Not Constantinople

Daemon?

2007-08-13T07:01:00.000+01:00

I haven't read these books, but I think I'll have to. According to this story, a person's soul lives outside of their body in the form of an animal spirit. It's not fixed when you are a child, but as you settle into the person you are going to be, so the animal settles on a form. Apparently I'm a raccoon. I'm sure the correlation is a stretch, but I think that this would probably be the form of my patronus (had I a wand and a really happy memory to hand).

What do you think?

Deathly Hallows

2007-07-23T15:46:00.000+01:00

No spoilers here - but I did love the book. I started at about 3am GMT on Saturday and finished around 11pm that same day. I DID stop to sleep (for a few hours), eat, and wash myself, lest you think I'm obsessed or something.

I had a uniquely English experience when I got it on Friday night. It was nothing like the previous release parties I've been to in the US. No, this was even billed as a 'Line Party', which really didn't mean much to me - They talked about actors and activities and I assumed, wrongly, that this would be going on in some sort of dis-organised carnival style event. Oh no. We stood in line. 4 blocks from the store, and on a couple of occassions folks in costumes or toting bag pipes strolled by, but that was about it. It seems I had forgotten how much the English LOVE TO QUEUE! Apparently, the standing in line WAS the fun. Riiiiight.

Mostly we chatted like normal, froze our rears off (Yes, July though it may be, this is England) I knitted, and we tried to tune out the incredibly annoying woman in line in front of us. Now, as a person that frequently plays the role of 'incredibly annoying stranger' I wasn't too bothered by her, but she was about 21 and a really bossy sort of know-it-all type and it did get old. Lisa and Virginia and I were playing that game where you say a movie, then an actor from that movie, then a different movie with that actor etc...and whenever one of us would get stuck she would butt in! 5 hours with her was a long damn time.

I did not dress up for this event. I DID however spend about an hour sketching a Dark Mark on my left arm.

7.7.07

2007-07-09T22:11:00.000+01:00

So, details...I had tickets to Live Earth (big concert, you may have
heard) and I offered the second one to my friend Betsy, who it turns out
is related to the bass player for Foo Fighters (months I've known
her and she didn't bring this up!) Anyway, Nate (her cousin, the bass
player) gave us VIP "Artist Guest" Passes. They wouldn't get us
back stage or even better seats, but they DID get us into the VIP
lounge where all the famous people in the secured boxes got to eat and
drink for free.

I met Eddie Izzard, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ioan Gruffuld, Kyle Mclaughlin,
and my personal favourite, Dave Grohl and his 18 month old daughter. I
met a BUNCH of British stars that I didn't know from Adam (Kasabian
and one of the guys from Bloc Party are two I remember NOT recognizing)
Of course I played it too cool to actually get a photo with any of
them...I didn't want to be the annoying groupie...not sure if I regret that
or not.

Anyway, it was really cool. The sneaky candids may get posted later,
they didn't turn out well b/c it was kind of dark, and I was trying to
be sneaky!

Chocolate and Beer

2007-06-09T11:32:00.000+01:00

For the late May Bank Holiday, despite poor planning on my part, I managed to join two of my American friends on a trip to Belgium. We stayed in Brussels and spent a day in Bruges over the 3 day weekend. Unfortunatly I don't know a lot about European history (which has been bothering me more and more since I moved here...I need to start reading some non-fiction) so I had no idea what to expect from Brussels...except of course for Chocolate and Beer (and waffles).
They were having a Jazz festival in the Grand Place, I don't know who was playing, but it gave the whole area a really great energy and I love this picture of the incredibly modern stage set in front of the incredibly Gothic buildings in the square.

Bruges was not a city I was familiar with until a few months ago...but the Brits love it. It's a very small town near the coast of Belgium with loads of canals. Hundreds of years ago the Bruges Harbour apparently rivaled London's. Now it's very quiet, and sort of sleepy when it's not being over-run by tourists...which it usually is. This is a picture from the little cruise we took along the canal. No Gondolas here, so it's not quite like Venice.

We also visited a pub that had 400 different types of Belgian Beer. Between us we tried about 12...two were absolutely foul, and I will forever steer clear of the 'fruit' ones. The first of the foul ones was served in a wine bottle...weird.

The menu listed all 400 beers by type color-coded and indexed along with a description of each, so naturally, the menu was huge.

