Messin’ with Texas

Vacation is over! I am finally back from vacation and ready to get back to regular blogging. First order of business is to give a quick overview of my vacation. To see the pictures I have posted click here!

Mother’s Birthday (2 days): I arrived at home on my mother’s birthday. My aunt - her sister - was there so we had a nice family weekend together: my brother, my mother, my aunt Candace, my father, the two dogs, and myself. Weather was a bit muggy, but it was so nice to see green! Turkey is so dry and parched during the summer. It’s very brown and full of earth tones. Here is a picture from the front of my house. Since my computer got erased, I don’t have any of my old pictures from Turkey that I could put as a contrast. It was very nice and relaxing to have clean air, lots of green, and be right on the water.

Family Visits (3 days): I went up to Hazleton, Pennsylvania (my father’s home town) to visit my family that still lives there. I saw my grand parents, my aunt Debbie, my aunt Beth and her two young daughters Miranda and Olivia. I saw my cousins from my aunt Debbie; John, Grant and Dawn (including dawns husband Brian and two kids Zack and Nicholas). I would post pictures, but, my computer got erased a month ago and I didn’t take any pictures while I was there. Sorry :-(. It was an excellent visit! I really wish I could have stayed longer, but my brother had a flight to catch.

Boston (6 days): I am not a fan of Boston so I will keep this short. I visited some friends there which was nice. I got dragged to a 6am rowing practice which started out badly because I was really tired. However, once I woke up, being out on the river early in the morning was really nice and relaxing. It was really enjoyable (even though I was in the trainer’s power boat). I later went kayaking on the river which was also nice and against the doctor’s orders, I went climbing twice at an amazing indoor rock climbing. My wrist was killing me afterwards but it was worth it. I have since decided that I am not doing any sports until my wrist is better (which is driving me crazy).

NYC (2 days): After dropping by home to pick up two guests staying at our house from France, Laurent, Emmanuel, Graham and I headed into NYC. I planned to show Laurent and Emmanuel around, meeting David (another guest of ours from England) the following day in the city. I also had the chance to see a bunch of old friends. Unfortunately, since my time was short, I didn’t have the time to do everything I wanted to and see everyone that I wanted to. So I took one evening to see friends, and one day to act as tour guide before returning to Long Island.

HuskyCon V (4 days): For those of you that don’t know, one of my main hobbies is playing the boardgame Diplomacy. In my opinion it is by far the best game ever made. I am not going to get into any serious details. If you are curious you can contact me directly, or read wikipedia’s inadequate diplomacy page. Every August, my family hosts at our house a small diplomacy tournament with free room and board all weekend. This year was our fifth year hosting the event and was in my mind the best year we have had so far. Here are some pictures from the event:

Our driveway was rather full

As was our house. We had 35 people sleep in my house over the weekend (that’s not exactly true. Emmanuel and I didn’t sleep the whole weekend, and Jeremiah slept outside). Here are two of the sunrises I watched. I hardly slept in five days! I was so exhausted on my way back that I slept with all my free time when I got back to Turkey.

My brother’s Nintendo Wii was immensely popular. Emmanuel liked it so much, he decided to smash the ceiling light while trying to do what looked like an overhead tennis smash, during a game of baseball (he was hitting at the time, not pitching.

One of the highlights of the weekend was the game of double gunboat on the giant board that my father made. According people who know about these things, this may be the biggest Diplomacy board in the world! If you look closely you can see small pieces and big pieces on the board. There were 14 people playing two seperate games on the same board at the same time! Most people were drunk so it got pretty silly.

Of course, there is always lots of room for other gaming at HuskyCon. After all, the best part about these tournaments is socializing and having fun!

Lastly, my favorite picture from the whole weekend. My father put out this bucket with this sign. At the end of the weekend, when the bucket was full of money, my father complained that he had enough money and that we were out of beer. He asked if people could read properly.

In summary, HuskyCon was a huge success. Everyone enjoyed themselves especially me. I am really excited for HuskyCon VI which will be next August. This was the first year that I took an active role in the tournament. Until this year it was my brother doing most of the work. This year, I did all the pre-con work and he managed the tournament. This worked out very well, and it made it more fun for me when I got to see my hard work pay off. Thank you to all of you that came to support us, and hopefully we will see you again next year.

