WATERCOLORS WATERCOLORS WATERCOLORS

the last watercolors.

"satellites" (almost all buildings have thousands of satellites on top)

"RoseBudd" "...with two D's, for a double dose of that pimpin'"--American Pimp

"quick pigeon"

"nice cube" ;-)

"untitled:good artists borrow, great artists steal"(i saw this at an art exhibit when i went to salsa class one day. i had to watercolor it)

"how dare you ever try to step on my suede shoes..."--Busta Rhymes

WOO HAH!!!
lol
yo, tomorrow is my last day. all i have to due is turn in my final presentation boards...which are being printed as i speak/write...maybe hear a little from the professors about this semester...and then i'm going to a Busta Rhymes concert! word up. Busta Rhymes has an album coming out on the 19th "Back On My B.S." (censored for the kids), and he is starting his Europe tour. i just got back from purchasing my ticket; Chad is the only one going with me; i guess nobody else likes the music. but yea, i've been tryin to find one place that plays hip-hop music since i've been here and instead, i get a live concert. like i said, i just went to the place to buy the tickets and it's actually a pretty small place. that sucks cus it proves that Turks don't like rap, but it's coo cus the place is small enough for me to yell: "YO BUS'! I'M FROM AMERICA HOMIE, PUT ME ON STAGE AND LET ME SHOUT OUT MY MOMS, G!" lol. i plan to take my camera and we'll see if i post pics of me and Busta Rhymes in the next few days.
"**laughs**...that's Clive Davis ya'll...**chuckles**...one..."--Busta Rhymes

"...buying little air jordan's for MayBe babies..."--50 Cent

aight, so i've gotten a few requests to do a post for May birthdays. i can only think of two right now. (i am almost positive there is someone in my family with a birthday in May. please don't be too upset; just comment and i'll include it). anyway shout out to:

Mayur: May 8th
Amberley: May 11th
UPDATE: May 27th-- one of my favorite cousins (Tiff)

--i almost named this post MayDay, but not for the birthdays. May 1st is a holiday in Turkey; apparently it's some sort of national demonstration/protest day. the government allows people to demonstrate and protest in certain areas though they restrict it in main city centers. i happen to live about a ten minute walk from the center of Istanbul...it got really crazy right in front of my apartment since i live right off of the main street. there were hundreds of people yelling and throwing huge rocks on the ground (later i found that they were breaking them into smaller pieces to throw them at police). they had sling shots and lemons. i was wondering why they had lemons, but then a huge crowd rushed down our street from one of the side streets and explosions followed. a couple grenades bounce off of nearby buildings and land on the street...they were filled with teargas not explosives, but still it was crazy. the police came blasting round after round of smoke bombs and teargas. after the police were satisfied that they had removed the people from the restricted area, the aftermath involved the protesters squirting lemons on their hands and rubbing it in their eyes to lessen the effect of the teargas.
needless to say, we had been warned beforehand that we couldn't leave the house on MayDay, but boy did we have a front row seat. my friends on the ground floor even ran out and snatched one of the spent smoke grenades...
somebody has pics and video so i may try and upload them

"respect my conglomerate"-- Busta Rhymes

con⋅glom⋅er⋅ate

/n., adj. kənˈglɒmərɪt, kəŋ-; v. kənˈglɒməˌreɪt, kəŋ-/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [n., adj. kuhn-glom-er-it, kuhng-; v. kuhn-glom-uh-reyt, kuhng-]
-a corporation consisting of a number of subsidiary companies or divisions in a variety of unrelated industries, usually as a result of merger or acquisition.

basically, this post will consist of me [the 'poster'] sending you [the 'poster child'] links to blog posts of some of my friends.
ok, so i guess it's more of a co-operative or mini-merger of sorts, but there isn't a song quote with those words...

