Blog entry, Stardate 29.12.08

Finally, an update. I’m spending yet another week on vacation in Izmir. Except for today. See, when Oğuz and I were planning this week, I kinda forgot that I had a teacher training class today. I thought I had the whole week off! No, I only had off from my observations, but I did have a 3-hour class this afternoon. We had already bought our tickets and everything, so in the end we decided I should fly back to Ankara for the day and then return to Izmir for the rest of the week.

Sounds crazy, but it turned out really well because suddenly the department decided that jumping through my bureaucratic hoops had become URGENT and so Oğuz and I were up until 12:30 am last night translating my diploma and my CV from English to Turkish. Have you ever tried to translate a diploma? It’s pretty difficult. I mean, it took me a little head-scratching just to translate it into real English! Here’s what I mean:

Original text excerpt:

In recognition of the successful completion of the requisite course of study and on the nomination of the Faculty, by virtue of the authority granted by charter of the State of Maryland to the Board of Regents of the University of Maryland System, hereby confers upon, [insert name here] the degree of [insert degree here] with all the honors, rights, and privileges thereunto appertaining.

Oğuz asked if I could simplify it a bit so he could translate it easier, and here’s what I came up with:

Because he/she did what he/she needed to do, and because we (the Royal we of the University) can, we decided to give [this degree] to [insert name here], with a side of whatever that actually means in real life.

But hey, I guess that’s why you don’t see any elegantly crafted works of functional literature/art like the Constitution anymore. ::shrug::

So yeah, we didn't simplify it quite THAT much, and the translating was interesting. Fun Fact: There is no Turkish equivalent to the American "county"! The closest word is İlçe, which I realize means nothing to you, but try to imagine the 20-minute-conversation/debate Oğuz had with his friends that led up to us choosing that word.

Amendment to earlier Fun Fact: The Ikea in İzmir DOES, I repeat, DOES serve Swedish meatballs. The cause of the error was Oğuz misunderstanding my question of “Are Swedish meatballs served at Turkish Ikeas?” as “Do Swedish people serve at Turkish Ikeas?” Of course they don’t employ Swedish people in Turkey, was I daft? But it turns out the Turks are big fans of meatballs in any form. The editor apologizes for the misinformation.

Back to my solo Ankaran adventure. Most recently that adventure required me to tromp across campus in inappropriate footwear and then wait for 35 minutes at the bus station as snow gently fell all around and the tenperature hovered around -1 C. When the bus did come, I couldn’t sit down, so I tried to stand where a heater would point toward my frostbitten toes. I thought it would be a short trip, since where I was going was quite near to campus, but the bus meandered o’er hill and dale, picking up seemingly countless frumpy, bag-toting women wearing a parade of gawdy, shiny polyester headscarves. The bus became more and more crowded, and with every additional stop made and each additional rider that piled on, my eyes widened with impatience, I skooched closer to my window, and I felt a definite phoneboothy dejavu. Plus now it was dark, and I was tired, and cold, and I didn’t really know if I would recognize my stop, so I periodically wiped the condensation off the nearest window and strained to see where the hell we were now. That big ole bus depot was a welcome sight. Now I'm on one of the cozy, expensive Havaş buses that go between the airport and the big ole bus depot. I can’t wait to take a nap in the airport...

Life is so very excellent!

Hello fair citizens of Readerland! It is I, your benevolent monarch, here to again tell you why life is so very, very excellent. My last post was a tough act to follow (did you realize that touch and tough are only one letter different?), but more excellence has transpired. Remember my lack-of-camera-cable problem? Oğuz managed to get his card reader to read it, after many unsuccessful attempts, and now I am fully share-enabled! Is there no end to his magnificence?!?! This is great, because I'd like to post pictures of the inside of our apartment, too, and maybe even some shots of our sweet new appliances. (Fun fact: In Turkey, home appliances are called beyaz eşya, which translates to "white furniture"!)