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Current Mood: Happy

My weekend was pretty good. Unfortunately I currently only have pictures from Saturday and Sunday, but hopefully I will get some pictures from Friday.

Friday Night: We did an evening Bosporus cruise on Izzy’s yacht with a mixed group of about 12. Ant, Izzy and Erman were there from the people that I knew. Murat’s cousin Irem also joined us (she is visiting for the summer). At the end of the cruise we rolled up to Sortie (one of the clubs by the sea) and then spent the evening partying there. It was great fun. I met with another group of friends there (Nail’s friends) and we partied all night. Unfortunately Izzy went home before me and could not be woken by his cell phone’s rings. I therefore ended up having to wake up Tahsin at 7am and go stay at his house.

The rest of the weekend: I took a bunch of pictures over the rest of the weekend. Not feeling well from the previous night’s partying, we went bowling on Saturday with Izzy’s friends from high school. Turks have a way of sticking with their friends. From what I can tell, their group of friends hasn’t changed much since high school. Anyway, here are the pictures!

They spelled my name Korner for some reason.

That’s Adnan, one of Izzy’s friends. He lives on the Asian side but I still see him pretty regularly.

This is Erman. I have been hanging out with him more and more. He’s polite, friendly, and intelligent.

Ali Emre on the left and Dilek (sp?) on the right. I see Ali Emre often, Dilek a little less often. Dilek always seems to understand me, and responds to me, but I rarely here her speak english.

Adnan and his girl friend Amber. He looks very serious here because I was kicking his butt so badly.

So, the thing about Izzy and his friends is that they are all car fanatics. Jason (the closest one here), Adnan, Ali Emre, and Ant are all car fanatics. After bowling they all played racing games, and they all argued like crazy about some stupid cars.

It’s not just them either. I was speaking with Alper about how cars seem to be such a big deal here in Turkey. He said that because houses are very expensive, and apartments are difficult to be showy with, Turkish people like to have nice cars as a public display. This is similar in the US, but from what I can tell it is more so here. My friend Demir says that if you have a nice car, it is very easy to get a girl friend in Turkey. I guess Murat and I are the exception to Demir’s theory.

Jason playing some stupid punching game. Can you guess who scored the highest?

On a side note, I would like to tell you a story of what Jason did to his room. This is, one of the most bizarre stories I have ever heard, and as soon as I get the pictures, I will post them. While out at Home Depot, Jason’s friend told him jokingly it would be cool to make his room like a beach. Jason took this as an honest piece of wisdom and got a little carried away.

He waited until his room mate was gone for a week and then went out and bought:

• A hammock
• A palm tree
• 1 ton of sand (I am not exaggerating in the slightest)

sand+tree+hammock = beach. He even put heaters in to heat the sand in the morning so it wouldn’t be cold. Keep in mind this is an apartment, not a porch or anything outdoors. So after a month or two, he has been having back problems, the hammock stretched so now it’s so deep he can barely get out. There is sand everywhere. He managed to lose an unfinished burger in the sand which led to an ant infestation, which he solved with a flammable fluid and a lighter, which then led to his curtains catching on fire. Furthermore, because the hammock swings side to side, it has punched a whole in the wall of his room. With the new wisdom of what a sandy room is like, Jason is now left with the challenge of getting rid of all of the sand. He certainly is bold and creative. Good luck with your sand Jason.

Sunday afternoon we went climbing. Jason was terrible.

This is the first time I ever climbed lead. The lead climber is the one who sets the rope. So you start climbing with no rope supporting you and you hook it in as you go. It can be tricky when you have to support yourself in an awkward position with one hand while the other fumbles with the rope to hook it into the hook. I did two lead climbs. I was very proud of myself.

Since I weigh so much, Izzy and Jason had to hook to each other to make sure Izzy wouldn’t get pulled up as I fell.

So that was my weekend. It was pretty great. On a side note, my wrist has been killing me and I don’t know why. I will go see a doctor tomorrow. I have a feeling he’s going to tell me to stop climbing which will suck.

Also, I feel more and more like I am becoming a member of Izzy’s group of high school friends. It’s good to feel like I am part of the group.

