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