Also in the good category, today I went to the university to visit one of the teacher trainers. Last week they gave me a book called How To Teach English, which was basically the same thing that I've been studying in my online course for the last several months. But we had a nice conversation about that, and then we discussed what is involved in classroom observation. As part of my training, I will be observing 7 classroom hours of instruction, with 7 different teachers. I didn't realize observation was such an intense procedure... I kinda thought you went into the class, sat in the back, took some notes, got the feel for it, thought about it later... that kinda thing. But the methods described to me were some hardcore systematic stuff, man. In all cases one must pick a "focus", one particular teacher or student behavior, event, interaction, etc. Then one picks a "tool", or a method of collecting data on that focus. For example, one scenario described a focus of "teacher vs. student talk time" and it used a tool called "time lapse coding", which involved putting a check in the "Teacher Talk Time", "Student Talk Time", or "Silence" column at 5 second intervals during the entirety of the lesson. Whoa! That is intense. Ok, so you would end up with a good idea of who was talking when, but would you have time to notice anything else? Like who was talking about what? Did the students seem to be enjoying themselves or bored out of their minds? In reality, I'm sure it's not as crazy as it sounds... but at first it did sound a little OCD.

This weekend begins a major holiday in Turkey, the Kurban Bayramı. There's no school or work next week, so Oğuz and I are packing up and heading to İzmir for a while! Traditionally you visit and pay respect to your elders during this bayram, so we will do some of that, as well as hanging out with friends and generally chillin'. We plan to go to Kemeraltı (the bazaar district) to find a cool tavla (backgammon set) for us to keep at the house and play in the evenings. Oğuz still mercilessly kicks my ass at that game, even though I am a fairly good player. I keep thinking that if I just play him again, this time I might beat him. So far.... not so much.
Also, I put in a request to visit İzmir's Ikea! Woohoo Ikea! (Fun fact: Turkish Ikeas (or at least, the one in İzmir) don't serve Swedish meatballs!)

So, it occured to me the other day that I have no real concept that it's December. How can I not know it's December? I always just knew before... turns out it wasn't some sort of deep, earthy, intuitive knowledge somehow imparted to me by the length of days or whatever. It was because starting around Halloween, I've always been bombarded by the consumeristic imperative that defines December, and here that is almost wholly absent! The only traces of it I saw were in a few expensive department stores in İzmir and a small section of decorations (which are actually for the New Year) in Metro. It is so, so nice. The good side is missing, too--the white-lit trees lining the avenues, the cheesy-yet-endearing omnipresent Christmas music, the sudden excess of delectable baked goods and cheeriness--but I still enjoy being able to walk down the street and feel normal, not bad for not buying more, for not enjoying shopping more, or for not having enough money to buy the things I'd like to for people. I don't miss that, and the rest I can do for myself. We plan on putting white lights around our windows, playing holiday music stations through iTunes radio, and baking our own darn cookies! (The only thing I can't do is be with family and friends, but we'll Skype.)

I'm sure I can whip up some suitable photos tonight before bed, and I'll try to post them lickity-split. If not tonight, then sometime in the coming days while we're on holiday.

Love you all,
Jacki

Movin' On Up...

There are a few times in everyone's life when they can look themselves in the mirror and say, "Yeah, baby. I'm making it!" We had one of those moments this weekend. Actually, several of those moments. But I'm getting ahead of myself... first, a little history:

The first week we had the apartment, we had a lot of things to buy. We needed appliances, seating, a bed, other furniture, lights, kitchenware, etc. We have a shower cabinet, so we didn't need a shower curtain. And as you may recall, I took care of the silverware and the pots and pans. But still, we didn't have a fridge to put food in, a stove to cook on, or plates to eat off! The first two days we spent running around finding an apartment was nothing compared to the considerable legwork that went into furnishing said apartment.

One of our many blessings during this time was the fact that Oguz's mentor's son's wife's father is someone important around here, and through this connection we were granted an appointment with someone else important, who administers this wonderful resource near where I work: a warehouse of abandoned furniture and appliances. The deal was, we would be taken there, given a little while to pick some things out, and they would be delivered to our apartment free of charge. Sound ridiculously great? Yeah, even I don't know how we pulled that one off.