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My wrist has been bothering me so I haven’t been writing so much. So briefly I will cover some of the things I did over the last week. I am not sure what I did to my wrist, but it has been feeling better lately.

Windsurfing: I am a windsurfing prodigy. On my second day of wind surfing lessons, the instructor decided to give me a more narrow board. Coupled with the significantly stronger wind, I did not have such an easy time as my first day. After about five minutes of struggling, I got the hang of it, and proceeded to intentionally go outside of the range of the instructor’s calls and began zipping around the bay. The wind was quite good so i was going pretty fast. I am quite proud at how easily it comes to me. I think because of my experience sailing and wake boarding, it feels quite natural.

Murat of course was once again in disbelief. There are several people learning this summer, and I must say Murat is probably the second best, but, for whatever reason, I have no trouble with balancing what so ever.

Friday: Went to Taksim and spent all night out, as usual. It was great. Kutsal, Tahsin, Leyla, Leyla’s boy friend Patrick (I can never remember his name so I call him that), myself and some of Kutsal’s friends.

Saturday:We went indoor climbing: Leyla, Patrick, Tahsin and myself. Below are some pictures. It’s not a very good wall, but it’s good practice. I try to go at least once a week. Here are some pictures:

 That’s me belaying Leyla. This part of the wall was a little difficult so near the top I have to lean back to give Leyla a little bit of upward force so she can make it.

 Leyla taking a break on the harder section of the wall.

 That’s Patrick. He was the only other person who knew how to belay so he belayed me. Because of our weight difference however, he had to hook himself to the floor. Here you can see that his body is lifted a bit because of my weight.

 Tahsin…

Saturday Night: Saturday night was quite an experience. I went with a friend from CMU named Nail, whom I haven’t really seen since before I went to Switzerland. He, a bunch of his friends and their friends, and myself, all went to Sortie, one of the most exclusive clubs in Istanbul. It was very fancy, it was huge, it was right on the sea (people were arriving in 60 foot yachts to the club’s dock) and it was of course very expensive (by Turkish standards, so not so bad). We got there around midnight and got home at sunrise (not sure what time it was). The place was so cool. It was all house music, which I normally don’t like, but the energy of the place, of the people, of Nail’s friends and the atmosphere of being on the sea combined to make a really great place to go out at night to. I am looking forward to going again in two weeks or so, and/or when Izzy gets back. Since Izzy has a boat, I was hoping we could also arrive by boat.

I was very tired before the night even started. The night before I had only slept 4 hours after staying up all night, and had been climbing, so I was tired, but I managed to make it most of the night. My energy kind of died out towards the end of the evening. Although all younger than me (I was the oldest), Nail’s friends were are all nice, outgoing and attractive (the girls were at least :-). Many of them spoke third languages (French for example). It was a lot of fun meeting new people, although I think Leyla and Tahsin were a bit annoyed at me for not hanging out with them (sorry guys!).

Sunday: Nail and I had breakfast with his father who I found to be very well read and very scholarly person. It was a nice long meal of chatting about all kinds of things. Then in the evening I played soccer with my usual crew. It was hardly a game, I think we won 10-2. We may have scored even more than that.

Monday: Tonight I will go and meet with the Algerian guy from the air port a month ago. He is going to help us find distribution channels for our compressors in Algeria. I am really surprised he remembered and is following up enough to call me back.

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Current Mood: Angry & Sad & Sickly

Yesterday Murat and I took our first day of windsurfing classes. It was hot and sunny, with not too much wind. These are arguably excellent conditions for learning to windsurf. We left work at around 1700, and after a quick stop at home we arrived at the club at 1730 to begin our first of a series of ten windsurfing lessons. I am not to enthusiastic about windsurfing. I prefer sports that are intense and exhausting. Things like rock climbing, skiing, soccer, tennis or racket ball. Windsurfing always looked to passive and slow. Sure as you get good, it can be very intense on a windy day, but it always seemed like it was too much effort to get that good since so much balance is needed. But, I decided to try it anyway. I live in Buyukcekmece which has very little to do. One of the few things to do is the windsurfing club, which happens to be Istanbul’s only windsurfing club. So for 300 ytl, I get 10 one-hour lessons, then I will decide how much I like it.

