The day of my Birth!

My pictures are always out of order! I will work on this. But my Birthday was a day to remember. We were busy and had so much fun!

My day went like this:

Gym, lunch with friends, Bizarre, lava cakes, dinner at Paprika my favorite Italian Restaurant and bowling! It was such a fun day and I appreciate Ryan going out of his way to make it a special day!

Ryan and Dre were competing ALL NIGHT! Back and forth taunting each other. It was so funny! It was close all night...

BUT THEN...Ryan got a Turkey in Turkey! If you don't know what that means, it is 3 strikes in a row. But not only did Ryan get 3 strikes in a row...HE GOT 4! He is a little competitive.

The bowling gang. David, Kara, me, Ryan and Dre.

Kara and me. She is so much fun and I am lucky to have her here.

The Holston's are so sweet. They came to my Bowling Party and brought me flowers! Cathy cheered me on the entire time even though I am terrible at bowling!

Ryan made my Birthday such a fun day. He made it special and did everything he could in order to make it just as good as a Birthday at home. I thought it was a day beyond perfection!

Kara made me delicious mini lave cakes! Ryan and I SCARFED them down.

At lunch we all took one of the super hot peppers out of the dish on the table and ate them at the same time. BAD IDEA! They were disgusting and our mouths were ON FIRE! The people here eat them like candy.

My Birthday card my parents sent to me! It was great to get some mail! Thanks for the card and gift mom and dad! Also my fabulous in-laws gave me ADORABLE LuLuLemon workout clothes! I am so excited about this gift. I am lucky to have fabulous parents and in-laws! Also Ryan surprised me. I thought that I had already been given my Birthday presents but NO...he had a surprise up his sleeve! He got me two more Helen Ficalora charms to add to my necklace. I already have the necklace and a "J" that my mom got me on a fun girls trip to NYC but Ryan had remembered me saying that I would love to add on to it sometime. He got a "T" and a crown with 2 diamonds. I don't have them yet because they were shipped to my parents house but I can't wait to see them! Thanks Ryan!

http://www.helenficalora.com/pg_AlphaCharms.asp

http://www.helenficalora.com/pg_Charm_CrownwDia.htm

Games in Turkey

This picture should be at the end of the post but this is when the people are leaving. This is 20 minutes after the game is already over and the fans are still yelling back and forth at each other. They wouldn't let the visitors leave until all of the Karsiyaka fans were gone and the groups outside were gone. There are usually about 60 policemen with full uniform sitting in the stands the entire game. Helmets, shields, guns, beating sticks the whole get up. Nothing serious has ever happened but at least we know they are ready! They finally formed a line along the seats and walked pushing out the fans. It was fun to watch and that's what you call loyal fans!

The fans are INCREDIBLE! It may not be the biggest arena but the fans are loyal and do not sit the entire game! The crowd is this big all the way around. There isn't a seat to be found unless you want to sit in the visitors section which I wouldn't recommend to anyone! They get yelled at and harassed the entire game. The arena is so loud that you can't even hear the person next to you. IT IS SO MUCH FUN!

This is the crowd about 45 minutes BEFORE the game even started.

I love this drawing. They also call Ryan Superman! Watch the 2 videos below...

