Back to the Daily Grind

When I got back to work from my freakin' awesome

latest adventure in Tokyo and Taipei,

I had a chair of work waiting for me.

Jon balked at how much paperwork this was.

He doesn't really work with paper.

I got through most of it that morning.

It made me feel like this:

Poof!

From the 2013 NYC Armory Show

Having one of those 

I wish I could just disappear

days.

On the bright side,

next week we head to Tokyo and Taipei!

Worrying Is for Wusses.

Make that sign, art guy,

so I can put it next to my

Hang in There cat poster.

Heading to Tokyo and Taipei!

Woo-hoo!

Been working my butt off

since I got back from Istanbul.

(Working so much I can't tell if I have a sinus headache or migraine--

and I've never had either of those before!

Getting old is TERRIBLE.)

No point in making money if you can't enjoy it.

Or to sum it up in 2012 terms:

YOLO!

Third time to Tokyo.

First time to Taiwan.

Second time in Asia this year.

It's me, Jon, Wee, and Chris.

It should be fun times!

(My teeth hurt too.

I think I'm clenching.)

NYC Armory Show 2013: Part 1: Intro

It's a pier that you pretend is an armory

for a few days

that houses a huge collection of art from

galleries all around the world and the country.

But here's a better explanation.

Jon and I went back in college and a few other times.

It never seemed as popular as it did today.

It was $30,

but since there were galleries from around the world,

it was like the best contemporary pop-up show

in all the world at that moment.

We could literally see our apartment

from the show,

so it seemed best not to waste the opportunity.

Every cube was a different country it seemed.

Instead of just a few people

who really seemed like ardent collectors,

there were all types of people

who were just interested in seeing new/classic modern art.

It's a nice change that they have real food options now too.

Postcards from Istanbul

I don't know where they are,

but I swear I sent out these postcards at the Istanbul airport 

on February 20th.

I'm so annoyed that they haven't arrived to their recipients yet.

Turkish Delight on a Moonlit Night

At a shop at the Spice Market,

we bought at least a hundred dollars worth of Turkish delight.

Insane, right?

I'm not even a big fan of the stuff.

It's nutty and chewy and kinda has a slightly sweet flavor,

but give me chocolate any day and I'm a much happier girl.

They come either as cubes or logs

and they're mostly covered to prevent sticking.

We like to pretend to be grossed out by the long poop ones.

The green ones are covered in pistachios.

The nuts are either pistachios or hazelnuts mostly.

The box was nice.

They vacuum sealed it for the transportation of it too.

My dad claims that this is how one smuggles hashish in/out of the country.

At least if you're stuck staying at the Midnight Express movie's prison,

it's now an exclusive Four Seasons.

I cut up a bunch of Turkish delight for my coworkers to try on Monday.

It didn't go over as well with them as it did with my brother's coworkers,

who already seemed to have eaten at least two pounds of the stuff.

I brought a sandwich bag of the stuff home.

It's not for everyone.

Anyway, loyal blog readers, I hope we can meet up soon,

so I can share some with you!

(Can I mail it to Hawaii, fuzzy?

I'll leave out the hashish.)

Coming Home from Istanbul

Wednesday, 2/20: We departed after breakfast. Landed in Munich and were personally escorted by a Lufthansa employee to our next flight to Newark. It was a great trip. Wee was the only one who didn't have to go to work the next day. Freakin' Wee.

The short of it was that it was a wonderful trip! It seems like there's a huge chance of culture shock, but it seems a lot like NYC and SF had a baby in the middle of Europe and Asia. If Rockefeller didn't buy up the land on each side of the Hudson's palisades, NYC/NJ would totally look like Istanbul minus the mosques and palaces in the skyline. Mostly everyone understood English. The food was awesome and familiar and not too salty or spicy or anything. Everything tasted really fresh. And the vegetables, olives, fish and chicken and lamb, and bread were delicious. Except for some motion sickness on my end from riding backward in a car and waiting on the smaller ferry tour (to fill up like a Bergenline jitney bus outside of Port Authority before it departed), no one got sick. But even if one of us did, the hotel was amazing because of the bathrooms: SOAKING TUB. HEATED TILES. For real. The only weird thing was that everyone differed to Dom. "What would you like, sir?" (For the entire table.) But whatever, it's not the US.

Istanbul: Day 4

Tuesday, 2/19: It was beautiful and sunny, so we did a boat tour (Tyrol has tours that aren't as long as the official full-day Bosphorus tour--though note that the only toilet on the ship is a squat one that is basically a hole in the bottom of the boat), then walked to the Galata Tower, and up to Taksim Square along THE pedestrian street to walk up on. When we got to Taksim Square, we ate a sweaty burger and doner. Then we took a cab back. We wrote some postcards, had hotel snacks, then went to dinner at Turga at a palace. The traffic getting there was terrible. The place was beautiful, and we ate traditional Ottoman food including blue fish, which the restaurant had a special menu for because it was seasonal. It was great stuff. There was a Blackberry conference happening at the palace/nearby hotel, but there were a ton of dudes lounging about with little earpieces. Like they were all secret service types. When we left, it was raining--the first time we saw it rain since we landed, so that was really lucky.

Istanbul: Day 3

Monday, 2/18: 3 hour private walking tour and tasting lunch at Ciya (on the Asian side) with a really nice lady guide whose name we don't recall. We met her at the Spice Market. At the Spice Market, we ate cheese/a spicy cold cut; learned about spices from a very intelligent lady who let us sample a bunch of them. The spice lady had inherited the business from her family; went to college in upstate NY; is on Twitter and all. I'd def. go back there for spices. At a cafe nearby, we tried Turkish coffee and a sweet pastry that tasted like tiramisu mochi with pieces of chicken breast in it. I liked it. Then we took a ferry to the Asian side of Istanbul where we walked through the market and saw a sweets shop (beautiful marzipan), sampled pickles and pickle juice, and then to lunch. We ate a ton and took home leftovers. Then she showed us the outpost of the originator of the Turkish delight and escorted us to the ferry. The Asian side is the 'burbs (think NJ or the boroughs) to the European city's side (Manhattan) is what I gathered from her. We scaled the hill from the ferry to find the Cistern, but walked maybe 4 km in the wrong direction (uphill) before finding the place. And the Cistern was really cool! Then we got into a cab that basically tried to kill us. The cabbie tried avoiding 5:30 p.m. rush hour traffic by going up ridiculous hills (think of the steepest hills of North Bergen or SF or Oahu) in the WRONG direction. It was a little uncomfortable when we were pinned between a parked car and a gang of youths and had to back out; when we got close enough to our hotel, we walked the rest of the way. We ate snacks and room service.