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.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Thursday, February 19, 2009
"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.
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.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
"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
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
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
"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 ;)
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 ;)
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
"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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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.
;">
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
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
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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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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