Flat Stanley goes to Paris

2007-06-09T11:21:00.001+01:00

My friend Andromeda, and the rest of her 2nd grade class sent Flat Stanley to me as part of a writing assignment and as luck would have it, he arrived the night before I left for Paris!

It was my third time to Paris, but my travel buddy had never been before, so we saw all the major sites, including the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre, Notre Dame, and Sacre Coeur.

We also saw an over-the-top show at the Moulin Rouge, but Stanley was too young for that.

Goettingen, Germany

2007-06-09T11:07:00.000+01:00

I was there for work, and with all the surrounding travel (and BA's effcient loss of my luggage) I didn't manage to engineer a weekend there, though I'd love to go back. Goettingen is a small, old college town that is pretty much in the center of Germany. I was there 3 days and 2 nights, and did manage to have some really good food, beer, and morning walks mixed in with all the work I was doing.

This is a picture of the town square that I took one morning at about 6am, when the bakeries were in full swing and the rest of the town was just waking up.

I don't know much about this statue, but it's lovely, and most of the postcards of the town sported an image of it decorated with fresh flowers.

Uneventful trips to the US

2007-06-09T10:18:00.000+01:00

I have no good pictures of the trips I took to the US, and as they were all locations I have been to (or lived in) on a number of occassions, were are going to take artistic license and skip them. Except for a brief nod to my friend Andromeda, whose 8th birthday party I actually made it to before heading to Germany.

Even this is not a good picture. Usually I love my camera, but I can't adjust the shudder speed and children move too fast to be captured without fuzzy edges.

She made out like a bandit though...the sheer number of balloons alone. Luckily her dad has a van.

Two months and no posting

2007-06-09T09:56:00.000+01:00

What can I say...anyone who used to check this blog has probably stopped by now, because I never put anything new here. But since I have a link to this on my CouchSurfing profile, I should probably be a little better about updating it. It's not as though I haven't been traveling or doing post worthy things...I'm just not a natural blogger. But I have two months worth of travel and hijinks to post about, and in the words of the Mad-Hatter, "Start at the beginning, go until you get to the end, and then, stop."

In those two months I have, visited Goettingen, Paris, Brussels, Bruges, and the US (twice). Best to divide the posts by topic I suppose.

A bit of clarification

2007-04-17T00:40:00.000+01:00

In case you are from the Midwest and might not know what a 'chav' is:

Definitions of chav on the Web:

Chav is a derogatory slang term in popular usage throughout the UK. It refers to a subculture stereotype of a person who is uneducated, uncultured and prone to antisocial or immoral behaviour. The label is typically, though not exclusively, applied to teenagers and young adults of white working-class or lower-middle class origin. Chav is used for both sexes, where a male chav is sometimes referred to as a chavster and a female as a chavette...

If you are looking to kill some time, I recommend reading some of the definitions of 'chav' posted on www.urbandictionary.com they are a little more in depth and colorful...

Problems with authority

2007-04-17T00:27:00.000+01:00

So, I actually wrote this in an email to Jonathan, typing with my thumbs on my blackberry because I still had hours before my flight and I was really worked up by the little brat (not Jonathan, the chav to be named a few inches below). I meant to post it much sooner, but I was on my way to Houston for Easter, and I wasn't around a computer for awhile...anywho, the events might be out dated, but the frustrations were eternal.

Date: Apr 4, 2007 12:28 PM
Subject: Yep, too early

So I woke up at 7am dispite having gone to bed at 3:30. I felt refreshed and excited, but I had been in my office travel mode the night before (you know, since my flights usually left at 6am, I would do absolutely everything the night before including shower and picking out what to wear). I was antsy at home (because I was ready to go something like 20 minutes after I'd stepped out of bed even with a healthy amount of dawdling) so I left 90 minutes earlier than I had even considered logical. I got to gatwick a full 3.5 hours early, to catch a mid-day mid-week flight. It took me a total of less than 15 minutes to check in and clear security...and that even counts doubling back for a cigarette after the 17 year old power-junkie told me my carry on was too big ("well maybe it was okay elsewhere, but never from Gatwick. Please leave the queue and check it" Dick.). So I left the queue, made a loop, smoked a cigarette and decided to go through the other end of the line, and if the little chav called me out I would say I'd gone to the loo and repacked it in hopes that it would meet their regulations. (Insert eyelash batting and a feigned southern accent as needed) Luckily he was on a power trip with a mob of german tourists about the type of baggy they had for their liquids or something trivial. The much more realistic woman I passed waved me after visually measuring the bag.