-first up, over the weekend, four of the Auburn Abroad people came to visit us from Rome. shout out to Katie, Zach (happy birthday), Nicole, and Amy. and instead of boring you with my recount of the events, i'll let you see it all through the eyes of Katie via this link:

http://owenske.blogspot.com/2009/04/part-3-istanbul.html

-next, sunday evening after the romans left, one of the Turkish students from studio, took me, Roppoli, and Chad to a Besiktas (pronounced besh-eek-tah-sh) soccer game. it was my first european futbol game...actually, it's the first soccer game i've ever attended. instead of boring you with my recount of the events, i'll let you see it the eyes of Chad...or rather the video camera of Chad via this link:

http://chadpryor.blogspot.com/2009/04/neck-and-fo-head-veins.html

(the first clip is the kick-off. it's super cool how they yell....then 'shhh'.......bir, iki, uc, besiktas, besiktas, aaaaaahhhhhh! lol)

-next-- it has nothing to do with Rome or Istanbul-- Breezo has posted a video on his blog by fly.union called 'fat gold chain'. read his caption and then listen to the song...you can read my comment as well. you can see it via this link:

http://ahmedispete.blogspot.com/2009/04/flyunion-fat-gold-chain.html

-and since i'm pretty sure that i have to be a part of this conglomerate in order for me to claim it.....
WATERCOLORS! WATERCOLORS! WATERCOLORS!
the best part is, you don't even have to go anywhere.
i've been gettin pretty good in my opinion. the last three i've done (the three featured here) were what i like to refer to as 'paint to paper', meaning that i didn't sketch anything out. i just put the paint to the paper and tried to make it happen. let me know if i was successful.



1st attempt at 'paint to paper' entitled "smoking kills" cus that is what the government requires it to be put on every box.


2nd attempt, entitled "fant-aliens". there was a fanta exhibit with some 2 foot tall characters that Chad named 'fant-aliens'...i had to watercolor them.


my latest. "nike uptempo scottie pippen edition"--Curren$y
....(anyone who knows me, knows i had to do shoes)

"i call 'em April babies, cus they fooze [fools]"-- Lil' Wayne

nah, none of them are fools, but they are April babies.

KatieBaby - the 2nd. (should be in Istanbul in a couple weeks. word. lol)
Dennis - the 4th. (my sisters' father)
Mama - the 14th. (the proud new owner of an iPod nano or something...i think it's the new nano)

if any of you guys know people with April birthdays, feel free to write them in comments and i can add them. (i know of a couple other people but i can't remember the dates)

(jan. and feb. babies, sorry but i didn't think about doing this until today. but if it makes you feel any better, it's April Fool's?)

"it's gonna be a bright bright bright bright sunshiny day"--Jimmy Cliff

well, other than it actually being a BRIGHT, SUNSHINY day in Istanbul...literally...i've also got some good news.
Adderly and I went to visit Tarik, my professor, today in the hospital and he seems to be recovering just fine. we didn't stay long, but we talked about classes and studio, and he told us that he might be released friday. (and apparently, the doctor who performed his heart surgery had quit the hospital but came back right before Tarik ended up going, and he is one of the best in Turkey) we also found out that he became a grandfather the same night he had surgery!
about the bright sunshiny-ness... before we came, we were told that nobody wears shorts in Turkey, so i brought no shorts. i have been burning up all day! that's all

"i just got some real bad news." --Kanye West

aight, so basically i was going to tell this story about how after our exhibition game and practice last wednesday, i found out that I WILL NOT BEING PLAYING IN THE FINAL FOUR TOURNAMENT IN ANKARA! my team fought another team during a game earlier in the season and has been disqualified from the tourney... yea.... real wack!

but before i had time to write about my problems, i got an email from the head of architecture in Auburn telling us that my professor was in the hospital...
as far as i know, his aorta ruptured, he had surgery, and was in ICU. we haven't been able to visit him, but apparently he is doing ok now. he will need time to recover...

sorry it took so long, but my internet connection is horrible at the house and i couldn't post anything until i got to studio today

Today...in Mardin

this is a video that i made for a project in my 'architecture in cultural context' class.

