFadg/s320/CIMG6220.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234655605615380530" border="0" /></a>So they were like ok, Katie eats you no, fine type thing. I was like sweet! It wor<br />ked! Phew! Right?! Right???! Nooooooo!! A little later we get summoned up, especially me. She makes me eat it, deboning a ton of these fish for me!! Arg! While Mustafa is literally dancing as he eats these things cuz he loves it soooo much!!! Not only that, but the 3 of them were making fun of me the whole time cuz they know I don’t like it!! Last time I help Zabada out! Psh!!<br /><br />Here's a video so you can watching me die slowly and Mustafa enjoy it:<br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwvPWMIYjYpKy0xztl6MqZYJ_5cF834WEdZbPpiJTPuRTgtxWU5h2vA7GI4Dnep41NKwJw0GZZtfXg4j7AezA' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVI2b_AYxI/AAAAAAAAAI4/DGazwJs75nQ/s1600-h/IMG_0973.JPG"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dznxSfiBc0nj-K5uDmGqocWnPkyKglVi2m7bfOO3VRq2N6KMze6IpTxOibvinol7bpzfX7MO-7DT2w8_6ea' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></a><br /><br />Though she did make up for it the other day, lol! I just finished showering (remember I live in a dorm, so there are a few other showers) and I here this calling, and it gets closer and closer, I’m thinking, yup that’s for me. So I scream out a reply, and Zabada is saying all these things in Turkish. I step out, dripping wet in my towel, and she’s motioning to come upstairs to eat; kinda looking at me like what's wrong with you showering I got food going on! I’m seriously DRIPPING! I start laughing and was like ok ok! Few minutes ya know?! Lol! So I rush to put on clothes and join them for some bbq chicken. Which was good, but questionable. It was very chicken looking and um, ya, I don’t know. But over all good! Haha!<br /><br />One day Katie and I decided to just wander around the Euro side. We stumbled into Topkapi Palace, Aya Sofia and the Blue Mosque. Only we decided not to go into any of these and save them for later, but got some gorgeous pics out of it...er or of ourselves I guess! Lol!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_WrhvypI/AAAAAAAAAG4/jXd-k4Meylg/s1600-h/IMG_0721.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_WrhvypI/AAAAAAAAAG4/jXd-k4Meylg/s200/IMG_0721.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234659800762010258" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_X5fzp5I/AAAAAAAAAHI/IpIvLiNAayQ/s1600-h/IMG_0748.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_X5fzp5I/AAAAAAAAAHI/IpIvLiNAayQ/s200/IMG_0748.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234659821691840402" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_YByfhoI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/otp4cq6yrUw/s1600-h/IMG_0750.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_YByfhoI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/otp4cq6yrUw/s200/IMG_0750.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234659823917696642" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCo1KjBfI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/X0ae1vcKKpo/s1600-h/IMG_0754.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCo1KjBfI/AAAAAAAAAIQ/X0ae1vcKKpo/s200/IMG_0754.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234663411121587698" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_YQDu_fI/AAAAAAAAAHY/c9AcxJOSM8U/s1600-h/IMG_0753.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_YQDu_fI/AAAAAAAAAHY/c9AcxJOSM8U/s200/IMG_0753.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234659827748109810" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA67AVriI/AAAAAAAAAHw/R1qk7sbkmv0/s1600-h/IMG_0755.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA67AVriI/AAAAAAAAAHw/R1qk7sbkmv0/s200/IMG_0755.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234661522903772706" border="0" /></a><br /> <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_XVvs4YI/AAAAAAAAAHA/fewRe3AzAdQ/s1600-h/CIMG6241.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKU_XVvs4YI/AAAAAAAAAHA/fewRe3AzAdQ/s200/CIMG6241.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234659812094828930" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA6D_x_ZI/AAAAAAAAAHg/XYHL2SWUwII/s1600-h/CIMG6244.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA6D_x_ZI/AAAAAAAAAHg/XYHL2SWUwII/s200/CIMG6244.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234661508137483666" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCom_-j9I/AAAAAAAAAII/ip8Dnthd1yc/s1600-h/CIMG6267.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCom_-j9I/AAAAAAAAAII/ip8Dnthd1yc/s200/CIMG6267.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234663407319158738" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA6fuwQbI/AAAAAAAAAHo/63Up3Ugxh7k/s1600-h/CIMG6257.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA6fuwQbI/AAAAAAAAAHo/63Up3Ugxh7k/s200/CIMG6257.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234661515582259634" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA7IGH90I/AAAAAAAAAH4/dOXi3gdywrg/s1600-h/CIMG6294.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA7IGH90I/AAAAAAAAAH4/dOXi3gdywrg/s200/CIMG6294.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234661526417700674" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCpWZLkOI/AAAAAAAAAIY/BIsXwDFJGc4/s1600-h/CIMG6296.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVCpWZLkOI/AAAAAAAAAIY/BIsXwDFJGc4/s200/CIMG6296.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234663420041335010" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA7eikZSI/AAAAAAAAAIA/Hk0Ma44ekKI/s1600-h/CIMG6303.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVA7eikZSI/AAAAAAAAAIA/Hk0Ma44ekKI/s200/CIMG6303.