sad day in turkey

about 5 minutes ago, two very sad events occurred. First, my pork nuggets I smuggled from Paris ran out. Then, as if to rub salt in my wound, my Cheese Wiz ran out too. I mean, I can handle one at a time, but both?? I think a small, salty tear streamed down my cheek. However, my pseudo wolverine sideburns caught it.

I spent most of the day in Asia, but now I'm back in Europe. Ya know, just skippin from continent to continent. haha. We explored a couple little costal cities over there, pretty cool. I have been wanting to get a fish sandwich from the Asian side since I got to Istanbul. and today I did.....

and it was the worst fish I have ever eaten. quite possibly the worst sandwich of any kind I have ever encountered.

for those that are from Daytona, imagine the smell of the docks at Down the Hatch. Then, imagine eating fish that tasted identical to that smell. But, dont add any seasoning. Leave the bones in. and the black nasty skin. And dont provide any sauce. Then....you almost have what I was served haha. I ate about half of it, and quit. Oh well haha

its all good though. It made my stomach a little upset, but I'm not mad about that at all. Ya know why? Cause I came home and took a power nap, and it was incredible. First nap I have taken since I left America. I may be obsessed with power naps now.

Didnt go to the gym tonight. I have jurys tomorrow on my studio project, and I had too much work to do tonight. Its good though, my legs needed a break. My feet are getting a little beat up.

a slight change of plans for my triathlon as well. I am no longer doing the Callaway Gardens triathlon. I am now doing the Dunedin triathlon on June 14th. Its on Honeymoon Island (oooo how exciting), just a little north of Tampa. I am racing my motorcycle now on the day that the Callaway Gardens one.

so that should be an exciting two weeks. Triathlon one weekend, racing the 600 next weekend, 23rd birthday the next weekend!

jlog

sorry for the delay, internet is broken again at studio.

oh, and my bad again. I had the video on the wrong focus setting, so its a lil blurry

enjoy!

noodle bliss

so I'm sitting her eating some beautiful beef ramen noodles. Trying to calm my nerves.

I jumped on this awesome deal on a new monitor for my computer that was 52% off with free shipping. I was soooo pumped, and come back from the gym only to find out that may order had been cancelled. Seems like something went wrong with Paypal. I can safely assume that me being in Turkey had something to do with it. Probably didnt like the location or something retarded. I've put an email into the place I bought it from to see if I can still get the same sale price on the now sold out monitor. Hope they have some pity on me.

So I was going to make a video blog (vlog??) as I juggle today, but the internet is exceptionally horrible tonight here at the flat. So, trying to upload a video to youtube here is gonna be impossible. So, look for that tomorrow after my class, should be up about the time all you Americans are waking up. Can I just say something realy quick?? I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN WHERE AT LEAST EVERYTHING WOOOORRRRKSSS. my little remix

I'm looking at 50 days until america (I think). Give or take a day, I have to get my flight worked out. Seems to be a problem with the scheduling...oh well. I'm really missing all my friends and family back home, I'm ready to see everybody! Not really ready to leave here, just ready to see everybody.

oh and today I played badmitton today for the first time! Well, kinda. Minus the next, and in a hallway haha. It was fun, not near as exciting as raquetball or tennis. But, still fun to play in studio instead of working. alright, time for some beauty rest. I am in desperate need of it, I gotta offset my helmet hair with stunning good looks. night!

holy popcorn goodness

with the help from a-tom and mi madre, I just made some popcorn! Well, I actually cut open a microwave bag, poured the kernels and slab of orange butter into a pan with oil in it. Popped beautifully!! The bottom layer burned slightly, but 90% of it was deeeeee-lish. Heck yeah, I have about 4-5 bags left. Sounds like movie nights to me...anyone interested?? females preferably. I know some of the turkish girls are reading this right now....I wont say names haha. Hit me up on the down low and we can make it happen like we are on a boat and I am the captain. hehe, well I think that rhymes, doesnt make sense though.

helmet hair

I now have helmet hair. Not in the sense of I was wearing a helmet and now my hair is messed up, but more like my hair looks like a helmet. I just consider it my juggle protection. I tend to get smashed in the face by stray balls from my juggling. here is a quick clip of me getting straight dominated, but the music was my motivation.

expect a video blog made tomorrow while I juggle..haha well I have some practicing to do before then. Otherwise it will be a two sentence blog.

circus freak

I am officially on my way to being a circus freak. I am picking up juggling pretty good. The hardest part is not running forward while doing it. So tomorrow I'm gonna hit up the local square and tear it up out there, I may even put a shoe box out and see if I can get some change. Maybe it will help if I roll around in the dirt and wear old clothes haha.

today for lunch we went down to a little market area that is down on the river. They have these little stands that sell potatoes and waffles to go. I had one of the waffles a month or so ago, it was delicious (minus the pineapple that tasted like dead fish). So I got a potato today, and it must've weighed 3 pounds. No joke.

