http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/tamam/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from tamam en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:54:47 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 09:54:47 +0000 Day after Christmas. Day off from work. Outstanding weather. I literally walked next to the sea in a tshirt today. Life is good. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-462884.html All the best to all of you... http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-462649.html So when I started this entry it had been cold and wet and miserable for the better part of a week. Then I woke up one morning and realized that the inevitable settling in of winter had been replaced however temporarily by latesummerlike conditions. Making the most of the sunshine by walking extensively and frequently around my neighborhood and the neighboring neighborhoods took priority http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-450882.html ldquoWhy do Turkish people always say lsquoyes pleasersquordquo asked the two backpackers in my living room after a few weeks of surveying the Turkish Mediterranean and Kapadokya. I felt myself going back in time a little bit to my earliest experiences in this country. Curiosity brought them here as it had me during my first visit. I wonder if they were as charmed and dazzled by it http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-444613.html time flies by as usual... http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-440371.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program.Bir ka hafta nce 351air yazar ve ok ilgin olan Sunay Ak305n'305n Oyuncak Mzesine gittik. Mze Anadolu tarafta ve gitmenizi tavsiye ediyorum. Biz de ok 351ansl305yd305k nk Sunay Bey'le tan305351305p kon http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-427853.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program.Bugn benim otuzuncu do287um gnmDn ak351am teknede kutlamay305 ba351lad305k. Canl305 mzi287i gzel yeme287i ve iyi arkada351lar harika bir ak351am305 yapt305lar.Bugn ok 351305mar305yorum http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-426747.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program.Bu yaz305 ok erteledi287im iin zr dilerim. Her gn kendime yar305n yazaca287305m305 yar305n yazaca287305m305 sylyorum. Sonunda yaz305yorum nk bo351 zaman305m var ama hi ilham alm305yorum. http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-421492.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program. Bu hafta 304stanbul f305r305n gibi olmu351. Blogum iin ok ilgin 351eyler 351imdi yazam305yorum maalesef. Hava bu kadar s305cak olurken d351nemiyorum. Ayr305ca pazartesiden cumaya 287leden sonraya ka http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-416788.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program.Dear H1N1Oh the time wersquove spent together You first saw me in DC and found me to be irresistible though it would take you a full week to work up the courage to introduce yourself you coy little devil you. You yawned through ou http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-414865.html Let me begin by assuring you that what I post on this blog in no way represents the views of the State Department or the Critical Language Scholarship program.This entry's title yaz in Turkish can mean either summer or the command form of the verb to write. And indeed Bu yaz yazmal305y305m I should write this summer. I have decided to do so here in both ingilizce and in t http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Istanbul/blog-412330.html We leave the hotel in roughly an hour.Dulles International Airport.Frankfurt International Airport.Atatrk International Airport.In less than 24 hours life starts over again in Ortaky the swanky neighborhood on the Bosphorus where I will be passing the summer.Stay tuned... http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/District-of-Columbia/Washington/blog-410194.html 2008 was a memorable year for me. Some of the highlights struggling to become bilingual plenty of interesting travel including a complete crossing of Turkey with my mom lots of friends getting married and having babies the election and last but certainly not least falling in love. It was also the first year of my life that I've spent completely outside of the USA. It was also a dram http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Ankara/blog-356676.html I arrived in Turkey exactly one year ago today. Most of these photos were taken in Turkey. This entry is mainly a celebration of the subtle mistakes that we make with one another's languages. I assure you that this is all in good fun. In no way am I aiming to insult anyone here. I make more mistakes than this on a daily basis with my Turkish... http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-358475.html It's my first Christmas in a country that is supposedly 98 Muslim. I guess all that that means is that officially it's just another day here. My morning class was cancelled today which was a nice surprise. My exam yesterday went well. Tomorrow I have my final class of the year. The snowcovered pine trees on campus look like a holiday painting but anyone who knows me knows that I become mi http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Ankara/blog-356880.html We arrived in Skopje our third city of the day without a solid plan.Evening was setting in but that was about the only thing we were sure of. We changed a little money and decided to try to contact Emrah's friend Sotir. I sailed into a closetsized shop hoping to buy a card for the payphone but the communication Titanic was destined to sink. I gave a English a shot and the middleaged wom http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/West/Sofia/blog-346026.html In retrospect I guess it's a good thing that I still haven't learned how to say no. When Matt asked me to join him for a visa run to the Balkans my one condition was that we go as far as Kosovo. The timespentonbuses to overalldurationoftrip ratio was ridiculously high read 4 nights on buses 2 nights in actual beds and no less than six border crossings. Although it was grueling i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Kosovo/South/Prizren/blog-342294.html Yesterday was a great day in history. After eight shameful years my country has made a significant choice to depart from the policies of the George W. Bush regime. If only it could be a completely fresh start. As stated in President Obama's oooh I like that way that sounds acceptance speech there is a very difficult road ahead. It will take years if not decades to recover from the damag http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Ankara/blog-341977.html I'm back at Hacettepe niversitesi. We had our first week of classes followed by a full week off for the end Ramazan celebration. Nobody has done any work yet and most of us are still arranging our schedules waiting for adddrop to start. Campus was bombo351 very empty all week long and I embraced the peace and quiet venturing into the woods next to campus when it wasn't too cold or rai http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Central-Anatolia/Ankara/blog-331040.html America is now safe from the Azerbaijani menace a tall haunting hurricane of terrorism and data collection FBI in Orlando airport saves the day...more on that later My approach to celebrating Ramazan has apparently been to fast from blogging. Consider this my iftar my breaking of the fast. I can say without exaggerating that I've covered a fair bit of ground in Turkey at this point. Why i http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/Marmara/Edirne/blog-325005.html