Turkey Day

Well, I was going to post a picture of Stonehenge from Carla's visit to meditate on while you all think about blessings and what you're thankful for today, but I'm currently unable to post pictures (what's new).

I have had a brilliant, if very unorthodox, Thanksgiving. Today was the first day of the first module of my Bobath: Normal Movement course. I was fascinated the entire day-- the lecturer is very good, very down-to-earth, very easy to follow. And during the practical sessions, I learned a fair bit about my own body...mainly, that I don't have "normal" posture. When I sit, I have an anterior pelvic tilt, so when asked to sit up straight, I over-exert my hip flexors and fix with my shoulders, which basically means I lean forward. When I stand, again my pelvis is tilted anteriorly, and I fix with my shoulder girdles to maintain my standing balance. Therefore, when the lecturer tried to lift my arm up, my entire body moved with it. When she moved my pelvis into a more posterior tilt, and then lifted my arm up, just my arm moved. There was also some very interesting stuff in supine (lying on my back on a gym bed), where I have a ridiculously extended neck (the top of my head pushes back into the bed, bringing my chin up) among other things...but the really cool thing was, I now have a new party trick!! I know how to "talk" to people's feet, so I can get you to bend your knee and lift your leg with my hand while you are lying on your back. Without any effort on your part. Cool, eh? Believe it or not, this does have practical application in OT, but I'm not going to go into that here-- but I'm very excited about putting this to use with my patients!

So then I came home, popped the turkey breast joint into the oven, and hot-footed it over the gym, where I had a really good workout today! It was one of those days where I just felt great, I could have run forever, did some good stretching, and work with the weights, and was singing all the way home. And I arrived just in time to take out the turkey, help with the veg, and pop open the Asti! We had mashed potatoes, stuffing, turkey, corn, broccoli, and gravy of course. De-licious! Although this isn't the big celebration-- Saturday is the big big turkey feast and house party, with quite the crowd expected. And tomorrow's a big night on the town...well, what can I say, the holidays are finally here, and 'tis the season to be merry! I think I've got parties and nights out for every weekend from here til Christmas.

But for now, it's time for bed, with Black Friday visions dancing in my head. I am truly envious of those of you who will partake, but I will do a little bit of my own Black Friday shopping online, early tomorrow morning before work. Hey, can't break tradition! And then whoopee, our course finishes at 2:30pm tomorrow afternoon, what on earth will I do with all that extra time?!

My love to all, I miss you all, I hope you are all healthy and happy and with your families and friends today.

I cannot do anywhere near as good of a turkey as my dad can do, and wouldn't know how to post the sound clip on here anyway, so Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! I do believe that mostly everyone who passes through here is family or friend, so let me take a small moment of your time to say thanks for being you, and thanks for being a part of my life-- it is that much richer because of you. I am blessed with a warm and loving family (this includes you Heilalas, Burks, and Aveyards) and I am blessed with caring, loyal friends. I think in this life you should count your lucky stars if you manage to find just one true friend...I must have done something right in a past life, because I have several who would do anything for me as they know I would do for them (you know who you are). I would be lost without you, in both good times and hard times. You all are the reason that my life is meaningful. I will be thinking of everyone today...my housemates and I are celebrating with a small turkey dinner tonight as Nicole and I decided we had to do something for the actual day. But the big feast with lots of friends and acquaintances is on Saturday. So I'll be thinking of you all then, too :) From the bottom of my heart, Happy Turkey Day. Love, Allison.

The Dalyan Mud Bath

Yay! I can post pics to the blog again!! Hope you enjoy the following abbreviated sequence of my mud bath adventures (the whole series can be reached through the Flickr badge in my sidebar)...Maja refused to do the mud bath thing, so the pics are just of me.

Oh, but first, quick story that I've been laughing about all night. Annette and I did a long home visit today, where we kept insisting that the man always walk with his walker/frame. He had a stroke and his left knee buckles and he really isn't safe to walk on his own or with just the stick/cane. When it came time to leave, he followed us to the door, with his walker like a good little doobie, and as the front door shut and locked behind us, we heard a loud thud. Annette and I just stared at each other for a minute, in stunned silence, and next thing I know, Annette is on her knees, pushing open the mail slot in the door trying to see if he's on the floor, calling "Mr. M, Mr. M are you alright?" If he had actually fallen, it wouldn't be funny...but he didn't, and I've been laughing about Annette on her knees, looking for an elderly man on the floor through the mail slot of his front door.