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234661532442584354" border="0" /></a><br />Dude, check out these 2 old ladies we walked by! And I'm not even standing right next to them! So they are shorter than they appear!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVDyBevODI/AAAAAAAAAIg/UIikIkcgMLc/s1600-h/IMG_0776.JPG"> <span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span> <img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVDyBevODI/AAAAAAAAAIg/UIikIkcgMLc/s200/IMG_0776.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234664668557948978" border="0" /></a><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVDylQ0y1I/AAAAAAAAAIo/XpggP-vdGBI/s1600-h/IMG_0777.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVDylQ0y1I/AAAAAAAAAIo/XpggP-vdGBI/s200/IMG_0777.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234664678163270482" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Diana, our head teacher, is amazing! Her husband got 2 free tickets to Lenny Kravitz this past Wednesday, but due to some fortunate events (for us that is) they couldn’t go! So she had told us teachers about it last weekend, but on Monday, I was in the teacher room alone and she comes in asking me if I want them. I found out that she wasn’t charging for them and was like Yes Please! So we got to go!! He is awesome live! Even better than he sounds recorded! It was a cool venue, smaller and right on the water. Though he didn’t try to speak tukish which bugged me, and he didn’t do very well at keeping them pumped. He dances really funny though, like a Bill Cosby x 10! Pretty funny! Then there were those famous songs of his which was hilarious to hear the Turks sing along to! This one guy behind us kept singing American wo-mmmmAANNNN! He would get louder and go up a series of notes as he neared the end of the word woman! Lol! Good times!<br /><br />This job is crazy, always ups and downs –it all depends on the moods of your students. Turkish students, especially women, take out their bad day on teachers. So that’s a lot of fun! I have a problem class, and the office staff had to talk to them! But then, two weeks later, one of the office staff tells me how much my class loves me! How it’s so much fun and they can’t believe how fast time flies in my class. So I’m sooooooo confused, I haven't changed anything I'm doing with them! I can’t wait for that class to finish! It’s really hard, you gotta have tough skin for the job, something I’m not to sure I have. Gotta grow some quick or get out I guess…<br /><br />Which brings me to my other tough skin, what should be the toughest skin on my body, the bottom of my foot…it’s no longer!<br />Our friend Josh inivited us over to his shabby place to hang out by the pool and drink and eat and what not. Josh knows everybody in his complex and kids were playing bball on the half court located on the tennis court. Being bball players ourselves, we decided to play a game -in our barefeet. Well my right foot rips open, I guess from being so dry, sure it hurt –but I kept going, playing more on the side of my foot, of course. I could see a huge chunk of skin flapping, knowing it wasn’t a good thing, but the game wasn’t over and I didn’t have time to stop and really take a gander at it. So I sucked it up and carried on playing (kinda playing half-assish though). After the game I showed the guys and they all freaked out and then it was a huge ordeal trying to find bandages big enough, Josh had to get scissors to cut the flap of skin off, he had to get disinfectant that hurts like a mother to clean it….good times. Poor Katie got to clean it, she tricked me at one point and pored rubbing alcohol on it when I wasn’t looking, I almost socked her several times. I seriously stopped myself just inches away from her, the pain just kept getting worse and worse!! But don't worry!! I didn't! I wouldn’t have done that to her! Come on! I’m not that mean! <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVI11G2gmI/AAAAAAAAAIw/Q3jsnx4msTg/s1600-h/CIMG6314.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVI11G2gmI/AAAAAAAAAIw/Q3jsnx4msTg/s320/CIMG6314.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234670231514153570" border="0" /></a>So the fortunate events part: Josh doesn’t really work at English Time anymore, he lives a little further out and has a ton of private students and is hoping to open his own school within the next year. Well one of his student’s that was there was on his way to go have dinner with his family over in our area –so sly Josh got us a ride home! Only we aren’t really good with car directions since we never go in one, so we got let off on a street close by us. Which is perfect cuz I needed some sort of gauze and shtuff for my foot! Not to mention the butt load of bandaids are flapping like my skin was bcuz of the puss that had soaked through and stopped it from being sticky. So we’re limping along hoping to find some sort of Quickee Mart (which there are some every few feet around here) that would actually sell huge bandaids and not just candy. Well we went into one of them that was bigger and looked like it had some potential, and this teenager that worked there tried to help me. He found out I need a bandaid and brought me back downstairs to the cash register and had the woman whip out a pack of bandaids. Dude, there were maybe three in a pack. I was like oh no! no! no! and tried to say in Turkish I need a huge one and kind showed my wound. Then, her husband (this couple are in their 50s) said all these things in Turkish and told me to wait a few minutes….He came back and pointed down the street and told me in a crazy way which store to go to. Thank God for