Bosphorus

Sounds like a demeaning adjective, doesn't it?! Haha.

Anyway, on Saturday we took a boat trip down the Bosphorus River. And it was...wow. Seriously, this has to be one of coolest cities I've ever been to, if not THE coolest...and I've been to a few cities, haha. I mean, about halfway through the trip the sun was setting, and...wow. Seeing mosques with their towers on top of hills silhouetted by the setting sun with the faint sound of the call to prayer echoing from somewhere onshore you can't quite seem to find...I mean, come on! So yeah, it was kind of a really cool trip.

Soo we started out around late afternoon which worked out pretty nice, cuz it was pretty hot then but it cooled down pretty quickly. And we had pizza.
But anyway, it was so incredible cuz the Bosphorus splits the two sides of Istanbul (the European side from the Asian side), so on the boat you'd look to the left and see Asia, then look to the right and see Europe. And of course the sun just so happened to be glistening off the water perfectly. And since tomorrow's a Turkish holiday, tons of buildings had Turkish flags hanging from them. Huuuge flags. And since the city is soo hilly (seriousy, it's soo amazingly hilly it's not even funny), looking at the city from the river and seeing all the buildings going up the hill with huge Turkish flags hanging from so many of them...it's pretty awesome. And if you looked out far enough, you could see hills in the distance covered ever so slightly in fog. All you could see was vague outlines of buildings, and red. :)

So basically it was an afternoon of that...haha, not a bad way to spend a Saturday afternoon!

Then the sun started to set... ;)

And like I said before, seeing mosque domes and towers, and old castle walls silhouetted by the setting sun...wow. And sure, it may or may not have been even more amazing with the Prince of Persia soundtrack on my iPod :P. And of course it just so happens, that I Just couldn't quite get a picture that looked anywhere near as amazing as it did in person. (Dear photographer friends, come visit. Seriously, you'll love it here). So by this time I was actually getting kinda sick, haha, but I didn't mind at all, it was entirely worth it.

And then the sun set, but it was still relatively light out... ;)

And by now, I was reallly sick, haha. So I went and sat on the front of the boat...and that was a lot of fun. Yeah. And that really helped me feel better so I could enjoy the ride soo much more. And there was a lot more to enjoy so that was good! Haha.
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Oh! I just remebered what I was trying to remember about what happened next! Now I do. So!
I was looking out in front of me, but something caught my eye to my right...and it wasn't another boat.
...there was about 7 dolphins swimming right alongside the boat, no more than twenty feet away! It was awesome! I have to admit, I'd never actually seen a real dolphin before. I mean, I probably have at an aquarium sometime when I was four or something, but that doesn't count, haha. So...yeah, it was pretty much amazing. They were right there! I'm still freaking out about it.

And then it started getting dark... ;)

I thought the old buildings and huge bridges looked cool in the daylight...until I saw them at night.
There were lights all around this old castle we passed, and it looked...I don't even really know how to describe it. It was beautiful. And one of the bridges connecting the continents had, almost like Christmas lights, all across it, and they would eventually change color, and yeah, it was kinda cool. So yeah, between the skyscrapers behind the beautiful homes on the shoreline all next to the old mosques and castles, all lit up with every kind of light there is, connected by two Huge bridges...it was pretty impressive. I think that's a good way to describe it, haha.

So yeah, that was my Saturday evening :P

Christian

Goin Home

Blech if only it were ME goin home, haha.
My older sister's been visiting us for the summer, but since the summer's almost over, it's time for her to get back to real life again. So she flew out yesterday, but she'll be visiting for Christmas, so it's all good.

So apparantly that medicine juice stuff in those gel cap pills is actually supposed to stay IN the pill while it's in your mouth.
...
Leave it up to me to make this discovery.
Really, I don't know why I didn't try this before. I've been curious about it since forever. I mean, haven't YOU ever wondered what it would be like to open up one of those Ibuprofen pills?! (Not the boring ones, the cool ones that are bright colors and you can see through them). Dumb. It's dumb. There's a reason they're covered in that nice blue shell. My throat was burning (or freezing, I couldn't really tell) for a half hour, haha.
It was an adventure.
Oh! And dumb! The gel stuff inside isn't even blue! It's just the shell that's blue!
It was so disappointing.