On the third day that we had the apartment, we went to this person, who had someone drive us to the warehouse. The only hitch was that the guy needed his car back pretty quickly, and the warehouse was pretty far from his office, so it turned out that we only really had 15 minutes to pick out what we wanted!

Now, as a visual for you, this place is about the size of a large grocery store (like, a Giant or something), but mostly empty, with furniture maybe 10-15 ft deep around all the walls. There is something vaguely resembling organization, in that one side of the warehouse is dedicated to home furniture (mostly), and the other side is more devoted to office and institutional furniture (more or less). There are sofas and seats galore, tables, chairs of all shapes and sizes, shelves, file cabinets, desks, washing machines, a couple of refrigerators, and on and on. A large fraction of these things are hideous, busted, or quite possibly both. Oh, and I shouldn't forget to add that every surface is covered with a thick blanket of pale dust (with plenty of bird footprints), such that any attempt to touch or move the items resulted in billowing clouds and, in short order, one's own dusty, flour-like coating.

However, I shouldn't digress too far from the main point, which is that all of this is FREE STUFF. So we took our 15 minutes and had our own little Supermarket Sweep! Oğuz ran one way, I ran another, and we rapidly yet critically perused all of our options. I was in charge of furniture, Oğuz of appliances. To complicate matters, it was readily apparent that premium items were few, and our team was competing against another team of hungry shoppers, two women and a guy. The urgency of the matter was not lost on us.

Both Oğuz and I had our work cut out for us. I mean, think about it. You have 15 minutes (I think we kinda squeaked it out to 20, though) to size up 3 dishwashers, 2 fridges, and 3 washing machines. It's easier to look past the filthiness of them, but then how are you supposed to ascertain the quality of their function? Do you pick the newer-looking ones? Do you try to compare brands? Do you look for visible defects?
Personally, I had a harder time imagining inviting those upholstered ghosts into our nice clean apartment. In some cases, it was hard to tell exactly what color things really were! And of course you have to touch furniture to know its quality... in this case an unattractive prospect in and of itself. I had to squeeze, pat, move, wiggle, sit on, and otherwise fondle a lot of nasty stuff to find anything worth bringing home! (Sounds like some people's dating life...)
Anyway, after some jogging and hurried consultation with each other, we came to some decisions about what to put in our pile. We selected the following: a coffee table/end table set; two small desks, one with a shelfy thing on the back; a dining table with 4 wooden chairs; a funny wooden and green velvet chair to go at the desk; a bedside table; a small chest of drawers; a big white armchair; a floor lamp; a washing machine; a dishwasher. We left feeling accomplished and tentatively optimistic, since it wasn't clear if the appliances would work.

I hear you wondering, Dear Readers, if all this happened over two weeks ago, why I'm writing about it now. You see, this is a governmental kinda thing, and free, and so we weren't really sure how long it would take for our haul to be delivered. We gave it a week, and then decided we should call them and check. About a week after that we actually did call, and it turned out they kinda forgot about us! But we finally got our appointment to go get our stuff this past Saturday morning. By about 1:30pm we were back, and the doorman very kindly helped us carry our things into the elevators and up to our apartment!

Again, Oğuz and I delegated the responsibilities: furniture to me, appliances to him. We piled all of the furniture in the living room, and piece by piece I vacuumed and scrubbed. The bird footprints were pretty cute, I have to admit, but they had to go! That took a couple hours of good work... in the meantime, Oğuz went to buy a few parts and detergent, hooked up the machines, fixed the knobs and anything else that was askew, and took them for a test drive. They both work like dreams!