Funny that I'm so annoyed still, I mean, I got away with it. And as a seasoned traveller I tend to accept that 1 in 3 trips I'm going to be hassled for one reason or another - I consider that my security bill, if you will. It's what I have to put up with for safer air travel. (Or at least the appearance of safer air travel) it must have been his attitude. I really don't get too burned up about donating lighters or taking off my shoes (which I didn't have to do here) Or hell, even having 2 weeks of dirty laundry laid bare by customs. It all comes down to courtesy. At least the kid's getting his satisfaction here instead of getting a job at a daycare or senior citizens centre, picking on the weak.

Ok, I've spun this way out of proportion. Maybe he just hadn't had enough coffee. But more importantly, why do we have teens working airport security now?

Long day

2007-04-12T20:15:00.000+01:00

For those of you that have actually spoken to me since I've been here, you've probably heard me complain about the bells in the nearby church. They are at it again, 75 minutes and counting now.

So I've spent a great deal of time thinking about (read: dreading) today. The 12th of April, that is. Elaine died a year ago today, and I feel pretty pathetic when I dwell on it. I really miss her. A year later I am still of two minds about it. On one hand it is the most tragic thing I can think of, even if it wasn't so personal, even if she hadn't been my best friend since the 5th grade. On the other hand it still seems like the most ludicrous thing imaginable. I mean WTF?! I still feel like that. The week after she died everyone kept saying how time was dragging on, things like "I feel like I've lived a month since Tuesday" And the whole time I just wanted to scream: "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! What just happened?! Could things just slow down for a second!?!" Everything happened so fast, and I can't believe it's been a year.

I've had a weird little mantra that's been pulsing away in my head lately but it dawned on me this morning that today was probably NOT the anniversary of the worst day of my life - I'm pretty sure that yesterday was. Lainey died at about 2am on the 12th, and the day that followed was probably the most surreal I've ever experienced, but I spent all day on the 11th trying to keep my head together and get back to Iowa in time to say goodbye. I was a complete wreck - God bless my roommate for a) making me leave work before I burst into tears, and b) for sedating me with the Xanax he keeps on hand for emergencies. And god bless my baby sister and my mom for driving up to get me. I still wished I'd gotten there a little sooner, but that's not what matters now. I wish I had more pictures of the two of us together - but neither of us ever much cared for pictures.

Here's to you Lainey. Say Hi to Kurt Vonnegut for me.
-A

What am I, 12?!?

2007-03-26T18:55:00.000+01:00

So, I have tonsillitis. Again. That's twice in 10 months, and easily the 6th time in my life. So help me, if I wasn't 4,000 miles away from my mommy and daddy I'd have demanded that my doctor (who is quite possibly younger than me...ouch) take them out. You here me tonsils?!

On the upside, I did finally figure out how the whole NHS thing works here, and I have to say - not bad at all. Part of it could just be that I found a really good doctor's office, so I'll reserve judgement on the system as a whole for a while longer. But I really was impressed. The only real hassle was trying to get through this morning. They don't answer the phone until 9am, and apparently everybody on God's green earth calls the office then. But I DID get through, and I DID get an appointment for today. I showed up 5 minutes early, waited less than 10 to see the doctor, and it was actually the doctor that greated me in the waiting room so there was no 20 minute intermission between getting my temperature taken and actually seeing the doctor. And the prescription cover is excellent I paid about what my co-pay would have been in the US. (I was a little worried about that)

The bummer of course is that I have an immovable deadline looming at work and I'm well and truly sick. Damn.

Too excited to focus

2007-03-13T19:27:00.000Z

Ok, so maybe I have had a few bouts of homesickness. Well disguised though (and well deserved I suppose...I am more than 4,000 miles from home) Mostly it's little frustrations about not understanding things that everyone around me takes for granted, or the fact that I don't have a well established circle of friends here.
This all comes to mind because my friend Jonathan (my first official visitor) will be arriving in less than 12 hours, and for some reason that still seems like ages. Yes, he is my best friend, and yes, I haven't seen him since Christmas, but I think it's a little more than that - I've got a little slice of home coming and I can't wait.

