Holidays in Turkey and Thailand

Hello Hello!
Well, I made it back Thursday morning from my 2 weeks in Thailand via Turkey, and it was a lot of fun! I flew from Dushanbe to Istanbul, where I had about a 13 hour layover, so I was able to take the metro downtown to Sultahnament square with a friend who was in transit back to the states. It was rather cold in Istanbul, colder than Dushanbe, and was a bit rainy. It actually started snowing a bit when I was waiting to catch the metro back to the airport. My friend got off a stop before me to go to her hotel, and so I headed off to see the sites on my own. The neat thing about Sultahnament square is that there are several really cool sites to see all within walking distance from each other. So, I walked over to the Haggia Sofia (the oldest church in Christendome) first... here are a few of the inside and out.. The Hagia is closed on Mondays (which was the day that I was passing through headed for Thailand, but I was able to make it down there on my way back through:)













Right as I was about to walk over toward the Blue Mosque, the call to prayer went out, which meant that the mosque would be closed for an hour, so I just started walking towards it to take some photos when this random guy decided to be my tour guide... long story short, he showed me around, taught me how to play batgammon while trying turkish apple tea, then there were several refusals on my part to hold his arm for me to get rid of him... but I was sure thankful the Lord made him depart from me! Here are the pics from the blue mosque and other things I saw on my day in Istanbul...

Waiting at the bus stop...

So, the other day I was waiting at the bus stop to catch the bus to go to my language lesson and I had quite the encounter with this interesting man in the picture above:) I had been standing there for a few minutes when I looked up and saw these cute russian women walking up the street, so I pulled out my camera to take a photo of them, when cigarette man tapped me on the shoulder and asked me to take his picture. My thought's were, "ok, that's harmless, 1,2,3.. snap!"



Well, after I took his picture and got the one of the old ladies, he motioned to me to take a picture of both of us together, so my thoughts again were, "harmless, I'll just snap it fast and then he'll leave me alone." As you can see I snapped it quite fast, hence I am halfway out of the photo:) haha...



Just a few short minutes after that, the bus arrived and he insisted on paying the 10 cents for me to get on, which I tried to refuse but with no success... The whole time while being smushed in with everyone else riding the bus he kept saying random things to me, some in russian and a few random english words, but rather loud, which made everyone around us stare at us even more. I just wanted the whole scene to end, but that just didn't happen. I got off after 2 stops to walk to the office where my language classes are, and didn't look back, hoping he didn't get off or wasn't following me. However, he appeared walking right next to me as I turned the corner for the office, and he proceeded to speak russian, which I kept telling him I didn't speak russian, but he managed to get out that he was from Armenia and his work was just up the street. Well I just kept veering away from him as much as I could, but he didn't notice when I turned to go into the office, and the driver, guard and several other men were standing out in front and were just staring at the whole scene of this random man talking really loudly to me, not noticing I was departing from him:) I'm sure they thought it was rather odd that this random man was walking and talking to me:) Anyhow... it's never boring getting out-and-about here for sure. I will be in Thailand for 2 weeks spending the Holidays with my parents... which I am rather excited about:) will keep you posted...

December 1st Snow!

Saturday was the first snow of the season here in Taj:) It was amazing! It was definately colder, but not cold enough to keep the snow from melting, so in the rain of snow, there was sludge everywhere:) Unfortunately, I lost my head in my pre-departure packing and forgot to get a pair of warm/FLAT/waterproof boots:) So, I had to brave wearing the short high hilled boots that I did bring with me to go pay our internet bill and the various errands we had to run... thankfully I didn't have any major falls, just a few ankle breakers:) haha... my roommate kept saying, " Staci, lets just slow down, you are really going to hurt yourself!" haha.. which just made me laugh because it reminded me of my dad when I had fallen on the ice in Mongolia:) Anyhow, the boots killed my feet, so I had to put on my non-waterproof flats after a few hours of trudging around town for some hope of comfort...
However, in the midst of such weather we found the amazing French cafe, we were able to soak in the beauty of the snow falling from the warm cozy scenery of the cafe. We sipped hot lemon tea for 2 and a half hours while also enjoying pumpkin soup, a roast beef sandwhich, and really good apple pie:) It was a huge splurge, but we felt we owed it to ourself:) Besides, we do walk everywhere! Ok, so that was our fun weekend outing... language today was the best it has been yet! I am enjoying understanding more for sure. Our apartment is lacking in the Holiday decor, but I can tune into the 24 hour christmas radio station via itunes, so that always brightens the mood (when the internet is being friendly) and we have managed to watch the grinch and recess christmas several times already since those are the only christmas movies I have:)... ok I must get some work done. I will leave you with a little christmas movie trivia...
quote the movie: "She falls in a well, her eyes goes crossed, she gets kicked by a mule and they go back to normal. I dunno!"