Twas the night before Christmas

Okay, so I didn't get to celebrate Christmas in such a traditional way, but it is definitely a time that I will never forget. Organizing parties or events with our group is nearly impossible but after a few hours of sober partying we finally found someone to buy a wine bottle opener for the five or six bottles of wine we had. We never got a knife to cut the apples, or a pan to boil some wine, but we found some tape in Simon's first aid kit to put up the one strand of garland and the half working string of Christmas lights we bought from the Egyptian Spice Bazaar that day. Sefer's sacred Bacardi and the candles we bought for decoration were the party's savior.

As we were exchanging our secret Santa Christmas gifts my eyes started to water as smoke from what I thought was coming from the candles was getting into my eyes. I couldn't even tell my giftee Merry Christmas with y eyes open. Suddenly Sefer came dashing over to put out the fire which started on my scarf from one of the candles. He said that my whole upper body was in flames. I pretty much owe him my life by now. These are a few of the events which led to such an unforgettable Christmas.

Here are some pictures from the party:

Early on in the night when Alex was still able to stand in her heels and look like a giant.

Sefer and I dressed up in our traditional Christmas attire.

Han Min enjoying Steve's gift to Yuzuro even more than Steve and Yuzuro.

This must have been taken in the two sober hours before the party really got started.

Aside from my favorite shirt getting burn marks and wholes in it, the evening was quite splendid. We got to spend it all together with all the new and old trainees and some new and old AIESECers Celal even showed up for some time. It was good to see him. Although it wasn't traditional, it was fun.

A Typical Monday in Istanbul

Here are a few of the things I see on a typical day. I only have a few pictures of some things I see on the way to work, but I am going to update this soon with pictures from work and my english classes, the dorm, and Sefer's apartment, so you can get the feel of what a typical day in Turkey is to me.

Someone's pet sheep that I see every day walking up the hill on the way to work. They keep in these little grassy areas and tie it to the fence. I am not sure if they are keeping it for the Kurban Bayram (where a sheep is sacrificed as part of the traditional celebration) or what.

The Bakery. There is a huge truck filled with fresh bread baked overnight that is delivered to the bakeries, resturaunts and grocery stores every morning.

The Butcher Shop. Every time I see this I always get a little freaked out. They deliver the meat out of these trucks. I would absolutely hate to have this job.

The Stray Dog Sleeping. This is one of many sray dogs I see on my way to work. Here it is sleeping on Gule Cadesi (Happy Street) side walk. Actually, there are way more stray cats on this street than stray dogs.

More to come....

Visiting Iva in Ankara for her Birthday

Iva's Birthday was quite a while ago but I never had a chance to post anything about it. Aakash and I went to Ankara to visit our dear friend Iva. She is busy with grad school and was lucky enough to get some time off over the weekend to spend with us.

Over the past year, Iva has been my closest friend. We have both experienced so much together here in Istanbul. We shared a room for an entire year, I don't think its possible to have any secrets between us. We have had many ups and downs over the last year and have spent many nights questioning love, life, and everything in between. I was so happy to be able to visit her in Ankara for her Birthday. We had the chance to see her dorm, her favorite bar, her campus, and just where and how she is now living her daily life.

We had this really great party for Iva. Just the way I like it. One of Iva's friends' parents were out of town for the weekend so she had us over to her very nice appartment. There were like 8 people from 8 different countries who specialize in I swear 8 different things so the conversation was great. We were sitting on pillows around a big square coffee table with dried fruit, insence, freddy,wine, sweet lighting from candles, and a quote book called Be Happy,while listening to Portishead. It was so much fun! Iva's friend from Mexico and her Turkish friend Deniz were so friendly and so much fun. I am so happy Iva was able to find such great friends in Ankara. Anyway we ended up having a really great time. I hope you really enjoyed your birthday, Iva!

This is a picture of Aakash, Iva, and me in front of the Ataturk Memorial.

Although Iva is only 5 hours away by bus, it is still feels really far in comparison to just the five feet away her bed was to mine just a few months ago. I really miss her. At least we were able to spend a very nice weekend together in her new place that she calls home.

She is coming to Istanbul again before New Years. I am really excited to hang out just her and I. Its gonna be just like the good old days!

Stealing a post about Beautiful Istanbul

I was reading Iva's blog and noticed this post about Istanbul. Iva lived with me in Istanbul for the last year but then moved to Ankara for grad school at Bilkent University. Her post about Istanbul was a great reminder to me about how gorgeous the city is. Sometimes all the people, the traffic and the chaos get in the way of really enjoying the beauty of the city. I didn't realize it before, but I am really gonna miss this place.