The mud bath felt almost as hot as a thermal spring, and pretty much smelled like one too, that lovely sulferous odor

The muddy water didn't really stick to you, so you had to grab a handful off the bottom, the good stuff!

Smearing it on...the best slimy mud was right near the steps into the bath

Well, it was meant to be an Ah-nold, muscle man pose, but you could argue for monkey too. Come to think of it, lately, that's the same thing, isn't it...

My version of Aphrodite...or my version of a castmember from Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, if you prefer ;)

Domo arigato, Mr. Roboto

Scarlett

I've been told numerous times that I look like Julia Stiles. I've never really minded as I happen to think she's absolutely beautiful, a gifted actress, and as I've often quipped, "well, I'm not suprised, she's me if my life had gone the way it was supposed to." Although I've also said that of Natalie Portman, though I don't look like her-- that one sprang from her performance in the title role of The Diary of Anne Frank in NYC. A role I also played, but in a mere high school play performance.

Anywho, the Sunday edition of the Daily Mail (you have to be careful what paper you read around here, people often take it as an indication of your political persuasion- the Mail is relatively harmless) had an interview with Scarlett Johansson. In many ways I'm very impressed with her views and opinions, and general take on life, though obviously that's hard to capture within the confines of a two-page spread. She talks about enjoying her status as a sex-symbol, but also how hard she works to make sure her image isn't cheapened, and to make sure that sexy is not the only thing she is known for. With regard to body image, she now falls into my hero category of good role models for young girls, with statements like this: "I don't understand this obsession for being stick-thin. I could never be like that--it's just not my body shape. I would never stress about losing my curves, because curves are what make women look like women. They are what make you sexy." Amen, sister!!!

It made me laugh because it reminded me of a comment Maja made during our day trip to Dalyan, where several members of the tour were from the UK. There were a number of youngish looking couples, and Maja commented on how the men were particularly good-looking, but their partners were not. And I realized that is exactly one of the things I love about the UK- there is less concern with external beauty, and more concern with internal beauty. Or something. (One of the girls on that trip sounded like an unhappy complainer, but maybe she was just tired.) And generally speaking, guys here are very appreciative of curvy women!

Turkiye

Right, well, Blogger is still not cooperating with the photos, but you can see most of them by using the Flickr badge on the sidebar to get to my Flickr account.

I spent a good chunk of today wandering around Camden Lock Market, given that it was such a gorgeous sunny day. Amazingly enough, I did not buy anything, but that may have a lot to do with all the money I just spent in Turkey, plus I'm still hooked on all the Arabian stuff, so a lot of things today just didn't look exotic enough ;) I walked around in flip flops, because who knows for how long I'll be able to keep doing that, but also after a week in sneakers/flats I think my feet have finally begun to forgive me for the high heels and wedges on nights out during the holiday.

A clarification: my mom had some sort of panic attack when she read about my tattoo. Apparently she hasn't looked at the pics yet, because if she had, she would have seen that this one is just henna. However, after 29 years of being vehemently opposed to tattoos, I am suddenly strangely fascinated. Ok, ok, maybe not 29 years, but at least 19. Anywho, oddly enough, I am considering a real tattoo...however, I might have to be seriously drunk to be able to go through with it. And I'm thinking it would be a pretty cool birthday gift to myself, but I will need someone with me to watch over the process if I'm going to self-anaesthetize myself with alcohol. What do you say, Viv, maybe something you can hold my through in Thailand or the Philippines in March? It's not a final decision, people, but I'm thinkin' on it.