shout out to Breezo for putting me up on zero7
(you make music that goes with art. i make art that goes with music)

...(i have been trying to post this video for over a week. it never works, at least not correctly)

WATERCOLORS WATERCOLORS WATERCOLORS

these are in the order that they were completed...hopefully you see improvement

PICTURES PICTURES PICTURES of Mardin, Turkey

view from anywhere in Mardin
lady with a gold grill (can't see it this small)


used to be a toilet...(not inverted of course)
i went into a cave...(yes, i know...i'm black)
u can get on top of any roof there
Fonzworth Bentley restroom...lol
most of us (American, Turkish, Germany, etc.)
thousands and thousands of houses
for my dad. (flat ceiling. huge stones. no mortar)
for my mama. they're not all Muslim
THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF HOUSES!
dolce & gabbana...for real. lol

i did a watercolor of this. (coming soon)
chillin in a stone house/tomb...not sure which
the stone tombs
this family tracks lineage to Mohammed
and Clinton has been to visit them...again...."i feel big" haha. many comments about pics, please

NEWS FLASH! NEWS FLASH! NEWS FLASH!

i just wanted to make it known that i wrote the last post, had the great quote for it, and forgot to mention the relevance of the quote...
somehow, during the talks amongst the professors about our trip to Mardin, the governor of Mardin got wind of the fact that we were doing a project there and proposed something to our class. for some reason he doesn't like the current governor's house/mansion and prefers to move back into the old governor's house/mansion and he wanted us to come up with some design ideas for reviving the old place, making it usable again. if the design is good enough, it could get built...
anyway, while in Mardin, the governor came and showed us all around and explained all of the revitalization that he is doing to the city. he is basically restoring the city back to it's old form (getting rid of ugly, retro-fitted architecture and revamping the city's original beauty)
when i say, he came and showed us around, i mean like he and a few security guides or something introduced themselves and we walked with him...like i was walking side-by-side with the governor of this place through like the back streets and construction sites and everything. i got a picture which i will also try to post...
but yea, i felt big...lol
ALSO. I CHANGED THE SETTINGS FOR COMMENTS SO THAT YOU DON'T HAVE TO DO THE WORD VERIFICATION SO HOPEFULLY THAT WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEMS WITH COMMENTS...LET ME KNOW

"yo...i feel big. like not big in the sense of weight...like COLOSSAL" --Lil' Wayne

so it's the first Lil Wayne quote, and it is quite fitting.
first of all...(hold on, let me make this in alL CAPS...THERE IT GOES...) WE WON OUR LAST BASKETBALL GAME AND GET TO GO TO THE FINAL FOUR TOURNAMENT IN ANKARA (the capital of Turkey)
i couldn't play in the game however, cus i was in Mardin (an ancient city very close to Syria and Iraq) for architecture. our project sites are located in Mardin.
Mardin is a very beautiful city (i'll post pics when i go thru them all...i took hundreds. some people took "thousands"...literally). the entire city--the old city anyway-- sits on a big hill, with a moutain top above it and the Mesopotamian Plains below it...yes, the MESOPOTAMIAN PLAINS that you read about in middle school geography/history...the "fertile cresent". the "cradle of civilization". we toured a few other places that were near Mardin as well, including some churches, some theological schools, and the house of a family that can track their family tree back to Mohammed! (the last "man of the house" was a pretty important person. he was bigtime in Mecca and President Clinton even went to see him before).
there is so much more. like how much of a bonding experience the trip was for all of our students. by the end of the trip, i felt like for the first time, all of us were friends. the Auburn people, the Turkish people, the other exchange students were all laughing and joking with each other and having a great time...you may notice an increase in my facebook friends over the next week. lol
i'm tryin to make this short, cus i've gotten some complaints about my really long posts, and i found out that people aren't even reading all of them cus they are too long. i appreciate those who do read the entire thing every time. but this one is over for now...i just have to add pics