From Iva (http://ivuskawalterova.blogspot.com/) :

Istanbul en guzel bir sehir

I miss seeing Istanbul every morning after I wake up... I especially loved the morning bus rides from Besiktas to Taksim to work or driving across the bridge in the evening right before sunset or watching the mosques across the Golden Horn during the evening call for prayer, when the voices of the muezzins filled the warm evening air...

A White Christmas :-)

YEay!!!! I never thought Iwould be so happy to see snow. Ya know that feeling ya get when it hasn't snowed and its almost Christmas? Yeah. Well, finally it snowed, five days before Christmas! Woo Hoo! Feels good! Anyone want to sing Christmas carols?

Here are some pictures from last year's winter in Istanbul. In some ways I wish we had the same amount of snow, first because it is so pretty, but more importantly because when it snows like this no one goes to work until noon and everyone leaves work around 4pm. Its great!

Turkey, A Diamond in the Rough: The Best Summer Vacation of My Life

This post is about six moths late, just in time to help us all dream of a warm paradise on a blistering cold Christmas morning. Maybe this will give some people some good ideas of what to ask Santa for for Christmas.

It all went down about mid summer 2005. After my good friend Alex came to visit me in Istanbul in March, she knew she had to come back to this lively city for an internship. We strategically planned a mini vacation in June on the near-by Greek islands before she would dive in to her work. Because of some freak accident and visa issues we were prohibited from going Greek. We were heartbroken. We decided to go with Plan B, which was to stay on the Agean coast of Turkey, but soon enough we found that plan B should have originally been Plan A. Turkey really is a Diamond in the rough. We found the most wonderful whimsicle hostels to stay, the beaches were beautiful, the water was crystal clear, there were secret little swimming coves, and the people were absolutely wonderful. I couldn't have asked for anything better. All of this for a fraction of the cost I had planned for for Greece.

We started on the weekend in Bodrum with four other friends, a total of six. It was such a great group of people. Somehow we all seemed to get along perfectly. The first day was the best, spent on the beach teaching Saad to swim, playing beach volleyball, playing pool at the outdoor bar in our bathing suits, and laying around on the pillows and hammocks at the end of the day. Aside from our hostel, it was perfect. The next few days we spent doing much of the same including a little trip kayacking on the crystal clear water and the beautiful white houses lining the shore. It was wonderful. But definitely the best day was the day of the Blue Cruize.

We went on this amazing 5 hour boat tour around the islands off of Bodrum. I swear every second we were not chill'n on the front of the boat listening to beach music on the way to our next destination, we were in the water. The first time we stopped I thought it must have been six feet deep. I could clearly see the floor of the sea. I was way off, it had to be at least 20 feet deep. It took some courage but finally all six of us were able to jump off of the second floor of the boat, even Saad who had only a little practice swimming jumped with his life jacket. In fact he was in the water more that anyone, except maybe me.

The boat stopped in about five different little coves where we could get out and swim. Saad and I were prunes by the end of the trip. We had lunch on the boat and made a final stop at some hot springs and a mud bath. At the end we were exosted but totally satisfied. It was a little sad because our friends had to leave us at this time, but Alex and I were excited for the next 5 days of our trip.

It was nice because Alex's man was there and Sefer flew down and joined us the last night in Bodrum and came to our next destination, Fethiye. Again the water was beautiful. We got to spend the day on the beach with our men and then moved on to this small little beach town of Kas.

Kas was my favorite. The guy who owned our hostel was super cool. He gave us a ride to the beach on his motorcycle. We swam in a secret little rocky cove and went Kayaking the next day. We took a full day and kayaked with a group over a sunken city. We went to an Island where the people use no electricity and live off the tourists that come in their kayaks. It was quite weird actually.

The next night we headed off to Olympos. Olympos I had heard was supposed to be the coolest place for travelers in Turkey for the summer. We were sad we only had one last night to spend there but were greatful we at least had that. We stayed at the absolute coolest hostel I have ever experienced. It was a little villiage of treehouses. There was a place to play volleyball, a place to chill outside on pillows, an awesome bar upstairs, and a danceclub with a firepit in the middle about half a meter away through the woods. It was like a frathouse for backpackers. We got there late and met a group of Aussies to hang out with and drink for a while. Then we headed to the club and danced our asses off. We ended up back in our treehouses at who knows what time, probably about 4 or 5 in the morning. It was a blast. It also had the best breakfast of any Hostel. Good for our hungover asses. We got breakfast and watched top 10 countdown on VH1 and then headed to the airport satisfied and ready to get back to the big city of Istanbul.