That said, judging London against Chicago on all things that don't include people and opening hours of everything from grocery stores to night clubs to public transit - London beats the HECK out of Chicago in my book. There are the obvious reasons, including theatre and history, but I think it's also got a lot to do with the fact that London is such an international city - not that Chicago isn't, but it's on a whole different level. English is definitely the common denominator language in public places, but whether you are sitting at a cafe, walking through the park or riding the bus there is almost always someone rattling along in another language within earshot. Oh, and get this, even downtown, in the heart of the City, you can actually see the stars! And I'm not talking one or two bright ones (that may or may not actually be planets or deceptively slow moving aircraft) I mean you can actually see the stars! Constellations and all! Now it's nothing like the ink black sky littered with little diamonds that you get so often in places like Iowa for instance, but it is still a real comfort to me.

I took my first walk through Kensington Gardens on Sunday, and it was excellent. The little fountains and monuments that are scattered among the trees and ponds and gentle hills, but some how the vibe was just better than Lincoln Park. I don't know if it was the increased diversity (not just 20 & 30 something couples and dog walkers) or the fact that so many people seemed to be actually looking at everything, and absorbing it. I'm trying to describe something that probably doesn't make a lot of sense - and I'm not trying to put Chicago down or anything. It just seemed to me that most of the people around me were actually appreciating the park. Of course, they were probably all tourists, which would explain it.

I took loads of pictures. Here's one of the famed Peter Pan statue (some of you may recall that Peter Pan told Wendy that he lived in Kensington Gardens after he ran away from home, before finding Neverland)

And these are of the Italian fountain at the North end of the Park.

I'll be sure to check out Princess Diana's Memorial Fountain next time. There was an article in the paper about how the city has spent more than 200,000 GBP to maintain it in the last year (of course the city says that that averages out to less than 28p per visitor...and says it's worth it)

Ok, I think I'll keep myself busy with some last minute house work in honor of Jonathan's visit...

Food etc.

2007-03-10T12:41:00.000Z

Look at me, 2 posts in 1 week!

I just got back from the Notting Hill Farmer's Market (about a 10 minute walk from my flat!) And I'd like to share some of the sights. Of course, the smells sometimes the most interesting part, but they haven't figured out how to transmit those over the internet (yet) Come to think of it we are probably lucky about that. SPAM would be a whole different demon then. But I digress. This is a picture of the whole market - not very big.

Part of me always new that sprouts grew on stalks...but that doesn't mean I ever really gave up the image of millions of little sprouts growing in rows like miniature cabbages. A minute later there was an adorable little girl investigating them (the stalks were easily 6 inches taller than her) I didn't snap a photo of that though, because her mother didn't look like the sort that would approve.

These two pictures were taken at the Borough Market a few weeks ago...apparently it is open everyday, but it is heaving on Saturdays. And why shouldn't it be? It's hard ot find a place where you can by your fowl with the feathers still attached... and one day I must try Haggis. Ok, and my final weird food pic is a bowl of bubble & squeak that I made the mistake of ordering last night for no reason other than I've never had it. After passing my own judgement on it (hmmm, uhm, yuck), both the Aussie I was dining with and the waiter nodded in agreement. Apparently it's tradtionally all the left overs from Sunday roast dinners (lots of potato and cabbage and random vegetables) thrown in a pan and cooked down until it's browned all over. And I'm told that the name comes from the sounds it supposedly makes when you cook it...but I reckon it stuck because nothing in it is recognisable enough to warrant being part of the name.

I suck

2007-03-06T19:56:00.000Z

I don't email people back, and I never post to my blog, and I've lived in my flat for more than a month without so much as emailing a picture of the living room to my own mother (who is celebrating a birthday today BTW. Happy Birthday Mom!)

Apparently it wasn't just my lack of internet that kept me incommunicado all that time. I'm just miserable at keeping in touch. And for some reason I get the feeling that that's not going to change any time soon. Oh well. Know your demons, that's what I always say.