"the breakfast of champions" --Consequence

yo, this weekend i went with a couple of the American students, a couple of the German students, and a few of the Turkish students to the eatery of the century...or at least of the month.
it was kind of a long way from where i stay, so i wouldn't go more than once a week. and it's also kind of expensive i think...i'm not sure cus we went with a huge group and shared a lot of food and split the bill evenly. the place is called Rumeli Kale (Rumeli's Castle) it's a restaurant that sits by the Bosphorous (the famous waterway in Turkey) and since we were on the 3rd floor, we were able to eat and look at the Bosphorous out of our window.
ok, enough with that stuff...the food! after the meal, i had to ask "if i come back here and want to eat all of this, what do i say?". and the response was "just say you want the breakfast". so to the meal. we sat down at the table and first they brought out thousands of bread which is common here. but then they began to bring out plates...plates of sliced tomatoes and cucumbers and peppers; then plates of olives, the plates of cheese; then they brought out dishes of this stuff called "bal kaymak"...oh my goodness...it looks like a stick of butter sitting in a bath of honey. it is sitting in a bath of honey ,but the kaymak isn't actually butter, it's some stuff that nobody could translate into English cus we don't have it in the States. but it was amazing. any piece of bread that you put it on instantly turned into french toast! then they brought out these like grilled tortillas or something, but they went perfect with everything. they also brought out eggs and sausage and a dish called "menemen" but i've heard that i can get better menemen at other places, so i'll save that for later. the piece de resistance was called "borek". it looked like a big eggroll, but it was filled with meat and cheese and peppers. absolutely delicious.
but that's not enough to get a blog about it. and especially not a title...it takes more. so the reason it got such praise is that we were all eating and drinking (tea, orang juice, and coffee) for 3 to 3 1/2 hours straight! and it only cost 20 tl (which is like $12.50). you can't beat that with a stick.

"Untitled"

it's not that i'm on like some kind of artist trip where i've created a masterpiece and feel that no name is sufficient enough to properly encompass my genius. it is just that my excitement has overcome me, to the point that i couldn't think of a quote suitable for this blog. for this reason, i am asking you (yes, the you who is reading my blog) to give me suggestions. write the quote and the person it comes from in the comments for this post. my post needs a title, and i'd rather my most loyal followers choose that title; so i'm setting a deadline. it is currently 10:30am Thursday in Istanbul. in 2 days time (10:30am Saturday) i will check the suggestions and choose. so if you don't check my blog at least every other day, yea, you probably missed out. now on to the business...
first of all an announcement: i hung out with Arzu a few days ago and she has agreed to send me a copy of the birthday performance tape! i've decided that if i do in fact receive it, i owe it to you to post it.
next, i must tell the story of basketball practice. i went back to practice monday. on the way to practice, it was FREEZING! i decided that i wasn't going to worry about whether or not i could play for the team, i would just go out there and have fun. and i did! i was putting moves on people, making nice passes, making shots...it was great. after practice Coach was speaking, and as usual i didn't understand a word since she speaks Turkish, but one of the guys on the team looked at me and said, "Je-re-my. She says that she talked to them, and the rules say each team is allowed two foreign players, so you can play." after thanking her, getting congratulated, and getting dressed i walked outside... and it was SNOWING! the first time it had snowed since i've been here, and it was crazy because it was no longer cold outside. it was warmer than before but snowing like crazy; there was already a few inches of snow on the ground. needless to say, traffic was horrible cus Istanbul isn't used to snow, and it took forever to get home. on the bright side, it gave me more time to talk with my teammates on the bus. they are really cool and say they will look out for me and all that, and i learned my first Turkish "bad word" which was kind of funny.
on the way home, i stopped by mcdonalds (i hadn't tried it since i've been here, but i figured Lebron was a mcdonalds all-star so.....nah, but i did want to see if it tasted the same as back home). i ordered off the 1.75 TL menu which is about the $1.19 menu. the fries and chicken sandwich tasted the same, but the burger tasted like a Turkihs hamburger, which is more flavorful that normal, but still kind of throws me off when i'm eating mcdonalds. it was crazy to see the way they do fast food here too: there was a couple before me who order one value meal (burger, fries, drink) and when they got there food, it came in three bags...one bags for the burger and fries, one bag for the drink!, and a big bag with a handle that the other two bags went into...? they also have a "mega mac" which is like a double big mac. maybe they have it in the States too, but i haven't seen it.
i know this post is super long, and i was gonna break it up, but forget it. if you've gotten through that much, you can read the rest. i'll even make it a short story.
since i am now officially on the team, i had to know when our games were so that i can let peopl know. they told me that we have 3 games next week: monday (away), wednesday (away), friday (home). so expect to hear about those. anyway, i went to practice last night at 7:30, and we had a game! (i was gon tell the long story about how i didn't know why there were people in uniforms, and how we scrimmaged the girls team first) they didn't have a uniform for me, but it was coo. i just had on my LONG blue shorts (some of ya'll know which ones i'm talking about) and a black wife beater. we won the game and had the lead the whole time. i got a little bit of playing time and scored 8 points and got a few rebounds.