I guess I will sum up some of what Maja and I did with our week in paradise, even though I can't punctuate it with pictures as I was hoping. We did a fair amount of shopping, the lion's share of which was probably jewelry. Although Maja spent a long time in a ceramics store, and went home with absolutely gorgeous hand-painted bowls and a vase. We did buy each other anklets on this trip (in the Dominican Republic we bought each other larimar rings). Although neither time have they been matching, we're not that cheesy...sheesh. Other things that we did in Bodrum itself (which was about 8 km from our hotel) were to visit the castle, sit at cafes and drink apple tea (something I introduced Maja to, and thankfully I can get easily at the Turkish Food Centre down the road from me), I tried donor kebab (delicious), and we watched all the kitties hanging out. Two years ago, Kristy and I discovered that Athens is the land of stray dogs, and Bodrum is apparently its counterpart for kitties. They were so cute! but I knew better than to be petting them. Oh yes, and we also discovered that Bodrum is another city that never sleeps. The shops stay open till midnight, and the clubs and bars never close! There was a really cool Catamaran club where you actually dance on a boat that sails out into the harbor, and has a glass floor, with small taxi boats that come every half hour throughout the night for people who want to leave before 6am, a couple of interesting bars on--wait for it--Bar Street, but by far my favorite was Halikarnas, an open air club on the shoreline across from Bodrum Castle. My biggest complaint in general about our nights out was that everything was techno, techno, techno everywhere. However, we did get some relief at Halikarnas where they put some R&B and hip hop stuff into the mix for a grand total of oh, about 30 minutes from midnight to 5am. They had awesome live acts, including three female dancers (I'm sure the highlight for many men there was the act where they wore white bikinis and danced in showers of water on stage), some hip hop male dancers who did some incredible moves that involved standing on each other in Matrix-esque poses, a Jamaican female singer with an awesome voice who sang live on top of whatever the DJ was playing, and lots more that I'm not remembering at the moment. Except for the foam, which they turned on around 3:30am. Not my favorite part. But overall, second only to Life in NYC, they did such a great job with the live show, and better than Life because it was open air and in paradise. And then there was the fact that I saw a shooting star that night, er, morning, as we finally got back to the hotel just before dawn- you'd have thought I'd won the lottery I was so excited, but it was just the perfect ending to a fantastic night. Oh, and those dolmuses I mentioned earlier (the cheap taxi buses)- they run all night long, so no horrendous highway robbery taxi fares!

Maja and I went on two day trips while we were there. One was to Dalyan, where we got on a boat, and first visited the mud baths. This is something that apparently Bosnians don't do, and I got very frustrated with Maja, but she wouldn't budge. So she took my camera and documented my fun with the bath, picking the mud up off the bottom to smear all over myself, and hamming it up with different poses once I'd been standing in the sun for awhile. It was funny, I did look a little like those street performers who paint themselves like statues, once the mud had dried. And yes, my skin did feel great once I'd rinsed off. We also visited these amazingly intricate cliffside tombs, built around 400 BC by the Lycians (though in the Greek style). And we spent some time after lunch on the famous Iztuzu Beack, better known as Caretta Caretta beach, caretta being the world for turtle. Loggerhead Sea Turtles have been nesting there for eons. Although we weren't there during the season, so there were no restrictions on where we could go. We were able to swim in the Mediterranean, (our hotel beach was on the Aegean), which was as warm as bath water, and had waves. Maja told me she didn't do waves, but I did get her to go in, and I had a ball doing hand stands, floating on my back, doing flips and dives over the waves. Oh, and I got a great picture of this lone Muslim woman covered from head to ankle, cooling off in the surf, amongst all the tourists. And they sucker-punched us on the way back that night, stopping at a jewelry factory, as they are apparently wont to do with these tours. I walked away with a silver belly chain, couldn't resist, but once the length was fixed by a silversmith back in Sarajevo, I must say I'm very happy with it!

Generally speaking, it was pretty hot, in the mid to high 90s all week (30-34 degrees Celsius), and all the restaurants in Bodrum were spraying mist from their roofs for the tourists to walk through. But of course, on the day of our party boat trip around Bodrum peninsula, it was very windy. So much so that there were waves and whitecaps at the hotel. But it turned out to be a good call to be on the boat. Once you laid down on the sunbeds on the top level, the wind was almost completely cut down. Plus the boat anchored in all the sheltered coves, so we were able to frolic and play in crystal clear, warm, calm bluey-greeny waters. Maja and I got some good color on that trip, met some fun Israeli guys we went out to a club with one night, said no to a camel ride on Camel Beach (the poor things were muzzled and tied down on their knees in between riders), and took some great pics.