Honestly, if I could take this vacation again I would. It was absolutely wonderful and so god damn cheap!!! I am so glad we didn't go to Greece.

a shared feeling among many travelers

The world's a big place, and planning a trip can be mighty confusing when you've got no idea where to start. I mean, India's cheap, and there's all that culture and stuff, but everyone goes to India andmaybe you'd get more respect if you went to Uzbekistan, but that'skind of daunting and and really, deep down inside, you'd rather go to New York City, but that's not really travel, that's tourism, so perhaps you should do an ecotour in Botswana, but you might get some hideous amoebic dysentery and besides, you don't know the first thing about Botswana, whereas you majored in pre-Renaissance art, so maybe you should go to Italy but it's so expensive, whereas India's cheap...
- The Lonely Planet

Agva

It was maybe the second weekend I was back in Istanbul when Alex, Emre, Sefer and I decided to get out of the city to experience nature. We went to the quiant little town of Agva. We found an overly expensive hotel by the river to hang out at for the day. It was absolutely gorgeous. We had lunch right next to the water and then resorted to the huge pillows under the willow trees for after-lunch tea. We layed around for about four hours until set out to find a hostel where we could afford to sleep. After spending only a week in the big city of Istanbul the fresh air really cleared my mind.In the morning we took the tandem bike out for a ride around the town and next to the bay. We had a long breakfast by the sea and then hopped on the bus back to Istanbul. It was one of the most relaxing weekends I had for a very long time.

rediscovering my love for advertising

After spending two months in the creative department of Saatchi and Saatchi, Istanbul, I just transfered to the strategic department and found my home. Most of my background is in strategy so I understand so much more about whats going on than I did in the creative department. For that reason they give me much more work and the work is much more fun than stupid photoshop tutorials.

I am so happy I got a chance to work in creative, just to see if I might like it and to give me a better perspective of the entire process but because I don't know Turkish, all of my ideas always had to be filtered through someone. It sucked! I mean of course it isn't the translators fault but that person just naturally picks which parts he or she likes of my ideas to present. So the key parts to my approach weren't always transmitted to the decision makers. This frustrated me a lot. I found that the strategic department just suits my personality much better. I really like doing the research part and finding creative ways to connect to the audience. It's much more wholistic than getting a brief and making a pretty picture.

So now that I am back in my comfort zone, I am really enjoying my work. I almost gave up on advertising but luckily I got this opportunity to remember how much I loved it in the first place.

At the moment there are like 10 people in a meeting holding up all these cookies, crackers, and candy, playing with the packaging talking and laughing. Who knows what the hell they are talking about but it looks like fun!

World Traveler

So I was thinking of going to Egypt to renew my tourist visa for Turkey but with my trip to India and the possibility of doing another two month traineeship in Italy, I really don't have the money to afford it. If for some reason the trip to India gets canceled (we are getting a bit nervous being that there is no malaria shot available in Turkey) then I would take that time and go to Egypt instead.

So I just spoke to a friend from home that has been working for the past year in a really great job in a law firm in Minneaolis and I freaked out! I am seiously so afraid that I'm gonna jump in to the daily grind and I'm never going to be able to escape. This means only two weeks of vacation the entire year! How am I going to visit all my friends all over the world? Okay yeah, I will start a retirement plan and go to the doctor for regular check-ups because I will have health insurence, but I don't know if I can handle driving down the same streets, going in to the same building on the same floor, in the same place every day and every day 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, for who knows how many years?!! ARGH!!!!!

I am really enjoying my life of constant cultural stimulation, excitement of the unknown in every corner, and the ability to take off to another foreign exotic country at the drop of a hat. Its really so amazing! I would never give up this experience for anything. After this I am just afraid of going home and getting bored...

which is why I just might possibly take up this opportunity to work in Italy for two months. At this point what is going to a place I have always dreamed of living for two more months out of the next 50 years of my life? Nothing. When am I ever going to get another chance for a two month vacation? Sometime in the next 10 years??

If the company is decent and I can learn something from it, to Italy I will go. This would put me back in Minnesota around the end of April or the first week of May. Actually, it would be perfect timing for skipping out on the post winter muddy slush. I have more time for that later on in life :-)

Girls Night

Friday night we had an amazing girls night. We had some crazy Balkan liquor that got all the girls hammered. I think 6 out of the 10 girls ended up puking. Aside from the after effects it was a great night.