Edirne

Hello everyone! I hope the new year has been good to you. Are you keeping up with those resolutions?

To make a long story short, I was supposed to go to America on Thursday but I had to cancel my ticket, but I had taken time off of work so I decided to keep some of it to relax and enjoy some time in Istanbul. I decided to go on a day trip to Edirne, a city to the west of Istanbul, on the European continent and very close to the Greek and Bulgarian borders. It's only about 2.5 hours away by bus but I had to take 2 buses to get to the real bus but it was fun to go out and do something independent and out of the city.

Edirne was the 2nd capital of the Ottoman Empire (after Bursa) and it's really famous for its mosques. The most famous is the Selimiye mosque, which has a dome even larger than the Hagia Sophia's. It was quite stunning but I was in there just before prayer time and people were in there so I didn't stick around too long.





Men performing ablutions.



At the women's restroom outside of the mosque, there were places for them to perform their ablutions.







There were some also great old houses that I drooled over:









I also stumbled across a market. I'm not sure if it's everyday or just Fridays, but it was fun to wander around.







I also came across an old synagogue, it was so beautiful it gave me the chills.

Happy New Year!

Hello everyone! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and a nice New Years eve, and that this year brings you happiness and good health! My Christmas was probably different from yours. I went to the gym, and then I bought biscuits from KFC and cheddar cheese (kind of expensive, not an everyday thing for me), scrambled some eggs and sausage, and had a Christmas breakfast! Later Cengiz and I opened some presents and then I watched him perform at a show at an opening of a new gym.



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!

Merry Christmas!

I'm sure many of you are getting ready for Saturday - have fun! It's nice but also a little sad to be away from that last-minute stress and pressure. I'm doing okay actually - there's so much Christmasy stuff out here I can't believe it and I've realized I can't replicate the exact Christmas out here as I do with my family, and so I just need to make my own Christmas! I have my fake little tree, some lovely presents under it, I made some gum drop cookies, did some shopping today - I'm good! That doesn't mean I won't be thinking of and missing my family on Saturday and all of our traditions the day of and before, but I just need to make my own Istanbul Christmas. These last couple of weeks have been busy ones, here are some pictures:

Anna and Sarah had me and my roommates over for a delicious and fun pancake breakfast (with REAL maple syrup!). It was nice, especially because it was a cold, rainy morning, it was a great way to start off the day.



Last Sunday (the 12th), I wanted to have a get together before everyone scattered for the holidays. It was a lot of fun, I love cooking and preparing things and I went a little overboard but the process of making it is so fun, as it the appreciation people have for it. As always, there were a lot more people then I expected, so of course I panicked about the amount of food there was. Of course, there was enough, but as I mentioned, the gas for the stove ran out and so I couldn't make the spaghetti. Luckily I had already made chicken so I added it to the salad with roast vegetables, served some cheese, garlic bread, and someone had brought a lentil/bulgur/zucchini salad. It was super healthy, but then out came the desserts. Anna made a delicious zucchini cake, and then I made an apple crumble, peanut butter chocolate brownies, lemon cookies, some bars that are like Reese's, banana bread, and some Christmas cookies. I had fun, and I hope everyone else did too! I have to thank Anna and her roommate Sarah for bringing food, and helping out so much in the kitchen.



Here's the Turkish side of the room.



And the foreign side of the room. This definitely isn't everyone that was there or who came, I didn't have time to get any more pictures unfortunately!





This is how I felt by the end of the night.

I have a cousin out here and she invited me to a Christmas gathering at her friend's home. This friend had just been written up in a magazine here for her home and it was beautiful. Super modern, very well decorated. It was a different crowd than I am used to (really, really well off) but it was nice to meet and talk to new people and the food was DELICIOUS. Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, carrots - it tasted great and the 4 servers just kept bringing it out. I see a bit of myself in Anne and she slipped away during the dinner and burst into the room as Santa and delivered some presents. It was very funny.





Last weekend Cengiz and I went over to his brother's house on the Asian side and we ended up staying there Friday and Saturday night. It was a nice get away from where I live, because I live, work and go to the gym in the same neighborhood. It was nice to hang out with his friends, they are so so nice and hospitable and kind, and we had breakfast together.





A few weeks ago Cengiz and I went to my student's birthday party and they became friends as they are from a similar region, in the northeast of Turkey. He and all of his friends are from there and love the culture, so they invited her and another Black Sea girl over, and we ate food (I made chicken fettucine alfredo with broccoli - they liked it so much - they had never had it before!) and some of them played some Black Sea music. It was a really fun night and it was nice to be so immersed in such a Turkish cultural experience (ok, minus the not-Turkish food I prepared!).

Early Christmas activities

Winter has come! And my room is freezing. There's such a draft in my room, but I'm just going to layer up and get a heater! It's about time, until about 4 days ago, I was wearing a short sleeved shirt at work! It was a little weird.

So I'm not going to make it home for the holidays but I've been making the most of it here! On December 1st (I couldn't wait any longer), Anna, Cengiz and I put up my little tree. It was so much fun, putting the lights and ornaments on and drinking hot chocolate and listening to Christmas music and eating gingerbread and sugar cookies! Cengiz had never done anything like this and he was so excited which was great and just what I needed. It was a lot of fun and a good way to start off the month.



It was so warm in my room (I had to wear shorts!) but I was determined to drink hot chocolate!



Cengiz automatically assumed the man's job (at least in my family) of putting the lights on the tree. I had to fix it a little later but shhhh. He didn't do bad for his first time.



Christmas is so exciting!!!





A glimpse into my messy room.



Whoaaa Santa came!

Last weekend I had a little get together with some girls to decorate some cookies. I had brought some cookie cutters and sprinkles last year when I went home at Thanksgiving and we made icing and it was fun!





What started as a small get together slowly got larger as some of Juan's friends came, and then Cengiz and Bertal came and then some roommates...the more the merrier!



Another Christmas experience. A quote from Cengiz "I don't know this Christmas but I like it so much!" Very sweet.




Next post will be about the get-together I threw last night (hint: over 20 people and the gas for the stove ran out!)

Breakfasts

I just wanted to quickly post before I headed to work. Just some pictures of a couple of very different breakfasts!

Here's a Turkish one that I prepared for "the guys" at my apartment.





On Thanksgiving I met up with a few other Americans and we went to the more hipster part of Istanbul, Cihangir, where there are a lot of places geared for expats. I had read about this place that served an English breakfast, with baked beans and BACON!! And it was GOOD! It was nice to be in the company of other Americans, even if it was over an English breakfast!



From left to right it's Mario, Matt, Me, and Anna



My English breakfast



Anna decided not to be ironic and order English breakfast but she got some delicious Freedom toast.

Turkish Music Thursday

Sigh. My future husband, Tarkan, singing "Op"