Our hotel was absolutely great, once we got past the no-smoking room issue on the first day. We walked into our room and immediately started coughing the smoke smell was so bad. But the woman who answered our call at the front desk didn't want to give us a new room, and after offering that someone come down with a no smoking spray for the room, basically wiped her hands of us, and said we couldn't speak to a manager until the next morning. We were actually up at the front desk a short while later, and she pretended complete ignorance of the entire situation. But as it turned out, a different woman the next day (I don't know if she was a supervisor or not), did have some concept of customer service, and gave us a new room. It wasn't a no-smoking room, since out of 260-odd rooms they only have 8 that are non-smoking, but at least it didn't smell too badly of smoke. Other than that, our hotel was great. There was a beautiful pool, a private beach (pebbles, but small pebbles, I was ok with it) with calm turquoise waters, lots of waterfront activities, fitness rooms, massages available, 5 or 6 different bars, and an amazing smorgasbord of food for every meal. The beach, where we spent a great deal of time, also had straw umbrellas, padded sun loungers, and great big pillows you could lie on alone or use on top of your lounger. The beach was very European, in the sense that none of the guests except for me and Maja were speaking English, and in the sense that about half of the women were topless at any given time. We were rather put off by the girl who plonked down her chair in the surf just in front of us, and sat there topless with her legs spread wide, plucking the stray hairs off her bikini line with a pair of tweezers. It was right up there with the screaming, laughing Russian girls who came in at the end of our foam massage in the hamam, running around splashing each other with water, getting it all over us, and diving onto our massage mats the minute we vacated them, screaming, screaming all the while. Overall, our resort experience was fabulous, but there were these few episodes of eurotrashiness. The hotel put on a big Turkish night on 30 August, because it was their Victory Day, since apparently they've only had their independence as the Republic of Turkiye since 1922. They had belly dancers, fireworks, traditional dancers, and a traditional Turkish band, among other things, and there were Turkish flags everywhere in the resort and all over Bodrum. Not a trip I'm likely to forget any time soon :)

Bosnia, Bosnians, Sarajevo...ah hell, it's pretty much a stream of consciousness post

As some of you may have already discovered, quite a number of my pictures have now been added to Flickr, which you can access from the sidebar. I haven't finished adding the captions, though.

I'll start with Sarajevo and Bosnians, since that is how my trip began and ended. I arrived in Sarajevo on the tail end of the Sarajevo Film Festival, which meant big names like Bono and Nick Nolte were in town, according to Maja. Their national theatre was all decked out, complete with red carpet. I've already posted an entry shortly after arriving in Sarajevo, and I don't mean to repeat myself, so here's a picture from a restaurant high up on a hillside, overlooking Sarajevo at night.


Besides the nightlife, and shopping in old town, we also did the salon thing...Maja got a pedicure and had her hair done, I got a bikini wax for the equivalent of less than 2 pounds. When we arrived at the airport on Sunday for our flight to Bodrum, I had my first experience with Bosnians en masse. They are loud, rude, and have no concept of lines, or queueing, whatsoever. Someone stepped up to the podium to announce that our flight was now boarding, and schwump! there was a big knot of disorderly Bosnians swarming around the podium, pushing and angling to get onto the jetway. On our very first day in Turkiye, we were offered a free "walking" tour of Bodrum by the agency Maja had booked our package through, which was more like a bus tour with one stop on a hill with old windmills above the harbor overlooking the castle, another stop at King Myndos' Gate (which the guide incorrectly identified as one of the seven wonders of the world- there was one of the seven in bodrum, which used to be called Halicarnassus, but it was the Mausoleum of Maussollos), and then stops at a gold factory, candy factory, and then leather factory. We were finished with all of this around 8pm, and while it would have appeared the best plan to drop off all the other Bosnians first since we were near their hotels, we actually went out to the hotel Maja and I were staying at first (about 8 km outside Bodrum) because that was what made the most sense for the bus driver as he ended his night. The Bosnians, once they realized this, began to yell, and quite quickly to curse out the tour guide, which even though I couldn't understand exactly what they were saying, the tone made me very uncomfortable. Maja was embarrassed for them, and said it was because they were "hicks."
This photo is of the old windmills, which were used in the not too distant paste to grind grain for bread. And the picture just below is me standing on the hillside that overlooked Bodrum's harbor, with the castle being on the right side of the picture in the distance. I knew the style of it looked familiar, and wasn't surprised to find out when we explored the castle on our last day that it was built by the Knights of St. John, who also fortified the Greek island of Rhodes (which I visited in 2004 with Kristy).




