I have to admit, my tree is pretty cute!
It's not Christmas without gumdrop cookies (a Gordon tradition). A quote from Cengiz, "I'm so full and I want to stop eating them but I can't". Considering some of the ingredients were different (coconut and brown sugar are different out here), they were pretty good!
A big stuffed dog from my roommates and gummies from my brother.
Cengiz's first Christmas. He was a bit confused at first that there were a few gifts for him, and that he just wasn't helping me open them.
It was a good Christmas.
Ok so what do I mean by Cengiz doing a show? I won't bore you with the details but he choreographed a 10ish minute show to show the people at the show the type of classes that will be held at this gym. He and our friend Sem are trained to teach Les Mills programs, a worldwide fitness program that gyms can buy and use (it's so hard to describe, sorry!) where trainers teach classes that have been prepared by the headquarters in France, classes like a yoga class, martial arts class, weight lifting, spinning etc. Anyway, it's really professional and great, my old gym had Les Mills classes and the gym I go to now doesn't, and I really miss the good quality of the classes. So, this new gym is going to use Les Mills classes so they wanted to show people what they were like. I forgot to mention there were like 2000 rich people at this gym opening and it was on live TV. Big stuff. Sorry to blabber! I'm proud.
Uhhh this is just a small part of the gym. This place was crazy!
Yes, he was wearing eye liner. A good effect I think.
My coworker Simon and I were in charge of the Christmas/New Year's party at work. We pulled it together at the end and I think most people had a lot of fun. We both dressed up which I think helped. I decided to invest in a Santa suit (all 20 dollars) and I think it was a very good investment. We played games like musical chairs, Santa says, Pin the tail on Rudolph and we decorated cookies, ate food, and did some coloring.
He's from New Zealand, so Santa wears shorts there.
This is everyone who works at Wall Street in Sisli, minus my boss who is taking the picture and Anna, who is in Sweden :(
There was another party here at my apartment for New Years but I just wasn't in the mood for it, so Cengiz, his cousin from France and I went to his brother's house and hung out there for the weekend. Nothing was out of the ordinary, which was just how I wanted to spend New Years. I made some food and desserts and sat around and talked.
So now here's the part where some of you might be like "You go girl!" or some of you might cringe and go "Oh nooo!" Anyway, Cengiz and sort of me got a motor scooter. BRIGHT pink. And there are Hello Kitty stickers on there. We're going to use it in calm places, very carefully, to just kind of cruise around and see and explore new places.
Yesterday we went to the Maiden's Tower, or the Kiz Kulesi, this little tower in the middle of the Bosphorus. You need to take a ferry to get out there, and the inside of it was so sweet and nicely decorated for Christmas. If you come to Istanbul, it's worth visiting and going to the very top to drink some tea and get a 360 degree view.
Kind of a funny story, while we were up there we lost sight of the scooter which we had parked on the main land so before panicking we put money into the telescope thing and caught sight of it. Phew!
And the next funny part is that when we tried to go back to the mainland (we're on the Asian side in Uskudar) via ferry (a 4 minute ferry ride) we managed to get on the wrong ferry (one for tour groups or something...I don't know!) which took us to Kabatas in Europe, a 30 minute boat ride away. Anyway, it was a pleasant ferry ride but just an extra hour out of the day!
I'm so sorry this is so long and sloppily written. As you can see, life has been busy, but good! I think things will calm down now, as I hope they will for you too. If you hung in here this long, thanks so much for reading! Take care!
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