pointing, cuz atleast I kinda knew where to go! So we take off, and all of the sudden, a customer from the store came up and he walked us all the way over to the store the guy was talkin about. Now this was way out of his way and completely unnecessary of him! So nice!! Only when we got to the store, it was closed! And he tried to tell us the only other option was the hospital! We told him no, thanked him, and parted ways. So on the way home now, we passed by this pharmacy that was closed, except the door was slightly open! So I squished inside and got the woman to help us! It took a little time, but we ended up with gauze, tape and disinfectant! It’s funny cuz the Turkish name for gauze is very similar to the English word for it –but she couldn’t get it (oh you mean Coffee Bean AND TEA LEAF?!). So we happily limp back! Katie has a bunch of patches just waiting to be popped, I have one on my other foot and and one on my big toe on the same foot as the battle wound. The best part is Zabada found out and she clapped her hands at me and shook her head before she even asked me what happened! Lol! But then she offered for me to come eat with them! Only I didn’t cuz we ate a ton of Chinese food at Josh’s! A little later that night, I was up in the common room and Zabada busts out this giant tub, soap and a scrub. I was like oh crap! This is gonna hurt! She starts washing my foot! It hurt too much to let her do it, so I started doing it myself. Mustafa then told me he would take me in the taxi to work because I can't limp all the way there! Which didn't end up happening because I ran into an older teacher that takes the taxi to work, so I went with him! The Turks really freak out here about wounds and immediately want to take you to the hospital. It's kinda funny, but they are super nice and attentive! It's really great to see! My wound is completely fine though! Mark's girlfriend, who is visiting and is a nurse at a hospital, looked at it and she said it is perfectly fine! Phew!<br /><br />Mark is one of our hilarious friends that we hag out a lot with. He had a bday bash the other week. That was a lot of fun!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVI2b_AYxI/AAAAAAAAAI4/DGazwJs75nQ/s1600-h/IMG_0973.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SKVI2b_AYxI/AAAAAAAAAI4/DGazwJs75nQ/s320/IMG_0973.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5234670241950229266" border="0" /></a>The other week, Mustafa's oldest son - Serkan and his nephew, Ahmet, visited for a few days. When I got back from work one day (10:20ish pm), they were all upstairs hanging out. Of course, I was invited to come up. They were eating a pile of nuts, which you can get everywhere here (I think they might be hazlenuts -no idea)<br /><br /> <br /> <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwi7ooiwS85YoDrNgu2flTQ4A9PH8FVJzsvip-5bsihOw-xZMBG6VZa9LdMFf60LSMdgLlTSM8OKenjf22sOw' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe><br />Well I MUST go BECAUSE….duhn-duhn-nuhn-naaaa…..I have to get ready to move!!!! We can’t have visitors in the dorms...well actually, Mustafa found out we were looking to move the other day, and he looked at me like I was an idiot and was like of course your friends can stay here I’m not going to tell on you! But we really want a real place to live (ie. family room) plus we have some friends coming mid-sept (yay!) and we rather have a real place for them. So we’ve been looking and got this number of this guy that rents out furnished flats. We call him yesterday and all of the sudden, we are being hurried over to our new flat in the quaint little town of Moda to see the place! It’s super nice! Two block from the water! Sooo awesome! So he wants to give us the keys today!! Holla!!!! Jeez things happen fast here! Haha! Oh and Michael, a fellow Kanuk, is going to be living with us! Poor Katie! Mwhahaha! She'll be a Canadian before she knows it! So I gotta go pack and avoid Mustafa and Zabayda –they will be super sad….(oh you don’t have to give notice here, you just up and leave).<br /><br />Noshk! (bye in Markasha talk)Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-64389415324427521622008-07-16T03:16:00.000-07:002008-07-24T01:46:19.622-07:00It's Raining, Hallelujah!Ok, so not much to add, we're just getting into a regular routine of working. Remember how I said we were going to Bada St? Haha! Well it's actually Baghdad St! They pronounce it Badat St., and spell it Bagdat St here! lol! Way off!<br /><br />Oh we went to this flat party the other night on the European side! The guys we went out for beers with a few nights before, one of them knows this guy that just moved into a flat and was having a welcoming party. Dude, this place is nuts! He's a yoga instructor and his company is paying him to live there, and the flat is also the studio. Only they barely use it! It's completely decked out in super contemporary decorations and everything. Not only that, but the view from the roof top is unreal. 360 view of Istanbul! You could get lost up there for days! So anyways, a few nights later, we went back to the European side (just Katie and I) to go to Taksim (the big quarter to go out in, tons and tons of bars and clubs). We went there to meet up with this Aussie we met at English Time head quarters, Mitch. He's at one of the other branches over there. We told him we hadn't been out to the Euro side yet so he invited us out. Well out of ALL places we could have ended up that night, we ran into Dylan -the guy who had the flat party! It's a small roof top bar that had amazing world music playing. It was odd because we barely even got to talk to Dylan at his party and when we ran into him, he was so stoked! He whipped me out onto the dance floor almost immediately (which was awesome except I really had to pee and really needed a beer after the loads of stairs we climbed before we finally settled on that bar -it took us 3 or 4 for Mitch and his friends to settle on a place, all of which had flights and flights of stairs to climb since they were located at the top of each building). Katie and Mitch met up with beers on the dance floor where we proceeded to dance the ENTIRE night! Perfect! Dylan is this hilarious, odd guy. He's a crack up! Anyways, he wants me to be his tango partner! Haha! Cuz you know, you go to Turkey to take a Tango class! So I told him I would! Once I get the details on it, I'll decide for sure!