Maja developed the habit- er, not developed, more like continued, but I hadn't seen her in over a year, and had forgotten this tendency of hers- to use her nickname for me without any explanation. With the Bosnians, that name- Cosa- is very similar to a word they have for hair. So when she'd be talking to them about something Cosa had done, or said, or where I was from, there was quite a bit of confusion and/or laughter. And this was the case throughout the trip with people who spoke English- the Israeli guys we met, the Turkish guys we met, other people staying at our resort (though there were no other tourists from the UK there, some Germans, Dutch, Iranians, Serbians, French, etc). If I got to introduce myself first, I'd always say, "Hi, I'm Allison" and as we'd get into conversation, Maja would just start referring to me as Cosa. I have to give the Israeli guys the most credit for waiting the longest length of time before finally giving in to curiousity and asking what the deal was. And in case some of you haven't heard this story, I don't remember exactly why it began, but it was a collaborative effort between Maja and our other roommate Becky, Cosa meaning "thing" in Spanish...kind of like an "alright YOU (smartass)". Maja was constantly commenting this trip on what probably gave birth to the nickname in the first place, with my jokes and one-liners and sarcasm and witticisms that apparently seem to come out of left field for a lot of people, given that everyone seems to see me as a sweetheart or someone who is always nice, caring, whatever. Why IS that, by the way, since I have the same faults as most people? I really don't seem to see myself the way that other people see me, a reflection which once I voiced aloud one night, Maja rather bluntly said, well I think most of your self-perceptions are wrong. I do believe I kept Maja highly entertained this trip. But anywho, what Cosa came to represent is "Miss Thang" because all three of us decided it suited, and there was too much room for not understanding the meaning if you just left it at "Thing". Or sometimes Cosita if Maja or Becky were trying to be cute, or trying to get my goat, or felt I was being particularly soft or thoughtful or whatever. I'm not sure Maja has called me Allison ever since the morning I was woken up by her moaning from her bed "Coooossssaaaaaa" because she couldn't get up due to a horribly painful muscle spasm in her neck. I hadn't heard her calling out my real name, it was the nickname that worked, and that's all she's called me ever since.

Waaaay off track here, I was talking about Bosnians wasn't I. The other thing I remember is how upset they got standing on the hill overlooking Bodrum harbor while the guide talked about how there wasn't much to see in the area immediately surrounding Bodrum, just poor people and cows. As voices started to raise, Maja translated for me that a lot of them were villagers or "hicks" themselves, and wanted to know what was wrong with cows?! I guess our tour guide had never heard of village tourism. Anyway, we didn't see too much of the Bosnians after that first day-- quite a few were on the all day boat trip we did, but after we made friends with the Israeli guys, we didn't really interact with the Bosnians at all on that trip.

When we returned to Sarajevo, I got to spend a little more time with Maja's mother and her stepdad, who thought Maja looked like a gypsy, and made fun of me...where had I gone for the week, since I obviously hadn't been in the sun?! For me, I am actually pretty golden, and could show people my tan lines as proof if I had the inclination, but I have long since accepted the fact that I always look white because I pretty much always am white in comparison to everyone else...even when I'm tan, because they are tanner. Meanwhile, Maja got me to drink Turkish coffee with her, from a pitcher that is some of the most gorgeous metal-working I have ever seen. I toured around that shop in the old town, and bought something I cannot picture here, since it's a gift. However, I also got the silver belly chain I'd bought in Dalyan shortened and have a cool picture of the silversmith working on it. He did the work for free (bonus), which may have had something to do with my tattoo peeking out when I bent over, or just generally that Bosnian men try to get every pretty girl they meet into bed, according to Maja.
This theme continued through our last day in Sarajevo, where I got a lot of attention for my tattoo any time I bent over to get something from my backpack. Maja made it her mission this entire trip to tell me when I was being given the up-down, which on the boat trip and any time we were in Bodrum generally went something like "Girl, you are getting checked out left and right!" And generally speaking she was right. It is definitely true that European men are more forward and forthright than most American men...something Maja thinks is annoying (the American men), and I must say Europeans are refreshing in a certain sense. I was beyond the instantaneous blushing and wanting to cover myself up reactions by the time we got back to Bosnia, and I wandered around old town with my belly chain and tattoo peeking out without being totally self-conscious. It's more fun to check them out right back. And it's probably why I wasn't all that worried about being surrounded by the Bosnian youth football squad who were on my flight to Prague, and wanted to practice their broken English on me. Very handome lads I must say! I have a couple more pictures from Sarajevo that I'll post separately, and I'll move on to Turkey probably tomorrow night.

