"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...

"good morning" --Kanye West

..."on this day we become legendary... everything we dreamed of. i'm like a fly Malcolm X, buy any jeans necessary..."

OBAMA! OBAMA!

WORD. in about an hour, Barack Obama will give his speech and i'll be watching live from Istanbul, Turkey. (8 hours time difference and a language barrier couldn't stop me from seeing this moment in history)

oh yea, and as far as the quote goes... i bought a pair of jeans from the Topshop/Topman. (coated denim: dyed, coated, and baked...)
i also bought a belt, which broke as soon as i got it home, because the buckle is made from plastic (not metal, as it looks) you live and you learn, i suppose

OBAMA! OBAMA!

"my president is black" --Jeezy

yea, it seems kinda crazy that i'm quoting jeezy, but he called it!
the inauguration is today. (well technically it's tomorrow morning for us but it's the 20th here so i'm celebrating)
i haven't decided what exactly i'm going to do to celebrate, since 12 of our 15 students have gone on trips to London and Greece. We lone three have to find something to do.

so far i have just been listening to thousands and thousands of Lupe. Word

oh. and i have to make up my blog from yesterday. coming soon
<

BREAKING NEWS!!!!

this is just a random post that is to add to a good day... my cell phone works and i think i get free incoming calls (even from the states)

WORD!

oh and the blog has a new name

shout out to Terrell. haha

"the sweetest thing i've known" --Llaryn Hill

yo, u never know when u are gonna be hit with somethin that completely changes your mood or your feelings. i was just hit with something a little bit ago that has done just that. word up to ICG for that. it's all mutual, homie. and what's really crazy is i didn't even "note-iss" ;-) that it was right in front of my face for so long. had to write about it.

oh yea, and shout out to Chad. he's going to London tomorrow! pick me up some SBs from Slam

"today was a good day" --Ice Cube

aight so yesterday i kinda lied. i ended up not going to Asia. there are some good reasons, but i did go to the Turkcell store and get my phone workin (and made a friend at the store. maybe she can get me free minutes so i can call the states...). also i'm thinkin about callin up Kanye and gettin signed to G.O.O.D. music cus me and a couple very special people are gettin out our dreams. or should i say, "makin' dreams come true" ;-)

today was a good day. Adderly has been talkin for the past two days about finding a Polo factory store that he heard was in Istanbul, and today we went to find it. I don't know if we found the Polo factory store, but we did find another city north of Istanbul... Istinye Park! (not really sure if the city is named that or just the mall... which is the size of a small city)

i have a few pics (but evertime i got my camera out, "Polis" made me put it away) so some are taken guerilla style.

almost any top designer you can think of can be found in this place. we walked around for 30 min before we realized that there was an entire other half of the mall. we spent 4 hours there and hadn't seen everything.

i'll definitely be going back

**(i've been trying to add pics to my posts to allow u to see the things i'm experiencing, but i can't upload anything with this connection. maybe some time soon)**
ISTINYE PARK MALL

"...i'm goin' to Japan tomorrow...do u believe that Guru?" --Jay-Z

nah, i'm not really going to Japan... but i am going to Asia tomorrow...
(how many people can say that?) i know it's "braggadocious" but it's still crazy to me, too.

aight, to be honest, i'm walking most of the way (because part of Turkey is in Europe and the other part is in Asia) so it isn't like i'm taking a long trip, but it's still coo to be like "ya'll wanna go to Asia tomorrow?" **all reply: 'yea, i guess so...'**

at least that's what Word said...

"so jetlag is official business" --auburnmeat

i concur! i went to sleep last night, and didn't wake up until 6pm...
(well i kinda went to sleep at 4am and then woke up at 9am and went back to sleep at 10am.)
but the point is that i slept until 6pm. i slept an entire day away.

on a good note, however, i got my first follower to my blog! that made my day (or maybe i should say, it made my night)

the rest of u should "follow" suit... she's a trendsetter

(shout out to L.P.)

"i do it for hip-hop" --Ludacris

today, we had a few things planned: tour of istanbul, tour of the school (ITU), and go to the cell phone store so that we can use our phones in Turkey.

while waiting for the tour bus, i decided to get some breakfast (u can actually eat stuff for pretty cheap)
i got a sandwich for 1 turkish lira (about 65 cents) bottled water for 50 kurus (about 34 cents). other people bought orange juice and pomegranate juice from a street vendor. i forgot his name but i'll find out next time we go by there. he was teaching us to order our food in turkish and we introduced ourselves. a couple people said there names and shook his hand. i said my name and with a big smile on his face he replied: "HIP-HOP".

some people have decided it was so funny that they plan to call me that for the rest of our time here (personally, i think it's wack but maybe i'm just biased to J.Cutts.

the school was cool. really old with marble floors and looks kinda like a museum from the outside. i might have pictures of it later.

i'm tryin to get my phone to work, but it's a pain. we spent an hour in the store to get sim cards; had to come back in 30 min. they put the sim cards in our phones; and we have to go back to the store tomorrow so they can send us a text message...
(of course my phone isn't unlocked and i have to contact the company before it will work)

--i'm not a blogger, nor am i a journal writer, but hopefully these blogs will get better as i progress. and i plan to get some pics put up with every blog--

i don't even read blogs. what do i blog about?

i made it to Istanbul in one piece, but i didn't want to blog about my plane ride, so I'll share an email that i received entitled "well wishes" (I Love You, Mama)

Good Morning,

There is no telling when you'll probably read this e-mail. Just wanting to wish you well as you go forth in this wonderful endeavor of studying abroad. I am so very proud of you.... I'm so very proud of the way that you set goals for yourself and you don't quit until you reach them. From the very early age of Three I knew you were different. I didn't know what all God had in store for you, but I knew that there would be great things. You know the cliche that says "the Sky is the Limit " it doesn't quite fit the bill, because of who you are in God there are no limitations for you. Just remember to always keep God first in everything, pray before every decision, pray really about everything and listen to God's instructions, then move. (Just looking back over all the obstacles that were in your way and you still made it....) Wow, what an awesome Man of God you are.... Always remember to remain humble because God exhalts the humble and brings down those that are prideful. In whatever, you do always do as unto the Lord. He has given you gifts and talents and always use them to bring God Glory. No matter have far you are away from me in this world you are forever in my heart. I love you always. Allow me to see Turkey through your eyes. So, I want lots of pictures.

I pray that this trip is richly rewarding and exceeds all your expectations. For with God ALL Things Are Possible. Take this opportunity to reflect on the goodness of God and all that he has done for you. As the Muslims take time out of their day to pray, you also take the time to pray to the One and Only True Living God. Continue to keep your sisters and I lifted in prayer. Okay, I didn't mean to sound selfish, but the rest of your family as well. Have a blast, be alert of your surroundings, travel with a group, just use the Wisdom that you have. Okay, I quit (that's just my job as a Mom). Just think, your feet will be able to touch the soil that an Apostle of Christ touched. That is awesome.... Take the time to read about the Apostle Paul. He was such an awesome Man of God. Call me.....

Love You,

Your Mom