a week

i have so much to say but I am going on a boat trip tomorrow in the Agean Sea for a week and its after 2am and i still need to finish things so sorry, it will have to wait.
i will list thing i need to post..
 photos from H&M shopping spree
eges circus
Audrey and Chelsea's half birthday
Aley

hopefully i can remember what those are about
i am sure i will have much more to spill after my week!
Take care!
-Ana

If you love great blogs...

I have recently joined the world of blogging. and now.. i cannot stop!
I keep finding more awesome blogs and I have never had so many websites bookmarked!
if you want some good ones A Beautiful Mess has posted some of her favorites which I love every one of them!
http://abeautifulmess.typepad.com/my_weblog/
you can check it out here
have fun!
-Ana

Shopping in Istanbul

Shopping in Istanbul is easy...a little too easy!
apart from the many great traditional shops and markets there are many many malls here. In fact Istanbul Forum mall is supposed to be the largest one in Europe. We only had enough time to go to two shops; H&M and Ikea yeah its not the most different thing to where i would go in the states but still i was super excited. I need to try and make a trip there again mainly to see the enormity the the place not just two stores.
Anyways main point is that there are several malls just down the street from each other, you could walk from one to the other within 10 min thats how close they are. well yesterday i decided i need to go to H&M to get more summer clothes before i leave on my boat trip. I went to Sapphire mall for the first time only going to H&M and dropped 100 TL there. Yeah its only about $65 but still i have never spent that much at one time. And that was me controlling myself!! good thing 100tl was all i had! :)
I walked into the store and first thing i see is a huge section of sale clothes! everything i got was around 10TL each which is about $6 so great deals! I want to go back but i have no time before i leave and good thing too. I am not sure how long my self control will last with those great deals. But yes after i left i freaked out a little. but it was so worth it trust me! :) i love all my new things! :) All in all Istanbul is a dangerous city if you love to shop and find great deals!
take care!
-Ana

Turkish Delight

I originally started a blog as a kind of field journal since my interests include Anthropology and since then my purpose has drifted to more of my life. A diary instead of a Field Journal.  Yes this is great and I want to continue to have my blog that way and that is why i have decided to make a second blog the will focus on Turkey and its culture. This blog is now Turkish Delight. http://turkishdelight-ana.blogspot.com/

I hope everyone enjoys it! :)

-Words from Ana 

Princes Islands

I cannot believe i never even posted about the princes islands. Man i am way behind! I dont even have any of my own pictures to post with it so i guess they will come later when i get pictures from other people. (whenever that may be )
Ok Princes Islands day......
Started off normal
I got up got ready and waited for the bus
thats when it got interesting...
While i was waiting for the 48 bus a police car drove up an stopped. Two police men came out and started ranting in all sorts of Turkish that I could not understand except for one word...Pasaport
and since i am so smart i didnt have it on me or make a photocopy like people told me to so i could carry that. they blocked me off when my bus came and i moved to go on it and then pointed at the police car like i need to get in just as another lady had to go into it. I frantically accessed my phone and began trying to call my host mom who didnt pick up, i tried again, no answer. They were really pointing at the car now and i was crying scrolling through my contact list praying the there was someone i could call who could help me. And then i found the name of my branch president Cakir. He speaks both english and turkish and he has the priesthood! I called him bawling my eyes out cuz i dont want to go to Turkish prison and told him what was going on. I handed the phone to the police man and then back to me when he told me to show them any id i had on me. I did and he talked to them again. Next thing i know they are getting into the police car and driving away and my branch president had saved me. I went back to the house crying still and tried to calm myself. I had missed the bus and  i was supposed to meet my friends who we about an hour trip away in 15 min and leave on the boat in 45. Luckily the shuttle was at that time and i could run to meet it. The shuttle is free for Kemer residents and much much faster than a city bus. I was able to get to the meeting place but i had missed everyone. I had to wait for the next ferry but i ended up meeting a guy who was traveling and going to the princes islands too. he was really nice and it was fun to meet a fellow American. He was from Seattle and had been staying with family in Africa and then visiting other places before he returned home. He didnt know what he was doing so i invited him to spend the day with us. We rented bikes and rode around the island which was very hilly and the bikes were pretty much crap and we had to watch out for crazy horse drawn carriages that would plow up the roads. We went off on  the side and found this little place "beach" thing where the sand would be was old tiles and bits of mosaic that i kept pieces of. We just talked and the guy got along great with everyone. We got lunch and drinks at this fun little place and had a great time. When we were ridding there were these guys who stayed by us for a while and then tried to take pictures of us with their phone by acting like they were taking a picture of each other. I do it all the time but i am skilled at it and not completely obvious like they were. Lacey was hilarious she told the straight up to stop and that we are not stupid. It was great. Later we got waffles at this place and of course all the men there were just staring at us. When we were going to leave a bunch of the girls went to the bathroom and Bethany and i were left. They asked to get pictures mainly with her but me too. Then they gave all of us a rose. They were talking to us and stuff it was funny. On the boat back we met this family from Iran who was traveling and the mother knew English. We talked to her a bunch and she was so sweet!! It was super fun. The women were both young and beautiful even though with their hijab we could only see their faces. She asked what we thought about Iran when we pictured it in out minds....interesting question and a dangerous one since the only pictures in my mind  i see of it are of war Iran. So we said hot and dusty. She lives in an area higher up and they have four seasons which was interesting. She invited us to come stay with her anytime. It was so interesting and i am grateful for that experience. I had a great time with great friends and a beautiful island in Istanbul. What a life!