"happy Valentine's Day" --Andre 3000

pretty much, the title says it all. not much has been going on. studio is coming along slowly for me so far. but i'm gon try to pick it up in the next few days.

HOWEVER, two days ago, i went to the gym and worked out, so i'm pretty sore. i'm mean i'm not tryin to get "swole" or anything, but i needed to find a release. something that would allow me to get away from school and the apt on a regular basis.

which brings me to this: last night, people were partying downstairs as usual, and had invited some of the other students from studio. one of the guys, a tall Syria dude name Raed (rah-ed), told me that he had just tried out for the basketball team (like the university team) and would ask if i could try out. so this morning, i went with him to basketball practice....ok, so this was the first time i had been to basketball practice in 5 years (11th grade...yea, i'm gettin old) and it was kinda difficult to run drills and stuff since i'm so out of shape. plus as i'd mentioned in an earlier post, my shoes suck, so my feet are killing me! but the coach said they would have to see if i would be able to play, because they have so many people already (there were 16 at practice including me). i can't even put into words how i would feel if i got the chance to play college basketball (and overseas basketball at the same time)! ya'll wish me the best and we'll see "what it do" --Colleen Cotten

"go shawty. it's your birthday. we gon party like it's your birthday" --50 Cent

aight, so "it's been a long time... i shouldn't have left you...[without a new blog] to step to"