<br /><br />Mustafa and his wife just keep getting better! The other day, maybe an hour before I had to go to work, Mustafa comes to my door with a bowl of Cusir (type of couscous dish)!! I had been hoping they were just gonna offer some of there good, authentic home cookin that we so often smell just delicously wafting about the place! I ate it in my room as I was getting ready, and then on my way up to wash the dish -right before I left - I see and thank Mustafa and he was like chai chai (turkish for tea, black tea, not like chai latte) while motioning me into their apt-like-room. I really had to go and I tried to tell him, but he just couldn't understand why I would eat a meal and not finish it without tea! So I finally gave up and went in to his apt! Which is exciting cuz it's all Turkish style furniture and stuff. His wife was sitting in the middle of the floor on a carpet and had a huge tray that they eat off of with various other items surrounded about. We started telling each other what each thing was in Turkish and then in English (since they want to learn too!) It was so cute! They make so much fun of me for not hearing or not getting a word correctly, but when it was their turn, they couldn't do it either! Haha! They were making fun of each other and blaming the other one if they couldn't remember! Ha! I love 'em!<br /><br />Today it's raining SUPER hard! I love it! Finally, not soo freakin hot! Plus it's thundering and lightning out, I think one of my fave weathers! I had just gotten back from "an interview" and went up to the kitchen (top floor, where the common room is -which also has a large patio). I just finished making tea and was looking out the windows in the common room when Zabada and her 14 year-old son Ramazaan, came with tarps. At this point, it was coming down extremely hard, and they went out to go put the tarps on the floor -wearing no rain jacket or anything! I couldn't just stand there and watch them get soaked, so I ran out to help them! She was yelling at me to get back in, but I just grabbed more tarps! It was so much fun! We were laughing the whole time, she couldn't believe I went out in the rain in my nice work clothes! After we were done with the tarps we just stood there laughing at each other getting even more soaked by the rain! I would have stayed out there longer, but I didn't want to get struck by lightning -the top floor is part roof, where the patio is).Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-24457445458161990732008-07-11T02:30:00.000-07:002008-07-11T20:30:41.371-07:00Dude,I freakin went to the Black Sea yesterday!<br /><br />I mean who says that?!! AMAZING!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc7NcxsGoI/AAAAAAAAAF4/-MlVpaMTJ-s/s1600-h/IMG_0602.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc7NcxsGoI/AAAAAAAAAF4/-MlVpaMTJ-s/s320/IMG_0602.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221707395208321666" border="0" /></a><br /><br />Mahoney told us that he would take us on a tour of the Asian side and the whole time Katie and I were wondering what the heck we were gonna see over on this side, maybe some posh cities around here or something, the water....? But when we met up with him yesterday morning he told us we were going to the Black Sea!!! Crazy!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8pxjWRBI/AAAAAAAAAGY/4DChoOvuE6I/s1600-h/IMG_0577.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8pxjWRBI/AAAAAAAAAGY/4DChoOvuE6I/s320/IMG_0577.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221708981333279762" border="0" /></a><br />Mahoney stopped at a few cities along the way the way there. First, we stopped to buy 3 different types of Turkish pastry like treats, sitting seaside at a cafe with tea (naturally). This cafe also happens to have a tree that is 700 years old! yowsas! Plus it's gigante! So beautiful. I must tell you know, every single place he took us to had spectacular views -it's like he said: each place just gets bet<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8Vj9aqmI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/C7DPL_dBFnE/s1600-h/IMG_0524.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8Vj9aqmI/AAAAAAAAAGQ/C7DPL_dBFnE/s320/IMG_0524.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221708634087139938" border="0" /></a>ter. Katie and I were constantly stunned and speechless, just standing there in awe and he would be like running to the next spot after 20 seconds of looking at one, rushing us to come see or get going. We would have been fine with just one view and staring the whole day! So we had to snap pictures super fast and rush to the next spot, which would be just as amazing or even better! These views never get tiring! Anyways, so after he stuffed us with fatty pastries at this cute little seaside town that is known for its trees and used to be known for growing cucumbers. He then took us to another city known for its yogurt. Ok, yogurt hails from Turkey, and really, this country should be called Yogurt, they barely even eat Turkey here anyway! They are serious about this stuff, I could see them going to war over it or killing themselevs if they were ever to run out! So we stopped, at a cafe also located seaside, for yogurt and topped it with powdered sugar. Tasty treat, but still full from breakfast, but stu<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8DMKMfxI/AAAAAAAAAGI/UvWlHsWlcQk/s1600-h/IMG_0580.