We began by learning about the theory of wind and how sails work. This was review for me because of my sailing experience. Then we hopped on the simulator to run through some scenarios. Here is a picture of us with our instructor.

Next we took to the water. Let me just say now, the water is absolutely disgusting in the bay. There is so much trash. People here just throw trash on the ground or in the sea, so the shore lines that are not regulalry cleaned are attrocious. If I decide not to windsurf anymore after my ten lessons, the cleanliness of the water will be one of the factors leading to that decision. I proposed that the club organize a monthly cleanup with as many of it’s members as will volunteer. A group of 20 people could make the beach spotless in under an hour.

I started off no problem. I stood up and went and was able to turn and control my direction and everything. Murat was a shaky mess. I guess he doesn’t have the balance that I do because he was shaking a lot, and he fell a few times. This picture represents a common site from the shore during yesterday’s lesson:

And here is Murat struggling to keep his balance

Here is me being amazing and posing for the camera while still windsurfing.

And yet another great pose.

At the end of the lesson, they had Murat do some balance exercises. Which was funny to watch, but I didn’t take any pictures because I was hungry and lazy.

As we were leaving, things took a turn for the worst. First of all, this is our sweet ride. When I go into the city I am usually driving this car because it has insurance and the mercedes doesn’t. It is definitely a fun car to drive, although, not my favorite car that the company has.

When we went to the car to leave, we noticed this!

Somebody had smashed our window while we were not more than 100 meters from the car. Yet somehow we didn’t see anybody! So we called the police. They came and began dusting the car for finger prints which I thought was hilarious. The police in Turkey so far have shown themselves to be completely useless. They have harassed me and my friends now three times for bribes, and they do little to control the awful drivers that plague this city. Murat is of the opinion that Istanbul has the worst drivers in the world, I would say second to Cairo, but I haven’t been to enough places to say that with any certainty. As they were dusting the car for finger prints, they stopped and asked each other why they were doing that (the same questions I had as soon as I saw the duster). Instead we simply went to the police station and filled a report.

Now quite late, we went to the company’s usual dinner place, Iskele. One of the main guys in the windsurfing club owns Iskele so he drove us there. Knowing I don’t eat fish, we stopped on the way to buy some meat and we all had a nice meal together. The food was good but the meal was very long and boring. Everyone was speaking Turkish, as usual. I don’t think I will be going out with that group again. I must have sat there for an hour not hearing a word of English. Anyway, here’s the picture from dinner:

On a side note, it has been very hot lately and I haven’t been able to sleep too well. I wake up every morning dehydrated with a headache, dripping with sweat. It sucks. I was going to go buy a fan yesterday, but the car broke. Hopefully we will get AC sometime this week.

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Current Mood: Esctatic

On a whim I decided to go to Izmir this weekend. I am not sure why, but I didn’t feel too much like sticking around Istanbul, so I bought an extremely over priced plane ticket and took the 55 minute flight to Izmir, in the south of Turkey. For the purposes of this entry, you can reference the map below which contains the places I went to.

Before going, I called our partners in Izmir, Arcom, to see if they were available for the weekend. If you remember from the Hannover Messe, there were the three guys not from my company there with us: Ismael, Sakir and Ahmet (Ahmet is the boss). I called Sakir (Ismael doesn’t speak english and Ahmet’s is weak) and he said yes I should come, and that I could stay with him.

So Friday night was rather easy going. I managed to have a 45 minute conversation with Ismael while we smoked nargile in Kordon (the seaside area of Izmir). Everytime I meet Ismael I am amazed. He left school at age 10 to work on compressors, which he has been doing ever since. He now in charge of all the technical aspects (including design) of Arcom’s compressors. He also some how manages to communicate with me successfully despite knowing very little English.

Saturday, we went diving! I apparently picked the weekend of the company dive trip. Since Arcom makes high pressure compressors (a lot of breathing air appliacations), they have a lot of dive schools as customers. So we visited one such dive school. The whole company, except for two guys who had to be on call, piled on to a bus in what had to be 90-95 degree wheather, and drove one hour to Cesme. Because it was so hot, they kept both sets of doors open the entire way Here is a picture of me on the boat. I love Turkey!