. and . it . was . delicious . down . to . the . last . spoonful .

I also watched Boondocks Saints tonight. that movie is da bomb diggity!! I was gonna make some of the popcorn I got from my fam, but I remember that I dont have a microwave....doh. Any suggestions on how to pop it? I feel like cutting open the bag and dumping the kernels into a covered pot on the stove is a horrible idea. I'm open to suggestions.

ok! gotta get some sleep so I can make some paper juggling tomorrow! love peace and mega potato grease

chadder cheese

I now remember why my parents called me "Chadder cheese" when I was younger.

I came home yesterday and had not one, but TWO packages waiting on me. I knew my parents sent me one, but my sis Lindy snuck one in there too! You guys are the best, I love my family fa sho. 75% of the package is processed cheese products haha. I guess I am a lot more American than I thought. Here is a pic when I got the package, and about 30 seconds later after I straight destroyed the packages trying to get into them haha. I was so excited I kinda went nuts with a dull knife, but I finally got into them.

mmm boxes

mmm cheese

my sister sent me a little set that is gonna teach me to "juggle in an afternoon". The coolest part about it is that she actually read my bucket list, remembered that I wanted to learn to juggle, then found a juggle set, then sent it to me. So AWESOME. Thanks a ton Lindy/brent/sophie(cat)/abbie. You guys are the best.

So me and nick went to this really awesome mall today a few stops down on the metro today. It is massive, six floors of shopping goodness. I got me some new baggies in preparation for the summer....they are light pink with grey/blue argyle haha. I love them. Anyways, they had this store called "Koctas" (pronounced koch-tash). It is pretty much a turkish home depot, I'm talking down to the color and the way they write numbers. Check out the pics

haha, even the font is that fat pen letters

we managed to find a tape measurer. I just assumed no one measured anything here haha

Aight well I gotta go! Gonna go take my clothes of the line and get some dinner. Then off to the gym to do the fully sprint triathlon run and bike distance back to back. First time I'm gonna do the full distance, should be brutal and fun! Seeeeeee ya

weeeeee

so Istanbul is trying her best to make me have a bad day, but it aint gone happennnn! I am untouchable right now, feelin good feelin great.

apparently our internet was unplugged yesterday afternoon cause some people havent paid their water bill yet. I dont know if that is true, but that is the rumor that is floating around. So, sorry about not blog post yesterday. But! now I'm at school, and the internet is cruisin pretty good.

I took off 1:28 from my ten mile bike time last night! It was a good night at the gym fa sho. I am drinking about 3 liters of water a day, and so when I get my cardio on, I sweat like a champ. I def covered the stationary bike in fo-head sweat...whoooooops. Dont worry, I wiped it off with the towel I havent washed since I've been here haha. 

Today we have a preliminary review for our preliminary review next week in studio. I've been having a lot of fun in studio so far cause I'm taking a nice little break from building architecture, and kinda swimming around in a sea of industrial design. Here are a few little succulent morsels of my designed goodness

my momma's new wine glass

and little pieces that go on the wall to hold the glasses

a display for metal work (bowls, cups, shanks, and other small items forbidden on aircrafts)

sink

all the renderings were made in Rhino 3D...get on my level!!

aiiight, gotta go! love peace and chicken and potato grease

everyone calm down

due to the overwhelming response to my Paris mega post, I am gonna keep this one short. I am in need of new shoes when I get back to america... I have straight worn out my current SB's. Cant wear them in the rain cause my left shoe has a giant split in the bottom that sucks up all the water...soaking my foot. "Swamp foot" is what it is commonly referred to as here.

