Guy Fawkes Day!!

November 5 is one of the most celebrated holidays in England. On this day in 1605 this man tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament to protest the Protestant rule. This day is now bonfire night. We have been debating in the office on what exactly they were celebrating. I was invited by a few British friends to go to a bonfire with them. So I put on my wellies and joined the crowd of 20,000 people. My friends told me that they are celebrating the fact that he was caught and didnt succeed in blowing up parliament. So they have a huge bonfire and put a dummy on top.
Then there is a ceremony to light the bonfire with torches. The fire eventually goes to the top of the bonfire to engulf the dummy in flames. They put fire crackers inside of the dummy so when it burns completely they all pop like crazy. Now you know that guy fawkes is completely dead. Then everyone cheers.

The next piece of the entertainment of the night is a huge fireworks display. Everyone turns the opposite direction and watches the fireworks

It was a great night and the highlight of the weekend. Here is a picture of my friend and me as we enjoy the night.

USA, USA, USA

Yes, I went to the gymnastics world championships. It was the womens all around competition. I have never been so excited for an event as I was this when I found out it was in London. It was incredible. Jessica even came from America to go. I have always wanted to see something like this.
Here we are in the nose bleed section in our gymnastic shirts.


It was a fantastic evening. It helped that USA is definitely number 1.
It was so nerve racking to watch, but USA pulled out on top taking gold and silver medals. It was so cool to have won and to hear the national anthem. Here are the USA girls in pink on the podium along with the Japanese girl who made me really nervous at the end.




And of course the flags flying high.

What country am I in?

I decided to take a day and go into London and check out some Turkish neighborhoods and see what was there and if I could get involved there. It was so overwhelming as every culture I could think of collided in this area. There was a market with stuff from Africa, Turkey, the Middle East, India and so many other places. At the end of the street there was a grocery store. I was so overwhelmed and couldnt figure out what language to speak. They had British food, Turkish food, and American food all in one store. I bought a few things but it was a bit of culture shock. I couldnt figure out what country I was in. Then I walked, walked, and walked some more. I came to one street that was just so diverse I couldnt believe it so I took a few pictures to document my time.

The one on the left is definitely a mosque and the below picture is a Baptist church. They were right next to each other. I thought that was interesting.



























So I took more pictures. Here is a Turkish restaurant literally across the street.

Then I walked just a bit further and guess what I saw. You guessed it, a Mexican restaurant. Before this, I thought I had seen a piece of every culture in my day out but I was obviously wrong. By this time, I was exhausted but I decided to walk a little more. Next I came upon this
I am not sure what is going on here but for about a block of walking I saw men and boys dressed up like this coming from every corner. I was so amazed at all of the cultures I could come in contact with in just a few short hours.

Same language, different words

The language here is English, but very different English. It takes just as much concentration to understand someone as it does when they are speaking a whole different language. There are words I have to learn to say or not to say. I decided to share a few new words and meanings I have learned here.

British English vs. American English
Biscuit.........................Cookie
Scone...........................Biscuit
handbag.........................purse
purse...........................wallet
floor...........................pavement
tiles...........................roof shingles
trousers........................pants
pants...........................underwear
to fall over....................to fall down
to run down.....................to run over
garden..........................backyard
Lolly lady......................traffic controller at crosswalks
zebra crossing..................cross walk
take away.......................take out/to go

Some things are a lot more confusing than they should be

It doesn't rain here

My parents and Patrick came in August to visit. We were blessed with amazing weather and didn't get rained on while they were in London. Now they dont believe me when I say its cold and rainy. It was warm and sunny every day they were here. It did rain in Scotland every day we were there, but it was still fun. Here are just a few highlights of things we did while they were here:

.rode the train a lot
.visited Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the Tower of London
.rode bikes in Amsterdam
.went on a cruise down the Rhein in Germany
.explored a castle on the Rhein
.ate a lot of ice cream in Germany
.saw the tower bridge
.ran to get a seat on the train
.walked in the rain in Scotland
.ate an amazing burger
.climbed a mountain in Scotland
.wore a kilt
.walked 500 miles
.saw a big pile of rocks some people like to call Stonehenge


It was quite the vacation. We did a lot but had so much fun

What country have you lived in for the past 12 months?

