'I'm a million different people from one day to the next...'

I have a bit more time now to update this and give an overview of our trip to Istanbul.

First and foremost, if you ever want to go on a trip where your main purpose is eating, I highly suggest Istanbul. Turkish food, actual Turkish food, not just some kebab place found in West London, is the best I've ever tasted; it even trumps that of the Cafes of Paris and the hole in the wall Pizza places in Rome. LonelyPlanet called it a 'gastronomical orgasm' and I fully stand by that. The mezze plates were always fresh, and you never had the same item more than once; I never knew there were that many types of humous! The lamb was flavourful. The coffee was a little bit of sweetened heaven; that is, if heaven were to have an IV drip filled with caffeine jabbed into its arm. The baklavah was flakier and sweeter than I have ever tasted (sorry Grandma, I think this may be the one and only time when I will EVER say I found something you make, made better). All in all, the food was well worth the amount of money we probably spent (and even that didn't even come CLOSE to compare to Rome and Paris).

Moving on to the actual sights in Istanbul. If you ever wondered what it was like, imagine taking Oxford Street or Madison Ave. and mashing it together with images from '1,000 Arabian Nights' or Disney's 'Aladin'. One moment you are walking down a cobble stone street with shops ranging from Monsoon and The Gap and the next thing you know you're hearing the Call To Prayer from the surrounding Mosques as you enter into one of the many side street bazaars and are being pulled in every direction to buy a carpet or a puter Turkish coffee maker. Women in Hijab and full length burkas juxtapose women carrying Louis Vuitton purses and wearing Burberry jackets. Everywhere you go has a different smell: spices, onions, honey, incense, petrol, shit--sometimes mixed and sometimes completely separate. Listening to the shouts from the bazaars drown out the noise from jackhammers coming from the adjacent buildings. The sound of continual progress and growth. The people could not be more hospitable and willing to bend over backwards to ensure you are comfortable and have what you need. That is, until you meet a cab driver who realises he has two obvious foreigners in his back seat who have no idea where they are in the city; our second cab ride, costing us 25 TL should have only been 10 TL max. With that said, everyone needs to make a living and the exchange rate was in our favour.

All in all Adam and I had a fabulous time. It was a great way to spend our one year, Valentines Day weekend and the start to my half term. We saw most of the main sights: Blue Masque, Aya Sophie, Grand Bazaar, Spice Bazaar, Asia (from the European side), and a few other places that I can't remember off the top of my head. I would highly recommend this trip to anyone who is looking for a slightly different experience to that of Western Europe.

Tesekkür Ederim!

I've returned from a weekend of phenomenal sights, sounds, smells, and tastes as a result of the collide of Eastern and Western culture. Istanbul was an experience of a life time, yet three days was not nearly enough. Pictures will be posted both on Facebook and my new 'photo blog':

www.flicker.com/lifelessordinary7

Enjoy :)

'Scene after scene passes by my life...'

I know it's very unlike me (as of lately) to post more than once in a week, but I thought I'd just take this time to let all of you know that I've decided to put together an online photo album. Unlike the typical facebook photo albums, which contain anything from a night out to my travels abroad, this particular Flickr account will ONLY contain photos that I have taken whilst traveling. To narrow it down even further, I'll probably only post a few from each trip; photos I really have put a great deal of effort into, not only taking, but editing as well (and by editing, I mean fiddling around with iPhoto...). This will also be a nice way for those of you out there, who don't have facebook, to actually SEE what I'm getting up to these days here in good 'ol England (unfortunately, my blog is updated far less than I would like...)

My account is: www.flickr.com/lifelessordinary7

If anyone has any problems with this address, could you please let me know so I can fix it as soon as possible!

I hope you enjoy :)

Holy toledo, Batman!

Hi all! Just a quick update seeing as I should be marking and it's already 8:30...

*First, my application for Oxford went out. Received a confirmation a week later (today) saying that they received everything and my application is the process of being reviewed. Their decision date is the 19 of March...so until then, I'm putting this out of my mind and focusing on other aspects such as...