Pretty sure the rip in the bottom was caused by me skateboarding in my skateboard shoes when I was in Auburn....ok well at least they are comfy. So, here are the new ones that I designed. I will order them in a few weeks. They take 3-4 weeks to make, and I will get them shipped to Daytona. Anyways, here is what they look like. Enjoy!! 

and yes, dad I know you will hate them...as usual haha

over the hump

so I have officially crossed the halfway point of my Istanbul experience. I return to the glorious states two months from yesterday. That makes it something like 1 month and 29 or something like that. One month and some change looks a lot better than four! If I could somehow make the weather better over here, then everything would be gravy. The constant grey sky, cold wind, and rain is really starting to piss me off. They say its not normal for it to be like this, but I think they are lying. I looked at the average temperatures for Istanbul by month, and it wont even average 70 degrees in May. BLAHHH! put me on the beach and crank up the Jimmy Buffett.

*Paris: as seen by a skinny, pale American*

We flew out of Turkey late thursday evening, and had a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany. Got my passport stamped in Germany, that was pretty cool. Then we got lost, and lost again. The Frankfurt airport must have been designed by Stevie Wonder. It makes no sense, and it is huge. We got stopped in security cause of Nick's bag, but its was all good cause the security girl was super cute. We were really late, so I had to run. But, if I had time, it would have gone something like this...

security girl: well hello. you look stunning tonight

me: why thank you

security girl: where are you flying to

me: Paris, ya know, just a weekend thing

security girl: ooo...you must be rich

me: I see Euros, that's right, plurals

and so on....hahahaha. let me dream

ok so after security, we straight up were speed walkin to the terminal (which was 23 miles away). We get there, and the dude goes "where have you been, the plane is waiting on you" hahaha ooooooops. So we made it just barely, but made it nonetheless. So we get to Paris (Charles De Gaulles airport) around 11:30pm. By the way, that airport is realllly cool. We meet up with Charlotte, hop on the metro, and get settled in at her place. 

Friday we wake up and hop on the metro, get off in the center of Paris, and just walk around and see a ton of stuff. Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triumphe, the Louvre, Garden of Kings, Beaubourg, all the fancy and retarded fashion stores. Really cool, the city is amazing. This is about the time I start to fall in love with the lady named Paris. I hit up the Virgin Megastore, and they are playing some really chill hip hop music I had never heard before. So I am scrambling around trying to speak broken French and find out what is playing in the store. Finally, as the song is ending, an employee understands me and shows me the album. I ended up buying it, and it is incredible. The group is called The Tones, and the album is Dreamtalk. I'll put them up on the blog soon. We went out to this really cool little French dinner joint, and I pretty much ordered Ole Mcdonalds farm, then ate all of the little animals. I had some duck, goat cheese, and something else that I cant remember right now. 

Saturday we walked around Europe's biggest mall for a while, and I had a French hotdog...it was aight. More roaming around Paris, and finally ending up back at the Eiffel Tower around dusk. We went up to second level, the top was closed :(   I saw the tunnel that Princess Diana was killed in, don't know how I feel about that. I bargained with a street vendor under the tower, and got some mini Eiffel towers super cheap haha. Well, they are really cheaply made, so I guess it evens out. 

A few French beers and a couple hours of sleep later, Sunday arrived. We went to Disneyland Paris. It was incredibly exciting going back to Disney. The look and vibe is just like the Disneyworld in Orlando, but there are def some differences. We didnt stay there very long, but I did get to walk around the park once and ride Pirates of the Caribbean & Space Mountain. I recorded both of the rides in their entirety, but my video camera isnt so good in dark environments....and both of the rides are really dark. But, the audio is amazing. By the way, Pirate sound way more wicked in French...sorry J Depp. Oh, and the Space Mountain there was an actual rollercoaster...flips and all!! Pretty much straight dominated the Space Mountain in Orlando.

The flights this morning were good, nothing special. We went through Munich, Germany. That was pretty cool. Now, I'm back in studio! Just another day in the life of a jetsetter I guess...hahahaha no...but seriously.   That was my last trip I think, I gotta get locked down on my triathlon training and studio work. Enjoy the pics, talk to ya soon!!

charlotte and I

bacon and cheese sandwich! I was a pork eating machine this weekend

ducks! too bad I ate duck a few hours later

the louvre...home of the Mona Lisa

looking over the Siene River in paris

love

on the tower, yeah it was cold.

looking from the tower over Paris

mega waffle at Disney...and yes, my hair is nothing short of mangy

disneyland!

audio delight: a-tom and I on space mountain