Oh, and today we're going for a boat ride on the Bospherous River. So that should be fun.

For some reason our washer and dryer take soooo long! Really, it takes the washing machine around two hours to do a load. And the dryer's pretty much the same. It's taken me TWO DAYS to wash all my laundry.

Hmm, I can't wait to go back home.

Now I'm watching Kronk's New Groove with my little sister. Haha, it's the best!

Christian

Turkey with a capital "T"ea

Turkey really loves tea. A lot.
Which is so great.
Tea...in a tea shop...me... :)

It's still really hot! But at least it's starting to cool down ever so slightly. But it's still really hot. But it's dumb, cuz since my sister's visiting, we've been doing a lot of sight-seeing and touristy stuff...
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I hate jet lag.
And it just so happens that these past few weeks are kind of the hottest weeks of the year here, but we've had to go see all  there is to see here, cuz my sister won't be here much longer...
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Dear God,
I actually don't find your sense of humor all that funny.
With much love,
Christian

But I guess it's been good, cuz since we're seeing everything now, when our friends start visiting, we'll actually know what to see and how to get there, haha.
So on Saturday we went to the Grand Bazzar, which was awesome! It's like a giant mall in market form! :D Haha. They have absolutely everything there. Oh, and we also went to the Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia) which was...amazing. It was really breathtaking.

Ooh! We've started checking out dance schools! We visited one today, and found out they taught Graham (a style of modern)! Which is exaclty what I've been looking for! And their ballet seemed pretty legit too. They definitely knew what they were talking about. So, who knows, maybe we'll end up going to that school? There's still some more we want to check out before deciding anything, but at least we're off to a good start.

Aah! I made friends! Haha, we still don't have a church, but we've started looking for one. So the one we went to last Sunday has a lunch sort-of-thing afterward for everyone to chat and fellowship and have fun. So we found some kids our age and started talking with them. They were pretty cool, and the church has a youth group on Fridays, so I want to check it out once it starts again this year. So yeah, I officially know people now! :D

Oh! And I had my first piece of Turkish Turkish Delight the other day!...It's sooo good here. It's like eating Chinese take-out, and then going to China and eating the real thing. So good.

Doobeedoobeedooba.

Water is so amazing.

Crossing the street is so much fun. Cuz driving is CRAZY here! So walking is...haha, so much fun!

Oh! So cool! Since muslims pray five times a day, each mosque has a "call to prayer" five times a day. It's basically someone singing a call to all muslims to come pray. It's sooo cool! It always makes me want to dance! And it's actually very helpful if you actually DO use it as a call to pray, haha. It's a good reminder :) I'll have to post a recording of it sometime.

Christian

Adventures in Turkeyland

So we've been here for a little more than a week now, but we just got our internet set up a few days ago. So far it seems like a really awesome city, but I still don't know the city well enough yet to actually do stuff...and I don't know  anyone. In case you don't know me, that situation is: 1. Very unusual. 2. VERY bad.
Haha, so I'm going just a little crazy...which is also a bad thing, haha. But it's not that bad really I guess, I mean my dad just got my little sister and I plugged into a group of dancers, actors, etc that perform plays and musicals and such throughout the year. So I'm not sure how involved with that we'll actually be able to be, but they said they're planning on doing the Wizard of Oz in October, and I think rehearsals start in September, so if I could get involved with that...it would be awesome. (Especially after seeing Wicked...I WANT TO GO TO OZ!...of course that's after Wonderland. I mean, come on.) But yeah, it would at least take care of performance withdrawal a bit.

