Pictures of May

From most recent to further in the past.

COLORADO:

Josh and Marleen's oldest. Balancing an Andes mint on her head from the Olive Garden bill. So the story of how I know Josh is that we used to work together back in 1999 at Grey Interactive. I was learning about web producing and he was a "TPM" technical project manager. Though he never said a word to me about God or Jesus, I knew he was a Christian and--in my backslidden state--God used him as part of His continual testimony about His presence. So years later when I returned to the Lord, and was prompted to contact people from my past, I had the 'good fortune' to rent an apartment wherein the landlord's daughter Natalie (from Island's photo) knew about Josh and Marleen from Brooklyn Tabernacle where she went to church. My landlords gave me a BT CD that year for Christmas and there as a soloist on one song was Josh! I told Natalie that I knew him and when Josh and Marleen left NYC to start their church in Colorado, I sent him a letter telling him what an impact he'd had on my life. So even though we were never friends, here I am visiting his church and family and staying with their friend Lonni.

This is their 2nd child. So funny. He began the Andes mint tricks.








Their baby with bread stick.











NEW YORK:

Juanita and Queens flora.











Nancy and I in Central Park.











WARSAW:

Gosia prepping a Turkish breakfast as the 'craft' part of my presentation: village brown bread, white cheese and honey.









Miss Irene, special guest.











MONTENEGRO:

Me and Maja on street in Bar, Montenegro. She's a long-termer there.















Girlscamp: Esther, Hannah, Maja, and me.











Daily trek down the tracks to meet up with the rest of the team.










Outside Roma gypsies camp playing Cat Cat Dog with the kids.










Context of the fun and games.
















Drawing on a paper taped to the team van. Daniel is a native Montenegrin pastor. Natja and Volker are German. The story about how I came to Montenegro is that Esther's parents Mark and Shelly and I were in the same small group at Bethel Church in Richland, WA for about half a year. So, more near-strangers taking me in and defining Hospitality. :)





Esther with Volker and Natja's baby daughter. So freaking cute.















The week I was there it was Hannah's turn to cook. Here she is making mandu with sauce. Yummy.















My favorite flower in Bar. A sort of lilac meets rhododendron meets honey suckle. Amazing lilting scent, especially in the dusk air, like English breakfast tea.














My first day in Bar, I took a walk down to the water. There were some boys swimming--clearly tourists as no local will set toe in until summer.









SERBIA:

This is in Beograd (Belgrade), Serbia. I had a six hour layover from Istanbul to Podgorica so decided to check out some sights. This art to sit on made me think of Anna who designs chairs.








Serbian urban sport? Parachuting off a cliff down to Sava/Danube confluence. Quite a crowd watched on. I thought it great (free) entertainment.








TURKEY:

Taksim, Istanbul. Brandy, Karen's Wellesley roommate, and her boyfriend Keith's visit overlapped with the tail end of mine. So we went out on night for pizza. It was good. This is the two couples strolling. I mostly refuse to use flash. So this is what I get.






Karen and I at the NYC-esque pizza place. My earrings are from Krakow.










My 2nd day in Cappadocia, Turkey. The tour group was impressive: sisters from India, two brothers and their sister from South Africa and Muslim, two retired teachers from Canada, Australian father and daughter, Argentinian couple, and a smattering of Japanese youth. Here we're in a tunnel carved by erosion. Just Google 'Cappadocia' and you'll see a good sample of pictures that I took something similar to.




Formations in the Rose Valley.
















Hittite ceramics. The circular one is a wine carafe in the shape of a sun symbol and the littler pointy one is a tear vase. The story we were told is that a woman whose husband was away at war would collect her tears in some such vase and then pour them out to him upon his return as a testament to her devotion. I immediately thought of the verse: You number my wanderings; Put my tears into Your bottle (Psalm 56:8)

I mean, Hittite or otherwise, it's poetic.





More cool rocks.









T-shirt at the Spice Market, the Grand Bazaar's little sister. Showing off Turkey's religious tolerance.







These are dried apricots with peanuts. Or in my mind.














Karen insisted I take this quintessential photo with this cami (mosque) on the Bosphorus.













Fun lemonade at one of Karen's favorite places: The House Cafe. She kept saying how much she was looking forward to living on the European side of Istanbul.












At Ephesus. The ancients didn't have it so good, eh?










I love the concept and look of keystones. Also in Ephesus.










Second to last night in Bodrum at Emre's sister Eda's house. She's on the left. They have a fabulous view, this is only half of it.









Here's my favorite Turkish food: lentil soup, specifically Ezogelin which has tomatoes in it and is also referred to as Bride's soup.












Ok. So now I'm caught up photo-wise. Any questions? Not sure what my lovely readers want to know about.

Back in the USSA

Love my new friends in Montenegro. Will post photos soon.

A day in Warszawa to quickly catch up with Gosia and give a little presentation to her 2nd grade class on my visit to Turkey. Karen and Emre had helped me out already by teaching me a song. The two Turkish kids in Gosia's class--excuse me, Miss Margaret's class--resisted singing it because they said it was for babies. And the one American kid said to me in reply after I told him I was American: "Native American?" It was a fun day. Will post pictures tomorrow maybe. See: Turkey/Montenegro culture has worn off on me a bit. Nothing is definite. Nothing is urgent.

Can I just say that the Vienna airport is the only one so far where wifi isn't an issue for my iPod? Countless other places I have full bars, so to speak, but still Safari won't open. Ugh. This is frustrating to me. Disagreeable even.

