Back In The 'Bul

(This picture was taken on Sunday, February 5th.  It was like 50 degrees in Istanbul when I got back)

Sunday we* decided to take a trip out to the Prince's Islands.  This time we went to Helbeliada, one of the smaller of the islands, and had a picnic at a closed up beach club.  Don't worry, the gate was unlocked, so I don't think it would be considered breaking-and-entering.  Check out the pictures below.  In them you'll see...

...picnicking with lachmacun amid extremely unsanitary conditions.

...a temporary island buddy.

...the sunny bosphorus.

...the ferry terminal on Helbeliada.

...an old man repairing some seriously unpretentious bikes.

...a birdshit covered dock.

The moral of the story is this:  On Sunday it was 50 and sunny and we went to the islands.  By Friday it was like this:

*I went to the islands with my girlfriend. Her name is Kate.  She loves everything.  She has no hangups about sitting in birdshit.  She works at the school with me.  We haven't told our co-workers we're dating yet, but we fail to see how they could not pick up on it.  She will probably be annoyed by this description of her.  Description has never been my strong suit.

Scotland!

(Edinburgh; she's got a great set of panoramas on her, I tell you what)

Here are some pictures from my whirlwind tour of Edinburgh to see Aficionado/End of a Year.  Here are all the highlights fit to print; midnight evacuation of the hotel, haunted bars, a volcano, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, singing an old Bell County song that Aficionado now covers, the Parthenon, a statue of that bastard Wellington, late night goth karaoke, a big bottle of scotch.  Of course, capturing everything on film was a bit problematic, so I don't have pictures of it all.  See if you can match the pictures below with some of the descriptions above.

Mutlu yıllar! Happy New Year

Happy New Years everybody!  In case it's not obvious, that's a picture of my diploma from my first level Turkish course!  I got an 88... yeah, not great, but not bad, either!  I'm going to continue with the next level I think, but I'll hold off on that until after our semester break.  Be well!

Christmas and Exhibit B: Canım Ciğerim

(My first successful attempt at cookie making, and they were pretty damn successful)

Well... I don't really have any pictures to post from our Christmas over here.  Without a day off, the idea of travel was far fetched, so I just stayed in Istanbul.  I hung out with some co-workers, a pleasant first for me, and had a great time eating, drinking, being merry; all that good stuff.  Heck, I even had a stocking! 

I did get to go a really good restaurant though for a pre-Christmas Christmas dinner with my good friend Zeynep (who actually knows Nick Mullins).  It's a great place called "Canım Ciğerim," which translates to "My Dear, My Liver."  They serve skewers, lots of skewers, and tons of flatbread and veggies on the side.  It's delicious.  They're always super packed, so we had to wait outside for a bit, but it's well worth it.  

(The disembodied hand of Santa Claus)

In other news, I'm really looking forward to my trip home at the end of January, so I've been amassing a stockpile of Turkish goodies for everybody (though, admittedly, some of the goodies are gooder than others).  But! Before I come back to the states, I've got one short trip coming up...  I'll be going here:

To see these guys:

And bring some of this back to Turkey:

Exhibit A: Boza

 (A picture from last week's bike ride up the Bosphorus.  It's a fishing boat hauling in the nets.)

I'm slowly realizing that Turkey is home to a lot of weird food, so I've decided to start cataloging it as I happen to think about taking pictures.  I figure it'd be interesting for you guys, so I'm starting with a seasonal drink, something akin to Turkish eggnog (minus the eggs).  It's called "Boza," and it's a sweet winter drink, very thick and slightly alcoholic.  It's usually served with cinnamon and, oddly enough, chickpeas.  It's made from slightly fermented corn and wheat.  It dates back to the 10th century, and was extremely popular during Ottoman rule.

 It's really delicious stuff, but It's sold chilled, so I don't know if it would survive the trip home.  I guess I'll have to bring some raki back instead.  As for nutrition facts... I don't know, nor do I really want to know.  It's delicious, thick, creamy, and sweet... They used to use it to feed the army during the winter, so I doubt it's terribly healthy.

