i've got a feeling

i was kind of bad at taking pictures the past three weeks, but i found this baby online, and he makes me really happy, so enjoy

can being a good sport while aylin and i made him participate in our photo shoot, complete with wearing aylin's sunglasses

aylin and i, talking about something fascinating

dolmabache palace. it was beautiful, and this is the only photo i have from my dad's visit because my camera died about ten seconds later

ok. updating after three weeks is slightly daunting and i'm sure lots of little interesting tidbits have fallen by the wayside in my neglect. i apologize for being the least reliable blogger ever but that is changing soon! like within the next two weeks.

1. my dad came to visit and it was wonderful! he brought four bags of sour patch kids, all of which were gone within six days. we also went to dolmabache palace and the cisterns, neither of which i had seen before but were really cool for those of you who make it over this way. or want to live vicariously through google.

2. anybody who knows me well will be shocked by this next declaration. i like cats. it's true. not all cats, let's not get carried away, but a vast majority of the cats here are really cool. maybe it's a turkish cat thing.

3. i got all of my hair cut off again. it's fine, i still want to grow it out and yet i keep cutting it all off when i get bored. it's a vicious cycle. (see pictures above)

4. band of the moment- manchester orchestra
recommended tracks-i've got friends and alice and interiors

5. i have a new life plan. my life plan has been the same for around five years and very similar for the past, oh i dunno, my entire life. but as i was talking to tyler the other day i realized my life plan has been changing on a weekly and monthly basis for around seven months now. i guess this is growing up. get ready for irony....

6. the expectations were not the same in my living situation so i'm leaving istanbul. i'm sticking around the city for another two weeks. then prague for a week. dusseldorf for a week. then maybe paris or madrid, depending on where shayda is. ireland for a few days and then london for a month. i should be back state side mid november to celebrate thanksgiving and america. third world countries will do that to you i suppose. but yes, let's focus on my growning up speech and then my decision to not work or be in school but to bum around europe. for taking a year off to backpack around europe being so cliche, i think i'm the only person i know to have done it, although mine is only for five months.

7. i turn 22 in eleven days. i'm old. ew.

8. i love my comments! aunt sus-i dont know if my dad remembered to give it to you, or you magaged to find it on here, but my email is atripp05@gmail.com and that is the best way to keep in touch. mrs. varley, you always manage to make me smile. it was so nice to hear from you and i hope you are having a lovely fall.

9. ece and alp are both in school now. so i have the days off which is nice but really only relevant for four more weekdays.

10. i've been really relaxed for the past two weeks, maybe relaxed is the wrong word, but remarkably not stressed, which is kind of my default mode. i'm hoping this continues. it's nice.

11. the weather here is perfect!!! it is the perfect fall weather which georgia only manages to have five days during fall since we really only have two seasons. winter and summer. today im wearing a pair of cords, a tank top and a scarf and i am super comfortable. there is a light breeze everyday and it is wonderful.

12. this past weekend was bayramazam which is the end of ramazan. ramazan is the actual spelling of ramadan. i have no idea why in english we decided to change that one letter. probably for the same reason we took a sport everyone was also playing and called it something else. but i digress, this mean fasting ends, the whole city practically shuts down and everyone eats alot of candy. it is kind of like easter after lent but alot more intense since istanbul is 99% muslim and everyone is celebrating it. but it was fun. i ate alot of chocolate.

13. we went to the izmir zoo! it is only 1.50 tl to get in but for the price being practically free, it was a pretty nice zoo. and since the only zoos i have been to are the toledo, atlanta and the national washington d.c. zoos, thats pretty good. because those are all nationally ranked zoos. yes, there is such a thing a zoo ranking. and yes, i'm the cool kid that knows them, i like zoos, it's fine.

14. packing while already packed is harder then it sounds. i'll be gone two months so i need at least three weeks of clothes, plus the weather's changing and i need to ship two of my bags home. it is really hard actually. i have packed and repacked three times.

