Happy Thanksgiving!

Gavin and I have landed English Teaching Positions at English Time.  Gavin and I were offered positions at the same school and at the SAME pay.  Equality at last!  Pretty exciting!

We have Arrived.

Highlights of the last 3 days:

• Nellie smoked a cigarette in a "Smokers Paradise" in the Austrian Airport ( a hot, smokey trailer in the middle of the airport.  gross.)
  
• Gavin Learned what a WC is.
  
• We arrived in Istanbul after 18 hours of flights, delirious, tired, smelly, and hungry.
  
• Gavin ate a fish sandy and loved it, even though he nearly choked on fish bones.
  
• Went to the spice bazzar where we were hassled by sellers of street wares.
  
• Gavin had a bird poop on his head (hopefully that really does mean good luck)
  
• Drank chi and played backgammon (or "crack-gammon" as Gavin calls it) in a old turkish bath.
  
• We narrowly avoided an angry, american murdering mob at the blue Mosque.
  
• GAVIN SHAVED THE BEARD.  It's very short now, he looks very clean cut, except for the shaggy mop on top of his head.

Today we are doing more sightseeing, then tomorrow we start the interview process for teaching jobs.  Can't wait to teach these Turks some good old American.

It Happened This Week

Our last week on American soil was semi-eventful, here's a few highlights:

• I was mistaken as Nellie's father by one of her high school chums (who was either Frodo Baggins or Elijah Wood) during a friendly evening of billiard's at Linda's Tavern. The bag of d then upped the anti to a new level of absurdity and went on to tell me how my girlfriend (or daughter for that matter) had a crush on him six years ago. Cool brother, cool. Yes, the beard is a little long but I thought this generation still carried some semblance of respect for their elders.
• In conjunction with Mr. David Entrikin's http://www.outsidersexhibit.net/ and National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness Week, Nell and I wandered the streets of Capitol Hill and picketed the neighborhood with fliers for her semi-annual Jackets and Socks Drive. I fulfilled my one day of volunteerism every decade and we actually landed about 60 jackets and 200 pairs of sock(s) for the local mission. We had about a 25% success rate - leading to the irrational and completely unscientific conclusion that 75% of the wealthy have no heart.
• Feeling a bit melancholy over the lack of good ole' US shat-food that won't be readily available in Constantinople, I ate half a bag of Cheetos. After making the mistake of placing the remainder in the community cupboard, a certain theivin' grandmother consumed the rest. God bless her, God bless America, and God bless cheesy delicious snacks...
• And finally....(drum roll please)... we graduated from our teacher certification class and are now (supposedly) fit to teach unknowing Turks how to speak our beautiful language and get paid for the act. It is now perfectly acceptable for me to rock a ponytail and Tevas with socks...everyday...for the rest of my life.

Nellie Spotted at Marxist Rally!

After another enthralling day in the classroom (it doesn't get better than pedagogical theory on adult education) we decided to let off some steam, hit up the local watering holes on Capitol Hill, and watch a little federal election unwind. Needless to say, it was a damn good night - props to Ohio, Virginia, Nevada, and Pennsylvania. The beer-soaked extravaganza culminated with us and hundreds of other terrorist sympathizers raging on the corner of Pike and Broadway into the wee hours of the night. Just in case the revelry had been forgotten by this morning, the Seattle Times published the above picture featuring Miss Entrikin (or her strikingly similar doppelganger) on its front page - Obama and Zooface sharing major real estate on Seattle's "most trusted" news source. I am currently learning to cope with being the unknown loser boyfriend of a celebrity...