And here is a picture of the Arcom compressor that they sold to the dive club:

Diving was really great. Being on a boat was great. Relaxing and doing nothing was great. That evening Sakir and I tried to go out but we were so beat from the sun that we went to sleep early.

The next day we went to Efes (Ephesus in Greek). Efes was amazing! Just to give you some random information about Efes, it was the site of the temple of artemis, one of the seven ancient wonders of the world. John the apostle moved there after Jesus’ death. The Virgin Mary also came with him as she was entrusted to his care upon Jesus’ death. What is believed to be the last place she lived before she died is very near to Efes and I also visited it. It was the second most important city in the Byzantine empire after Constantinople. After it’s harbor filled with silt from the nearby river, the city rapidly declined.

My reaction to the city was a very positive one. It was very hot so we did not spend too much time there ( we had an afternoon appointment with the beach at a luxury resort where Sakir had sold a compressor), but I was awed. Not much of the city is left, but what is left is amazing, as is the setting that the city is in. The whole atmosphere that surrounds you as you walk down the main road, flanked by 2000 year old buildings, is incredible. The rolling hills with their sparse trees and the brown vegetation, seperated by miles on all sides from any buildings, make it one of the most charming ruins I have visited. Anyone visiting Turkey really must go. Here is a picture of the ampitheatre. You can see they even managed to unearth one of the ancient cranes used to build cities back then.

Here are two of my favorite pictures from Efes. For the first, just read the caption on the toilet sign. I didn’t go in, but I can only imagine what it must have been like in there.

And this picture… let me just give you the defintion of genuine:

WordNet® 3.0, © 2006 by Princeton University

The best is when they follow you yelling, “my friend, my brother, come, genuine fake watches”

After the historical stuff we went and relaxed on the beach. Did some snorkeling, some swimming. It was too hot to really do anything. Towards the end of the day we went into Kusadasi, a nearby city. This city was incredible. It is built on the steep hills surrounding a small harbor. It was very nice, but a bit touristy. Fun all the same. After that, Sakir dropped me at the airport. Sakir was an excellent host and I look forward to visiting Izmir several more times over the next year. Oh, here is a picture of Kusadasi:

Lastly, here is a link to the rest of the photos from the weekend:

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Current Mood: Bored

This is the post that many of you have been waiting for. I hope you all appreciate how much time it took me to do this entry. I admit, the photomerges are not very well done, but there were a lot of them and I had to resize everything! In other words, it took a lot of time. Anyway, here it is, enjoy!

Let’s start with a simple map. Here you can see the basic layout of our apartment. I drew this quickly in photoshop so the scales aren’t exactly right. The bathroom across from my room has as a jacuzzi tub that we have never used. In the living room is the weight set. The 3rd bedroom is where Baris used to stay and is now empty (anyone want to visit?). Let’s start the tour with that room.

All three bedrooms face east, so we all get woken up in the morning by the sunrise. It’s actually quite nice. If I am in the apartment on Saturday mornings, I open the curtains and lay on my bed in the sun.

As you can see, we are now using Baris’ room for our laundry. You’ll have to excuse the bad photomerge. I did not feel like putting in any effort into making them good photomerges. It would have taken way too long considering how many I did.

This is Murat’s room. Murat’s is the biggest, then mine, then Baris’, but they are all pretty much the same size. The door at the back there leads to the bathroom. The door on the left to the hallway.

Not that much different than Baris’ room.

My room is the only room with any character to it. It has a nice big flag to add some color, my bed has the quilt my mother made for me when I graduated high school, and there is usually crap all over the floor. The cleaning lady had just come the day before so my room is uncharacteristicly clean in this picture. She comes and cleans the apartment, washes the dishes, and does our laundry. Murat and have ahd our clothes mixed up pretty much every week and have been thinking about how to remedy this problem without having to do the laundry ourselves.

My closet, or at least half of it. You can see it’s full of lots of good stuff! The shirt on the right isn’t blocking anything secret, so don’t worry. Just some wine and scotch bottles.

America! Yeah!

