Emily Elbert

In 2007, I was watching a local morning talk show in Dallas and saw this girl give a spectacular performance. Four and a half years later, I'm listening to her live at a bar in Istanbul, Turkey. The world is funny. 

Her name is Emily Elbert, and oh man is she amazing. You should check her out on YouTube. She sang this song last night at a bar in Istanbul. Listen and fall in love with her voice. You're welcome. 

Thanks But No Thanks

So there's the bus stop that during the day is busy busy busy. At night when the buses are running more infrequently, it becomes a place where taxis wait. Last night while waiting for the bus, we were able to observe the quality of taxis that run at night.

The first cab that we walked by had the hood up and the trunk open. As we walked by the driver lifted his head from the engine and asked if we needed a ride. We politely declined. The longer we sat there the more cabs we saw that had basically come to die at this bus stop. Five minutes after we arrived, a cab pulled up; its bumper was falling off. A group of men surrounded it and a couple of them began helping the driver remove the dangling bumper - by kicking it off and then putting it in the trunk. Then they went to work on the engine. Eventually, the taxi was up and running again.

As he prepared to jet off into the night to score unsuspecting riders, he turned to us.

"You need a taxi?"

Like A Rhinestone Scorpion

I saw these rain boots today while waiting for the bus. Those are rhinestones there, in case you can't tell. 

What are your thoughts on these bad boys? Awesome? Weird?  Is there any creature that could be rhinestoned and actually look good? Is there a point at which the rhinestones go from scary to fabulous? Could a geometric pattern work on these boots? Would the rhinestone scorpion look hot on a shirt or other article of clothing? I need answers!

In any case, I wish I could rock them like this lady was.

(ps- Abby thinks a rhinestone rhino would be cool. I think she just likes to say it out loud and hasn't fully thought about what rhinestoned rhinos on rain boots would look it. But seriously, say it out loud. It's fun.) 

I'm Gonna Miss Her

Bebek, the beautiful neighborhood in which I live, is a five minute walk to the Bosphorus. It's about a 20 minute walk to the next neighborhood, Arnavutköy. The walk between Bebek and Arnavutköy travels right alongside the water and is absolutely beautiful.

In good weather, fishermen line up to see what they can catch. The fishing isn't actually that good - I've never seen anyone catch anything of notable size. It's pretty much a social activity. 

As you stroll along the waterfront, you have to keep your eye out for lines waiting to be cast. Some people that I know don't enjoy walking past them because of the prevalence of hooks and lines but as a girl who spent her formative years standing in my friend's front yard while he practiced casting, it's not a big deal to me. Here and there you'll see large buckets of water holding small fish. I really don't know if these 5" fish are coming from or going to the Bosphorus, but they seem as happy as they could be swimming around in old yogurt containers. 

I really want to go fishing but I need to learn more Turkish before I attempt to penetrate this sub-culture.  Maybe next spring. I'll post pictures when I do. 

Disconnected events

I made pudding. 

Also, our taxi driver today told us he once peed himself upon seeing a bear. 

Round Two

So I am apparently really bad at blogging. I feel like I have to carefully craft and compose posts, and I feel like they have to be long and funny and the most entertaining thing EVER. Well, I refuse to let myself be overwhelmed by a project that I don't have to do. But I want to do it so I'm making it easier for myself. Instead, I will post the iPhone (read: blurry) pictures of things that I find generally curious/amusing and then ramble about why I find them generally curious/amusing. The first:

So this is a picture of the Marmara Hotel in Taksim Square, the busiest square in all of Istanbul, their Piccadilly Times Circus Square. And this hotel is a nice, expensive hotel that has a huge gym that overlooks the hustle and bustle of the area. The people who stay here are probably business-types. They come to Istanbul for work, and instead of exploring the city (or even Taksim, a small but very important area), they spend their evenings in the gym. They go to work and then go to the gym, just like they would if they were at home. Except they're not at home. They're in Istanbul. And they are spending their time in this super artificial environment. I don't want this to ever be me.

If you're one of these business-types, please let me know. Am I judging too harshly?