Twenty-Seven Things On My Twenty-Seventh Birthday

1) Birthdays in a foreign country, away from most of the people you love, are not as glamorous as you would have imagined them to be. (Especially if that foreign country is Turkey.)

2) I am re-celebrating in the States.

3) If you sent me a birthday wish, via email or chat or facebook or thought - THANK YOU!

4) Today was so awful, it is going to be comical. It is kind of funny now, so I know it will be hilarious later. We got up late, left the hostel to go to the Asian side of Istanbul (take a ferry) and also tried to go to the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art. Here is what happened:
a) I almost got hit by a bus, when Whitters and I were in the middle of the street, in between a moving taxi and bus, both going approximately 40 mph. There are no lanes of traffic here, nor are there crosswalks. Well, they EXIST, but paint doesn't matter if drivers don't pay attention to it. All I could do is hope to not get hit.
b) When we got on our bus, we stood in the middle. Once the bus was MOVING DOWN THE STREET, the driver opened the middle doors to the bus - the ones we were leaning on.
c) On the ferry back from the Asian side they didn't want to set up the ramp, so we just had to jump from the boat to the platform.
d) There is a HUGE soccer match going on right in the middle of the Istanbul we visited today. For those of you who have been in Norman on gameday - imagine drunken Sooner fans but twenty times worse. We got off the ferry and tried to get back on our bus to the museum, and landed right in the middle of these crazy men (once again, there are FEW women). They are holding beer bottles (when they aren't breaking them), pushing, yelling and singing. There are thousands of them, and hundreds of police and military with riot gear and machine guns. I about have a breakdown, so we decide to just get in a taxi to go to the museum. We get in, and he starts driving us INTO the crowd. We jump out. Thankfully, a nice couple understands us enough to point us to our bus.
e) We get to the museum... it is closed.

5) I have been to Starbucks on three continents (and, if you were paying attention in the last post) have vomited on two. Impressive.

6) Whitters tried really hard to save the day. We finally found a restaurant that served some alternatives to Turkish food - I had spaghetti and she had a cheeseburger. It was a great birthday dinner.

7) Someone on the street tonight asked us, in English, "Excuse me, can I harass you?" It was not funny at the time.

8) Ben didn't believe that we really got harassed that much, so he had Whit walk in front of him for awhile when the two of them were out. It only took her walking a few feet ahead of him to see that more men approach us and don't take no for an answer.

9) I haven't written any postcards. I don't know that I will. I'm glad I came here to see the sights, but it is hard to write about a place that makes you feel so uncomfortable and overwhelmed.

10) Grant sang me happy birthday. It feels nice to be loved.

11) Whitters brought me four different kinds of birthday dessert in case any were "cake-y." It feels nice to be loved.

12) My Mary Ma is now calling Whitters "ney" and Ben "Neb" - this is why I love her. Also, I love her because she can read this blog and my language and still love me :)

13) My Mom talked to me on the phone while I was sick - I don't care HOW old you are - when you're sick, you need your mom.

14) Speaking of old, this trip has made me decide I am too old for a few things: I'm too old for hostels (my body is too old to not have a real mattress). I'm too old to travel without money (lots of my issues with Turkey would be solved, I think, if I could afford a constant translator, a nicer place to stay in a nicer neighborhood, etc).

15) Also, I am going to REALLY REALLY research my next vacation. This has definitely been an experience, and has also been unforgettable, but has not been a vacation.

16) My next vacation is probably going to involve a beach, drinks, and books.

17) Whitters got me a book (that she gave me today) that I really wanted. She is one of the few people who can buy me books (living with me helps to know if I've gotten it already). I'm half-finished, and reading it today has been one of the highlights of my birthday.

18) One of the other highlights is getting the giggles with my best friend about how truly awful it has gotten here.

19) Things you do not know about our hostel (the number one hostel in Istanbul!), because I swear I've been trying to be as excited and like this place as much as I can:
a) As written above, the "beds" can be loosely called beds. I would not recommend getting sick and having to sleep in one for two days, because then your bones will ache.
b) Whitters sleeps next to a rat hole. The worst part about that is not what you would suspect (a rat), but that it lets in the cold air.
c) It is ALWAYS cold. We sleep with two huge blankets and still wake up freezing.
d) Oh, back to the beds, there aren't really sheets.
e) We have ants in the bathroom.
f) The bathroom, and, often, our room, smell like raw sewage. Ben couldn't even walk into the bathroom.

20) Reminder - I've been sick. And our room smells -- literally -- like shit. So imagine how surprised I was tonight when Whitters pulled out LYSOL from her bag. SHE HAD BEEN HOLDING OUT!!!! She said, "Oh, I guess we could have used this while you were sick." Oh. I guess?!?!?! Then I said, "Or we could have used it everytime THIS ROOM SMELLED LIKE SHIT. LIKE RIGHT NOW." She did not know that Lysol could be used to kill germs AND freshen air. It smells a little better in here now. Happy Birthday to me.

21) I did not have an alcoholic drink on this birthday. It is too expensive here.

22) To celebrate my birthday, I'm wearing my I <3 Tulsa shirt. Oh, and I DO love Tulsa, and Oklahoma, and the U.S. of A.

23) If I ever were to come back to Turkey, I would open a restaurant here. At the very least, I would steal some of their chefs, take them to the grocery store, and teach them to cook with a little more diversity.

24) I miss you.

25) A LOT.

26) I wish you would have come with us.

27) A birthday gift I didn't think I'd receive this year - a new appreciation and gratefulness for where I was lucky and blessed enough to be born, for who raised and shaped and encouraged me, for all the people who surround me now. I love you.