I went to Turkey to visit some friends. I had so much fun with them. Here is a picture of us in Ortakoy at the jewelry pazar.
It turns out traveling from Turkey to London takes a whole lot longer than it should especially since it is a 4 hour flight. On my way home I left my friends house at 4:45 am, which is really 2:45 am England time. I took a taxi just to the metrobus. Then I rode this for 30 minutes, got out to transfer and waited 20 minutes. Then I got on the next one and rode 20 more minutes. I said the word for airport and the Turkish men started screaming 'Yabanci' until the driver stopped to let me off. Apparently they thought I should get off there. So I got off and followed the nice gentleman's directions to the metro. This took me directly to the airport. Finally I got through passport control. They didnt really want me to go through and had to make some phone calls because my previous exit stamp was on the same page as my visa. I finally get to the terminal which is behind security where there are no restaurants so you cant take water on the plane. That is annoying. Anyway, my plane landed at 10:00 am england time which is really noon turkey time. At this point it has already been 7 hours since I left my friends house.
I flew through Heathrow, which is a nightmare. I was so happy I made it through passport control with only a few questions. I was then stopped by this lady who was doing a survey. Her first question was "What country have you lived in for the past 12 months?" I spouted off my 3 countries and she looked at me and with a weird look and said 'thats all I need to know.' I thought great I dont really want to sit and talk anyway. But it made me think that I have lived in 3 countries this year. That is pretty crazy. Quite an accomplishment for me.
Anyway continuing with the trip. I lug my bag through 2 tube stations and finally reach my last train at noon making it now 9 hours of traveling time, and sit down with a very large iced latte and a bagel happy to be 30 minutes from home. It turns out that the signals were messed up and all of the trains from that station were canceled. Great. So I get out, go back to the tube and take 2 more trains that lead me to another station. I had never used this station so I had to figure out how to find the right train to take me home. I figured it out just in time and jumped on the train. This was the long train which stopped at every single small town between London and Redhill. Why am I not surprised. So I finally got back to Redhill, took my luggage home, and ran to work making it there by 3:00 which is now 12 and a half hours since I began my journey on one hour of sleep. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

its been a while

I have been doing a horrible job at updating. I will try to do better. I always think nothing exciting happens in my life.

Everything is so green and beautiful here. Our office is out in this garden. It is so pretty. I saw a fox the other day. I have seen so many all over this city. I guess they will replace the large number of cats that filled the streets in my last city.

A few weeks ago, my friend April came. We toured London and saw so many things. I finally learned my way around the city.

We went the the globe theatre and saw a Shakespeare play. We stood right by the stage like the peasants a long time ago. I loved it and hope to go back again. It is only 5 pounds. What a deal!!

American football

This past weekend, we went to an American football game. There is a teacher at the international school here whose husband coaches a team in their college league. They had the championship game on Saturday so we went to cheer them on. We had no idea what to expect, but were excited to see American football.
They played in a futbol field, so here is a picture of the field goal posts.
It wasnt the best quality football and the refs were pretty awful, but it was still so much fun. These guys havent grown up playing football like college players in the states. Someone said to think peewee football in college age bodies. I dont think it was quite that bad. The other team was from a university here called Bogazici. We were sitting by a lot of their fans so got to hear them cheer and chant throughout the game. There wasn't a score board or anything, so we think the score was 22-20 in which we lost in the fourth quarter. There also wasn'treally a timer, so you never know how much time is left on the clock. I dont think the coaches or players know either. It seemed like the fourth quarter lasted forever. At the end of the game the players of the other team ran into the stands and began to climb the fence to get to their fans. It was kind of the opposite from the states where the fans run onto the field. I wish I could have gotten a picture of the stampede of the players running towards us.
Here is a video so you can see the cheering of the Bogazici team and us cheering against them, a little of a play, and also the players climbing into the stands at the end.

