Behind

Looks like I am a little behind in blogging, but oh well. Quick rundown, last weekend I went to "The Virgin Mary's House". That is the place where Mary supposedly passed away. I took pictures, but I don't have the energy to post them right now. I got a working phone at the apartment on Wednesday and applied for DSL that afternoon. It will be a few days supposedly until I can get my internet working. And tomorrow I am going to Ephesus with a group of people from church. Hopefully I will remember to put the batteries in the charger so I can take pictures. BTW if you want to see the pictures from Mary's House, send me an email and I'll send you the link to them in Snapfish. I'll load the pictures I take at Ephesus there also.

Make a Nice Day!!

City Tour

I went on the Izmir city tour today. There were supposed to be 6 people or so on the tour. Me and one other guy showed up. So we basically had our own private tour of the city. It was a real quick one. It only lasted from about 9 till 1. We got to go inside the oldest Mosque in Izmir. I was allowed to take pictures too. I only managed to take a few before the battery died in my camera. When I get them transferred to my laptop I will post them. The tour guy took us to his favorite kebab house in the bazaar area. It was really good. And the bazaar has anything you could ever want, you just have to find it!! We also rode across the bay on the ferry. Some guy served us chai (tea) when we were on it. It was a very nice tour.


Make a nice day!

Our Wedding Vows

Internet

It sucks not having internet at home. I finally found the correct office I needed to go to in order to request telephone service at my apartment. I walked through some neighborhoods that I definitely wouldn't feel safe walking through at night!! So the connection date for my telephone is 26 Dec. After I have a working phone line I can apply for DSL. @#$!@##@ I doubt I will have internet at the house before New Years. Cable internet isn't available in my building, so I'm not getting cable. I can get AFN, but that is just one channel, and I will have to buy a multi-system tv. I probably won't have tv at all. So I guess for the next few weeks I will be spending a lot of time at the club since they have free wireless.
I have been walking everywhere that I can get to without riding the bus. There are places where I have to ride the bus to get to cause it isn't feasible to try to walk there. I had my first issue with the buses yesterday. I was told that if you ride the bus somewhere you can get back on the bus going back to where you came from by just going to the bus stop across the street. I tried that yesterday. NOPE!! Turns out the bus stop I needed was the next block down, but I didn't learn that until an hour and a half later. When I finally got back to this side of town, the Christmas Party had started here at the club so I couldn't get on the internet last night. So I walked back to the apartment. The apartment is very nice, but it is empty. Sure there is some furniture there, but that is it. When I am there I am in my bedroom most of the time. I guess I will get settled in more in the near future.

I hope you all make a nice day, and tell your pookie that you love them!!

Picture Time

Well I finally got some pictures downloaded to my computer. I am going to try to upload them so everyone can see. They are unedited, and unrotated, so you will have to do it yourself if you care to.





These are pictures from the base chapel. It is very beautiful. The pictures don't really do it justice.









These are pictures of my apartment. You can see the green room and other stuff. My laptop battery is about to die and I need to start walking to the apartment before it gets dark and the temperature drops even more.

Make a nice day!!!

Weekend

This is my second weekend here in Turkey. I need to go wash clothes. I went to the Chapel last night for the Christmas Tree lighting. There seems to be a good group of people there albeit small. I have no idea how old the building is, but it seems pretty old. It is very beautiful though. I have a few things that I need to do today. It was supposed to be warm and sunny. It isn't. It is cold and overcast. I guess I should head out to do that stuff.

Make a nice day!

Apartment

I have been apartment shopping the last few days. Not much fun trying to find a place to live in a foreign city where you don't speak the language. I finally found one and had the Housing office set up an appointment to sign the lease with the owner. When she got ahold of him, he informed her that he had decided to sell it instead of rent it out. GREAT!! He had another apartment in the same building, on the same floor. Same layout and everything just on the front side of the building. Oh and the bedrooms are painted in some BRIGHT colors. Pink, Fluorescent Lime Green, and Violet. It just so happens that the master bedroom is pink. I asked if he would be willing to paint the master bedroom some sort of white or cream color. He agreed. So tomorrow morning at 9 I get to sign the lease with the landlord. The FMO can't deliver the furniture stuff until the afternoon of the 10th so I am stuck in this hotel until the 11th. I need to get a KentKard for the bus system here. Either that or find someone in that building who works where I do and see if I can't bum a ride from them on a somewhat permanent basis. At least until the weather gets a little warmer and I feel comfortable riding my bicycle that far.

And another thing, why do they eat dinner so dang late around here? It is pouring outside right now and I am starving, but the hotel restaurant doesn't even open until 7! OK enough whining.

Make a nice day!!

Izmir

I have been here for 5 days this will be my 6th. I feel like everything is dirty here, the streets, the smells. Then I go inside somewhere and it is almost spotless. I guess just like everywhere else I will get used to it. I am going apartment hunting again today. In fact I need to hurry and type this so I can head over to where they pick us up at. I have no idea what area I want to check out, so I am just kinda going along for the ride. I went down to the restaurant this morning for breakfast. It is definitely different. They had honeycomb out on the buffet. If you wanted honey with your breakfast, you literally cut some honeycomb and put it on your plate. I also had some dates, and olives, peeled tomatoes (yes peeled), cucumbers, couple different sliced meats that I have no idea what they were (I didn't ask), pears, peaches, and numerous other things I didn't try. I did have a cup of coffee that I needed really badly. I think it had more caffeine than I am used to since I can't stop bouncing around now. Time for me to brush my teeth and head out into this strange land and see if I can find somewhere that I will be living in the next week.

