this morning, i've been listening to the old op ivy album, as well as gnr's use your illusion 2. they both hold up much better than i would guess.

what a holiday. i'm still exhausted. it's easier, for now, to perhaps do a carter style list.

crowded planes. sleep dep. burger king's sneak king.* mst3k. broken baggage carousel. super shuttle. misunderstandings. emptying boxes. vomit on a plane. ihop. kilmarnock. moonshine. fried food. christmas lists. eggnog. the sopranos videogame. carter verus carter. petunia, her father and diesel. anna and elizabeth. winning the airplane seat lottery twice. the office season 2. grupreet in sfo. mike's xbox collection. caltrain and bart. wrapping christmas presents. carting food back and forth across the country. tetris ds. cindy, john and ben. a confederate flag and trying to explain why there isn't a reason to fear terrorism. david, melissa and julia. the atlanta airport. seeing jaffrey. mike's moving plans. weight watchers.

* seriously, if you have an xbox, go to burger and, for 4 bucks, buy their 'sneak king' xbox/xbox 360 (same disc for both systems) game. creepy, weird and very amusing, it's worth every penny of the 399 you will spend.

so while i was in turkey, i managed to open my ibook and type a few paragraphs about our trip.

thursday. first week
in small town about an hour and a half north of izmir. took bus overnight from istanbul to izmir where we rendezvouzed with mother in law. we are now in odemis, pronounced 'oh-dem-ish'. d picked up some turkish music cds while we were in istanbul, so i am listening to turkish pop music as i write this. visited d's cousin's farm yesterday and shot photos and video while there. i always love going to the farm, it's very relaxing and rich with gorgeous imagery. the people that live on the farm are always very welcoming and hospitable and it was a joy to see them again. there are about 8-10 children that live on the farm, including a kurdish family with twins. the last time we visited the farm; about 2 years ago, the twins were very young. this tiime, they were older and running around playing. the children were very shy. we gathered them all together to take some photos of them, and afterwards, we said thank you and were walking away. i looked back at the children and it was like they were frozen in time. they were still posing for us and did not move until we were completely out of sight.

monday. second week
we are now in kas, arrived here late yesterday. drove from odemis, trip took about 6-7 hours. kas is in the south mediterranean, and close to greek islands. as i write this, i am sitting on our hotel room balcony looking at the greek island of meis. we took a boat trip today. the entire trip lasted from 10am to 6:30pm. our tour took us to 5 or 6 island coves where we were able to stop and swim/snorkel. saw some fish, some natural sponges. at one point we were able to see amphoras from the glass bottom part of the boat, which are clay vessels that were used to transport different things. another cool part was the sunken cities of lycea. Lycea was a city that was destroyed by an earthquake about 200 AD. it is mostly underwater now, but there are still remains of buildings near the edge of the water. made friends with a british family and rented a waverunner with the british guy for 10 min. that was a blast, going full speed and jumping waves in the mediterranean. at a few points both of us almost fell off because we were going so fast and turning. another high point of the trip was when the captain asked us if we wanted to surf. so 5 of the men on the boat jump in the water and hold on to a rope behind the boat. he asked us if we wanted to surf, but i think what he really meant was 'let's play try to drown the brit and the american!'. nonetheless, it was fun, even if i did swallow about five gallons of salt water. i've been shooting a lot of video while we've been here, and hope to post a video podcast upon return to the states. so far i've gone through 4-5 tapes, so plenty of footage for a lengthy podcast. not many americans vacationing in turkey, which is sad. mostly when i hear english being spoken, it's either brits or germans.
also on the boat trip was a small village, where we walked to the top where there was a castle with the smallest ampitheatre known. the village is only accessible by boat or helicopter, and the land is not very fertile since it is rocky and salty. most other land in the mediterranean is extremely fertile. so the locals depend mostly on tourists from the boat trips to sell there merchandise to. the merchandise they were offering is mainly handmade textiles, herbs, and fresh squeezed juice; at least from what we saw.

back in the states now. have been for actually 2 weeks, but have not posted. i actually posted 2x while in turkey, but have not yet posted them either. i shall do that in my next post. meanwhile, i am sorting through video and still photos which i will be posting online also. trying to figure out the whole video podcast thing and how to do it/where to sign up. anyway, back to work for now.