Are you serious?

This past Wednesday the weather was beautiful and a few of the guys in the office went golfing. A few other girls and I decided to go see the Rumelihisarı which is a fortress on the Europe side built in 1452. You can go in and explore the fortress. Here is a picture of it from the Bosphorous. We also planed to go to a starbucks with a great view of the Bosphorous afterwards.

I went in to the office early to get some work done. Then I rode a bus to meet one of the ladies at the iskele (boat dock). The other lady ended up not being able to make it. We were planning on meeting two other girls at the fortress later on. Sherree and I proceeded to take the boat to the other side and then a bus to the Rumelihisarı. While on the bus we got a call from the other girl saying she was on the bus and missed the stop which caused her to miss the boat across. The next boat would make her a few hours late, so we just planned to meet them at starbucks. We thought of a way on public that she could get to us in time, so we called back and forth for 30 minutes or so until we decided to just go ahead and go into the fortress and meet them when they got there. We got up to the Rumelihisarı and we saw this sign....
...I don't know if you can read the writing, but on the bottom of the sign it says the hours it is open and the phrase "except on Wednedsay" You might not remember, but this happened to be a Wednesday. Well, now what do we do? We called the other girl to tell her and then decided to go to the Dolmabahçe Palace, which is another touristy site I hadn't seen yet. At this point my phone is about to die and Sherree's had died earlier that day. We made a few calls to see if the other girls wanted to meet us there and to see what time it was open. Now it is 3:20 and it should be about a 20 minute bus ride back to the palace. They were open and quit letting people in at 4:00. So we got in a bus and head that direction. We got off the bus at 3:55 which is near the palace and walked fast to get there. We were let inside the gardens through the security, and we took our time walking through the gardens. When we got about 10 feet from the door they closed it right in front of our faces. It was crazy. We took our pictures and left. Here is a picture of the front of the palace and the closed door at the Dolmabahçe Palace.

Now we were thinking that we couldnt end the day now and just go home. That would be anticlimactic. So we decide to go to a nearby starbucks. We enjoyed our frappaccinos and had a great time even though it wasnt the original starbucks on the itinerary. It wasnt right on the water, but good enough at that point.

What a day. To add to it, Sherree had taken a lot of pictures to document me trying to visit more tourist sites before I move. However, it turns out that when she got home none of them turned out. I wasn't really surprised given the events of the day.

Spice Pazar

We went to the Spice pazar a few days ago. It is just a covered market. It is a tourist place, but many locals go there to buy things as well. They sell all types of things like scarves, dishes, gardening tools, bracelets, turkish delight, kitchen utensils, tshirts, of course spices, and so much more. The streets just go on and on and are filled with people. Here are a few pictures of the vendors.












You can see the scarves above and the spices to the left and the hand painted dishes on the right.

The vendors always try to get you to buy things. I just ignore them because I dont like talking to them. They like practicing their english on everyone who walks by. They say interesting things like 'yes please' asking you to come into their store. It took us forever to figure out what they were talking about. We finally figured out that people probably walk by and say 'no thank you' so that is just the opposite. You never really know what they are going to say to you.

5 times a day

This is a video of the call to prayer that comes from the speakers of every mosque five times a day. You can usually hear multiple ones going at the same time. It eventually becomes normal and you dont really notice it anymore. This is from the balcony at my office. The other side of the office has a much better view, but you can see a big mall to the right of the mosque, a basketball court, and a whole lot of apartments.

Where do tulips come from?

Contrary to popular belief, tulips do not come from Holland. Here I am with my sister in the tulip fields in Holland. Living there made me love tulips. It turns out that they actually originated from Central Asian countries like Turkey, Iran, and Afganistan. I know, who would have thought. Well they have tulip festivals here, and the parks are all decorated in tulips this time of year. We went to the park yesterday. It was an adventure in it self to get there including two hours on two buses and a ferry. It was a very fun and relaxing day out in the beautiful weather Father blessed us with. We sat and read and of course enjoyed some ice cream. Here are a few pictures of our visit to the park.

