next chapter

I made it back to America safely. The plane trip sucked so bad. I was awake for about 44 hours straight..meaning I didnt sleep on any of the three plane rides. My plan was to not sleep until I got on the flight from Amsterdam to Atlanta, however I didnt plan on having three little crazed kids in the row infront of me. At one point I had a little kid climbing on my leg through the seats haha. Oh well, I would rather them be laughing than crying. Its all gravy

quick list of what I have done since my return: eat taco bell, drink yuengling, drink vitamin water ( a lot), drive my car, ride my motorcycle, eat chipotle, train on a real bicycle (not a stationary one), eat moe's, hang out with old friends, hang out new friends, pet on beastie, catch up with my family...probably missed a few things.

Tonight I'm just hangin out, watchin game 7 of the Magic vs Celtics. Life is good. I gotta get a new membership for the gym tomorrow and try and get a job. Not looking forward to the job hunt, but I gotta get one.

I just wanna thank everybody one more time for following my blog and commenting on it. Made my day to get on and see a response.

So now I begin the next chapter of my book called life. Going to try and enjoy my summer, make some money, and hopefully travel a little bit if I have enough money. I'd like to visit NYC one more time, Chicago again, and spend some time in Orlando. Those three cities are the places I'll be applying for jobs next year, so I need to take a serious look..not just a tourist look.

love peace and future grease!

gone

just like wyclef said...january february march april may, I hear ya cryin but girl I can't stay

thats it. turkey is in the books.

Most of ya have been reading my blog from the beginning, I really appreciate it. It means a lot to me. I got a lot of love from everybody, and I won't forget about that ever.

I'm all packed up, ready to go. I'm headed down into town one last time to watch the Besiktas game...then back to the house and to the airport!

I'll see everybody soon!! Hit me up with a call or a text tomorrow evening, I'm gonna be soooo pumped to have my phone back haha.

I'll post one last blog when I get back to America, but this is my last one from Turkey! Love ya! Thanks again :)

interesting itinerary

first of, I apologize for the lack of posts the last couple days. The dude that runs our apartment turned off the internet, for no good reason. I really dont know why, but its not worth trying to talk to that handicap. So, instead I'll just not pay my utility bills before I leave. I paid for the internet for 4 months, not 3 months and 28 days. Especially the last couple days when I really need it so I can find out when my flight is, talk to my fam..etc. Oh well

now, back to the excitement! here is a rundown of my flight itinerary

Istanbul to Amsterdam

Leaves at 5:55am. Arrives at 8:25am

Flight number NW8510 / KL1610

Duration: 3 hours 30 minutes

Amsterdam to Hotlanta

Leaves at 10:20am. Arrives at 1:40pm

Flight number NW8621 / KL621

Duration: 9 hours 30 minutes

Atlanta to Daytona

Leaves at 4:10pm. Arrives at 5:26pm

Flight number Delta5240

Duration 1 hour 16 minutes

I have to leave my apartment in Istanbul at 5:45pm Daytona time....So for those keeping track, it will be right at 24 hours total time from my apartment here, to my house in Daytona. An entire day of my life...oh well haha.

o rly

so I was making an innocent trip to get some dinner on my own earlier tonight...and a series of 3 strange events happened in succession .

[first] I was comlimented on my ability to speak Turkish while ordering my dinner...well that only took 4 months.

[second] a Turkish girl hit on me...right after I was complimented on my turkish. Possibly they were related events, but I'm going to day no...for my ego. However, my Turkish failed immediately after and I no longer understood what my little Turkish delight was saying to me

[third] I saw a vespa with a giant hayabusa sticker on it. Mildly entertaining once I typed it on my blog, but rest assured I lol'ed when I saw it

oh and p.s....4 days. that is all

istanbul by the numbers

10 – stamps on my passport

2 – visas in my passport

13 – days I've spent in North America this year

5 – days I've spent in Asia this year

101 – days I've spent in Europe

1 – mile. The distance of my house from the Europe/Asia border

2 – out of 7 of the 7 Wonders of the Medieval world I have now seen

119 – days I've gone without driving or riding

3 – cab rides I've taken in Istanbul

102 – miles per hour was how fast the cab in Paris was going to the airport

4 – car crashes I have witnessed on the street

6 – countries represented by students in my studio

7 – countries I have seen on my trip

19,500 – miles I've traveled by plane

45 – hours I've spent on a plane

29 – hours I've spent on a bus

4 – different currencies I've used this year

1.6 – average exchange rate of the Turkish Lira to Dollar

1 – times I was sick in 2008

5 – times I have been sick while in Turkey

3 – average number of liters of water I drink a day while training

147 – pounds. my weight when I came to Turkey

161 – pounds. my weight after 3 months of training

50 – trips to the gym on the other campus

45 – minutes it takes me to get to the gym from my house

4 – step process getting to the gym. Walk, metro, bus, walk

35 – hours I spent on the metro making trips to the gym

25 – hours I spent on the bus making trips to the gym

3 – times my hard drive has crashed this year

11 – motorcycle races I've missed this year

123 – blog posts

400 – average number of views my blog gets per week

186 – pictures I've posted on my blog

14.36 – GB of pictures and video I've taken on the trip (thanks for cameras mom dad and lindy!)