1st order of business...HOOPIN'! i finally, finally, finally got to a basketball court in Turkey! i have been wanting to play basketball for a long time. (i never have time in auburn with class, studio and work). true, the gym is located at the main campus which is 45 min away, and i paid 25TL for a 3 month pass which i found out i only needed for the weight room (but i can get back in there. i've been needing to do that as well) but it was a basketball court, and it's indoors. that's pretty much all the good that i have to say about it. the competition: i'm not gonna say that there was no competition, cus ppl who hoop with me, know that i'm not too good (ask Ebere). but i will say that i wasn't really playing, AT ALL, and my team dominated. we played 3 0n 3. it was kinda crazy tryin to play without really being able to communicate (calling screens was sort of useless and i didn't know what the score was or what we were playin to), but everyone knew when the game was over. more bad news is that i've come to realize from one trip to the gym, that i need new hoopin shoes. the shoes that i brought are worthless...
2nd. in case anyone wanted to know. class is aight. i haven't done or learned much in them yet, except studio. i have an "urban morphology" class that seems like it could be cool, but it seems kind of elementary (i'll explain later). i have an "architecture in cultural context" class in which i just found out that i have a project due at 8:30 in the morning, because professors don't make copies of the syllabus???? studio is the only class in which we are doing any sort of real work. yesterday Daniel and I built a study model of the site that we chose, and tomorrow i plan on doing sketches of my proposal (which is to use the second story of an ancient house and "adaptively reusing" the space to accommodate a desert cafe, a bookstore, and a music store...all around a central courtyard). i'll try to get some pics of my sketches up soon.
i was gonna talk about my horrible experience with tryin to get an akbil (like a bus/metro pass for students), but it's a long story and this is a long post already...
and i still have to talk about the reason that this post got the title it has. well, if you've been keeping up with my blog like the loyal follower that i know u to be, then u'll remember me talking about a girl that i met at Turkcell who was going to help me learn Turkish and i'd help her learn English. she took Adderly and I on a tour of the city and we had a great time. her name is Arzu, and her birthday is Christmas day. but for some reason her friends wanted to celebrate it last weekend...well Adderly and I were invited, and we had a pretty good time. they rented out the vip of a club and did like some karaoke and stuff (it was all Turkish songs, so i had no idea what they were saying or what the songs were)...but after they'd brought out the cake, which was delicious, and we were just about to leave...i heard Arzu on the microphone: "Jeremy. Adderly. Come.".......now i ain't know punk, so i went right on that stage....then she gave the mic to me and said "50 Cent?" --now of course you, my loyal follower, remember me talking about the first time we went to Turkcell and another one of the employees thought Adderly was 50 Cent, so it's been a running joke-- and i laughed...then i heard the words "go shawty...it's your birthday. we gon party like it's your birthday..." and i had a mic in my hand...she definitely motioned to me as if i were to perform 50 Cent karaoke...and being the coo kid that i am, and not wanting to wreck her party, and after thinking "these ppl will never see me again"...i performed the entire song (or at least the lyrics that i remembered, cus it's been a few years and i don't listen to singles).
...got a standing ovation, and the entire party was recorded so i'm going to try to get a copy of the tape...of course you're not gonna see it, though ;)

"like Sam Cooke say, change gon come nephew. you better believe that"-- Snoop Dogg

...i gotta thank Breezo for this one...
for those who don't know, Breezo is my homeboy from Auburn who happens to be musically inclined. he not only produces (for you singers and rappers out there) but he also stays up-to-date and sometimes hits that time machine thing-thing to bring some stuff to my attention...intentionally or not.
"Today. the words don't mean enough for us to say...to steal the moment that we gave away.......can't remember when but it's happened before...saw it all played out through a crack in the door.."--Zero 7
ahmedispete.blogspot.com
anyway, today...was my third day of class and just as uneventful as the two prior. each class is supposed to last 4 hours and so far they have averaged 30min. i wouldn't have anything to say about that, except that the class yesterday started at 9:30am and the one today started at 8:30am. so i got up that early and went to the school, which isn't far away but it's the principle, only to return home shortly thereafter. (i'm pretty sure that fairly soon i will have a post complaining about these 4 hour long classes, but for now i'll just talk about studio). i'm not sure if i'd stated before, but our studio project for the semester will be sited in the ancient city of Mardin (google pics). it looks crazy; just like thousands and thousands of stone houses on a hill. i was worried we wouldn't get to do the project because Mardin is really close to Syria and Iraq, but it should be happening. the project is an adaptive reuse of existing buildings; i think we are going to have to choose one of three locations and present a proposed idea for commercial reuse (of course my first thought was sneaker store, but we'll see). i have to choose my site today and write a proposal for tomorrow...any other suggestions? (it doesn't have to be clothes or shoes. any commercial or maybe even civic application will be fine)
oh and shout out the queen.
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BREAKING NEWS: COMMENTS!

yo, i've been wondering why no one has been commenting on my posts...i wanted this to be an interactive type thing; that's why i write it as if i'm talking to you (as in the "you" who is reading this right now).
but i realized early this morning that i had not enabled "show comments" in my settings, so i fixed the glitch and now i expect "thousands and thousands" of comments (preferably from your actual profile, so that i'm not replying to a bunch of "anonymous" posts)
anyway, shout out to my first two "commentors": Sierra and Anonymous...lol
"let's get it goin'"--Busta Rhymes