The washing machine is an old Bosch, all the instructions are in German, and I swear it washes clothes with the devotion and diligence of a solid, no-nonsense Old World peasant woman! It's cycles are LONG, ranging from 1 to 2 hours, and it hums prettily during the final spin. Since there aren't many dryers here, it's important for a washer to spin well and get the clothes as dry as possible, and this one does NOT disappoint. Oğuz commented that this machine looks like it was owned by a woman who really took good care of it... it reminded me of Oma, whose own ancient washing machine probably looks about as nice and shiny as the day she got it. We had a good time deciphering the German instructions... it's been awhile since I studied laundry terms in my high school course. But we figured it out, and we've already gleefully done several loads of laundry since Saturday.

The dishwasher is a Beko, a Turkish brand. It's nice and shiny inside, although a bit greasy on the outside. It came with a stove affixed to the top of it, which Oğuz removed... but as a result, it's got more grime on it than a typical dishwaser. I have yet to detail it, but it's on the list of things to do this week. On the inside, it's lovely, the only detractor being that it's missing the silverware container, but that's ok. We're working around it for now. We didn't have any detergent for it, but the first few runs still cleaned the dishes remarkably well! Shiny, spotless, wonderful. ::smiles and sighs happily::

Don't get me wrong, it was great when we got our fridge, but it's been a long time since I've had a washing machine or dishwasher, and it's a great feeling!!!! Since there are no laundromats here, the washing machine was a bit of a necessity, and the dirty clothes were starting to pile up. But the dishwasher is the kind of luxury that just feels good, and makes you feel one step closer to the kind of automated affluence that we've been told is the American (and therefore the World) Dream. Ok, I don't buy into the American Dream in many ways, but dishwashers are nice.

Time to cook dinner... that's not automated yet, thank goodness. Over and Out!

On Food

Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving to you all! I hope you are with family if possible, enjoying the bounty we still enjoy despite the financial crisis, and that you're busy giving thanks for all your many blessings, opportunities, friends, senses, strengths, and dreams.

Now, onto the topic of the day:

I love food. I love the food here. Let me tell you a little bit about what I've been loving recently.

Each morning I get up and peel a cucumber and one or two tomatoes, and I chop them coarsely onto a plate. I sprinkle some salt, add a splash of olive oil, and squeeze some lemon juice on top, and mix well. Onto another plate I set out some slices of a soft, white cheese and a healthy bunch of olives. I sprinkle some lemon onto the olives, too, and sometimes olive oil. Oh, and in the meantime I've put on the electric kettle and the water has boiled. I make two cups of Earl Grey with some honey. Hopefully there's still some fresh bread from last night. That's my and Oğuz's breakfast! It's so amazingly delicious, I have for it the sort of reverence most people reserve for religious martyrs and political heroes. ::shrug:: I'm funny like that. But until you've soaked up a finely balanced mixture of fresh tomato juice, olive oil, and lemon with the crust of a stone-fired loaf, don't laugh!

I have also developed a deep passion for one particular type of olive. It's a style called çizik, made from a green olive with a brownish-purple blush, with a slit cut down one side. They are usually my favorites because they tend to be less bitter and overwhelming than other olives. However, we acquired such a stunning batch recently at our local Makromarket that I can't eat enough of them! They make me groan with joy whilst eating them! We are considering going back and buying two kilos! Their taste is not the least bitter, but pungent and rich like a good red wine, and there are even sweet notes of chocolate when I am rolling one about to extract the pit. It's a little slice of olive heaven!

Another thing I've become thoroughly entranced with lately is finishing off breakfast with a slice or two of bread with butter and honey. Here's the recipe: Delicious fresh bread + delicious fresh butter + delicious fresh honey (be generous, now) = YES! My tongue is so happy, it does a little dance and then I drink a little tea and my day is immeasurably improved. ;)
(Note: The recipe also works well as an afternoon snack or dessert after dinner.)

Our thanksgiving plans had to be put on hold this year, for two reasons: We have yet to buy an oven, and we have yet to figure out where to buy turkey parts. These are easy to solve problems, but since I've come down with a nasty cold we decided to take an easier route. I'll make various side-dishes here at home which do not require an oven, and we will purchase a rotisserie chicken from a local shop. We will figure out the logistics more thoroughly and have a better game plan by Christmas. ::grin::

I am sick, and tired. I'm going to take a nap before I need to start cooking. Again, happy turkey day to you all!