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc8DMKMfxI/AAAAAAAAAGI/UvWlHsWlcQk/s320/IMG_0580.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221708318460641042" border="0" /></a>ffed it down -this was a 5 minute drive mind you from breakfast to yogurt town. Then along the way to where the Bosphoros meets the Black Sea, he decided to quicklly show us a famous cemetery. Apparently Moses' cousin is buried there, in a 17 meter long grave. He gave me this scarf so I could bobcha-myself up! Haha! Even he was laughing at me and told me it was too much! This cemetery is located at the top of a moutain, so again, we were in awe of the view! Then off to Yorus Castle just north of Anadolu Kavagi (sp?). Holy cow! It's a super ruined castle, but it has a crazy view of where the Bosphorus meets the Black Sea (also located on top of a mountain)!!!!! Crazy! Actually, Katie just stopped taking pictures at one point and just videoed it bcuz it's just that good. Oh I should tell you, the water, it's aqua and clear; at yogurt town in the cafe, there was a short wall that separated us from the water and you could see jelly fish and fishies swimming by! So of course<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc7qVwlioI/AAAAAAAAAGA/mNmkZu9Qtfs/s1600-h/IMG_0619.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc7qVwlioI/AAAAAAAAAGA/mNmkZu9Qtfs/s320/IMG_0619.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221707891540855426" border="0" /></a> Katie and I were just beside ourselves! Plus what American can easily say "oh I went to the Black Sea today"?!! We're sooo lucky! Mahoney also told us that many people don't know about this castle, even Turks! Then we went into the super cute, tiny village (which was a step back into the old world for sure!) and had lunch, actually, we didn't we had a feast. Oh, but on the walk there, all the men were saying things and Mahoney was telling us. He was so excited bcuz everyone was jealous that he was with 2 gorgeous girls! It was cute and also another great perk for us, since he was so excited by this fact (he didn't need strangers to tell him) it got us more stops along the way that he typically doesn't show people! Ok, so the feast, oy-vay! This was also seaside, with another breath-taking view....he ordered us all of these traditional dishes. Which was great, we've been wanting to try lots of it! So we're sharing these little dishes, very family style here, everything's tasty, yes, even the calamare (wouldn't ever order it on my own or eat a ton, but it's not that bad -though he did make me eat the last one, you know the girl that doens't like fish -great...). So I knew I was going to have to be forcing fish down at some point of this day right, but since we're sharing I was getting so stoked thinking great I can get away with just a few bites of it and I'll be done with it! Perfect, right?! Right?! Well I got up mid-feast (they eat for hours here) to go to the bathroom and when I came back (duhn duhn duhn), we each had a whole fish to ourselves and it looked like it just came out of the water -so skin, eyes and all...mmmmm tasty. Plus before I went to the bathroom, he was saying how he hates leaving any food behind, everything must be eaten. Crap. This fish was just cooked, they didn't put any sort of spice or had a dip on the side or anything with it. But luckily, it wasn't super fishy. So it wasn't complete torture! Katie kept looking at me to see if I was going to vomit or something! Haha! She was so scared for me! I just ate it quick to get it over with! .....on the way back he showed us more views of the city, girls: I know some great places to get married -like woah! (Oh Shawna!! forget Mexico get your butts over here dude!!), we went to another hill over by our place. Another CRAZY view with a restaurant and cafe on top overlooking the city. So because we were famished since we hadn't eaten in forever, we shared two pieces of tasty cakes and had tea/lemonade. During that time we were discussing our plans of wanting to go to the European side the next day, and he told us that he would take us another day! He couldn't go the <a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc9l4-3JVI/AAAAAAAAAGg/mYM2Q1kED3M/s1600-h/IMG_0688.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHc9l4-3JVI/AAAAAAAAAGg/mYM2Q1kED3M/s320/IMG_0688.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5221710014119880018" border="0" /></a>next day because of work but, we are meeting him later this afternoon and he's taking us to Bada (sp?) Street, apparently one of the Rodeo Drives of Istanbul. Ferraris run rappent over here, or so I'm told. All my students are always telling me to go. They love it here. We are really sooooo lucky to have met Mahoney, the places we got to go many people don't know of, and the Black Sea isn't that close to Istanbul either!<br /><br />So he dropped us off around 6ish, he had a tennis game that night, and we ran into our friend Anthony who had just dropped by with his gf and two other friends (also teachers). We enjoyed tea with Mustafa and his wife and then went off to have beers at some bar over by Bada Street (its over by us), a super nice part of town (we haven't made it that way yet)! Katie and I ordered the huge beers (surprise!) so all the guys were forced to do the same, they couldn't let a woman beat them! Let's just say it was a good night! Haha!