Take care!

Condensed Turkey soup

Well I have failed to post for the last 10 days or so....fail! Its not that i have not had anything to post, because there has been something everyday; pure laziness, exhaustion, and Harry Potter are to blame. Yes i did say Harry Potter. I read the first half of the last book the Deathly Hallows before the first half came out last fall and I needed a way to read that second half before it came out this summer. Being in Turkey I have limited resources and few English books are available in random stores for a steep price. I started looking for a way i could download the book to my computer and read it off there with no luck until low and behold i found it!....on youtube!!! yes i have been listening to the book on youtube! and ...its free! :) my joy is great

So in this post i will attempt to take the highlights of the last few days i have missed and do my best to condense the most (hence the post title). Unfortunately this is the condensed version and so you few readers out there will have to miss the details and truly the good stuff. Sorry my fault. I know you are all "boo"ing and fist pumping with aggravation but it must be done.

Sometime in the last 10 days we got a group of aupairs together (a huge group of like 10 of us. Basically all the Huma found aupairs and Kelly) We met in Beshitash (English way to spell it) and went to the Ihlamur Pavillions. These were made for Sultans and their families as a kind of weekend home. They were small but extremely extravagant. The best part was getting to talk to the other aupairs and get a buttload of pictures. We went to the shopping area and inside kind of hidden away was this huge mall! but it was full of fakes and illegal thing which was so fun. I have to go back and get some purses and stuff there. We found a bootleg Dvd store and i got a few and i cannot wait to go back to see if they found the DVD i asked them to find(since they can find almost anyone ever made) Unico. My family knows about Unico. One of my faves as a kid.

The next day we went to the Suleymaniye Mosque which is not one of the main ones but it is a pretty popular mosque, right by the grand bazaar. We had to wear scarfs and a long cloth around out waist. There is a cemetery with a few sultans and important people buried in it.It was truly beautiful and the first mosque i have been into! After we did a little shopping and I got some scarves for people. Kelly got her hooka for her brother. It was a really nice one and we got it for 20TL which is a super good price. I really like that area. We plan to go back.

Friday we made our way to the Basilica Cistern. This underground Cistern was built by the Byzantine Emperor I Justinianus and is right by the Hagia Sophia. It is this giant stone room underground held by stone pillars. Apparently after people stopped using it as a cistern it went hidden for a century until this man who was learning about the Byzantine Empire found out that people were lowering buckets through their basements and bringing up water and even catching fish! Yes there was fish down there. It was beautiful and strangely very eerie, especially by the Meduas head bases. I dont have picture myself so here are some from google pictures. I am not going to lie i totally felt like i was in the mines of Mroia from LOTR!

