Come to Istanbul...

...adventure lies around every corner.

Visitors and Snow Days

Coming back from winter break was good.  It's always nice to take a fresh start.  Unfortunately, it is more than difficult when the family matriarch passes away right at the beginning of the first day back.  I thought about possibly taking the day off but figured that there was not anything I could do from here and what good would bumming around the apartment do me?  I stuck it out.  A friend brought brownies and all was basically well.  School has been going well and we just finished up the first semester.  It is a very crazy time as teachers rush to complete gradebooks and comments and students flock to find out how they can raise their grades that one or two (or twelve in some cases) percent to get to that next grade level/pass.

Happy New Year!

I was thinking about my previous New Year's celebrations.  Back home they usually consisted of Swedish Meatballs and Guy Lombardo and running down streets shouting, "walla! walla! walla!"  I had a nice one backpacking in South Africa a few years ago.  The rest have been low key (fireworks on a rooftop in KL) to downright sad (sitting in my home alone on the hillside (Hey, I was traveling the next day and everyone else had already left Mussoorie.)).  This year proved to be a little different.  Things started off nicely with an Ugly Sweater Party.  Trust me, in Turkey they're not that hard to find.  

We promptly headed down to the waterfront to scope out places to hang out and party.  Although it was raining we were fine due to it being unseasonably warm.  After the countdown at midnight we continued to dance in the rain and enjoy ourselves.  The party didn't stop for several more hours, a few rounds of Balderdash and much more dancing.

 

The way to wear an ugly sweater (or anything really) is to own it.  This guy's got it.

Some sweaters were uglier than others.  We still had a good time.

Party by the bridge awaiting fireworks.

Grapes for each of the twelve strikes of the clock.  It's a Spanish tradition.  She's Irish.  We got them from Colombians.

Rockin' in 2012.  Let the good times roll!