Many of the tulips were planted in the shape of flowers and other designs like rainbows or animals.


Here are the Olympic rings.

Squatty Potty

I am sure many of you have seen these before, but for those that haven't I thought I would show a little picture of our beloved toilets here in Asia. Most houses have two bathrooms, one with a western toilet and one with a squatty. We use our squatty room as a storage closet. Also, a lot of newer public places will have 1 stall with the squatty and the others western style. For instance, this picture was taken at the airport, which had a western toilet in the other stalls. Most smaller public areas in Asia will only have the squatty and usually no toilet paper. These toilets have plumbing just like the western toilets. And no, I have no idea why someone would ever prefer to use a squatty. :)

Lets go to the movies

We finally had a free night on Friday and decided to go to the movies. We met a few friends there. One of them is Turkish. Thank goodness she was there. The movie theater was in an outside mall. We went to a restaurant before the movie called Num Num. Aparently that translates to yum yum in English. We were told that this place had real bacon and not the beef bacon that tastes like beef jerkey. We got our barbeque bacon cheese burgers and they were fantastic. The menu even had little pigs next to the item to show it was made from pork. With advice from our friend, we bought our tickets to the movie before dinner because you have to pick your seats on the screen when you buy them. The movie theater was huge and really nice. It seemed just like it would be in the states except we had assigned seats. The movie quality wasnt so good though. We saw Marley and Me. We really loved it. It just seemed so real. There were at least 57 TV commercials before the movie in Turkish. They were so funny. We were dying laughing at them. The commercials here are very cheesy and crazy. Of course we didnt understand much, but still they were still hilarious. Finally the movie started. It was in English with subtitles. We just start enjoying the movie and it cut off like in the middle of a sentence, a little cartoon played, and then the lights turned on. We were thinking okay maybe the film is messed up, but it turns out that every movie has an intermission for a smoke break. Twenty minutes late it started back up. It was a very interesting night.

Marley and Me was such a sad movie. We talked about the dog and how dogs are always so loyal and protective. This reminded me a story of a sweet little dog in Greece. We went to Greece a few weeks ago on vacation and well my purse and passport got stolen. On the way home from the police station I was still really stressed because we were supposed to be going back to my country the next day and I had no passport, and I didnt know if it would be possible to get one in time. My mom and I were walking to our hotel and this very concerned dog followed us walking by my side the whole way. We didnt think much of it, but he the same dog laid on the front porch of the hotel in the rain for the rest of the night. We woke up the next morning and there was the dog waiting for me. I was still very stressed and worried because at this point we were headed to the US embassy to hopefully get a new passport, which we did by the way. The dog followed us to the metro station and went down with us. He kept his eye on us even though they were violently shoo-ing him out of the station. He stayed until we went down the excelator and then went on his way. It is so interesting how dogs sense what you are thinking and know when you are stressed.

Here I am at the US embassy in Athens, so thankful that Father provided a new passport in a little over an hour.

Only in America!

We met a girl on the bus a few weeks ago. She speaks english very well and teaches english here. She invited us to her house for tea and dinner tonight. It was incredible food. The tea was actually good too. :) There were 3 ladies there. We had so much fun. They asked us about the things we missed from America and how things were different. Two of the ladies studied at universities and got their masters in the states, so knew about the culture differences. We brought brownies that we made without a box, and they commented on the fact that we are learning to do things different than in the states, like cooking from scratch. We some how started talking about the things they thought were unusual in America. They started saying "Only in America..." We talked about silly things like drive thru banks, cup holders in cars, rushing water in your bath tub so you can swim against a current (seen on commercials, rats in houses, and buying homemade items at the store. They made some of the things I know to be normal in America seem weird. It was humorous to me, because all of us foreigners here talk about things that happen and say "Only in Turkey." It was so easy to talk to these ladies. I am very thankful at how comfortable and how real I was able to be with them. Hopefully we will be able to have a good friendship with these ladies.