Turkey Day in Turkey

This Thanksgiving was one we will never forget! We were able to celebrate 3 times! On Thanksgiving day we were invited over to a party with Americans. Ryan and I were walking in the grocery store and I knew I heard a man speaking English to his son. I ended up asking him and he is American. Him and his family have lived here for 9 years. He is so nice and his wife called and invited us over for Thanksgiving. There was a big group of people there to celebrate. There were 3 different families that have lived here for a number of years, Teachers that are living here while teaching English, people that were visiting Turkey and then US! Everyone was so nice and we ended up making a lot of new friends. We played such a fun game and ate tons and tons of food! Then on Sunday we had a Thanksgiving dinner with our Branch! It was kind of sad because all of the members were sick and couldn't come. It ended up being the Abney's, Huseyin with his wife and Ryan and me. We had enough food to feed an army!! Sister Abney made the most delicious food and yummy pumpkin pie from a real pumpkin! I made Apple crisp, pumpkin chocolate chip bread and sugar cookies. All of this food for 6 people! The 3rd Thanksgiving we celebrated (also on Sunday) was with Ryan's American teammates. Andre got us a Turkey and stuffing from the Army base and it tasted so delicious! We had the dinner at David Holston's apartment and his sweet mom cooked up a storm! Again I took desserts and those boys SCARFED them up. We played skip-bo and a fun game that I learned from the American group on Thanksgiving day. It was a great few days and we will always remember when we had Turkey in Turkey!

Sunday Thanksgiving with the Abneys, Huseyin and Harije.

Waiting for Huseyin to pick us up on Sunday.

This is our Sunday routine.

At the American dinner they made these adorable name tags and had one for every person!

Ryan playing the game with Todd and Gwen's cute boys

A few of the men at the dinner. Such nice people

The girls! We loved laughing about funny things that have happened to each of us here in Turkey.

Thanksgiving Day!

Sadly I didn't have my camera at the teammate dinner. I will try to get some pictures from someone else that was there.

There are so many things that I am grateful for. Being happily married to my best friend, all of my family, all of my friends, the Gospel, my health, yummy food and the list can go on and on. But the one thing I felt really grateful for this year is the opportunity that Ryan and I have to live here in Turkey. It has been hard at times because there are days that I feel homesick (like when my whole family was in Mexico for Thanksgiving) but overall I have learned so much and have really grown as a person. I have met so many amazing people and have learned how truly blessed we are. I am loving this little adventure I am on with Ryan and I will remember this Thanksgiving in Turkey forever.

Village of Yakakoy

I had another amazing opportunity to go with the Humanitarian Missionaries to a village called Yakakoy. It is a mountain village about 2 1/2 hours away from Izmir. It was an incredible day and there were multiple times I felt like I was in a movie. The mountains and scenery were amazing and there were so many things I never in my whole life would have expected to see. Just another adventure to add to the list of things I've done while in Turkey...

Look at this cute little lady. Huseyin rolled down his window and yelled "Hello my mother! How are you?" And she responded "Hello my dear son, please come in and visit." It just tells you about the Hospitality of Turkish people. She has no idea who Huseyin is but yet she wanted us to come in and visit with her.

The playground

The Art class! I would ask them to hold up their drawings and they would get so shy! So cute!

The Art Room

The girls playing at recess. They love to tap me on the shoulder and say "Hello my name is Beya. What is your name?" That is the only English they know but they love to practice!

When we first arrived to the school they put on a little assembly. I met a bunch of the adorable children and they would all run and pick me flowers! They made me feel so special! When the assembly was over we went and had a meeting with the Principal. After the meeting we went around to each classroom and said goodbye! When we went into one of the classrooms a sweet little girl had drawn me this picture and taped flowers to the paper. I loved it!

The cute little Kindergartners!

The boys were so funny. When we were getting ready to leave they would poke their heads out the school windows and yell "BYE!" and every time I would turn around say bye back they would giggle and duck down in the window. They did it multiple times and each time they would laugh harder and harder!

The Teachers and Staff of the school.

Kindergartners

They brought me flowers during the assembly

1st Graders

These are Huseyin's friends. They live in the city that is about 30 minutes before the village. We stopped at their house for lunch. We were expecting a light lunch or even just a few snacks...but NO they gave us a feast!

Pita with meats and cheeses

This is the table when we were finished. Pomegranates, mandarins, pita, tomatoes, lettuce, fruits I've never seen and a yogurt drink!

The Village we went to visit. It looked like a movie...