15. once upon a time, and well, most of the time, there was a little girl named alison who was awesome. leave comments accordingly.

disko disko partizini

this is faustine, i want this child, or at least to be able to speak french so i can communicate with her better, seriously, she is a pistol and is still so stinking cute

this is my favorite photo from the tree house photo shoot we had one day, this is alp's personality to a T once he warms up to you, don't be fooled by ece, girl be crazy

view from the table (we are b.a.'s so the waiters always reserved this table for us) where we ate all our meals for two weeks

drinking tea, looking out over the patio onto (unto? lauren or seth) the sea

i made friends with the entertainment people and got ahmet called up on stage to chug rakki, don't know what rakki is? look it up, it's intense

alp dressed up as a pirate, i love this picture but he looks suspiciously like erik which kinda creeps me out

firat, aylien and i at babylon! it was super windy but a cool greek band was playing, i recommend googling babylon to get the full effect of why this is neat, it has an english button at the top

ok...here we go, once again, i will shout out to my photo album for those who want to see more photos, i warn you in advance, i took almost no scenery photos (which is a shame because bodrum {number one vacation spot for british people and cindy crawford} and alacati {wind surf capital of the world, we were there for some of the races} were gorgeous) but if you want to look at two pernicious five year olds, this is the album for you. in other news part of these weeks i want to live again and others i want to forget completly, i don't know how long this list will end up being, it might grow when i've had more time to de-stress and de-funk my mood from "vacation"
*edit-dad called it my workation, i like that, it's fitting

1. i'm having a really hard time thinking of things for a list, which is sad because it's been three weeks, but they were three very busy three weeks and they flew by. the parents were in istanbul two of the three weeks we were on vacation so it was me and interchanging family members with the kids. so basically me. i worked around three hundred hours in the past three weeks. if those hours aren't a resume builder for when i reapply to the school of education, i don't know what is.

2. the water sports guys ride on this little raft thing with a motor to open and close up every day and one day i had a whole hour to myself and so i was sitting on the dock and yusef said i could go along and it was alot of fun. the "boat" felt like i was riding a innertube with a motor and it was interesting to see another part of bodrum that was not the resort. i saw a gypsy boat and he bought me a popsicle. it was one of the highlites of my trip. sad but true.

3. i am thinking of taking spanish classes instead of turkish. i want to learn turkish, but maybe i'll just pick it up. spanish is much more pratical for my time and money. tu hablas esponal? si!

4. i went to a bookstore yesterday and almost all the books were in english. i was in bookie heaven. i bought public enemies (i think what the movie is based on, not sure though) about the untouchables and other early 1900's rebels, and a book called the book of secrets, which sounds suspiciously like a combo of the historian (super excellant book) and the da vinci code (good but not as good as angels and demons or the historian), so i'm excited for both.

5. talking to the boat people when the kids wanted to go kayaking was the closest i came to making a group of friends in turkey since they were the largest group of people my age who spoke english, leaving bodrum for alacati was hard. i had a minor meltdown and cried alot. the house at alacati was gorgeous (ahmets father was actually the architect) and it was surrounded by high stone walls with a pool and large yard full of old wagon wheels and oversized pots and old coppers. it was a beautiful stone house with blue rod iron bars for doors and blue windows and trim with lots of gardens. but the walls made it seem very isolated, especially after the hotel, and the room we were orginally put in was three twin beds crammed in a room, when i was told i would get my own room on vacations and it felt like i left home all over again. i hit the two month mark and was super homesick but then the cousin befriended me, and so did two of his friends and i've talked shayda for the first time!! for like two hours, and danielle, and tyler later tonight, and my dad comes next week so i feel much better now. whew, that was a long one, sorry about that

6. i had a fig for the first time in alacati. firat likes to go to this one cafe so we were sitting drinking tea one night and the owners wife bought some from a gypsy woman and gave them to us. they are delicious! holy cow, however, they make me want to sing "poor unfortunate souls" every time i eat one. i refrain, mostly by humming it quietly to myself

7. i collected really awesome striped rocks in bodrum and i brought them back with and im looking for a cool dish to put them in. i like them lots.

