Week in Review

This week we experienced some truly bizarre spring weather and I celebrated my 27th birthday. I think I just might stop at this one. 27 sounds like a pretty good age to stick with for a while. Meanwhile, the weather has become quite schizophrenic. Within the span of about an hour the weather can go from mid-40s and sunny to mid-30s and blizzard and then to a rain/sleet mix and then back to sunny. It's crazy. We managed to get caught outside in a one of the aforementioned blizzards earlier this week and just happened to have a camera to document the craziness.



Heading out into the snow.



Our poor little Floridian.



For my birthday, we celebrated with a coffee and Medovnik (my favorite Czech cake) date and then I was surprised that night at our Bible Study when a Czech friend brought me palačinky (very thin Czech pancakes, kind of like crepes) and everyone sang "Happy Birthday".



Medovnik



and palačinky.

The next day, Matt made me a yellow cake with chocolate icing that was delicious. We had some friends over and blew out the candles and watched The Office. A perfect 2-day birthday celebration.

Foodie's Tour of Turkey

We headed out to Turkey last week for some rest and relaxation. Hopefully, it won't be our last vacation before baby, but it was a great retreat nonetheless. While most of you may be thinking we did some serious sight seeing, visiting ancient New Testament church sights and the like, we pretty much spent our time eating. You see, in an effort to be super western, Turkey has many American eating establishments you might not be able to find anywhere in Europe. So we made it our mission not to take in the history, but to take in the yummy American grub we've been missing (and some new-to-us Turkish deliciousness). *Not pictured: Chocolate fondue, baklava, simit, and more kebabs.



A mosque whose name I can't remember.



This one I had to cover in.



Matt and Lance. Click on the picture to zoom in on the sign between them.



Me and Kristi! She used Matt's scarf as a head covering. Cute!



And typical Turkish çay (tea). I liked the apple tea. Yummy.



Apparently it was election week in Turkey. Here, we were leaving the mall just in time to see everyone getting ready for a parade of some sort.



Getting ready to eat some yummy Turkish food.



Matt's favorite: Kebapçı İskender (Iskender kebab). It's strips of lamb meat over pieces of pita bread and drizzled with a tomato sauce and boiling butter. Served with a pepper and a side of yogurt (very thick like sour cream).



Dunkin' Donuts!



Matt and Lance decided to race go-carts in the mall. They got to wear these awesome hairnets under their helmets.



Ready to race.



"If you're not first, you're last..."



Domino's!



Pepperoni Pizza. With giant imitation pepperoni (no pork in Turkey). Still quite yummy.



And Arby's. This may have been the food I was most excited about. Curly fries.



The Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque) in Istanbul.



The inner court yard.



Inside. See all the blue tiles?



We didn't have to cover in this mosque but we did have to enter through a visitors' side entrance.



Leaving the Blue Mosque, looking toward the Ayasofya (Hagia Sophia), a former cathedral called Church of the Holy Wisdom of God .





The Ayasofya with the Sultanahmet Camii in the distance.

Girls Night at the Theatre

Yes, I wrote theatre, not theater. Because when people speak English around here it's usually British English. So I though I'd go along and spell like a Brit. I went with the girls last night to see the Phantom of the Opera (Fantom Opery). Ballet. You heard me right. It was basically the same story except nobody sang and Christine is a ballerina, not an opera singer. It was a great show and the pyrotechnics scared poor Whitney half to death. The theatre (there I go again) was beautiful. It was the State Opera House (Statni Opera). We dressed up fancy and at intermission I got a bubbly water and a Snickers. Classy.















The girls all dressed up.



Me and Whitney.



The beautiful theatre.