Map My Life

Play with this for awhile! Here's a map with some significant landmarks on it (to us, anyway). Fun!


View Larger Map

Frustratingly Sharing-Impaired!

Hey, y'all. So this week I was all geared up to give you a tour of our excellent little apartment. I cleaned, I photographed, I... can't find my camera's data cable. :( It is, presumably, somewhere in amongst the still very disorganized stuff that is strewn about some areas of the apartment. And, probably, I'll find it soon. But I'm so frustrated, I wanted to show you NOOOOOOW. My style has been seriously cramped here. ::pout::

Until I find that darn thing, I'm using my inferior phone pictures to show you around. Right now I'm just going to show you the view from our windows, because I love that part! Lately it has been cloudy and rainy most of the time, but I still like the colors and shapes and shadows... it's like a kaleidoscope in every direction! The colors are not done justice in these pictures, but trust me, it's cool. Oğuz thinks it's ugly, but I can't help but love it.


This is the view from the living room. The road that goes from the bottom left to the mid-right of the screen is the main road, Gen. Dr. Tevfik Sağlam Caddesi. That's where we catch buses and have done a lot of our settling-in shopping. The intersecting road that heads toward the upper left of the picture is Bağcı Caddesi, which also has quite a bit of shopping opportunities. And the advantage there is that it's level, whereas heading down the main road requires quite an uphill hike when coming back home. I'm within a 1 minute walk of 2 yarn shops, by the way, but I have yet to investigate!

This is still the view from the living room, this time looking out to the right. The same orange building is in the foreground of both pictures; it's the Etlik Lisesi, a middle school. That large asphalt yard you can see part of belongs to the school, and we see the students gather there and line up before entering the school, play volleyball and basketball, run around for gym class, etc. It's fun.

This is the view from the bedroom, and although the sky looks very different this picture was taken mere minutes after the last one, which reveals the ephemeral nature of the weather conditions here right now. As you can see, there are mountains in the distance, over which the sun rises. This morning they stood in silhouette, under imposing steel-gray clouds, with a fiery orange sunrise beaming out from between the two.

The view from the office, whose windows point in the same direction as the bedroom's, but this time I'm looking straight out from the building instead of off to the right. There are several other tall buildings around us, and some greenspace around them. Remember, Ankara is the second largest city in Turkey, with a population of 4 million or so. Although I am nowhere near 'downtown', this is still pretty densely populated territory.

I am really enjoying this lifestyle, being able to fully function without a car is great. We walk to local stores for bread, food, electrical supplies, cleaning supplies. Yesterday we went to the local bazaar and bought almost more produce than the two of us could carry for around 30 YTL, which is less than $20.

We just found out yesterday that the ODTÜ shuttle has a stop right outside our building, in front of the middle school. That is great for me, since I'm going to have to start going there regularly starting NEXT WEEK! :) Yeah, that's my awesome news, that after some waiting I have been hired by the university and will begin my teacher training immediately. I am so happy!

More good news: Today is Oğuz's birthday. Happy Birthday, honey!!!! I'm not sure how we will celebrate, but we're having fried sardines (Hamsi) tonight, one of our favorites! Hamsi is one of the only fish you really find here, it is brought from the Black Sea. They are very small and you can't feel the bones, and they are EXCELLENT coated in corn flour and fried. YUM. This weekend we will be visiting friends and family in İzmir, so I am sure they will help us celebrate. :)

Ok, I have one more thing I want to prepare for you, and I'm going to put it in the next post. Hope you're all doing well, byeeee!

The update cometh!

Hello everyone! Here I am, catching you on the flipside... of the world! There's an awful lot to catch you up on, I'm not sure that I'll have enough time tonight.

Firstly, let me just say that I am ecstatic to be here with Oğuz in Turkey. I am amazed at how natural it feels. I look around and feel completely at home!