So then I was in NYC for less than 24 hours but had breakfast/Central Park stroll with Nancy from Alabama. Gosia said it was funny she used to be Nancy from back stage crew at TSC, then she was Nancy from NYC, now she's Nancy from Alabama. People move.

And of course a Korean food fix with Juany (my endlessly gracious host) before catching my flight to Colorado, where I am now. Aurora. Which reminds me of Wayne's World, even though it's the wrong state. Like strip malls and nice split level houses. Work with me.

I'll be here for the next few days before visiting Joanna (Wellesley friend) in Albuquerque (which I'm learning to spell correctly) and then Grisel's wedding (TSC friend) in Phoenix and the Grand Canyon and then Vegas to see Carrie (high school friend).

So many stories to relate about the rest of Turkey trip and Montenegro. But for some reason what I want to share is getting on the subway from JFK airtrain (my fav) and glancing over to see the totally thugged out guy sitting next to me is midway through The Plumed Serpent by DH Lawrence. More reasons why I [heart] NYC.

"iyak shamlar"

That's a rough phonetic for 'good evening' in Turkish.

Today I visited the town castle and saw 1st century glass work. There was an alabaster jar in another display but it doesn't look as cool as these. Maybe it was the lighting. Every new conquering empire built a tower so the castle is a mish mosh of eras but very cool.


Wouldn't be my blog without a food photo. This was a portion of tonight's dinner wonderfully prepared by Emre's mom. Emre told me today that Anatolia is literally Lots of Moms. The Turks love their mothers. In the background, you can see the green bean and tomato dish made by Emre's dad, his specialty. I'm sure Turks love their dads too.

Not only was dinner delectable and the view stunning, Emre's mom also picked these flowers from her garden for Karen. And then on our way out, they bought some more peasant bread that we eat for breakfast from the 90-year-old neighbor lady.

Here's my reflection in the window. If you look carefully, you'll see their view reflected as well. Amazing, right?

I've been specifically careful to not give out last names of my hosts or any of their kids' names. I will continue this rule, as a note to my future hosts. Isn't she cute?

Random stuff:
- I burned out my Sonicare charger in Poland so back to manual brushing for me. Tough life.
- Steamed milk really makes the latte for me. Karen and Emre have a fancy coffee machine here. Everyone has had pretty great coffee options everywhere I've stayed: Nancy with her Cafe du Monde, Joyce's sister's mini-maker, Shannon with her french press, Colleen's cup-at-a-time, David's lattes, Gosia's coffee-ala-Gosia, and now here!
- Did I mention that several of the kids from Chinese church in Richland have been emailing me? It's great. Julie tells me about the WASL, Tiffany got baptized on Easter, and Grace forwards me funny stuff. Alex even wrote once. I'm very honored.

Turkey for me

There's this old Adam Sandler skit wherein he sings about how much he loves to eat turkey (if you ask Anna, she will attest to my similar adoration of turkey). My sister Delphine and I sing the bits of it we remember during Thanksgiving.

I sit in the quiet living room of Karen and Emre's apartment in Bodrum, Turkey. And though I just posted a big long one, I thought it'd be nice to just record a day's thoughts or so. Mix things up a bit.

I arrived yesterday evening after a bus, another bus, a flight, another flight, a bus, and a final car ride. Karen is so excited to make day trip plans for me to see other parts of Turkey she went to bed really late. Which was kind of bad because their cute-as-can-be daughter woke up at 7am. The last (and only other) time I've met their little girl, she was a few months old. Now she's walking and talking (in English and Turkish and some German slang) and playing. Adorable!

Today, after a nice solar-heated water shower, and a breakfast of bread and cheese and honey, Karen drove me around the country side which is spectacular. Mountains, sea, masses of wildflowers, cows, roosters, windmills, gentle blue sky. We both had tea for 1 Turkish Lyra at the chai shack (I forgot the real word and Karen's asleep) and looked at the tourists (the season is just getting into swing) wading through shallow water to a low slung island. There was a little shark for sale with other fish and a flat lobster, never seen one of those before.

After a cheese omelet back at their place, baby girl took a nap and Karen and I flipped through pages of a guidebook and talked more about the many options I have. Emre came home and their daughter woke up, we drove to Bodrum town and walked around. At one point, we met up with Emre's mom and her friend to say hi. Earlier in the day, the two of them had visited a new hammam only to discover today is men's day. Funny.

Karen bought a new pair of really cool sunglasses, their girl played on a swing, we inquired about my bus/ferry options to the Greek island of Rhodes and it's not going to work so I'm probably going to Kos instead on Wednesday, should be nice.

Iskender kebab for dinner, roasted cubes of meat over thick bits of yogurt covered pita bread. Yum. Then back home. Oh, first we had to stop for ice cream--same place Karen and I stopped last night. Bath time, email/fb check, TV and now, bed. What a nice day. Easy, pretty, yummy. It is a form of paradise here.

I asked them how they keep up with world news, thinking that if I lived here, I'd never know what was going on Out There. They said their CNN international coverage probably guarantees they're more informed than the Rest of Us. I assented.

We may rendezvous in September in Athens after my Greece/Israel tour for a sail back to Turkey. How fabulous?

I miss my nieces and nephew and am glad to dote and goof around with their sweet daughter in my absence from my own beloveds. Happy sighs.