"welcome to Miami, bienvenidos a Miami"-- Will Smith

aight, so this weekend, Saturday to be exact, i finally found myself in a decent club. ya'll know i'm really much of a partier, but "sometimes ya gotta cut loose!"--Dave Chapelle. it's a small place at the top of one of the buildings on this main pedestrian street, Istiklal. u walk up thousands of spiral stairs (it seems to be a theme, cus the second club i went to had the same problem) and finally get to the top. it's pretty cold out now, so the place is enclosed but i've heard that when it warms up, it is an open air place. the music was a mix of Turkish, house, and old school hip-hop-ish stuff; but most of it sounded like salsa, or at least you could dance to it like salsa.
of course, when i first got there, i wasn't quick to jump on the dance floor, but after a while, i was like "nobody knows me in this place, and if i don't dance, this place is gonna seem wack to me". so i got out there with a few friends, and **please excuse the lingo** we tore it up! the club started to be fun for everyone. we were the center of attention, which i normally don't like, but it was like i was teaching them something. however, i didn't know most of the songs they played, so when i heard something i knew...whether i'd normally pay it attention or not...i had to act like it was the greatest song i'd ever heard.
the first song that i went crazy on was "hotstepper" by Kamoze Ini (i had to look that up, cus i only know the lyrics. never knew whose song or what it was called). and yes, as the title suggests, i also ended up having a good ol' time dancing and rapping to "welcome to Miami" by Will Smith
...don't judge me. i had fun and that's what counts, yo.
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"from Italy's Milan to the shores of Nepali, now i consider Ferraris and Salvador Dali's..." --Malice (1/2 of The Clipse)

yo, yo, yo...
i've been owing ya'll this blog for a minute...
i'm trying to get my thoughts and my pictures together.
soon come
and here goes: i hope it's worth the wait.

"one morning, there was a group of friends who decided to get out and do something with their lives. sitting around the house all the time was too much of a bore, and exploring a new city became too much of a chore. they tired of cooking in the small-kitchened apartments with no oven and dull knives. instead of sitting in my room and bumping Kid Cudi and Talib Kweli, i decided to join them and see Salvador Dali..."
so basically, since i've been in Istanbul i've wanted to see the Salvador Dali exhibit, which i see signs for all the time. but it wasn't until a couple days ago that anyone else had expressed interest. a group of us got up and 10 in the morning and took the bus up the Bosphorous and went to the exhibit.
the place was coo for a couple reasons: it was only 3 lira to get in with student id and they allow you to take pictures! i felt kinda weird at first and tried to snap shots on the sly, but eventually, i just went around gettin pics of all the work that i liked. the bad thing is, they didn't have any of the Dali works that i know... namely the painting of the melting clock (it's the only pic you ever see when someone mentions Salvador Dali). "the persistence of memory"
they had everything in chronological order, and that man came from HUMBLE beginnings with his artwork. so much so that i started telling people "yo, i think i can be Salvador Dali. his first stuff was wack. like i did that when i was in middle school. and it took three years before he could do that **and i'd point to a decent painting**" everybody responded the same way: "nah, you can't be that crazy" i'm like how crazy can this guy be?... by the time i was halfway through the first floors exhibit, i saw that this dude was crazy!
i could write a lot more about Dali, but i'm tired of writing and bought to eat, so i'll get on to the Bosphorous. after the exhibit we walked along the water looking for a restaurant to eat some fish, which we found. it was fairly reasonably priced, but they always give you just what you order: e.g. i ordered grilled trout or seabass, and they gave me a plate that had the whole fish (no need for filet) and some decorative veggies... no rice, no pasta, so potatoes, no nothing but the fish! it may not sound like much of an issue, but any who knows me, know that i must have a meal. i at least need something to go with whatever i'm eating... it's just weird to me to eat one thing by itself.
after that, most of the group went back to the apt, where i rested, watched some episodes of the wire. (i have seen seasons 4 and 5, but i want to watch them all. so i have seasons one and two on my computer, and trying to get the rest). i can't remember the other things that happened; right now all i can think about is food, so i'll add to this post when i can remember. pics too

SHOUT OUT TO ALL 9 OF MY FOLLOWERS!