"The last 24-48 hours" in the US:
That quote is from my mom, when she was trying to describe to Oğuz, in as nice a way as possible, the utter chaos that was the lead-up to my departure. Ok, so some slight miscalculations were made. I underestimated the true magnitude of the whole making-the-apartment-empty-before-leaving thing. Getting rid of the unnecessary stuff in my life was the really easy part, things went to the Salvation Army in droves. But I guess I've never needed to make this distinction before, between things I need/want and I will take with me to a place where I have nothing else, and things I need/want that I will store for some undetermined length of time, perhaps to recover later, perhaps not. ::scratches her head:: I don't know, it just proved harder than I expected when the time came.

As a result, I packed one bag more than I planned. This in and of itself is almost a non-issue, because I already could not handle all the baggage that I was taking. So this made it just a little harder, and a bit more expensive. No matter. Toward the end, my packing may have been a little haphazard and emotional, but all in all I still did a fair job. Back to the trip!

Arrival:
The flight was excellent. In the end my dad rented a car for me to drive to JFK, and that was the best thing EVER. I got there in plenty of time, traffic was a breeze, my luggage fit in the vehicle and I could still see out the back... it was perfect.

Now, I do consider myself a smart cookie, but I will now admit before you all that I had a bit of a security problem at the airport. When I was going through security, the nice man asked to look in my bag and of course I said, "Sure!" Imagine my utter embarrassment when the nice man pulled out a big ole bag of silverware, complete with butter knives. Obviously a public threat! See, when I was trying to ensure that my luggage wasn't overweight, I innocently threw the (quite heavy) chunk of metal into my carry-on!
Butter knives, people! I was escorted out of the security area and back into the unsecure area because of butter knives! And of course cursing myself the whole time. What to do? Pay to have my carry-on checked? Preposterous! Those knives had a date with the trash can, that's for sure. Which was also pretty lame, because they're very cool, otherwise I wouldn't have brought them at all.
Turkish Airlines saves the day! They let me check my carry-on for free, yes, FREE! That brought the grand total of bags checked to me alone to 6. Yes, 6. I got some looks. I had to rent two carts at the airport.
Ah, but it was all worth it when I walked out on the other side and Oguz was waiting for me. Oh sweet patience, how it has been rewarded! I can say my feet still haven't touched the ground, but I need to specify that it is completely metaphorical. More about that in the next chapter...

Homeful (n) - the opposite of homeless:
When we arrived at ODTÜ, the university where I would begin my career as a teacher of English, we were accomodated at the guesthouse. However, unlike when you're a guest, you have to pay for it. But that's ok, it's still cheaper than a hotel. So the next day, on Friday, I take the exam and have an interview before a committee. The exam was a breeze. Not so breezy that I finished super early or anything, but I was quite confident that I rocked that thing. However, in the interview, the guy I've been talking to for months expresses serious concern that I can't commit to any longer than one year with them.
Mmmmmkay. I totally mentioned that from the very beginning. Dude! I walked out of that interview and told Oğuz we should look for an apartment. How does one going about looking for an apartment in a city one knows nothing about, without a car, and with sporadic access to the internet? By walking. Lots of walking. We walked and walked until the soles of my feet hurt when I got out of bed the next morning. Turns out that posting For Rent signs on trees is more popular than you might think! We called many numbers, followed many leads, walked many roads, looked at many apartments. We went in armed with a hand-drawn map of northern Ankara, with the neighborhoods we were interested in marked and crude approximations of where the listings we found on the internet might be located. It was fantastic!
In the end we caved and went with a real estate agent, who was very helpful, and drove us around from place to place until we decided on one.
Our accomodations at ODTÜ lasted until Monday morning. On Monday morning, however, we hadn't quite picked an apartment. So naturally, we piled all of our luggage into a taxi, and then transferred it into the approximately 10x12' room that is the real estate office. Behind chairs, around desks, all of our luggage remained for the rest of the day... or at least until late afternoon. It was pretty funny. In the end, we chose an apartment on the 10th floor of a large building, which is part of a group of buildings, high up on a hill, a couple blocks from the real estate office. Hooray for homefulness!
I love the view. Pictures will come soon.