A man selling Mushrooms on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere! I guess there are famous mushrooms that only exist here in Turkey. I wish I would have taken a better picture of them but they are PINK! They look so interesting! This man wanders through the mountains and sleeps in the mountains until he has sold enough mushrooms to return home. What an interesting life.

I didn't dare try a mushroom. I am sure it would do something a little "special" to you if you know what I mean!

This is the end of another adventure I will never forget! There will be plenty more to come!

EMBARRASSING MOMENT

So the other day I asked Ryan to come to Migros (our grocery store) with me. I asked him to grab some cash before we left. He asked "Is 60 Lira enough?" And I replied "That's MORE then enough! Our groceries are never more than 40 Lira!" But Ryan being Mr. Prepared still brought the 60 Lira. We did our shopping which was not any more then we usually buy. There was only one extra thing I had added which was face wipes. We get to the check out stand which is already an ordeal. You don't realize how difficult it is to bag your own groceries AND try to communicate with someone in a foreign language. We finish bagging our groceries and the girl told us the total. As usual we didn't understand and so I asked her to show us the computer screen. 81.14 Lira!! WHAT? Ryan and I looked at each other in shear panic. I looked back at her and was trying to explain that we needed to take some things off of the total. When I looked back to talk to Ryan HE IS GONE! I was so confused! Had he left me because he was so embarrassed? What was going on! She wasn't understanding what I was saying so I just put the groceries in a cart and stood there trying to figure out what to do. Just when I was about to break down Ryan comes SPRINTING up and throws her another 40 Lira. He had run all the way home, gone up to the 16th floor, grabbed the cash and come all the way back within 5 minutes! It was amazing and hilarious all at the same time! Even the girl was laughing! I was so relieved. Yet again Ry guy comes to the rescue! This is something we will never forget and have still been laughing about for 3 days! The joys of living in a Foreign Country!

Instead of crepes being the big thing it is all about WAFFLES! They are thinner waffles and you choose whatever toppings you want! They have about 15 different flavors of pudding, ice creams, fruits, nuts, candy etc! They are so good!! We love chocolate pudding with banana!
We've discovered this amazing gyro place and it is SO yummy! This is going to sound incredibly random but this is what is in it...delicious kebab chicken, tomatoes, pickles, lettuce, FRENCH FRIES, mayo, ketchup and a pita! It is amazing and I can guarantee you would love this random concoction!
An early Birthday gift! Genius me forgot to bring warm workout clothes. I didn't bring any warm jackets and only 1 pair of long workout pants! SO...Ryan got me new workout shoes, a really warm, cute jacket AND these really cute workout capris (they make me feel like Jillian Michaels although I wish I looked like her in them)! I love them all! It is all a great Birthday gift! Thanks Ryan!

I can tell you one thing. If you were to spend one day in Turkey I can promise you would see a few things that you have NEVER seen before. I have been here for over 2 months and I am still seeing new things everyday. The other day I was driving down the street and what did I see? A HUGE CAMEL! It was all dressed in bright colored costumes and of course I wondered what it was for? Well...you'll never guess! The one and only "Camel Wrestling!" I was amazed. The things you'll see here in Turkey! Supposedly a camel can sell for 1 million dollars. I don't know if that is completely true but at least that gives you an idea of how much they love their camels! A camel takes priority over the owners children. I hear that if it comes between a camel and and the owner needing medicine the camel wins. I want to see camel wrestling in action someday!
I thought I would do a quick post of what I usually come home with from the Bizarre. In this picture I have dried apricots, clementines, apples, bananas, grapefruit, pears, almonds, black simple gloves, 2 huge pens for my niece and nephew and 3 pairs of ankle socks. Want to know how much this all cost me? 25 Turkish Lira. Want me to convert it for you? A little over $16 U.S. Dollars for all of this! The Bizarre is a wonderful thing and I am definitely a fan! I usually get the most amazing fresh pita but Ryan is out of town and it is too much to eat on my own. Jess + Cheap and amazingly fresh produce = love