ALL THAT TALKING AND I FORGOT THE PICS OF MEDUSA...LOL

"so i went hard, like Medusa staring at me..." --Andre 3000

aight. so it has taken me forever to post this blog, i know. but it is because i've had so much to talk about... i actually had to write down some stuff. "i wrote a list, here's the order of my list that it's in..." --Eminem
1. shout out to my Mama! she has been awarded a NASA **somethin, somethin** Award (i don't really remember the name, but what is important is the fact that my Mama was selected) She is supposed to be flying out to Orlando, some time in early February (all expenses paid), to see the space shuttle launch for the last time before it is retired. she has never been on a plane before, "but I ain't scurrred!" --Mama. lol Word up on that!
2. OBAMA! i know i keep writing about it, but it's still amazing... and i know people who were there in person: shout out to my Aunt Sandra, Mom (my grandmother), Tsai-Yen Lin, and D.P. (i appreciate the pics, homie. keep it on track)
3. my day was as good as it's been in Turkey. 1-20-2009. got up in the morning, Adderly and i went to Yerebatan Sarnici, an ancient cistern under an old basilica (right next to Haggia Sophia/ Ayosofia) **look them up on google images** the cistern was cool and i got some good pics which i will continue to try and upload. two of the columns had intricate carvings of Medusa at the base with her head upside-down.
hold up, hold up, hold up.... i have to back up. let me mention that we had to walk to get there (and i mean walk!) to a completely different side of the city, across a bridge and all. and speaking of the bridge, there are restaurants directly under the bridge that sell: well fish of course. so i had to buy a fish sandwich... they catch the fish, filet the fish, grill the fish, and put it on a sandwich with lettuce and tomato. it was good, though it could have used a little more seasoning...
aight, so then we walked all the way back home. there i had to go apologize to Mandy for sort of leaving her behind. **aight, so i thought i told her that we were leaving before noon, but apparently i said after noon, and i felt horrible about it. it's only her, me, and adderly here right now** she was obviously upset, and made plans to eat with our professor so she straight now i hope.
while we were at the apartment, Adderly and I watched Chris Rock's new comedy special and laughed for days. after which, we met up with our new friend from Turkcell and had another adventure of sorts... (all this is the same day) i'll shorten this part up by saying: we went to an open mic bar and chilled and talked to her friends; they were coo: one of them looked like the father on "American Chopper" the tv show about custom motorcycles, he doesn't speak any english and we found out that he is a bodyguard for some famous Turks. his job is fight club! word up, he gets paid to fight people. after sitting for a while hearing them talk amongst themselves (since we don't know much Turkish) he showed us that he has a Bob Marley tattoo on his shoulder, and told us that his entire back is an Africa tattoo and he loves reggae music!
we then left that club and went to a restaurant that was on the seventh floor of a building and u had to walk through a clothing store and go to an elevator in the back. and it was cheap. left there and went on a tour of the city, and ate some famous Turkish foods at another restaurant. (shout out Arzu, Peace, and Olhan)
got back home. tried to make amends with Mandy, and after i cooked for us all tonight (some crazy-delicious pasta with red sauce and all kinds of spices and peppers and grilled chicken smothered with mozzarella and galic bread... i'd forgive me) lol

yo, with all these shout outs, i should have started this blog like Braxton from Jamie Foxx show: "I'd like to give a couple Yoo-Hoo's to the Bro-hams... and Hammettes, AH!" lol

there is more, but i can't remember it all (i should have written it all down). i'll holla next time and it should be a lot shorter. supposed to be going back to the cistern for Mandy and to the Grand Bazaar, or spice bazaar, or some bazaar...