Make a nice day!

Sittin' part 2

I'm sitting in another hotel room. This one just happens to be in downtown Izmir, Turkey. The plane trip was long. I prayed a lot on the plane. I feel so out of whack. I can't speak the language, and I can't read the language. I was house hunting today and a guy came in the housing office cause he got robbed last night. While he was there sleeping. He lives in the area of this hotel. I looked at apartments far away from here. The one I found that I like is a 3 bedroom, 2 bath. I think it is on the 2nd or 3rd floor. It is in a quieter neighborhood. There are playgrounds without fences. There is plenty of available parking. Even though I didn't bring a car. They have a good security system. If I get it I will post pictures when I can. I guess thats all for now.

Make a nice day!

sittin' in a room

I am currently sitting in a La Quinta hotel room. Mud is with her mama. She cried and didn't want to let go of me. I didn't want to let her go either. I had to though. I want to take her with me to Turkey but I can't. I want to take TG with me also, but I can't. I finally caught her yesterday. Now she is all mine! I'm sure she will post some pictures soon. Her mom recorded it. I saw it. :)

Make a Nice Day!!!

Short

Time is getting short. I have t0 leave in 2 days. Mud and I are flying back to Orlando where her mama is going to pick her up. I have a hotel room with my name on it for Monday night, and I will be flying out of Orlando on Tuesday at noon. I have to fly through Istanbul where I have a 3 hour layover. I think that should provide me enough time to make it through customs and catch my flight to Izmir. My sponsor just happens to be coming back from somewhere and will be on the same flight out of Istanbul. At least I shouldn't get lost at the airport!

Time for bed. I will try to post more shortly. Make a nice day!

Gone

The house is totally empty. It passed the cleaning inspection with flying colors. (I hired a lady to clean it...) :) She was very entertaining. I talked with her almost the whole time. She basically cleans houses now to pass the time. She retired from DEC where she was a computer engineer. Thats what she told me anyway.

So yesterday after I outprocessed the base I went and got Mud out of school and hit the road. I wanted to go straight to TG's, but figured this would be the last time Mud would get to see Granny until I came back. I gotta admit I wanted to see the oldest daughter too before I left. Hard to believe she is in college. Her nickname BTW is Stinky. I know, I'm mean. :)

Stinky has a chihuahua. This poor thing had fleas so bad I had to give it a flea bath. I didn't notice them at first cause they were under her hair, but when I saw one I went after it and then found more. After chasing a dozen fleas I asked Granny if she had any flea bath soap. Off to the sink we went. She was happier after the bath. Smelled better too. Unfortunately now the psychological effect is getting to me and I keep feeeling fleas on me. Where did Granny put that flea soap...

I get to go to TG's on Sunday. I will be there for a week, then I am flying Mud and myself back to Orlando. Flying was cheaper than renting a car and driving. Imagine that! She gets out of school for another day, and she gets to fly so she isn't complaining. I will be getting a hotel room for that night and then flying out the next day. Hopefully everything will work out. Which reminds me that I need to make reservations for the room.

Make a nice Day!!

Empty

The house is empty. It is quiet. No computer noise in the background. No TV turned on for noise. Just me alone in this big house with nothing left. The movers came and packed everything up and loaded it on the truck and then drove away. I won't know if it all will make it to my assignment in Alabama till I get there in a little over a year. A year without my stuff. A year that my stuff has to sit in a warehouse. A year where I will be living in a foreign country that has lots of people that don't want me there. Joy. The house is too quiet. I miss Gorgeous. I hope I can get over this melancholy crap soon. The carpet cleaners are coming tomorrow and I still have to pack up all the food stuff and clean the house before Wednesday. I might be able to do it. I have some stuff to do at work on Tuesday, but it shouldn't take too long. I have to go by the Travel Office too so I can find out if they will give me tickets before I leave or if I have to wait until I come back from Georgia. I need a drink...

Tell your pookie that you love them and Make a nice day.

Short

Time is getting short for me. I have just a little over a month left here in the states. Then I have to get on a plane and fly to a foreign land. Oh joy. I still haven't heard from my sponsor. I need for them to contact me somehow so I can have them get me a mailbox. That way I can get all my bills still. Hmmm, maybe I don't really need a sponsor!

I get to see Gorgeous again in two days! :) I am taking the cat herd up to her and getting her moved into an apartment. Then I get to come back and start cleaning so the movers can come pack everything up. Then I have to clean the house top to bottom and pass inspection. Whee.

Not much has been happening here other than that. Just trying to get everything ready to go. I decided to take my bicycle with me to Turkey. Hopefully I will find the time to ride it. Maybe it will be my main transportation. I will have to figure that out when I get there.

Make a nice day!