8. i'm going to the grocery store with the kids soon, but i will continue listing later tonight while awaiting my dad on skype

get the door, its dominos

bonus pic- ahmet snuck home with us unawares and took this photo from above as we made alphabet art and chilled with tigra the cat

i have a house crush on this apartment, it's betul's, zeynep's sister, and it has the coolest, kitschyist stuff

we had domino's, i was thrilled

betul has a dog which flaps its ears and sings shania twain, ece put on my boots in order to dance with it

we moved the table down to the garden and had a picnic!

me at a coffeeshop in bebek, the next photo is from the same place

same as before, but this is my table, on the end of the dock, overlooking the marmara sea

we tried to go swimming today but it was super cold, so we went home and had a pool bath instead, hilarity and goggles ensued...

*i have now started a web album which has complete pictures, should anyone be interestered, here is the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/atripp05/Istanbul#

so this week was trying, the kids and i battled for dominance, the winner has yet to be determined, tomorrow we leave for bodrum (the coast) for two weeks so i will be unconnected for a while. vacation with the kids is easier then being at home at the end of the summer, they are restless

1. we finally made the popcorn balls today and i was not completely sure how to make popcorn not in a bag or popcorn machine, so i googled it (ain't technology great?), it told me to put oil in a 4 qt. sauce pan, add 1/2 cup kernels and move continuously, no where did it say to put a lid on the pot, i thought perhaps the corn did not pop that high, but it does, much to the kids and i's delight, although melahat (the maid) was not thrilled, we cleaned it up however and the rest of the popcorn balling went smoothly

2. i have "perfected" the hard boiled egg. it's harder then you'd think, it can't be too cooked and it can't be "watery". five year olds know best

3. i am really excited to go to bodrum, because the rest of the nanny brigade is already on holiday, and it will be nice to join them

4. i met some more english speaking turks through my friend suha and they seemed nice, i am also really ready for university to be in session because it is supposedly alot easier to find young, non-creepy males, i just say males because i have seen almost no females my age, i think they don't exist.

5. i passed my mytholgy class!!!!!!!! not really turkish news, but we'll make this a blanket life blog with a strong turkish twist.

6. we have adopted a second cat, there has always been two cats that hung around but when we would go at night, only lily was brave enough to come see us, tigra is now brave enough and really enjoys being in my lap, in others news, i think i'm allergic to cats, and lily might be male.

7. we are officially moving into a new, bigger loft in istinia come december, i'm looking forward to the space but not to the move. also istinia is home to the istinia park mall, full of dior, armani any top name designer with the actual designs, not the watered down bloomingdales version. and thus completely out of both my style and price range. i will miss my little starbucks (which i'm currently sitting in)

8. ahmet (the dad) just got back from russia and he brought the kids each back a matryoshka doll, and he got one for me to :) it looks like a blond princess leia, or me, depending on who you ask

9. it was my dad's birthday yesterday, for the family members following this, you should send a shout out his way

10. i meet up with some turkish people at a bar which was show casing a turkish rapper, i dont like rap any better when i dont know the words, especially if they rip off american tunes *ahem, cry me a river* and don't bother to take to american lyrics out, true story

11. ece offered to pay for my wedding, but then told me she only had lira, to which alp piped in and said he had lots of american money, the money i had given him, (.79 in assorted change), ece also drew a picture of me and my boyfriend wearing tiaras with happy faced balloons and our car. i don't know who my boyfriend is, or if he is the same fellow i'm getting married to, but our wedding is apparently sparing no expense

12. alp-indian people have dots on there heads
me-yes, thats right they do
alp-do you like india?
me-i've never been to india, i suppose i like it just fine
alp-i hate india
me-have you ever been?
alp-no, but i hate it
me-why?
alp-india has lots of mosques
*at this point i tell him that istanbul actually has the highest number of mosques of any city, in any country, and ask if he hears the man in the background*
alp-yes, that is the man jammbi, he is praying
me-kinda, he is a man, in a mosque, praying from the jambi, see? istanbul has mosques to
alp-no, he is not from a mosque, he just prays a lot

13. did i mention the popcorn went EVERYWHERE?!

