Halloween party

Some of you may be wondering if Halloween is known/celebrated out here, and the answer is no, not at all. I think I saw an advertisement for a party in Taksim, but that's about it. And some $10 socks with pumpkins on them in a store. Luckily, my roommates and a lot of their friends visited/lived in America so they were quite familiar with the holiday and they decided to have a party. It was insane. At one point there were probably 70-80 people in my apartment, it was soooo crowded and smoky but it was never out of control...just a lot of people. It was pretty international too, my Spanish roommate brought a lot of his exchange student friends, I had a lot of my American friends, and of course there were a lot of Turkish people. As you can imagine the house was a wreck this morning but we had a lot of helpers and in a short time the place looked spic and span. I've never been/had a party like this before and while it was fun, not something I want to do every week!




I stole the idea from my brother to be "God's gift to men" so you can kind of see me in a box and there is a tag that says To:Men, From: God. I wore the box for about 4 minutes then became a fireman later on. That's Cengiz on the left and his/our friends Serkan and Bertal.



This is just the beginning, it got much worse.



Just an idea of how crowded it was



Somewhere in the night Cengiz became a pirate and Bertal gained an afro.



It's not a party without the YMCA song



Anyway, you get the idea, funny masks, funny hair, it was a good time and I think everyone really did enjoy themselves

To make a 180, here is a tea party with Anna at her calm and peaceful house. It was so nice - it was pouring outside and we sat inside her sweet and well decorated home and drank tea and ate cookies and fruit salad. Anna has been here for about 3.5 months and it's been so great to have her, a cool, down to earth girl with a taste for travel and loves eating, and she just lives down the road from me!



Another person you've seen in pictures but I haven't formally introduced is Jaime, another American girl who's teaching English here as well. When she was visiting friends in Baltimore this summer she met my good friend who got us in contact together. On another cold rainy morning this week Jaime had me over for pancakes with real maple syrup! Yum!



Today was a lovely day and once we finished cleaning up the house Cengiz, Bertal and I went to Besiktas and we found a great place to sit and drink tea. Whenever there is sunlight this time of year, all of Istanbul rushes out to soak it up, although it can get pretty chilly once the sun starts to set!

Mom!

My mom came to Istanbul! Altogether, I've lived in Istanbul for over 2 years and it was the first time; there had been other attempts to come out but something always came up, or I was able to go home. Mom had been here about 10 years ago (I could have sworn it was longer), so she's done the touristy things - she was more interested in meeting my friends, seeing where I worked, lived, and hung out. I think we were pretty successful! Unfortunately the weather was typical Istanbul weather - rainy and gray, but fortunately not cold and we had one really nice sunny day. It was sooo nice to have her here, we're compatible and it was fun to show her everything I've always talked about. Here are a few photos documenting what we did:



We visited the Spice Bazaar in Eminonu





Yeni Camii/New Mosque, next to the bazaar



Modern/traditional



Kumpir - baked potato with cheese and butter stirred into it - with lots of fun toppings on it, in Bebek



We also ate a waffle with chocolate sauce and sprinkles on it in Bebek.



View from the neighborhood where I used to live.



I wanted Mom to be able to meet all of my friends so we had a "Mom night" where my mom cooked Mom-food and my friends were able to talk to a mom. She lugged out many boxes of macaroni and cheese (powdered cheese) which was much appreciated, and we also had honey mustard chicken, rice, garlic bread, salad, and for dessert, brownies (some with peanut butter swirled in), lemon squares, snickerdoodles, and peanut butter oatmeal balls. Needless to say, we were all happy and full! It was nice of mom to sacrifice a day to cook for us!





Lots of people, lots of food!







The next day, on Sunday, which is my off day, Mom and I went to Cengiz and his sister's house where she had prepared a huge and delicious breakfast.





Learning to make Turkish coffee







On the ferry, from Besiktas to Kadikoy.

It was a short but sweet visit - I think we/she covered a lot of territory but hopefully she and more family will come out next spring - we'll see! I hope so, my peanut butter supply might be low by that point...

Quick post!

Hey everyone! I really wanted to update last week but my internet didn't work for 5 days so that was not an option! I finally have it now but I've been busy running around preparing for my mom's arrival!! She gets here tomorrow morning, and I can't wait to see her. She came to Istanbul about 14ish years ago, and this will be the first time she's been here since I've been here. It will be so fun to go around to places with her that I've been talking about and to meet the people she's been hearing about for over 1.5 years. I have to admit I'm also excited about the goodies I've been ordering her to buy me...Unfortunately my camera is acting up so I'm not sure how much documentation there will be of her visit but you know me, I HAVE to have a camera all the time so I might have to run out and buy one tonight...we'll see! Here are some random shots from the last couple of weeks:



Before my Turkish exam one of the students brought some delicious cinnamon cake. I managed to pass the exam, thank goodness! It's a relief that class is over, I enjoyed it, but it did make for a busy day. Now I'm full time at WSI which is taking a little getting used to.



One night I went over to Cengiz and his sister's house. Of course his sister had prepared a lot of food, even though it was 10:30 at night. There was some delicious borek and chocolate cake and of course tea. And naturally, when I left the next morning, she packaged a bunch of it up for me to take home and share with my co-workers, who also really enjoyed it.







I felt like going on a ferry last week, so I went from Besiktas to Kadikoy, which is on the Asian side. On the ferry I ran into a good friend who was meeting another mutual friend, so I had lunch with them for a bit then headed out to wander on my own. And yes, that is a pile of onion rings in front of me. Sorry!

Last weekend Cengiz performed at a show (it's a long story) at a gym nearby. He did a Body Combat class with 2 other trainers who came from France (?? not quite sure) and it was so cool to see him up on the stage in front of a crowd of people. He led one of the tracks and the audience/members absolutely loved him. Hee hee I'm like a proud mother - sorry! My pictures really didn't turn out well but I'll upload a couple of short videos later - now off to work!





That's him on the left