<br /><br />Oh! A few nights ago (I just had to change my wording, I'm writing like I'm talking to people who don't know English -when I come back, it's not that I think you're incompetent, it's just gonna become a natural way of talking for me! So sorry now!) Katie and I went out for beers over by our school. It was a really cool place with live music (their guitar, congas, singing really loudly! So cool!!) we met some other Turks and they gave us some of their appetizers to try -holy shit mom and dad, there was this dish, hyardi (I think), it's like tiki-wiki sauce but with garlic in it!!! Do it, Do it now!!! Anyways, I of course, had to pee at one point. Haha! So I went up the skinny little stairs and found that it was a pop-a-squat type. Sweet. Luckily, I was only buzzed, drunk may have been an issue because as I was squatting, holding on to the walls so I don't fall over and watching my aim (haha), the lights go out. I was like oh shit it would happen!...so luckily I already have t.p. in my hand for any easy finish as I'm bent down (with jeans on, yes I have great aim!!) BUT when I get up, I found out that it was one of those motion-sensor lights!! lol! It turned back on before I even finished standing back up!!!! Hahah! I guess it couldn't see me down there, well it's not like I was moving either though! lol! Awesome! Good times! lol!<br /><br />Oh that top ten picture list, it will come it will come! Just gotta go snap a few more pics!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-74472535150614954082008-07-07T14:22:00.000-07:002008-07-07T16:45:07.651-07:00Just Pita (pita)! Just Pita (pita)!Ahhhh the internet is alive and working again in my room! Hopefully it'll stick! There has been SOOO much I've been dying to post but haven't been able to! So this one is gonna be a book! Hey, atleast I gave you fair warning, right?!<br /><br />Things are going great here in Istanbul! It's gorgeous and overflowing with character! So much going on all the time!<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKWxlAugWI/AAAAAAAAAFY/TJsbCTSl_jc/s1600-h/IMG_0394.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKWxlAugWI/AAAAAAAAAFY/TJsbCTSl_jc/s320/IMG_0394.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220400696568742242" border="0" /></a><br />(This is a typical street, located near our school!)<br />Unfortunately, we haven't been able to explore (other than close by) as we've had to be at work almost everyday or have been WAY to exhausted to even try! As we are still jet lagged, we often go in and out of commas at any given points of the day! Plus this teaching for 3-4 hours at a time requires soo much energy! Not only that, but you're speaking broken English and at turtle speed! But it's great once you see on their faces that they understood your lesson! Also, the heat here is insane! The both of us are swollen, seriously. Oh and the humidity -def don't miss that from Canada! That def makes you tired! Sweating has already become like breathing to me! Haha! Nasty, I know! But atleast everyone else around you is also dripping! Surprising though, not many people have crazy BO (as many of you were expecting!)! They're all well groomed here! Hah! Another thing that has quickly become the norm, is getting attacked by tons of mosquitoes at night! I've been super lucky in comparison to poor Katie who has been murdered a thousand times over -face biteS included! Thank God for bug spray! ...man I must smell like a bed of roses....<br /><br />Let's see, the other teachers are super nice and helpful! We met this super cool teacher, Anthony, the other day! He was so quick to show us around and give us great tips! He actually showed us the mall right by our house (haha yes, we've already found an American mall. we really just needed to go to the wal-mart -like store ok!). He actually showed it to us on the 4th of July, so how more American could we be than to grab a hot dog there:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKXciwg7UI/AAAAAAAAAFg/bT9CEvsIneI/s1600-h/CIMG6138.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKXciwg7UI/AAAAAAAAAFg/bT9CEvsIneI/s320/CIMG6138.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220401434698247490" border="0" /></a> (mmmm tasty!)<br />Next he had been pumping up this super secretive swanky bar a crawl away from our dorms. He's didn't find it until the last month he moved out and wished he found it sooo much sooner! It's located above a hospital across the street (I know, what a location right?). It's a secret bcuz they don't advertise for it, it's by word-of-mouth only so it stays nice and sshhwanky! Apparently Anthony isn't a huge drinker, but leave it to the Katies to get him good and liquored up! Haha! We got the hook up big time that night and they gave us many different drinks to try! Yes, not even a week in and we have already found a new Effins! Haha! We call it "shwank" as we have no idea what the name of it really is!<br /><br />Our dorms are super quiet right now, apparently lots of teachers move in during the fall. It has huge, dark, tiled hallways in the middle with single rooms outlining the building. We have bright orange, metal furniture (found out it's from Easy Jet leftovers! Haha!). And the girls bathroom have 4 potty holes (literally) and only 2 american toilets:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKiohwegvI/AAAAAAAAAFw/V6v_ouhg9aw/s1600-h/CIMG6122.JPG"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKiohwegvI/AAAAAAAAAFw/V6v_ouhg9aw/s320/CIMG6122.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220413735215989490" border="0" /></a> (I popped a squat in that my very first morning here!)