But I do have some killer photos, including this one, which is the view out my living room window at about 6am last week. As is usually the case with a sunrise, the camera really can't capture it. I had only been out of bed for about 15 seconds (not joking) when I was fumbling around for my camera. The sky was a burning red/pink, so much so that the image distorted in the picture and brought out some unnatural blues and purples in the rest of the frame. Even still, it's a pretty great picture. That's St. Mary Abbott's Church in the background, and the weird light/tower to the right of it is an old department store that's being renovated into a mall (which will include London's first Whole Foods)

At this, at long last, is my flat. There is still a great deal of STUFF that doesn't have a home yet...the apartment was rented to me furnished, but I've had to procure a desk and additional shelving. Excuses, excuses. The fact is that even if I really wanted my place to look neat and tidy and orderly and well designed etc. It never would. There is just something about me and my things (or rather the sort of things I keep around me) that will always look a little disorganized and funky. But I suppose there are worse things. I'm not going to bore you with pictures of every room (though for those of you with the unexplainable need to see my hallway, kitchen and lack of a door knob, they'll all be on my photoset soon. www.flickr.com/photos/abigayle57/ )

The one other thing I've got to share though is the bathroom. Most specifically, the shower. For those who have spent time in Europe, this won't shock you, but I've got say, I've been here two months and I am still not used to it. Notice anything different about this bathroom? The shower in particular. No, I'm not talking about the weird water pressure gadget, there is something missing from this picture. Yeah, no shower curtain, just a puny little barrier to make sure that the toilet paper roll doesn't get wet. Virtually none of the flats I looked at had them...I mean why would they? Who could possible want to contain the water to the area with a drain. And why keep the steam and warmth in the little area where you're naked and soaking wet when you can share it with the whole room and drastically decrease the effect? And the Brits love their cold drafts. I'm not bitter. How about a close-up for emphasis.
It's worth noting too, that I had to open my front door and step into the stairwell to get that first shot of my bathroom...it's a pretty narrow hallway.

So that's it, the long awaited post about my flat. Hope you liked it. Tune in again soon for pics of yours truly playing amature tour guide to a heard of college students from my hometown!

I miss the internet

2007-02-06T18:15:00.000Z

URGH!!! <--- That's how frustration sounds in my head.

I don't have internet in my new flat yet - it will be two more weeks probably - and my last week in the temp flat the internet was down (along with the stupid elevator)

To make matters worse, all web mail sites are blacklisted from the network here in the office, so even though I'm perfectly willing to stay after hours a little bit to catch up on the personal stuff, I can't.

Luckily they haven't blocked blogger yet, so tonight I've stayed after hours to make use of the internet connection and download last week's episode of Grey's Anatomy. Technically I could go to an internet café, but I haven't found one next to the new pad yet, and to be honest, I'm a little lazy for that. On Saturday I'll probably cart my laptop to Starbucks and clear out my inbox there.

The new place is fantastic! Apart from the upstairs neighbour that seems to be suffering from a nasty case of Tuberculosis...my flat is off the second landing up the stairs and he (I assume it's a he) has a tendency to stop to catch his breathe (and hack up a lung) just outside my door. Luckily this happens during waking hours only once or twice a day.

I'd post pictures, (of the flat, not the neighbour) but of course my camera cable is at home, where there is no internet connection. Sorry, you'll have to wait for that.

So, my latest fascination here in England is the use of the letter 'L' in spelling everyday words. Not that there is much rhyme or reason in American English as to when it's a double or a single 'L', but I've had years memorising that words are spelled a certain way. For instance, in American English you have 'dial' which becomes 'Dialing' or 'dialed', but here in Britain it would be spelled 'dialling' and 'dialled'. Fine, I can remember that. But next comes 'enrol'...that doesn't even look like a word to me! Or how about 'fulfil'?!

Oh, and the best part about all this...even this blog is being scrutinised by a British spell checker! I just learned that 'spelled' isn't even a word here...it should be 'spelt'! What kind of word is that? AHHH! Learnt instead of Learned! I have to stop this...where do I turn off the spell checker?

Key differences

2007-01-29T22:00:00.000Z

It's not an elevator, it's a lift.

The @ symbol and the " are swapped on the keyboard for no reason whatsoever.

Nail polish is nail varnish.

It's not a cell, it's a mobile.

And it's not a restroom or a ladies' room or even a bathroom - it's the toilet (often labeled water closet, but never actually called that). I never really realized how crude I consider the word toilet to be...but I really can't bring myself to ask someone where the toilet is, or excuse myself to go to the toilet. But if you ask someone where the restroom is you will be greeted with a blank stare - and in one extreme case, I was directed toward the seating area in the lobby.

Live from London!