We used to live with a lady from Scotland. It was so good to live with her and a blessing that she took care of us. She was an amazing lady. She moved back home last month. Anyway, she would talk about how they dont know what cooking from scratch is because everything is that way. One day she saw the apple slicer we have. They do sell them here, but not many people use them. She was just amazed by this and we taught her how it worked. She always thought it was crazy that we have something to make anything we want, like an omelet maker, or a grilled cheese maker, or a s'more maker. It was so funny. It is amazing how lazy people are in America and how living in another country makes you realize how ridiculous some things are that you once thought to be normal.

The Office

Well, the past few weeks have been busy. Work at the office is also crazy busy. It seems like the work is always piling up and you never really accomplish anything. I am starting to enjoy the guys in the office though. They are starting to be a lot more fun. We play darts most days at work for 30 minutes or so. At first I thought it was a waste of time, but now that I have started working full time, I realize that it is kind of a necessity because the work can be stressful and crazy. I was horrible at first, but now I can actually aim and hit what I am aiming at. I havent won a game, but I have come close many times. I think we are all waiting for that day.

We started watching The Office. There is an amazing website that you can watch just about any tv show. ABC and all ot the US sites dont allow you to watch anything outside of the country. It is great that we can watch it here. It just gives us a little taste of the States.

We started cooking a little here. I baked a cake without a cake mix for the first time. It turned out really good. The frosting was a little waterey, but still really good. The powdered sugar here is really grainy, so that changes it a little too.

Language learning is going good. I can have a short conversation in my new language, but I went to the pazar, or market, and tried to use the language. I bought what I wanted fine, but then they would ask me something and I had no idea what they were saying. After the fifth time, I just left with my purchases kind of overwhelmed. I'm learning slowly but surely.

Tourist for the day

I started going to an English club last week. It is a place for locals to come and practice and learn conversational english and a place for us to go to help and make some friends. Usually there is a short lesson and then simple conversations and hanging out with them. Mostly college aged people come. It was really cool last week and I really enjoyed going. Im excited for tomorrow to get to go again. I heard a lot of cool things are happening in the group. I also went to a friends house on Sunday. It was good to be in community with a few families. They were all quite a bit older than me, but I could learn a lot from them. Their children were so fun though. One of the families who works in the office was there. They have three girls (7, 4, and 2 years old) and a boy on the way. These girls were so much fun. They reminded me of some girls at home.

Saturday we went around with a group that is here for a week for a history class. A guy that we know loves the history here, so we went with them to hear the explainations of what things are. It was cool to get around and see tourist sites in the city, even though we were exhausted. I hadnt really realized how crowded the area was until Saturday. I think that part of the city is especially crowded. We got on the tram and were cramed in there like sardines. There were times when my feet werent even touching the ground because the people around me were so close they were holding me up. You wouldnt believe how many people can fit in a tram.

Busy busy busy

Well we didnt have too many adventures this weekend. We spent most of Saturday at Ikea and a grocery store. A lady we know took us and showed us what things were once again so we would have a better idea of what we were buying. Sunday we went to the other side of the city and walked one of the tourist streets. We went to a bazaar or market that is only once a week. One of my dear brothers who just got here as well went to a bazaar near his house and told us this story. He wanted oranges and asked for 10. They thought he wanted 10 kilo because people usually buy at the bazaars in bulk for huge families. So they gave him 10 kilos of oranges. If you didnt know, 10 kilos is about 22 pounds. That is a lot of oranges to carry home. (: Things like this happen all the time living in a new place. I went to the stands where you bagged your own fruit, but they still thought I was crazy for getting a kilo. I have a few pictures of our time in the city.

Here is part of the city and the boats you use to cross to the other side of the city.


This is near our apartment. These are mostly apartments crowded together.


This is another view of the busy city. There are so many taxis.


Work is going to get busy soon. I feel like there will be a lot to do before we move. We are thinking maybe May or June I should be moving to England. For now I am enjoying being here and learning how to live here for the next 4 or 5 months.

