part bir

what up! sorry for no post yesterday. I got home really late and was too tired. 

enough of the excuses

so yesterday was pretty cool. we took a trip to Kolection (sp?) design studio. They make some amazing furniture, and they are also the people paying for my trip to Mardin. I am really excited out the project now, I'll give some details on that later.

afterwards, we went out to dinner with some turkish, german, french, finnish and american peeps. It was pretty cool. I had a legit turkish crepe. It was aiiiight, nothing special. When I was in London, there was this one street vendor that was selling waffles...I wanted one sooooo bad! Never got one. So when I heard they sell waffles from little street vendors here, I had to get one. So I did last night. *insert shrek donkey quote here*

the waffle was kinda weird. Well, I guess I made it so. I added milk chocolate, nuts, pineapple and whipped cream.....too bad the pineapple tasted like dead fish. Haha, kinda ruined the experience, but good nonetheless. Below is a pic from the area where I got the fish waffle

sorry for the crappy pic, iphone sucks at night

Today I went out to the gym! It feels soooo good to be back into it. Its a 45 minute trip from the crib to the gym, but its nice. I gotta run out now, but I will return later to tell you about my laundry excursion from today.

I finally got youtube going, and here are some vids from England.

I'm trying to communicate with the sheep, find secrets of stonehenge

commentary from the london airport to london

tired

i'm

tired

look

for

double

blog

tomorrow

sorry

ok i'm back up on my grind

you do you and I'm just gon do mine

you do you cause I'm just gon be fine

ok I gotcha out my mind

^ that part of kanye's "see you in my nightmares" has been on repeat in my head all day. Today was really good, I feel like I should be in Istanbul finally. I don't feel like a complete foreigner anymore. I found a GNC and got some workout stuff, and found the gym too. The GNC was easy peasy rice and cheesy, but the gym part...not so much. 

*Prepare for an amazing re-enactment*

In order to protect my anonymity, I casted Dora to play me. I mean, I was exploring today, so it fits.

and this is gonna be Adam

So the streets have been talkin, and I heard the ITU gym was somewhere off the metro. After the metro, we were told to take a bus to campus. Sounds easy enough right?

Me and Adam got all dolled up for the gym, and set off on what turned out to be a journey to the end of the line. We headed down to the metro and mumbled some turkish to the attendant, and he told us just to take the 25T bus from Taksim (right down the street) all the way to the ITU campus. So, we walked to Taksim and waited in line for bout 20 minutes to get a bus pass. Turns out you don't need a pass, just pay on the bus. Cool, well the line ride was fun. After wandering through the swarm of buses, we find 25T. We ride this thing, looking for something, but we don't know what. Over an hour later, we are 2 of the 3 people left on the bus. At this point we are in the middle of nowhere, Istanbul. The driver turns around and I guess he asked us in turkish where we are going, I try to tell him...but to no avail. Luckily, the other person on the bus spoke English and told us we missed the stop...bout 30 minutes ago hahahahaha. 

At this point, we are at the end of the line - with a driver that speaks another language - in a part of town I've never seen - at night - with no one else on the bus.... IT WAS AWESOME!! 

So we stay on and finally get off where we need to be. Walk over some interstate on this bridge, then wander around until we find some people. They tell us to get on this little transit, and fffffinally it takes us to the gym. Too bad it took so long to get there, the gym is now closed haha. We run into a guy named Ahasheen (spelling is probably way off), turns out he is a personal trainer in the gym. He is from Morocco and speaks English. Pretty much the nicest guy ever, well not as nice as Beeker...but close. He gives us the lowdown on everything and tells us how to get home. 

So now we know where to go, what to do. And I also found out where I can play some soccer! So it was a good day. It feels amazing to be back on a schedule, back into exercising. 

Tomorrow is my friday. No school for me on fridays at all! yeeeeeeeahhhhh boy. MotoGP testing starts in 2 hours and 30 minutes from the moment I typed that. But, by now it is 2 hours and 29 minutes. So life is good. take it easy! love peace and doo doo grease

urban morphology

is the name of the class I went to today. Not really sure what that means, but ok. Its a graduate level class at this university, but we are in it. We'll see how it is, but seems like a bore so far. Its ok though cause I walk through this courtyard everyday on the way to studio, and there are a bunch of KITTIES roaming around hehehehehe. Makes me happy. I miss the beastro. If you don't know, this is my slender cat, Beastie.....

as a kitten

two years of sleeping 20 hours a day + eating until you throw up =

haha its ok though, she is the best.

annnnyways. Still haven't found a laundrymat! I have two pairs of clean pants left, so I better hurry up. here is a picture of my school in case you wanted it

and this is for mi madre, a picture of my door haha

nothing interesting happened today, but who knows what will happen. If nothing else, I can go practice my karate on electronic displays. see ya

its a beautiful dayyyyyyyyyyy

I hope that U2 song is stuck in your head now. so yeah, today has been "magical" (as adam would say). I had good breakfast, school, bought stuff, broke stuff, went back to school. follow me, I'll take you on a dialectic journey....and yes I made that word up. 

so I had leftover cold pizza for breakfast and pinapple juice. What a combo, it was delicious. Then we hit up school for about 30 minutes, didnt really do anything. After that, we went to this mall a few stops down the metro. Inside they had the equivalent of a Publix or a Kroger in there. I finally got to pick up some things I haven't been able to find. see below for the mysterious products.