As will the rest of our Big Fat Turkish Adventure! It's after 1am here, so I bid you goodnight, good evening, and fare well til next we talk.

Good lord and a quarter!

Just a brief note to say that moving is hard. And tiring. Duh.

Today, Tuesday, last day in my sweet little apartment! I have been tying up loose ends pretty effectively, cramming stuff into boxes and bags in a speedy yet carefully controlled manner. And I voted! If I can manage to vote today, no one else has any excuse not to, so help me!

Ok, back to work. I'll have more entertaining stuff to talk about later.

Proof that I am crazy

Finally, I am done with this project. Surely it is proof that I am somewhat deranged. I need a giant duffle bag, I said. How about this huge plain black one, I said. Oh, but who wants to lug around a huge, plain, black bag, I said. I know, I'll just take a few minutes to embroider some nice designs on it, and then it will be splendid, I said.

Well... that few minutes turned into several hours. And some bruised fingertips, some tiny holes in strange places, and the vigorous use of some pliers. But it was worth it! Behold:





Here's a quarter for scale... and then Buk for scale! Always helping, she.





With all the other things I should have been doing, this was surely an unwise use of my time. But ever since I started going to Turkey, I've loved the tulip motif that you see in the ceramics there. For some time I've been wondering how I can work with it, so here was my chance. Some day I will embroider a large G on the other side, but not until I get more work done around here! Enough dallying around, eh? Less than a week left!

By the way, TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has been on while I've finished this, and it's excellent! I'm not sure what I'm watching, but it's a series of creepy short stories with the same group of actors playing the various characters, with Vincent Price being the star. The acting, the music, the 'special' effects, the elaborate hair and old dresses and tiny waists, the fabulously ironic storylines... it's fantastic! I am so loving it. Combined with my very avid enjoyment of old radio programs, more evidence that my soul has some deep temporal roots.

Oh and by the way...

I've just posted a ton of pictures to Flickr! The new sets are:

• Farewell Dinner
• NYS Sheep & Wool Festival in Rhinebeck
  
• Jenn and Stuart's Wedding
• Kota's Arrival (partial)
• Yoko's Baby Blessing

I have more to catch up with, but that's a good start! Enjoy! <3

The week in review

Hello dear readers, it's a pleasure to be with you again!

My head is swimming with things to do. It is so full, in fact, that the only other thing there seems to be room for is mucus and thoughts of my new toy. I can explain...

Thursday evening my coworkers and I went to Lemongrass for a farewell dinner. It was so, so nice, even if the kitchen was a little off. Several of our meals were particularly salty, which is not what I'm used to there. Rita said that in Germany they say if the food is too salty, the cook must be in love. :) What a lovely spin to put on it! Here is the group shot of us!



Anyway, we had a good time and boy was I in for one heck of a surprise. Here, you can see my gaping maw right here:



I couldn't believe it! I was actually embarrassed a little, which Yoko thought was very cute. I mean, I've purposely NOT read anything about the ipod touch because it was so not an option. But omg! So cooooooool! And of course I immediately knit a little cover for it! I was bored by those socks anyway. Check it out!



Ok, so that explains the new toy fixation. What about that mucus? Argh... I am so incredibly allergic to my parents' basement that it's not even funny. We've already taken care of one half of the basement, and we started on the other half today. Taking medicine ahead of the work didn't help. I thought I was going to end up with brain damage, I was sneezing so hard and so often (almost constantly). I knew things were getting bad when, despite blowing my nose as often as possible, I could no longer prevent my snot from dripping on what I was trying to work on. (TMI? Too bad!) So I took more medicine! It said "extreme" on the box, so I knew it was good! Woohoo, that was some good stuff, I've been loopy all day and ended up needing to take a nap in the evening. But we did get some good work done there before dad and I ran out of juice.