*I'M GOING TO ISTANBUL IN A WEEK FOR OUR ONE YEAR/VALENTINES DAY WEEKEND/HALF TERM! I've never been to that part of the world before so my excitement level is through the roof at the moment. The sights, the food, the sounds, the food, the haggling in the streets, and did I mention the food? If there's one thing I love, it's Turkish Food--compliments of my grandparents taking me to this incredible Turkish restaurant in Knightsbridge. The best part, we've only spent 150 pounds each on round trip tickets, and two nights in a four star hotel (highly rated by Tripadvisor.com and we all know their word is scripture...).

*5 months = Notting Hill

*Book of Eli was an interestingly unsettling film; I can only assume that was the intention of the director thus making it successful? I still need to see Avitar and Sherlock Holmes (Jude Law = guilty pleasure. I feel so...ashamed. The Road and one other film that Adam suggested (that I can't remember off the top of my head. It's a French film so we all know there will be all of two people in the theatre) both sound really good as well. Oh and Alice in Wonderland...I can't believe it's taken them this long to decide to remake the film.

*Guitar lessons are going well. Jimmy Eat World 'The Middle' is finished and I'm moving onto 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams' by Green Day as my next assignment. Rock on. *flashes rock fingers and attempts crap version of Gene Simons impression*

*MK Half Marathon in one month exactly. Status: No where NEAR ready for it. Then again, I think I was this bad this time last year so I should be okay...fingers crossed.

'So this is the new year...'

The past week or so the UK has been in a complete state of frenzy; SNOW! Much like the southern part of the US, the UK is not equipped with the proper equipment to deal with anything over 1/2 an inch of the white stuff. Now, as amusing as this is for me to sit back and watch, it still makes life incredibly difficult, not only for those in cars, but those of us who do most of our traveling by foot. For those in vehicles, reckless driving, poorly salted and plowed (if you even want to call it that) side roads, lack of snow tires and Anti-lock breaks leaves for very dangerous traveling. And for those of us who find other means to move from point A to point B, a serious lack of salting on the RedWays (what they call sidewalks here in the land of Milton Keynes) leaves room for falling on our bums, backs, wrists, and/or sides. What should be an easy 5 minute walk to school took me 10 minutes today as I went slipping and sliding up (or in this case, back down as it seemed to be two steps forward one slide back) the hill that leads to school from my apartment. Schools have also closed last Wednesday and Thursday. It's amazing how teachers revert back to days of being in school; we were looking forward to a snow day as much as the students (if not to simply play out in the snow, then to certainly catch up on any work we may have fallen behind/not accomplished over the holiday the week prior). I can only imagine the incredible material British Comedians are getting from these past two weeks! To be honest, looking at last year and comparing it this year, it seems as though it's getting worse. One can only hope that the country will decide to be a bit more prepared for this come the 2010/2011 snow season.

Okay rant about snow is over...

...Oxford application is complete, with the exception of my Towson transcript (which is currently in transit); this is all too exciting!

Next month is Adam's and my one year! I can't believe how quickly the past year has flown by. How wonderful it truly has been these past 12 (almost) months. I believe we're heading to a resort type place that his parents got for us as a Christmas/Channukah present (how nice!). Should be a good way to start my February break (though, to be honest, the amount of work I have to do before that is unbelievable--to the point I want to cry a bit...).

Alright, I've been procrastinating on marking my three year 10 books that I took home with me this evening (I just find it difficult to actually do work outside of school--after a full teaching day--these days...).

'A disco ball is just hanging by a thread'