O, Christmas Tree!

Hey family!  I'm sorry I haven't written anything in a while, but I haven't really had any pictures to post.  But here's a short recap of what's been going on.  I've been teaching a lot, trying to figure out how to best teach 200+ kindergarten-ers English.  So far, we've just been singing a lot of song and playing a lot of games.  It's been working out well, so I guess I'll stick with that.

I saw all of the pictures from Thanksgiving, and I'm extremely jealous of you guys, but I was able to have a little Thanksgiving of my own.  I got together with some American/English co-workers an we cooked a turkey in a toaster oven.  It was a 10 kilo (about 22 lb) bird.  The door could barely close.  We had pumpkin pie (made from scratch), Stove-top stuffing, mashed potatoes, the works!  It was a really nice, close approximation, to a real American Thanksgiving.

I also went out and chopped down a tree for Christmas.  The man at the tree farm was nice enough to wrap it in that white netting stuff so I could take it home on the metro...

 (supplies)

Then I had some friends over who helped me trim the tree.  We drank some egg nog (and nobody died), let the branches fall a little bit, and then put on the lights and decorations.  A Christmas miracle!

(We had to improvise some of the ornaments)

Ireland!

Panorama from the cliffs of Howth, north of Dublin.

Just made it back from a big, slightly delayed trip to Ireland to see my good friends John and Cecile.  John's there studying creative writing at Trinity College, and his beloved Cecile is teaching French with the amazing Alliance Franciase (forgive the lack of diacritical marks).  Here they are with their new favorite hats:

They were nice enough to let me stay at their flat in Christchurch.  It's a nice part of town, close to the Guinness Brewery and not far from the center of town.  I've seen Dublin before, so this wasn't really much of a sight seeing trip... It was more of a Drinking-Guinness-And-Eating-Pork-Products trip...

I know, I know.  It's a sad day when one engages in culinary tourism by going to Ireland.  But it was great! And it's all of the kinds of things I can't easily get in Istanbul, the land of fresh fish, pomegranates, and lamb.

It was a really great trip, mostly because it was just nice to hang out with John and Cecile.  We went to Saint Stephen's Green...

...where John and I threw some Lucky Irish Coins into a Lucky Irish Fountain.  Oddly enough, we seemed to be the only two people good-lucking ourselves at this ancient Celtic fountain.

One thing that surprised me, and made me a bit sad, was the fact that Ireland already had their tacky department store Christmas decorations up. 

Tacky, I know, but I won't be seeing anything like that for a while.  Santa Claus does not come to Turkey.

When we tired of the unfamiliar Irish and their culture, we retired to more comfortable settings for some more familiar beer and food...

Now I don't know if you can make out the sign, but it's a Czech bar that was playing all the hits! Pickled cheese, Gambrinus, Staropramen.  It was great.  Not the top of anybody's list when traveling to Ireland,  but we couldn't resist!

We also took a trip out to small town on the coast named Howth.  It was a beautiful, clear, cold day and we did some hiking around the cliffs out there, ill equipped as we were to do any actual hiking.

Cecile and I, with John's shadow taking the picture*

The town of Howth from the pier.

Of course, we also went to the Guinness factory, which is now kind of like a black-beer theme park.  Amazing nonetheless, and very educational.  We were able to find John's apartment building on the small scale model of the Guinness factory (which takes up most of the neighborhood around it).

That's about all I've got for pictures.  As interesting as the Guinness factory was, it was moodily lit, so I didn't get many good shots.  We did have our complimentary Guinness at the top of the factory though, and definitely had the best view of Dublin from up there.

I'm glad I went, I had a great time, and I didn't hear a single U2 song the entire time I was there.  Success!

*I realize this may be first picture of me that anybody has seen since I got rid of the beard.  Be kind.