However, there is still a LOT left to do in less than two weeks. I would be lying if I said I wasn't just a wee bit stressed... but at this point it's still mostly eustress, not distress. More updates later!

Bukkacute

The spectrum of the house cat runs the full range from cuddlebug to ice princess. And then there are cats like Buk, who think they are dogs. They fetch, they run to meet you when you get home, they lick your face... there is one particular habit she's developed, though, that I can only describe as child-like. Here's a picture I managed to snag with my phone after she curled up under the covers with me one morning.


She's my baby, my buddy, my precious little monster!

New Stuff

Today I got my mom hooked up with a gmail account. Joy! This is important, because AOL sucks, and I can't be sending her emails not knowing if their little voices are being drowned out by hundreds upon hundreds of spamz. Booooo. We sat, 10 feet away from each other, and played around with chat and this and that so she could get the hang of it. She especially enjoyed the emoticons, and I have to admit, they are one of my favorite aspects too. Who wouldn't enjoy typing a '<' and a 3 and ending up with a tiny animated red love-you-gram?!

On a more somber note, I was terribly disappointed to realize that while you can play backgammon with other Skypers on a PC, you cannot on a mac. A sad day. That really knocked my socks off when I discovered it at my parents' house, I was so excited! But there is no playing here in appleland. One of the very very very few times I envy those PC users.

Tomorrow I'm riding with Riss to Rhinebeck, NY to see some wooliness. I hope I don't buy too much yarn, but... well... YARN. I really can't afford yarn right now, so maybe I can content myself just to take pictures and make mental notes for later? I was going to try my usual tact of just encouraging everyone ELSE to buy things, so at least I could get that groovy fibery contact high, but Riss doesn't want to spend too much either. Hmm...

Ok, so I know I'm not actually in a faraway land yet... so initially I'll be posting about my moving-overseas adventures!

So far I am being fairly proactive about packing and preparing. This is my main defense against the tendency to become overwhelmed. It definitely helps that I'm not actually moving most of my stuff. What AM I taking, you ask? Whatever can fit in 4 suitcases equal or less than 70 lbs! We figure that one or both of us will be back for a visit in the summer, and at that time we can bring more if we want/need.

I have no idea how much 4 x 70lbs is in real life. I did buy a scale a couple weeks ago, and when I was packing the boxes to take to Kim's, I did weigh one of the heavier ones to see where it rang up... 40 lbs! I am weakling! Riss pointed out to me last night that there is no way I'm going to be able to maneuver four 70 lb bags. Then again some of my suitcases are kinda small and I could probably pack my marble bookends without hitting 70 lbs. But regardless, I thank the Universe that my sidekick/coworker who's driving me up to JFK is a buff little cookie who can surely help me. ::holds up her arms, flexes biceps:: Tickets to the gun show are on sale as of now...

As for what I'm trying to stuff into those four bags, I have a nebulous idea thereof: clothes, shoes, the bike rack (those things are expensive!!!), my new pots and pans (which weigh up, lids and all, at a mere 22 lbs!), the silverware, the summer plates (which are some cheap artificial material that weighs nothing and won't break but are pretty so I want them), some of my more beloved yarns, needles, and other knitting accoutrement, some pictures, all of my Turkish books, some other books and teachery supplies, my purple blankie, some linens, the dish towels Oma gave me, and our pillows (they're nice; I wouldn't drag just any pillow across the pond!).

Is that too much? Not enough? What else will I discover in the final throes of packing that I simply must have?! Time will tell, and when it does, rest assured I will tell you, Dear Reader.

Straight from the camel's mouth!

Hello Dear Readers, I'm so glad you could make it.

This is my very first post. Aren't you loving that new blog smell? Oh yes, it's there. You people mean the world to me, and I want to facilitate our communications any way I can. Although I'll be far away, you can still get updated by my reports, rants, and ramblings any time! I may be changing careers and continents, but not my beloved friends and family. So welcome, and enjoy!