This is a picture taken from the entrance to Baris’ room. It’s a photomerge showing the hallway. From the right, you have the third bathroom (just a toilet and sink), the entrance to the apartment, the kitchen, and further off to the left is the living room.

This picture is also taken from infront of Baris’ room. To the right is my room, then Murat’s room, then the second bathroom.

…keep going down…

…keep going down…

Now we arrive in the living room! Wooo. This is where Murat sleeps most of the time. On the table there you can see a game of Axis and Allies. There is also the weight set, which only I use for the most part. I think Baris and Murat have used it three times each. This room is very well lit and is in general a very comfortable and soothing room to be in.

Of course, here we have our kitchen. It is extremely understocked! We have one proper knife, one frying pan, two pots… you get the picture. I live a very hard and difficult life, don’t I? In general, we never use this room.

The view from our porch. There are always lots of kids playing here. It’s difficult to grow grass in Turkey (at least that’s what I am told), so there isn’t a whole lot. It’s always dusty in Istanbul, the kids playground is no exception.

And the view from the east face of the apartment (my room). There is a nice bay there which is supposed to be the second best place in Turkey to windsurf (the best place in Turkey is one of the top 5 places in the world). Murat is going to join the windsurfing club there and I may as well. The sport doesn’t seem intense enough to satisfy me so I am hesitant to make the investment.

That’s my ride yo. Pretty pimp isn’t it?

Here’s a bunch of pictures of the flower boxes I have set up. I only have four or five boxes and two small plants. Every pay check I spend a bit of money on new plant stuff, so next week I will be adding some new plants.

The flowers are doing really well, but some other plant got in the other box that started to take over. Because I didn’t remember what I planted there, it took me a while to realize it was a weed. But now everything is ok, I think.

Snap dragons. They do well in the climate.

So I bought some peas, put them in the firdge and forgot about them. They started growing in there so I figured it wouldn’t hurt to plant them. They grew really fast.

Some random red flowers I planted from seeds. They also grew fairly quickly.

Basil, slow to start, but it came in quite nicely.

The one on the left is my favorite plant. The one on the right is really lame and I don’t like it. The one on the left though is great. I have on in my office also.

And that’s it. I hope you enjoyed these pictures and my little virtual tour of my apartment.

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I had some free time so I made an album with pictures of some of the places I have been and some of the places I have gone before 2007. Enjoy:

AdventuresBefore2007 

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My weekend was once again fantastic! Murat asked me how my weekend was when I got back last night (he stayed in Buyukcekmece) and when I told him how great it was he replied, “you always say that.” I went outdoor climbing, swimming at Tahsin’s house outside the city, partied it up on Saturday. I won’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say Saturday felt like I was back in the fraternity. Respect to Leyla for going drink for drink with me. Pictures from the weekend can be found at the link below:

Weekend Photos

Although my weekend was excellent for me, I don’t think that it would be so interesting for you. It was great fun, but not all that unique. Today, for a change of pace, I am in the UK. I got up at 6am this morning to catch my 8:05 flight. I had planned on an afternoon meeting in London before heading to North Hampton (where I am now), but that got cancelled. So I have done very little today. Having not slept very much, it is probably good that I haven’t done much. I have been in a zombie like state all day. I haven’t quite recovered from my weekend, and am exhausted from having to take a plane, then a train, then walk a bit, then another train, then walk then a bus, then walk… you get the idea. It took me a while to get to Wellingborough.

Wellingborough is exactly what I imagine an English town would be like. It’s old, cloud and green, with cars on the wrong side of the road. The commercial part of the town is very small. Everything is packed together around its small center. My hotel is less than a kilometer from the center so I was able to walk around and do a bit of shopping that I haven’t had time to do in Turkey (I know it would have been cheaper in Turkey, but I have no time). The buildings are all small, and there are plenty of trees around. Furthermore, there is lots of nice green grass, something you don’t see too much of in Turkey.

My first time crossing the road I made the mistake of looking the wrong way – this must be classic mistake made by people form countries where they drive properly. After the adrenaline of almost getting hit had worn off, I wondered how many foreigners are hit by cars each year because they look the wrong way. I imagine this statistic would be interesting. More interesting and more amusing, is how many British are hit by cars per year because they look the wrong way in other countries. You could look at how many people total from countries driving on the wrong side of the road get hit in countries where they do things right, but I have a feeling that statistic would be 95% British.