20 – chicken pitas I ate the first month I was in Turkey

0 – chicken pitas I ate the last 3 months in Turkey

1.25 – dollars in costs me for school lunch

1,000,000 – thank yous for everyone that has read my blog!!

runway pt2

here are a few more pics that I got from some of my friends..enjoy!

where this picture was taken, there were tons of people behind her. I honestly cant believe I managed to get up there and dance haha.

creepy..but delicious

runway

last night was absolutely incredible. There is a week long Spring Festival going on here at my school. Last night they had a costume contest, so naturally I had to make a costume. There are a bunch of street vendors in Istanbul that sell these things called simit's. They are pretty much a circle pretzel kinda deal.

and I wanna be one...so I made my own.

So my turkish friends signed me up for the costume contest, and I was cool with it. I figured it was gonna be a little deal where I stand up infront of a few people....no. I couldn't have been any farther off.

Lemme try and explain what it was like. Imagine this : me in suspenders, with a fake mustache, dancing on a runway, infront of probably 200 people I dont know by myself, with the beegee's "stayin alive" playing, stobe lights, live DJ.....yeah it was ridiculous hahaha. But it was amazing. Good thing they were selling beer haha.

here is a pic I got from on of my friends from the volleyball game last night. How awesome is this!

p.s...... BUSTA RHYMES TOMORROW NIGHT!! OOOOOOO SNAP

busta bust

so I'm gonna break my neck on thrusday night!! I'm going to see the one and only Busta Rhymes live at this club here in Istanbul! It is gonna be amazing, I seriously am soooooooooooo pumped about it. My last day of class is thursday, and what a better way to celebrate than to go get some arab money.

Kinda getting sad that I'm leaving in 9 days. I've made a lot of really good friends since I've been here, and its depressing thinking that I may not see some (or most) of them every again. If any of them come anywhere in America, I am gonna hop on a plane and visit them...show them around like they have done for me! Just a really good group of people here, I can't thank them enough for helping me have an incredible trip.

o m g

holy crap. I will be first in line at IMAX for this

*edit* I just went on the official website....and it comes out on my birthday!! That means two things: 1) I get to go to Orlando with my friends on my birthday 2) I get to go out and get crunk in Orlando after the movie

didnt get arrested!

so the game last night amazing!!! no joke, I had the best time ever. Good game, good people, good drinks, just an all around good time. We straight shut the place down when we took our shirts off, even had the opposite team's fans cheering for us. I dont think many people (if anyone) paints stuff on their body for sporting events here haha. here are a few pics!

her name is Ferdag, but we call her Fergie

so I dont know if he was standing crooked or I just had too much to drink, but I wrote on Nick's back on an angle haha....so we had to get the gangsta lean to even it out

at the bar after the game!

no idea what is coming

tonight is the Ferdag's final round volleyball game! Me and a few others are going to the game...more importantly Nick, Jeemy, and I are going all out. I'm talkin body paint, signs, and alcohol. Should be amazing. I really cant think of what I would like to do more than get myself a delicious drink, and go cheer on my friend....and just so happens that there are plenty of other lil girlies cruisin around in little shorts :)

lets hope that we dont get kicked out for being too loud or something. Actually, that would be a good story. Now I just gotta make it through the walk of shame from my crib to the gym with a red painted face haha.

pictures to come...........wish me luck....

bugles

sometimes I sit down to blog, and I really dont have anything interesting to say. On those days, I pretty much have done nothing but school work. So, yesterday I filmed myself doing just that, school work. Here I am, reading and taking notes...and eating Patos Critos (turkish bugles)...and drinking a red bull. Between the frame rate and being 25x faster, pretty much just looks like I was sitting outside and eating bugles haha. enjoy!

seriously?

yes I agree the bus is large...and baller...and the driver is sketchy...

but no one has noticed what makes the picture so amazing.

until that happens, no more blog posts from outlaw meat :)

soak it up

this picture is possibly one of the greatest pics I have ever taken. It was taken at the bus depot on my way to the Bulgarian border. It is so good, it deserves its own post. Enjoy

19

19 days until I get on the metal bird

Ben Spies is straight dominating (number 19). I mean, he has never even been to Assen in his life, and he lead BOTH of the first two sessions. The man is a beast. How do you learn a track that fast, much less be faster than tons of other riders that have been racing there for years

...in other news, John Hopkins further proved how overrated he was by crashing on his 4th lap and dislocating his hip. Yeah, more money he gets for doing nothing.