<br /><br />Our landlord is awesome! His name is Mustafah! lol! (how awesome is that?! Really, need I say more about him?!) He's this short, old, really friendly, smiley guy! Everytime I see him (which is atleast 2x a day), I make him teach me something in Turkish or I desperately try to practice some words that seem impossible to say! This language is nuts to learn! He told me the other day that he's my Turkish teacher (he only speaks a handful of English words but seems to understand more than he can speak)! He loves it, he gets so excited! Hehe! Tonight him and his wife (who is super sweet too and loves to laugh at my awful Turkish) were having tea and cookies at the front desk when I got back from work (10:20ish). They offered me some! They're so cute! I wish I had the slightest clue as to what they were saying! Haha!<br /><br />Our first day of teaching was Saturday! We were supposed to teach from 9-12:50 (that's one class) and then again from 3-6:50 (yup, one class) -oh with an hour's length activity inbetween! It was a great start! My first class is a level 1. They were really nice and excited! "Ohhh kali-fownia!" (think the governator on that one)! All of my classes love to tell me places to see in Istanbul! One of my students told me he would take me on his motorcycle to all the best places in Istanbul! Holla! Only I might die! Either that or lose my leg on a bumper of some car! Yikes! Crazy drivers over here, and it is worse than what you're already thinking! Another student is a waiter at some super nice restaurant, and wanted me to come! I told him I would bring Katie with me! He got really excited! Hah and another works at Bim, some German store that sells electronics and home stuff at the mall here. Every break on Sat and Sun, he kept pestering me on when me and him will go see his work. Uhhhh right, about that....I tell him soon, soon! Hah! But then he asks for the specific day! Arg! At every break I hear beem (bim) over and over again! Nice guy but lay off dude! I'll eventually get to your freaking store! Haha! Then my second class were no shows! Haha! Hookie! Yay! Free time for me! Plus I was brain dead at that point so I was stoked! (Oh, each of us are taking over 2 weekend classes, they just have a few weeks left). The next day was the samething! I found out today that one of the office workers granted them a holiday, but she failed to tell anybody before she went out on vacation herself! But during that time, I found the black market of jeans!! Literally! I wondered down some street and there was store after store of big name jeans with the center of the tag cut out! And the bulk of them were Zara jeans (let's just say giant length-jeans)! Holla! I will return!<br /><br />Oh and it's great! They pretty much call you "Teacher" (and will say it everytime before they speak!)! Haha! They can't pronounce "Katie" (it comes out kiy-ley) and if they are able to say it, it comes out "kyiy-tea"! They know they can't pronounce it, so they wind up saying Kate, which I tell them is perfectly fine, but they know it's not right so they say they wind up saying "teacher" or a "kiy-tea - teacher" combo! Haha!<br /><br />Last night was a great surpise! We met this level 5 student a few days ago, and I had him in one of my activities on Saturday. His name is Mahmut (pronounced Mahhh-moot). You must pronounce the H, even though when he says it, you can't hear it! Anyways, he wants us to call him Mahoney (lol, some teacher told him to just go by that) instead! So Katie and I were walking back from the Wal-Martish store late last night and all of the sudden we here "Katies!" from out some car! It was Mahoney! lol! He offered us a ride home (a whopping 2 min ride), so naturally, we jumped in! He then offered to take us to the BEST ice cream place in all of Istanbul before we hit home (oh all the students somehow know where the teacher dorms, Lojmont, are -its a 20 min walk from school)! So of course we were game! (BTW, ice cream is on every corner, <span style="font-style: italic;">literally</span>, we're talking worse than Starbucks here -a good worse though! haha!). It turns out it is the oldest ice cream place in town (which also happens to be the quarter of town we want to live in! Holla! The pic below was taken in this quarter) and<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKgcvTy80I/AAAAAAAAAFo/2AQone9RIMk/s1600-h/IMG_0383.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SHKgcvTy80I/AAAAAAAAAFo/2AQone9RIMk/s320/IMG_0383.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5220411333672104770" border="0" /></a> he insisted that we would get 3 scoops each (he had to buy bcuz he says Turks believe it's rude if the male doesn't pay)! Delightful! Then he took us to this place on a dock for some tea (him being a Turk, we had to have tea!). On the way back, he saw I was wearing my seatbelt in the backseat and got offended! lol! He couldn't understand why one would need it back there unless they were with a really bad driver! We rushed to tell him its the norm to wear it in all of the seats in the US! haha!<br />But one of the best parts, is on the way to ice cream, he had to play us Michael Jackson (and made sure he told us he only likes the '83 and '87 Michael!)! "Suuuper!" He shouted so many times! Then, he told us that pop songs are hard for him to understand (they go to fast) and asked us what some words are. We were listening to "Beat It!" at the time, and when the chorus came on, he told us if he was right in hearing "Just Pita!" (instead of "Just Beat It")!!! LOL!!! I can definitely hear it now and strongly suggest you go dig up that song to hear how it sounds like Just Pita! So funny esp cuz he was so serious! He was like I can't understand why he would sing about pita?! lol!