On the train – it was a very nice train – I was watching the weather report. The weather was, and I quote, “cloudy, with sunny spells developing.” Depressing isn’t it? I don’t think I have ever heard the weather put that way. The word ‘developing’ is always used to describe thundershowers, or hurricanes, or low-pressure systems or anything really, except for sun. You can have rainy days with the sun ‘peaking through,’ or ‘partially sunny.’ ‘Sunny spells developing,’ seems to imply that the weather here must really suck. I have heard stories that British weather is bad, but I had never been here before. In my first hour in the country, I happened to catch the weather report and it was pretty dismal. I must say I am glad I don’t live here. Istanbul seems to be sunny all the time, which is quite nice. Maybe the crappy weather is why it seemed nobody smiles around here. (If you are wondering, the weather was sunny and warm today).

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Current Mood: Esctatic & Happy & Playful

Ce poste est pour ce qui parle français. Je suis désolé si vous ne le comprenez pas.

Alors, je viens de rentrer chez moi après trois journées a Sfax, Tunisie. C’était un voyage pour mon travail, mais c’était tellement bon. Il m’a relaxé beaucoup. J’ai visité une petite entreprise qui fait le service pour des compresseurs. Monsieur Kamel Hachicha était mon hôte et aussi la chef de l’entreprise. Je pense que le voyage va être un grand succès. Le Mardi, on a passé onze heures ensemble entrain de discuter beaucoup de chose et faire des visites a des clients. Je pense qu’il y a un grand désire de travailler ensemble sur les deux cotes (Je l’espère).

On fait, la chose qui était intéressante n’était pas le travail. C’était la payse. Il m’a pris a l’aéroport de Tunis, epuis on a conduit pour trois heures et demie jusqu’au Sfax, a la centre de Tunis (il n’est pas une aéroport près de Sfax). Le voyage était trop long et chaud. La soirée auparavant, j’ai dormi seulement quatre heures, donc j’étais tellement fatigue. Mais, j’ai aimé le voyage. On a vu beaucoup du paysage et des bâtiments (vieux et nouveaux) qui m’intéressent. Tout le paysage est couvert par des arbres d’olive, et la terre et rouge sans beaucoup d’autres végétation. Les feuilles sur les arbres d’olive sont un vert très pale. Les troncs sont foncés et ils ses tondrent beaucoup. Contre la terre rouge, ça fait une bonne contraste de couleur. Aussi l’odeur du paysage était incroyable. Il a senti comme la vrai terre. Je ne peux pas le décrire en français ni en anglais. Il faut aller si vous voulez le connaître. Je suis désolée, mais je n’ai pas prix une bonne photo du paysage.

Des villes sont aussi très bonnes. Au centre ville, la plupart des bâtiments sont blancs, ou presque blanche. Ils sont vieux (je pense qu’entre 40-80 années) et petit. La plus grande au centre ville a eu quatre étages. J’adore l’architecture de ces bâtiments. Je pense qu’ils sont indicatifs d’une colonie française.

La dernière journée, quand on était en train d’aller a l’aéroport, on a arrêté a un vieux bâtiment construit par les romans. Je ne sais pas comment il s’appelle en français, mais je vous pressente des photos. Amuse toi bien !

Other News: I played soccer with Murat, Baris and their friends last nighta t 11pm. It was a team we didn’t know at all so it felt like a real game. Although only having slept 4 hours the night before, I was so tired, but incredibly energized because of excitement about the game. We won 4-1 - I scored one and assisted one! Because I was so excited to play, I ran my heart out and was extremely exhausted. I don’t think I have ever run so much in one hour. Right at the end of the game though, I slammed my head extremely hard and was quite dizzy for a while.

In summation: we won, I scored, I had a non-debilitating injury => Great game!

On the way back I layed down in the back and all my muscles tightened up while I was napping. I had a really hard time trying to walk up to my apartment afterwards. My head still kind of hurts.

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I made an album of pictures from this past weekend. The pictures are located at the following address:

Izzy’s Boat

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