Language learning

I started language learning yesterday. It was actually kind of fun to learn the language. I think it helped that my teacher has a crazy personality and has so much energy. She is very fun. She taught me a lot in just a few hours. I am mostly learning the basics of how to survive here. Since I still don't know how long I will be here, it will be hard to learn very much. I have learned letters and a few numbers. I think Julianna and I are going to go out on our own and wander around the city on Saturday. It should be an adventure. Julianna is my roommate who moved here with me. She will soon be teaching 3rd grade at an international school in the area.
Work is also good. Today was just my second day, but it is fun. I have done simple things so far that no one else really wants to do, but I still enjoyed it. It will hopefully get much better when I actually know what is going on. I learn more each day of how I was made to do these type of things. I dont really know many others who would like to do what I did today. It feels good to know I am where I need to be.

I have a few pictures that I will be posting soon. Im sure I will have plenty after our adventures this weekend.

I made it!!

Wow, I finally made it to my new city. On the way here I had and interesting trip. When we got to Germany, one of our layovers, we went to our gate they called for us to board the plane. We went through the doors and then boarded a bus which 30 min. later it seemed brought us to our plane out in the middle of no where. Its a wonder that all of our luggage made it, 11 bags total for the 3 of us. He indeed provides!! Apparently they dont really have customs here. We had no problems getting our visa or anything. They didn't ask a single question.

As we traveled through Germany and as I watched us fly over out the window, my heart broke. I loved flying with the German airline and getting to hear the language and eat brotchen on the plane. However I really wanted to stay. I was excited to get here too, but I was also sad to leave. I thought that I had already become burdended for the people here, but I need to fall in love with the culture and the people of Central Asia. I began to ask Father to grow my heart for my new country and then London as I move so that it will become my passion like Germany has. Please do the same.

Yesterday and today we have been exploring with a lady who has been here for 3 years or so. Her husband works in the office with me. We have gone to a few stores and malls. I have learned a few words so far, but not really much. I have learned the word for sale though. Finding the sale aisle in a store is an important thing to know. I somehow managed to order food in the language. It was pretty simple words though. I had some Doner today for those of you who know what that is. Yum. It is kind of like gyros in the states, but a lot better.

It's almost here

In 6 more days I will be flying to the other side of the pond. I can't believe this has finally happened. I have been planning for so long. It is finally reality.


The past two weeks have flown by, but have been great times with family and friends. I was so excited to get to go to Jessica's wedding. It was so good to see her and many other brothers and sisters. I will miss all of these people dearly.

Cristmas with family was bittersweet. We had a good time playing cards and eating apple pie, but it was sad knowing I won't be there next year. I am so thankful for my family and the love that Father has blessed us with. I am starting to make lists and pack my bags. It is mostly piles right now, but it is slowly coming together. Sunday I will be going with my parents to my cousins birthday party. Please be thinking about the good-byes I will say. I have a feeling it will be really hard for me to leave my grandparents and cousins and especially my sister.
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Just a Few More Weeks

We have had a lot of fun the past few weeks. I went to New York City last weekend with 5 other girls. It prepared me a little more to go to another culture and big city. We walked across the Brooklyn bridge, rode the subway, ate New York pizza, and went to the WTC memorial. We also saw the Broadway show Hairspray. Sunday it rained all day. We were soaked but still managed to see the edge of central park, Rockefeller center, and Chinatown. We had an interesting experience getting on the bus in Chinatown to come back to Virginia. At least we made it on the bus.


Apparently there is a tacky Christmas light tour in a city nearby. Random houses all over the city participate. We have seen 3 houses so far that are incredibly festive with thousands of lights. We saw a house last night that was ridiculous. There was a tour bus and limos parked outside this residential house to look at the lights and take pictures. It will be on TLC on the 13th if you want to see what Im talking about. There is even an appearance of Mr. and Mrs. Claus at this house. Yeah it was incredible.