Safe and sound

Sorry, sorry, forgot to say, we were fortunately not anywhere near the bombings that occurred in Marmaris, Antalya, and Istanbul on any of our day trips. We took the dolmus (very cheap taxi buses) many times into Bodrum at all hours (they run 24/7), and Maja was being very strange about it at first, wanting to take a taxi instead, which was the difference between paying 2 euros for the dolmus and 13 euros for the taxi. So I insisted on the dolmus, and after we were signaled to the side of the road and boarded by police, she finally admitted she'd had a text from her mother, asking if we were alright, there had been a bombing on a dolmus in Marmaris. Maja was afraid I'd "flip out" (don't ask me why) if I knew, so she'd been trying to get me to take a taxi without telling me why. But it was fine. We were pulled over all week, every time we were in a dolmus, and on a day trip to Dalyan, we were actually pulled over three times. Though I'm not sure why they continued to pull buses over, since all the holidayers had no idea they should be carrying ID around, and thus didn't have any to show the police. We didn't know about the other bombings until after our return to Sarajevo...responsibility has been claimed by the Kurds, and evidently Turkey has been trying to cover up this type of activity for several years now. It's really putting a dent in their tourism economy, with people choosing Greece instead.

Dobar dan

Or hello, in Bosnian. Maja, little workaholic that she is, had to come by the office this evening for some reason, before we take off for Turkey tomorrow, so here I am writing a very brief update. I have already managed to get myself in trouble with the local craftsmen (read- filigree silver jewelry), local food, and local homemade liquor. The liquor in question was served by Maja's stepfather- according to Maja, I was a hit with her mama and stepfather for my appetite, drinking the homemade liquor, and for my good pronunciation of Bosnian words. But she could be making that up for all I know, since I could only understand the little bits spoken in English, and some of the body language. Unfortuately it has been raining quite a bit, but that hasn't stopped us from painting the town red! Actually, at the moment, it has pretty much cleared up, and the late evening sun is making a beautiful old Ottoman building across the street from Maja's office glow a soft gold the way the Radcliffe Camera will in Oxford with low (winter) light. Generally speaking, "old town" Sarajevo is absolutely gorgeous, while "new town" pretty much looks like any other city. And to make the old town even more quaint and authentic, all the craftsmen are located there, traditions which are sadly dying, with less and less young people wanting to continue in the footsteps of their parents.

Anywho, I have discovered that Bodrum is the Turkish answer to Ibiza. While I did know that a number of Arabian princes of one sort or another attended the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts (where Maja got her degree), I wasn't really aware that there really is a pretty big representation of rich eastern European folks at Fletcher, and Maja tells me they all party at Bodrum. Good thing I brought a lot of going out/clubbing gear, and now I have the beautiful jewelry to match ;-) I was lamenting never doing the Ibiza thing some time ago on here, guess I do get to live the life after all!!

Oops, gotta go, we're headed back to Maja's place to get ready for a late dinner and night of dancing in a bar/restaurant that looks out over the top of Sarajevo. Ciao!

Goodbye Summer :(

It's another gray and rainy day in the urban sprawl of London. Looks like it's sunny and about 80 degrees in Sarajevo, cooler this weekend- still sunny but low 70s, and then on Sunday we take off for Turkey and temps in the 90s!!

You know, I need to start asking around whether fall actually happens here...does it just go from summer to rainy and chilly weather, or do they have crisp mornings that open up into warm, sunny fall afternoons?? Do the leaves turn beautiful colors? I have heard that on occasion they have an "Indian Summer" along about October or November, but not often.

Anyway, I'm off to do a last check of things, have some brekkie (breakfast), and head for the tube. Unfortunately, it takes me about 2 hours to get from here to Heathrow, and I want to leave extra time, given all the recent upgradings of security measures. To those of you heading to the lake, have a great time, can't believe the season is over already! Take the motor boat out for a spin for me--I'll be thinking of y'all on Labor Day Weekend. And to the rest of you, talk to you in September! Lots of love, Allison

Pamukkale

I got a package in the mail today from my mom-- it contained a murder mystery set in Hawaii, a picture from the family reunion, and my own wooden nickel which I now realize they had specially made...the nickels say Poppink Family Reunion 2006 on the back. These kinds of things are slowly making my room here seem more mine, somehow. Personal touches. I've been thinking for awhile now that I need to get at least a few of the many photos I have taken printed, and put them in frames for my room.