2007-01-27T00:21:00.000Z

I've been living in London for 18 days at this point, and I'll admit that I've done a pretty poor job of keeping my friends and family updated...so without further ado:

The basics: Housing
For the time being I'm living in corporate housing. It's a studio apartment on the 6th floor of a building with a busted elevator (there's a story for ya). It's about a 10 minute walk from the office, and it's a great walk too - right past St. Paul's and down to Fleet Street.
The building and the studio apartment are actually really nice, but this is by no means a residential area, it's actually a small pedestrian shopping street tucked behind St. Paul's.

Next weekend I get to move into my own flat in Kensington. It's kind of small, but it's got a great layout and it's in a fantastic location. It's fully furnished, with a spare bedroom and a working fireplace, and like most apartments around here it has a washer and dryer in the kitchen as well as a mini-dishwasher. It's very close to the Tube and some great shopping and pubs.

Work:
I hit the ground running when I got here, but I've had the last week off for "settling in", and come Monday I think things will feel more official. The office is beautiful and it's tucked into a little courtyard off Fleet Street. Everyone has been really friendly.
Of course the offices are open-plan, meaning we don't have proper cubicles - more like tables with little 10 inch partitions. I sit about 3 feet from my boss, which is both bonding and vaguely disturbing.

2005-05-11T02:31:00.000+01:00

So, I haven't blogged here for awhile, and I think it's about time. I'm having trouble deciding which other pictures if any I want to post here. I get the distinct impression that this blog is pretty much a private site - as much as I know that anyone could access it, I don't think that anybody really will.

Things have all felt pretty surreal since I've come back from my trip. I look at the pictures, and remember taking them, but it feels like it was a lifetime ago. I'm not sure why, but I imagine it has something to do with how AMAZING my trip was, and how much the SAME my life is in the States. Perhaps everyone feels like that after a great vacation.

The only parallel I have in my own life was the time I spent living in Ecuador that summer during college. But that was so different I have trouble comparing the two. For one thing, I was gone long enough during such a volatile period of my life (between sophomore and junior year of college) that not only did I change while I was there, but my world in Iowa changed while I was gone too. I knew before I boarded the plane that my life would permanently be cut into two pieces - before Ecuador, and after.

I guess with all that went on during my vacation, I kind of feel like that now, as if there should be a clear cut difference in my life before and after - but there doesn't seem to be. And logically, I can't see why there would be. I wasn't gone very long, and I came back to the same living situation, the same job, the same friends, and thus, the same life. If the trip did change me, I'm probably too close to the situation to be a good judge, and perhaps, whatever changes there have been will require specific situations to show themselves.

Basically I just smoke more now than I did before I left.

Me in Sultanahmet

2005-04-30T03:31:00.000+01:00

Me in Sultanahmet
Originally uploaded by abigayle57.

Personally I think that the Blue Mosque looks like something out of a fairy tale, or perhaps Disneyland (sad, American opinion I realize) In this picture I am facing the entrance to the Hagia Sophia - it amazes me how these two majestic buildings face each other like that. The park in between has a modest but beautiful fountain and was exploding with colored flowers, mostly tulips.

2005-04-27T02:47:00.000+01:00

The Spinach Pizza we ordered on Stephanie's birthday came with Hard boiled eggs on it! It was actually really good.

2005-04-27T02:45:00.000+01:00

Inside a Mosque

Sultanahmet

2005-04-25T22:21:00.000+01:00

Sultanahmet
Originally uploaded by abigayle57.

View of the old part of Istanbul (Sultanahmet) from the Galata tower, cross the Golden Horn.

Introduction

2005-04-25T22:06:00.000+01:00

Using my beloved friend Stephanie (dedicated Peace Corps volunteer that she is) as an excuse to skip the country for awhile, I cashed in a bunch of frequent flyer miles for a direct flight from Chicago to Istanbul on Friday April 8th, 2005. I spent 5 days in Istanbul before boarding a bus to Varna, Bulgaria where Steph is currently volunteering. I stayed for a week, during which we celebrated her birthday twice. Then it was back on the bus, and back to Istanbul for another 3 1/2 days. I got back to Chicago yesterday afternoon.

During the course of my trip I took 454 photos with my digitial camera. The main purpose of this blog, at least for now, is to show off my favorite photos.

There are some constraints as I am working primarily from a Mac (lovely, amazing machine) but I'll work out the bugs as I go along.

I will gladly answer any questions that you have about a particular picture - and you know that I could talk for hours about my trip, but I'll save that for the next time I see you in person.