*Today was a Murphy's Law day; what ever COULD happen, DID happen. To begin my day, I found myself half way through a shower only to find that my hot water stopped working. Being my 'green' self, I try to save energy by only turning on the heat when I need it; with this said, I was not in need of it this morning, which left me frantically, and freezing, attempting to figure out why in God's name I could not get the hot water heater to work all the while trying to rinse the conditioner out of my hair with the tea kettle (I assure you, it was quite a sight). After semi-fixing the situation, I managed to get myself to school (still with semi conditioned hair and a dry face from not being able to properly wash my soap off--needless to say, I felt gross for most of the day...). I managed to reach my property manager who assured me that someone would be by in the afternoon. Much to my surprise, he was (the system isn't entirely flawed after all). Moments later, we figured out that it was partially due to the boiler switch having gone off in the circuit breaker box; I felt rather foolish as I had forgotten WHERE the box was in the first place, and second, hadn't thought about doing that to begin with. The guy then figured out that, while my heater was working properly, my pipe under my tub, the one that heats up my water in my electric shower, had frozen solid due to leaving my heater off the entire time I was in the US. Once again, attempting to save money and be green only made more problems for me. Fine. That was, more or less, fixed (I'm taking baths until the pipe de-thaws). I then ran off, back to school, to get a bit more work done and take my first guitar lesson (yes, I'm actually taking proper guitar lessons, which was actually quite informative. Only problem was that the guy looked like he was younger than me, which was a bit odd. Other than that, he really knew what he was doing!). Upon leaving the school, I rummaged through my purse to find my keys, only to find I had left them in my house. Without a spare to let me into my apartment. After almost having a complete breakdown in the hallway of my school, I pulled myself together and asked the people behind the desk what to do. We decided to look up emergency locksmiths; they only charged 80 pounds...). Seeing as it's -3 C, I had no choice but to cough up the money and pay for a locksmith.

Now, still feeling rather gross, 80 pounds shorter, and rather stressed, I'm looking out my window, fingers crossed, as the snow falls steadily on the Milton Keynes area. It seems as though the salt shortage we have here in the UK may pay off for those of us who do not wish to head to work tomorrow; I don't believe teachers ever fully grow out of that 'excitement' they felt, while in school, about a potential snow day.

*Sigh* I didn't even get to go to indoor this evening to relieve stress and irritation at what has happened over the course of 15 hours. Not to mention Adam is 30 minutes away by train and the snow is headed his way. The idea of not being able to see him this weekend is just not something I want to think about right now. As I said in my last post, not seeing him for two and a half weeks was far too much; another two weeks will not, in short, make me very happy.

In better news, my application is all but one reference before I send it off for review. I'm beyond excited at the thought of even having a shot at this program.

2010 = Notting Hill, Oxford and true happiness

First and foremost, happy 2010 to all!

Another trip back home has once again come and gone in the blink of an eye. It's funny how much of a set schedule I have put in place during my visits: Airport. Philly. NJ/NY. Maryland. Philly. Airport. Repeat. Travel this time around wasn't too bad, especially seeing as I was traveling during the holiday season (with an added terrorist attack or two thrown in there for some extra fun security measures).

It was wonderful to see family; the older I get, the more I appreciate the time spent with them.

My trip to Maryland seemed different this time around. Come to think of it, my trip to Maryland is never the same seeing as we're all in that stage of life where we're making drastic changes. Engagements, moving into new apartments, starting new jobs, looking to start families, it's all rather exciting! I was able to help out a bit more with the Rosenfelder/Schapiro wedding; running around Bed Bath and Beyond with that scanner machine was awesome. Spending time with Anny and Chris, as always, was a blast. I feel like going there is a vacation within itself; even if Anny and I do attract characters every time we go out in public. A special thanks to Anny for letting me use her bridesmaids dress for October; it's simply beautiful! Sarah and I, as always, were able to find something to get up to (even if our adventures this time around weren't as extended as they normally are). New Years was fun, seeing Rebecca and DJ as well, and playing Kings and Moose for the first time since graduating from Towson (I really felt old writing that statement). There were shorter visits thrown in there as well. Mickey, Rella, and Autumn: It was fabulous seeing you all! I hope, next time around, we can spend a bit more time together.

And while I will miss everyone terribly (as I always do when ever I return), I'm even more excited to head back to the UK; not seeing Adam, for over two weeks, has been more difficult than I thought it would be (I never thought I could miss a person so much in such a short period of time). Even though we only get to see one another on the weekends, not being in the same country makes time apart seem much longer.

My battery just informed me that it's about to die so I must head off and make this short. Thanks for a great visit to both family and friends; I'll put pictures up on facebook in a day or so.