Well there is my all the substance condensed version without the fun details.
Take care!

The Lady with the Rose

On Wednesday Kelly and I wanted to go somewhere close but new and exciting, some place we could explore. We decided to go to this little Traditional Turkish area not far from where we live. We have passed it every time on the bus and wanted to go since it is only a few bus stops away from where we live. It was great seeing a bit of the real Turkey and not just the upper class version. The houses were run down with clothes lines strung fro each window. I was in love. I am so mad i dont have any pictures to put on now but as soon as i can get them from Kellys camera i will put them on. If not you can always look on facebook since most of them are on there.
We were taking pictures of everything! There was this one corner where we got a picture of some houses and four Turkish people just doing their thing. One of the Ladys in the picture we just took saw us and started talking to us in Turkish. We went over and she asked for a photo by her roses. She invited us for Turkish Kave (coffee) and drinks since i dont drink coffee. She was with her daughter in the garden and we followed her as she went inside and brought out two chairs for Kelly and I. We spent a good amount of time trying to communicate. It was fun and they were thrilled at the little bit of Turkish i have picked up. We made sure to get pictures with them so i will post them later. or you can stalk me on facebook.
Her daughters daughter who we think is 6 if we communicated correctly came and then went and brought us all a beautiful rose! it was a brilliant pink gorgeous garden rose.  i was so cute! We had to leave and they asked us to come back which we were planning to already! Our plan is to print out some of our photos with them and put them in frames and come back with another gift of some sort. I am excited to see them again.
We went to lunch at this amazing place! We were craving Kofte (Turkish grilled balls of meat) and we had seen this sign for it by the bus stop so we went back and I expected this little hold in the wall crap place since it was barely visible and the sign was a little getto but it was so amazing! The walls were completely covered with pictures of Atatürk and it was clean and nice. Thats the nice thing about Turkey...most things are surprisingly clean for what it is. We got a yummy salad and they gave us this tub of bread, and we got 4 kofte the size of our fist!!!! it was amazing!!!! and the people were of course super nice. I was so stuffed after :)
Kelly still wanted to find a sweet shop and get some baklava and whatnot so we went walking around again. Everywhere we went and looked is was basically all men. I dont know what it is but it was like the men went out to socialize instead of working and the women were at home doing the house work. anyways as we were walking through the song Stop and Stare by One Republic since all the men did that as we passed and then continued to talk after we passed. its so awkward. Turkish people are not ashamed to flat out stare at you or flirt with you. It was an awesome day. I cannot wait to find that family again and go back to one of my new favorite places!
well take care. i have much more to write but it will have to wait. so many adventures this week! :)

Team Galata

On monday I had that chance to go to the Turkish version of the NBA
Zeyneps good friend Lalin who lives just down the street from us, is the daughter of the head coach of the club basketball team Galata. Here club teams have more than one sport they play. Like Galata has a soccer team and a basketball team and maybe more.It would be like if the Lakers were combined with the 49rs etc.

So last time we were over at their house Lains mom invited us to go to the game with them. We get the elite package with special parking, tickets waiting for us at the entrance, and nice seats close to the court and right under the owner of the clubs row. On the other side was the mass crowd devoted to constant and passionate cheering, fist pumping, whistling when the other team had the ball. My ears were ringing through the night after with all the songs and chants and craziness that was there. I wanted to be on the other side.The fans would clap in sync or jump and it was great to see this wall of people doing this all together dressed in Gold and Red. I thought it was funny because they are the Griffindor colors from Harry Potter, And the other team was green and orange with vertical stripes that made them look like either a sliced up pumpkin patch or jail broke leprechauns.  I wish i had some pictures to show you but i dont have a camera and forgot to bring Zeyneps. Hopefully we will have another chance to go. It was so fun to watch the game. It seems like they are a little mroe rough here. Alot of grabbing and shoving was going on. Turkish men are men i guess. I had an awesome time and it was fun since we were with the coaches family. At half time everyone on my side went to he sitting room area where i guess they had a table laid out with snacks and drinks all for free. I am telling you it was the elite side! so awesome. I really hope i get a change to go again!