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Archive for March, 2007

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Thank God That’s Over…

Friday, March 30th, 2007

It was an experience like any other, and what made it even more so was that my Turkish roommate had never done it either. I spent hours milling through websites, looking for the perfect one…When I came across something that looked good, I asked for her Turkish approval (since most of the website was in Turkish), and we caught a ‘taksi’ to Beşiktaş. While the taksi driver sped through traffic, lunging around blind corners, and cutting people off, I felt beneath the seat for my seat belt hoping to find it and strange feeling things not so much. The only one I found must have been for the middle seat because it wouldn’t connect with my belt. I guess I will be making my father a millionaire, dying in the back of a Turkish cab.
[read on]

Not Going to Miss the Smoker’s Paradise…

Thursday, March 29th, 2007

At any given moment (except on the bus), I can look around and see at least a dozen smokers in view…first glance. Every other person walking in Taksim, up or down the cobbled streets, is lighting up. The local bar is awash in a cloud of smoke, dangling above the patrons heads. Between that, and the obsession with dairy products (no meal is complete without yoghurt, creme, milk, or cheese), I started to wonder if Turkey was a death trap for cancer and cardiovascular disease. Before I found myself with a headache from staring at a computer screen, I pulled a few facts. [read on]

Identity Crisis – Solved!

Tuesday, March 27th, 2007

I am a third generation American of German and Irish decent with a little Italian squeezed in there somewhere. One could say I cook like an Italian and drink like a German, but as being a defining part of my heritage – that’s a real stretch. The only definite identifying characteristic is that I am blessed with an unmistakably Irish surname – Farrell. Growing up as a cultural “mutt” in Southern California, I never truly identified with anything. [read on]

A Worldy Education in the Strangest of Places

Monday, March 26th, 2007

You’d think I was in Los Angeles with all of the people dressed in fashionable black, but the hundreds of people coming at me all with pale skin and dark hair – no blondes or anorexic actresses in sight – tells me otherwise. [read on]

The Man, the Myth, the Legend

Sunday, March 25th, 2007

Once upon a time in a land far, far away there was a seventeen-year old girl, seated quietly at her high school’s drama performance. When intermission came, the man seated next to her started a conversation with his unmistakable deep voice reverberating in the concrete-walled theatre, inquiring about her future plans for college. [read on]

No Diplomat

Wednesday, March 21st, 2007

Lately I feel the weight of being a US Ambassador thrust upon my shoulders, yet I resist most political discussions and outbursts of American patriotism, because the current political climate seems to generally define me as an American before I can be defined as a person, if I can be defined at all. [read on]

Italian Quirks, Observations, and Miscellaneous Thoughts

Friday, March 2nd, 2007

Coffee, er espresso-related beverages, are of extreme importance here. Duh! Skim-milk you say – not going to happen. Soy? Don’t try that one either. [read on]