I met a couple guys last night at the gym. One was from Zimbabwe and the other was from Congo. How cool it that!! The guys were really chill, I enjoyed talking to them a lot. They told me they could tell I was American as soon as I started talking by my "accent". Kinda cool, I have never been told I have any kind of accent, especially in America. Well, except for when I was a little kid....I had a mega southern accent haha. What did I say on that pontoon boat ma? something like "man its haaaardddd" hahaha

Today is my traditional "feel good friday." I'm on a pretty strict diet during the week while I exercise, but on Friday I make it a point to eat whatever I want...hence "feel good." Usually it involves some kind of American food goodness. Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, Coca-Cola....but today was my first trip to KFC. and what a disappointment that was haha. Didnt have mac n cheese, mashed potatoes, normal biscuits, or even potatoe wedges. The popcorn chicken was good though. Oh well, live and learn!

aight, I gotta stop being so lazy, time to do some work. I only have about a week and a half left in my schooling here. Woot woooooooot! love peace and colonel grease

re[format]tarded

so my awesome hard drive crashed again yesterday...3rd time since Christmas. If nothing else, it has made me get into a good habit of backing all my work up daily. Not to mention I can completely reformat and get my laptop back to exactly how it was in record time now. I'll be getting a new, free, hard drive from western digital when I get back to America...so its all good.

In light of my laptop dying again, I ordered my new Mac Mini just now! I know I know, I didn't need to order it right now cause I won't be back for three weeks. Well, I did it anyways....so accept it :) I opted for the Mini mainly because of how Apple is really leading the way in trying to make more sustainable and energy efficient products. The Mac Mini is the world's most energy efficient desktop computer. When at idle it runs on less energy than one of those fancy spiral bulbs (compact fluorescent), and runs on less than 1/4 of the energy of the older standard bulbs (incandescent).

I got it with the little 120GB hard drive, but boosted the ram to 4GB of DDR3, and it has a2.0GHz processor. Nothing extreme, but plenty for what I will be using it for...mostly image editing and presentation boards. I also got the wireless keyboard & wireless mighty mouse.

oh and did I mention it is mini? 6.5"x6.5"x2"!! amazing

in other news, I updated my playlist to your right. I am officially obsessed with Brutha - She's Gone. think New Edition, minus bobby brown and being old....enjoy!

neck and fo-head veins

I went to the Beşiktaş (pronounced Besh-ick-tash) soccer game on Sunday night with Jeremy, Daniel, and Saygin. It was soooo cool, exactly what I expected.

I cant even describe the intensity of the fans. In America we cheer, in Europe they scream. Screaming until their neck and fo-head veins pop out. They absolutely love their team. It was a little strange though. The crowd was led by a few "cheer leaders", and were chanting stuff 95% of the game. However, most the time it seemed like the crowd was more interested in looking away from the field to the cheerleaders. Kinda weird.

I've embedded a few videos for ya to get an idea of what it is like. Check out how awesome our seats were!!

this is a video of the start of the game. Pretty much puts our "War Eagle" chant to shame. Sorry about the shaky camera, it was CRAZY at the beginning.

this is a short clip of pretty much what I did all game. Boo everytime the other team got the ball hahaha

death by burger

here is the video of probably the most fattening meal I've ever eaten in my life

enjoy!

death by burger

so today was d-day. Nick and I finally took on the challenge we have been planning all semester. We went to McDonalds and got a Mega Mac....supersized. If you don't remember my previous analysis of mickey d's, the Mega mac has 4...yes 4 meat patties. It came with the biggest thing of fries I've ever encountered, and a 3/4 liter coke.

we took it on, and finished ALL of it in less than 20 minutes! I was disguistingly full, but completely satisfied. I filmed the entire event, so tomorrow I'm going to make a time lapse video and put it up on youtube! You will be able to watch me consume the 754 calorie / 46 grams of fat Mega Mac, the 500 calorie / 25 grams of fat french fries, and the 310 calorie coke....for a grand total of 1564 calories :)

gotta get back to work, studio is kicking my butt right now. be on the lookout tomorrow!

roman intruders

in a few hours we have some Auburn students that are studying in Rome coming in! I'm really excited to see them, I havent seen them since Christmas. Only bad part is we have a tooooonnnnnnn of work due Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So, I'm gonna try and hang out with them as much as I can...but I'm gonna have to spend a lot of time up in studio doing work.

I'm going to a soccer game on Sunday night! I have always wanted to go to a European soccer game, and I finally am! I'm sitting on the sidelines with all the crazy people, and I'm bringing my video camera. I've already been warned to not bring anything small in my pockets, like lighters or coins. They make you pretty much empty your pockets so you wont have anything you can throw at the players on the field! I am soooo pumped!

I've been training really hard this week and working pretty hard in studio, so I'm gonna take it easy tonight. hope everyone is having fun in America, cause I know I am having fun here!! take it easyyyy!