14. melahat and i got in a fight, i was unaware we were in a fight but she called zeynep and told her that i had made her cry, then the kids and i had to have a sit down with her and i and them as the translators, it was fun, really

15. ece can swim without floaties!!!! this is very big news

ooooobama

view if you look directly down from the balcony

actual view from the balcony

caresse and i at a restaurant that may or may not be owned by the turkish mob

my wall art made for me by my wonderfully artistic children

alp trying really hard not to smile for the camera while climbing a tree trunk at the park

lily the cat

turkish coffee with a piece of chocolate covered turkish delight (not made by me)

one of the pictures from ece and i's photo shoot

so i'm finally getting around to writing a post, the pictures are remaining captionless because i don't feel like going back and identifying them, but they're pretty, so enjoy. i really like this website called 11points.com, where this guy makes funny lists of eleven points (go figure). i am totally ripping off this idea and writing a top fifteen list per week of amusing, interesting, things i find of importance and/or useless facts when i run out of the others. pictures from the week will be posted at the top (because i can't figure out how to put them at the bottom and don't really care that much) and i'm going to try to take at least a picture a day so ideally, i will have fifteen facts, seven pictures a blog and around 30 posts by next april. i'm giving myself eight free weeks for the vacation times scheduled in.

here we go:

1. turkish people a little over protective:
-wet hair gives you headaches
- ice gives you stomachaches
- sitting on the bare floor gives you stomachaches
- too cold of juice will make your food come up
- stairs are dangerous and hands must be held up and down them (their five)

2. turkish people eat an incredible amount of food, they will feed you long after you've said you were full.

3. we are making popcorn balls tomorrow.
alp-do you like popcorn
me-yes i do
alp-we like popcorn balls
me-you've had popcorn balls before?
alp-no, but we saw them on hannah montana

4. if you speak turkish with an english accent, people will look at you and tell you they "don't speak english", what do you mean you don't speak english, i was speaking turkish! these are turkish words and places i'm talking about.

5. the two cds i have heard of and borrowed from the parents are "the cream of clapton" (one of my favorites) and mariah carey's number one hits (i like to think i have eclectic taste in music, and limated options)

6. i've adopted a stray cat outside the loft, alp and ece named her lily, not quite scout but the closest i've got here, and she is a freaking awesome cat.

7. i am now a member of a group we've dubbed the nanny brigade. the only english speaking people i've met are the family i live with, their friends, and their friends au pairs. we are all now best friends because we all speak english, and share an affinity for wet wipes

8. there are more starbucks in istanbul then in east cobb, athens and atlanta combined. i've seen three within a five block radius before

9. just as a heads up: my family eats dessert every night, expect me to have gained 100 lbs by the time i come back

10. i saw harry potter, twice, and thought it was disappointing both of them

11. we like to go to this hookah/restaurant/bar where the owners son likes vanessa, we're starting to think they might be in the mob

12. there is a chili's in istanbul, but apperantly not one in canada.

13. alot of times, when i try to buy things from the many dessert shops i get it for free, i attribute this to the fact that i am one of the probably 50 natural blondes in istanbul (let's go with 115lbs)

14. you don't need a prescription to buy pretty much any drug here, i think this is a bad idea but i do appreciate that the prices aren't inflated three hundred percent (actual percentage, learned it in sociology)

15. i learned how to make turkish coffee, it's really easy but i am super proud of my self any ways

p.s.-turkish people really like obama

Marhaba