<br /><br />Mahoney had also told me on Saturday that he would take us around (as he would really love to be a tour guide plus he gets free English practice out of it!)! Well he wasn't lying as he told us last night that he would pick us up at 10am on Thursday (we're off that day)! He's going to give us a tour of the Asain Side (our side) and take us to some amazing fish restaurant (def gonna have to suck it up and pretend fish is mouthwatering good! eeek!) for dinner!<br /><br />Oh!! And icing on the cake:<br />Our awesome manager, Diana, brought us to go get our tax numbers today. The office ladies at the place thought we were prostitutes! lol! Apparently there are lots of light featured, foreign women here that take on this profession! But the kicker is, if we actually were prostitutes, why the heck would we want a tax number?! Now that's honesty for ya! Imagine a prostitute paying taxes?! Crazy! lol!<br /><br />Alright! Enough already! Haha! I told you it would be a book! I will post a top ten of crazy things seen on a regular basis here in Istanbul tomorrow -with pictures!<br />And remember: Just Pita! (pita) Just Pita (pita)! Just PITAAAAA!! PITAAAA!!....mmm doner......Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-8373586853880951052008-07-03T09:05:00.000-07:002008-07-03T09:13:28.322-07:00We´re In!Merhaba (Hello)! Sorry ıt´s taken so long! The ınterent ın the dorm hasn´t been workıng! I´m actually on a turkısh computer and man thıs keyboard ıs CRAZY!<br /><br />Istanbul ıs packed and crazy but absolutely amazıng! So gorgeous! There ıs so much goıng on here! The cıty ıs really old mıxed ın wıth the new! We are lıvıng on the Asıan sıde! We begın teachıng on Saturday but have been doıng stuff at our school each day! The staff ıs great and really helpful! And the language ıs so fun to hear! ıts a really gıbberısh but beautıful soundıng, ıt flows so nıcely!<br /><br />As soon as the ınternet ın my room ıs workıng I´ll post some pıctures! There are some crazy thıngs we have seen here so far!<br /><br />Gotta run! Take care! Lots of love!Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5348228125860227039.post-67825980432349262552008-06-29T00:35:00.000-07:002008-06-29T02:24:17.373-07:00My bags are packed and ready to go<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SGdIAI6bbSI/AAAAAAAAAAs/gXoMyCqEjcA/s1600-h/CIMG5750.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SGdIAI6bbSI/AAAAAAAAAAs/gXoMyCqEjcA/s200/CIMG5750.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217217860561759522" border="0" /></a><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Well hellooooo everyone!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I'm writing to you on the floor of my room surrounded by everything I'm about to leave and everything else that made the cut to come to Turkey. It's kinda strange that me life for a year fits into a 30 x 14 x 14 inch duffle bag, oh and a backpack! I actually feel over packed...I guess its the sheets, the sweaters for the cold winters and nice clothes to teach in (I can't wear jeans or a t-shirt while teaching -my world is kinda torn up by it...I guess I'm finally growing up Ma! Now only if there were stores that carried a</span><span style="font-family:arial;"> super-extensive length...)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">So I thought I would name this blog </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-family:arial;" >Turkish Delight </span><span style="font-family:arial;">because it sounds so delicious, as does my journey I'm about to embark on (goes together like tuna fish and lamb chop!)! But don't take it too literally because this so called "tasty treat" is AWFUL! Sure it starts out delightful with a chocolate coating, but inside is a grandma's rose-swamped bathroom barfing all over your mouth! So I'm definitely crossing my fingers that my Turkey experience remains chocolatey right to the very center! That indeed would be quite a delight! -perhaps I should have called it an afternoon delight?!....</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">I'm so stoked for this journey, which actually starts a day early! I leave on Monday June 30th (arriving July 1st mind you), but I get to spend the day in San Francisco with the fam! We're doing this so we don't have to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to get me all the way to the airport on Monday and to hopefully find me some pants for my go-go gadget legs (thanks Scottish friends). I also hear that the gay parade is going on at the sametime! Holla! Half naked men! And I guess one last look of unforest (body hair) covered males!....and perhaps a non-whif of BO (as this apparently only happens in Turkey -I'll get back to you on that one Pam and Allan!).</span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SGdUF8WRs7I/AAAAAAAAAFI/hrb8OztNkag/s1600-h/CIMG0670_2.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; float: right; cursor: pointer;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_IanRwHnOVTY/SGdUF8WRs7I/AAAAAAAAAFI/hrb8OztNkag/s200/CIMG0670_2.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5217231154407650226" border="0" /></a><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Can't wait to hear from all of you! This is a 2-way street here! So comment or email me back yo! I care just as much as you </span><span style="font-family:arial;">do with what's going on in each of your lives!</span><br /><br /><span style="font-family:arial;">Woohoo Turkey!</span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;"></span>Katie Campbellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10568611217748800358noreply@blogger.com4