Reasons to Smile...

Sometimes I just have to think about how good I've got it... :)

Today it was payday at work. I was happily surprised by the fact that my paycheck included a quarterly bonus that I was 95% positive I wouldn't be getting. Thank you, God! This is the second quarter that has happened...my wedding budget is not so intimidating with these happy surprises.

Today was also rainy here in LA. I went to a shop down the street to get alterations for the bridesmaid dress I'll wear in my brother's wedding this April. His fiance sent the dress to me in the mail, and expressed her concern over it getting wet or lost. I had an appointment at the shop for 2pm, but when I got there, a sign said the owner would be back at 2:15. I waited right in front of the door....the weather was amazingly clear for this short window of time, and then started to rain AFTER I was done and leaving the shop...I think I would have been in big trouble if the rain kicked in while I was waiting outside.

Another reason I have to smile is that a good handful of my coworkers are FUN and Funny! Last week I had a laughing fit after I called one coworker by his initials--HR. After a couple of times, he responded, "HR? Oh yeah, like Human Resource..." However, our store was loud and busy when he said this, so I didn't quite catch it, and I asked him, "What about a racehorse?" He chuckled and repeated, "HR like Human Racehorse...Yeah." The imagery of that almost put me in tears!

And yet another reason I can grin ear to ear...I know Valentine's Day was last week, but I'm still thinking about what a great gift Josh surprised me with--Fair Trade Chocolate Truffles AND a little Care Bear. It was the best present ever! And whenever I think of it, I can't stop grinning....!

Ok, my final pics from Turkey will be up soon, but I was feeling too happy to let the chance slide by without posting my thoughts today...!

Pics from Turkey Part II--Life & Culture

So, here are the friends I was visiting in Istanbul! Eun Sang and Suhye are the proud parents of Seo Hyun and Jun Seo. They quite enjoyed their two years in Turkey, and returned briefly to Korea for 6 months, leaving just days after my visit. The kids had forgotten most of the English they had learned, but it was fun to hear them tossing around some English phrases by the end of my visit. :)
These two pics are in a shop in the Egyptian Spice Bazzaar (aka market). Suhye and I stopped here to buy some boxes of Turkish delight. The food in the case below is primarily turkish delight...a gummy sort of candy that can be flavored with fruit or nuts. I liked the pistachio versions...

I had to ask Suhye what these guys were selling because it looked so intriguing. Turns out, they were shoe-shiners!
Suhye and I stopped for lunch, and the waiter offered to take our picture. You can't really see it on our plates, but we ordered 'meatballs' which which actually more like flat-rectangular pieces of meat. Very tasty though. There's also a colossal plate of bread behind Suhye's arm. I even tried the huge pepper on my plate and it wasn't half-bad!
These two vendors were very common sights in Istanbul. The top one is selling roasted chestnuts. The bottom one is selling this hard bread called simit. I wished I could've tried both, but there's only so much food I can eat in a day, so I didn't try either. It was also common to see guys selling roasted corn on the cob.

Here's my handful of Turkish Lira! The same guy's picture is on all the money. I am told he was the first president of Turkey, and a real hero. If I'm not mixing up my stories, he helped the country become way more literate by revamping how words were written, or something like that...??? I don't know, you'd be better off researching for yourself!

Here's lunch near Ephesus...Shish Kebabs for me...
A snack on the domestic flight to Ephesus. The tea is called Cay ("chai"), but tastes nothing like the Chai we serve at Starbucks! It's super bitter & strong. People drink it multiple times of day, but usually add around 4-5 cubes of sugar. Nasty! Below the tea is a towelette. Even our rental car had towelettes!
This was at a coffee shop near the market. The baklava was divine! Yum! Notice the glass the Cay is in--very traditional. To the left is the remains of my turkish coffee. It's half grounds (when you're done, you flip the cup and apparently read your fortune in the coffee grinds...), but the ounce of liquid is quite sweet and tasty. In the bottom right corner is my regular cup of Joe, or filtered 'kahve' to the Turks.

This was my first breakfast in Istanbul, and it was splendid! The bread gets spread with this salty cheese (see the green tub?). It's known simply as white cheese. The fruit juice (served at room temperature) was very tasty too.

Pics From Turkey Part I--Amazing Views

So, my short trip to Turkey was a lot of fun, but it is good to be back home. I've been pleasantly surprised that the jet lag has already worn off--Thank you, God! I took more pictures than I can post here on my blog, but I'm going to share a few with you.
Here is the first thread of them (and in reverse order--sorry!)
These are some of the amazing views I saw.
The first few are ruins from the town of Ephesus (or just Efes if you're Turkish), which is the city the Biblical Book of Ephesians was written to.
The first pic was at the end of the little walking trail...a bunch of columns on either side...I was very impressed with how magnificent it all must have looked back in the day.





Yeah, sorry I couldn't flip the image sideways before I posted it! These are the remains of a massive library. The four statues in front represented four different virtues...wisdom, kindness, beauty, or something like that...? The first two look a little odd, but the second two are headless! Scary!
Lots of room in this theatre!
Ok, these next pics (including the one above) are from a town outside of Ephesus where the remains are for the church of John--the disciple who was in Jesus' inner circle, and who wrote the book of Revelation. This is the baptismal area...
This is the tomb where John is actually buried. That thing in the middle has a stone with his name on it. It is also believed that Jesus' mother, Mary, lived here last days round these parts too...
I just liked this shot. :)
These two pics are right around Istanbul. This is the famous Blue Mosque--so called because most of the painting inside is done up in blue. It was impressive, if not a little awkward for me to be a tourist at a mosque...
This one might actually be St. Sophia's, which is across the street from the blue mosque. It was a Christian church back in the day, but was then turned into a mosque. It still has amazing Byzantine sort of Christian paintings on some of the walls though....

More pics to follow in the coming days...

Hello from Istanbul!

Hi Friends!
I'm just putting up a quick hello as I type in my friends' apartment here in Istanbul, Turkey. I arrived last night (I should note there's a 10 hour difference between L.A. time and the time here), and am enjoying catching up with my friends.
Today I got to see part of the city, try some delicious Turkish food, and ride on a bus, a metro, and in 2 taxis.
I definitely feel like I'm on an adventure here...I can now just barely say, "Hello" and "Thanks", though after a quick language lesson, I feel relatively confident in pronouncing the words I read. It is quite an odd feeling though to bump into people left and right, and know that most won't understand my "Sorry!"s and "Pardon Me"s.
I am taking a crazy number of pictures, so rest assured--I'll post some when I return to the U.S.
I'll be leaving here Monday morning (super early!), and getting back into LA Monday afternoon.
Be well in the meantime!