It is currently 32 degrees Celsius in Bodrum, or approximately 90 degrees Fahrenheit! I've been looking at things to do in/near Bodrum (discos, bars, markets, historical sites, you name it, they've got it), and came across Pamukkale, meaning "cotton castle" in Turkish. It was named after the white calcareous castles formed by limestone-rich thermal springs. The springs themselves are around 100 degrees, and I'm sure I'd want to go anyway, but get this--in one of the baths, you can swim over the ruins of the ancient city of Hierapolis! I won't get into all the ancient sites listed, but to give you an idea, the valley of the Menderes River has apparently been the cradle of many civilizations. The Lycian rock tombs, carved into cliff walls around 400 BC, look magnificent!

I can almost feel it now

Only one day of work left for me this week! Given the overcast, cool, and generally gray weather we've been having here for the past couple of weeks, I was laughing as I threw four bikinis into my suitcase just now. I just can't wait. And for all my worrywarts, as I said to Carla last night, I've already packed the sunblock, so you can relax. Let's see, I've got cash, bikinis, a towel, sunblock, a camera, and sexy evening ensembles...what else can a girl possibly need for a swanky beach vacation?!

Bodrum

Samara Hotel
This links to the place that will be my home away from home for a week, starting from next Sunday!!!

Too late, my time off was already approved!

6 days until sarajevo, 9 until turkey!! The head OT is back from her two and a half week holiday to Greece, and apparently isn't happy at all that my holiday request was granted, since my supervisor doesn't return from her term time break until Sept 5. But I don't feel guilty about it, I handed my slip in before she left, and if anything I'm grateful she didn't look it over before she left. Poor Annette had gone over to request Mon and Tues off, and said something about needing to have those days because while I'm gone, she can't take any time off, which is what set Barbara off about, well, who approved Allison's request? And good ole Annette told Barbara she didn't think it was fair that my request should not have been approved...OTs are constantly covering for those off on holiday, why should it be different for the day hospital, just because you have to walk two minutes to cross over to the day hospital from the main dept? Apparently Barbara tried to say that because I don't have kids, and with Ann off until Sept, I should not have been allowed a holiday until Ann was back. But as Annette pointed out to her, Ann doesn't have kids either (well, they're both grown up and out of the house). And plus, now that I think about it, I said to Barbara several months ago that I'd be requesting time off in August, and she didn't say, oh no, you can't have a week off then.

Happiness

Say it ain't so...they've just announced on the weather portion of a news program that summer is indeed over, and we aren't going to get that final heat wave that everyone has been predicting :( But I'm off to Turkey weekend after this one anyway, hee hee, so summer's not over for me!

Anyway, I've read this really interesting article on how happiness can be learned. Some recent studies in the US by psychologists have confirmed what I've definitely heard before. We all tend to associate success in life with monetary gain, whereas apparently we should be measuring a successful life in terms of being able to be cheerful. (Hmm, how many wealthy and/or famous personalities are what you would call happy? I don't know about you all, but fascination with celebrities aside, the people I actually look up to are everyday people I've run across in everyday life or have known for most of my life.) The trouble being, according to this article, some of us set our happiness goals too high, based on family and friends. However, we have the power to change our base level of happiness. These studies have shown that beyond basic needs (food, clothing, shelter), additional wealth and possessions don't actually make people happier. Things that do include family, community, faith/trust in fellow human beings, being married, laughing and smiling, talking to friends, thinking about others more than yourself, and getting out and interacting with people rather than watching TV at home.

Psychologist Martin Seligman says there are three components of happiness: the pleasant life (ex: a good meal), the engaged life (being absorbed with work, relationships, and hobbies), and the meaningful life (using your strengths in the service of others). Surprise surprise, the meaningful life has the most effect on long-term happiness. Helping others makes us feel generous and capable, strengthens our connection to others, and stops us being so self-centered.

So, the idea of learning happiness? Simple, focus on the positives rather than the negatives. Your brain releases feel-good endorphins making you feel good, therefore you feel more positive toward others, and a cycle of happiness begins. A suggestion the article makes is to reflect once a day on everything that makes you feel good, the things you adore, the people you love most in your life, etc. Humm, it's good to know I was onto something--I started using this technique to help with my funk after picking up and moving to a new country on my own. Wish I'd started using it sooner, but it did help when I finally did start "counting my blessings." I think I will definitely keep it up!