Oh! And Emerson Roosevelt (my sock monkey) is now officially nicknamed Abu! Now I just need to buy me a little Aladdin hat, but I'm pretty sure that won't be too hard to do here ;P

Sooo it's really hot. Really REALLY hot. Sooo hot. :P

Oh! When we first got to our apartment, and my sister and I were killing each other over who gets which room, I opened one of the drawers of one of the dressers, and found a silk rose. I have no idea who left it or why, but it was kind of cool to find. It was like a reminder from God that even if feels as though I'm all alone, He's always with me, and He never stops loving or caring for me. So it was kinda cool, and encouraging. :) So now I keep it in my nightstand as a reminder of that.
Oh! And Rebekah's room has a legit wardrobe in it! It made me so happy, haha. I tried going to Narnia, but I'm afraid it didn't work :( But that's okay cuz I would much rather go to Wonderland anyway! :D

So today I re-read all the notes my friends gave me at my going-away party, and they were all so encouraging, even though they made me miss them that much more, haha. But that's why I have Abu. :)

So yeah, not much else happening here...yet *sly grin* but so far so good! At least this apartment is plenty big for us to dance in (Thank you, God!) so that's good :) But, yeah!

Christian

NYC! - part 2

It's my last night in the USA for...a long time, haha. I have to admit, it's going to be a little strange going back to a foreign country after a year in Canada and a year in Maryland. But oh well, it'll be an adveture! But yeah. Unfortunately I wasn't able to do everything I had wanted to in NYC, like go shopping, and take pictures of Emerson (my sock monkey...thanks Kylie!) with famous buildings and sites and stuff, but oh well, I've gotten enough done here to be satisfied, haha.

...there are some weird people here. Hahaha, I mean weird. And that means a lot coming from me! But it's awesome.

So tomorrow we fly out at 5ish, but I think we have to be out of the hotel by around 10ish, soo...not too sure what we're doing during that in-between time, but I'm sure it'll be adventurous!...or just really boring, haha. But I'll have very limited internet access during the first few weeks in Turkey, so I'll just have to catch up on a lot when we get our internet hooked up there.

I wonder if someone took all the "One Way" signs on the streets here, and just flipped them all in the complete opposite direction...*sly grin*...what would happen? I mean, would people not even notice because they're so used to how life normally happens, or would there be enough people who still actually pay attention to their surroundings to create enough confusion to stall life for just one day?...haha, that'd be kinda cool to see!

It's so exciting to see all the theaters on Broadway! And each one is showing a performance more exciting than the other! There's a new one that just came out: The Addams Family *dum dum dum dum snap snap*. And...I REALLY want to see it! I mean, come on! It's The Addams Family! How awesome is that?! And, AAAHHH! So we were GOING to stay in this one hotel that was literally in the middle of Times Square, and it was RIGHT NEXT TO the Miskoff Theater!! Where the Lion King is showing!! AAAAAHHH! But we ended up staying in a different hotel that isn't next to anything, but has free wireless internet, haha.

Christian

NYC!

So! A few days ago I had to leave the best group of friends I have ever made, anywhere in the world, to move to Istanbul, Turkey for two years...welcome to The Life of Christian :P

So now I'm in NYC for a few days before my family flies out to Turkey. And, I mean, sure I'm sad and would really prefer to just stay in a dark corner and feel sorry for myself, but come on...I'M IN NYC! :D This is probably one of the coolest cities in the world! (and I can say that truthfully, haha) I mean on Saturday my sisters and I got to go see Wicked on Broadway!...Wicked!...on Broadway! I've seriously been waiting to see that show for 4 years!

And yesterday after church we got to catch up with some old friends from the Bronx. Like friends I've known since I was born! So that was a lot of fun, and hopefully some of them will come visit us downtown. So yeah, it's awesome...even though everything's so expensive. So today, we're going to Capezio (IN NYC!) to get ballet shoes for my little sister, and then probably go window shopping...or see the Empire State Building, haha. Who knows what will actually happen! I mean, we're Zehrs! There's no telling what'll happen today, haha. So yeah, hopefully I don't spend too much money :P

So basically, it's such a blast being here even though I would SO much rather be in li'l ol' Gaithersburg, Maryland. But ah well, this is God's plan for my life, so I know it's immensely better than what I think would be best, so I might as well live it out to the fullest! :D

Christian