catching up--holidays & 1st visitor

have i mentioned that i love living in sunshine apartment on idea hill?
that's what it translates into in english.
so inspiring--how can you not be creative here?

besides that, my favorite thing about this apartment is that i can always hear the (frequent) rain on my fire escape outside my window.
kind of like having a tin roof.
i think my room is the only one in the apt that has that sound, and i love it.

catching up......

first visitor.
my best friend, who is living in poland, came to visit for christmas!
she was here a week and we had a lot of fun.
it was nice to have a piece of home here for christmas.
it was nice that she's not a "touristy" person since i didn't have much time with christmas cooking and all.
and, we went skiing/snowboarding! (see below).

christmas.
this was my first christmas without my huge, awesome family.
it was sad but it helped to have a big group of friends here to celebrate with here.
we all had a big white elephant christmas eve party.
on christmas day, april and i made a lot of food and sweets and invited a turkish friend over to celebrate.
banana pancakes, socks on the tree, big dinner with close friends...all may be new traditions.

skiing/snowboarding.
i went with a group of people to uludağ.
it was supposed to be 2 or 3 hours outside of the city but it was, in fact, SIX hours.
after riding a city bus, a shuttle bus, a charter bus, a ferry, the same charter bus again, a city bus, 2 cable cars, and a taxi van, we arrived.
the snow was beautiful. the hotel and food were amazing.
i got to hang out with friends and enjoy the Maker's wonderful creation.
good times.
well, except for the fact that turkish men (in general) CAN NOT ski!!!!
i should have known this after my experience ice skating in turkey, but no, i got to experience it firsthand..
in the form of being knocked out by turkish men while skiing TWICE.
the second knock down resulted in a headache, soreness, and a very bent ski pole.
i'm talking at least a 45 degree angle bent. not normal.
i survived though, and it was worth it.
i think next year, i'll learn a way to say "hit me and die" in turkish and tape it to my back.
the guy #2 said "you didn't see me coming!" to which i replied "i usually look IN FRONT of me when i am skiing!"
ah, turkey.

new years.
the rain sometimes never stops here.
like all winter.
so, new years eve consisted of shopping at a mall in the afternoon and then going over to my boss's house to watch movies and eat pancakes with him, his wife, and daughter (around my age).
it was the perfect indoor new years celebration.
we ended the night by standing against a window watching fireworks off in the distance across the water (and some inbetween tall apartment buildings..that's when we closed the window).