Then I started to roid rage on display's in electronic stores. I was walking around this really nice electronics store looking for another turkish adapter. I came upon this little display rack that looked like it would spin, much like the ones in America. Annnnd I was horribly mistaken. I tried to spin in it, but I ended up judo chopping it onto the floor. Sounded like I just shattered a giant mirror or something. Didn't help that everything fell directly onto the security desk and slammed into their computer hahahaha. I kept saying "sorry" and "i'll help" in turkish, but they were really cool and weren't mad at all. So that was my one stupid american move, no more allowed. Nothing broke, so its all gravy.

Went to my fav place to eat called Damak. They have the $1.25 chicken pitas. The chicken isnt seasoned much, hence the flood of emotion when I found the green tabasco. I've been there so many times, I just walk in and they make my pita without me saying anything haha. Love it.

and also the granola bars are my breakfast for the rest of the semester. If I am gonna eat breakfast, it has to be on the run. 

So school is da bomb diggity! My professors name is Abdullah Erencin. I call him Paula Abdul for short...jk. The project sounds amazing, the studio is amazing, and the girls are cute. Sounds like a winning combo for the man they call Chad Pryor. 

My schedule isnt completely set in stone, but I think it looks something like this.

Monday : 1:30-6

Tuesday : 9:30-2   

Wednesday : not sure yet

Thursday : 1:30-6

Friday : no school

aight, hopefully I can catch some of you on skype. I havent really talked to many of ya! love peace and peanut butter grease 

we have a winner

so the results are in...and for the most part, none of you can count. The first answer was from donna, and nobody else even came close! So aunt donna, this is for you! love ya, congrats! the correct answer was 48

guess the number, win a prize

not a whole lot happened today. Just straight relaxing. The guy that owns this place told us there is a Wal-Mart type place called Megro or something like that down the road. He said it was a 15 minute walk....45 minutes later still didnt see it. Its cool though, I got to see a ton of stuff on the way.

I was all excited cause I was hoping it would start getting warmer soon. Found out that February is the coldest month on average in Istanbul. hmmm, that put a damper on my excitement. I'm still on the hunt for a laundry mat type place. I dont have the patience to wash a mini load, then let it air dry for two days. I live life on an instant gratification basis. 

lets play another game. below is a picture I took out of the front of our apartment. whoever guesses the number of satellites closest to the actual number displayed will win some kind of photoshopped image from me. I promise it will be amazing. 

and yes, I shrunk the image to make it harder :)  the game closes at 5:00pm Istanbul time, 9:00pm central time, 10:00pm eastern time.

oh and yesterday I was walking around Istanbul and I spotted one of these

I tried to chase it down and get a pic, but he was weaving through traffic. Def the first one I have seen, I don't even think they are out in the states. alright errbody, talk to you soon!

lets try it

so this is a video that I made from a bunch of picture stills....lets see what happens when I post it

this is a quick clip of me being forced to eat an olive for the first time

my address

here ya go, sorry it took so long to get it. Thanks sarah! I actually have no idea where I am, so this address is news to me also haha.

Chad Pryor

Salim Bey Apartmani

Elmağ - ölçek sokak no:21/3

Harbiye/Taksim/Istanbul

Turkey

send me all things that are awesome and not available in turkey! AKA cheese dip, vitamin water, youtube....things such as, like such as (miss south carolina taught me that line). Thats all for now. I will post again later tonight and throw up a picture or 2, or 10. Who knows. see ya soon

pierce brosnan is turkish?

apparently.

I'm watching Goldeneye in turkish. Haha, its pretty ridiculous. Didn't really do anything today, just explored Istanbul via foot again. Somehow I have run into some guy TWICE now that has an uncle that lives in California and looks like Donny Osmond or something. whoever that is? pretty random nonetheless. 

pulled the trigger and bought some training shoes today. As most of you predicted, I bought the lime green ones. They are pretty much amazing, and I have to say I look stunning within them. The price wasn't bad either, only $60 USD. So they are my motivation. Now I just need school to start so I feel like I have a purpose for roaming around Europe. 

I have been introduced to delicious dessert / snack over here. I'm sure some, if not most of you have heard of it. Its called Nutella

its is sooooooooooooo good. just spread it on some crackers and enjoy. If you haven't had it, I def recommend standing up immediately, slamming your laptop down, and racing to the nearest world market. 

for the peeps that are in auburn studio right now: are my stickers still on the doors and in the elevator? I'm curious to see how long they lasted before they were removed / defaced. I predict 3 hours.

aight, thats all for today. keep the comments coming! love peace and fo-head grease