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Conrad's Blog - An American Life in Istanbul
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This blog is a record of my life in Turkey as an American. I focus mostly on my interactions with Turkish culture and the divide between east and west.
Recent Posts Tagged With 'Social Life'
Dinner parties
Lately I've been having dinner parties at my apartment about every other week. I haven't felt much like going to Houston and so when I have time on weekends I've taken to cooking things, and hosting people. At home growing up in New York, my parents ...
Houston Diplomacy
over the past few months I've been making an effort to get a diplomacy group started in Houston. I had some help from the players that were already here and I managed to bring in some new players on my own. We have played twice now and are looking to...
Dating in Southeast Texas
The topic my parents, or at least my mother always wants to know about. And for that matter, a good part of my family. Because my family frequents my webpage I have to be somewhat selective about what I write here. For that matter, the lack of annomy...
Out for drinks in Taksim
Just some pictures from the weekend. That's Doruk, Erman and myself. Because there are so many students in Istanbul, there is quite a good night life to be found. Istanbul is a city that never sleeps. From the left Doruk, Erman and myself Doruk...
Interview With A Professor
Over the weekend I stayed at a friend’s house (I will avoid using names because the issue may be sensitive) that I do not normally stay at. Realizing I had not asked my friend what his parents do, I asked. They are both professors at two of Tur...
Jessica’s visit to Istanbul
Two weeks ago a friend from high school, Jessica, came to visit me. She, like me, is an expatriate. She currently lives in Cadiz, Spain where she works as an English teacher. She came to visit Istanbul for one week. Below is an excerpt from her blog ...
Update: The last two months
Current Mood: HappyWell a lot has happened since I last wrote a real post way back on… December 12th! It was a real pain in the butt trying to get my domains transfered and set up my new host for my website, but it’s all finally done than...
Happy Birthday and Goodbye
This past weekend we had a double party that we had been planning for over a week in advance! We celebrated Adnan’s birthday (his girl friend Amber organized it) and Selim being sent off to the military (I made sure this celebration happened). This...
Istanbul Games and Diplomacy
When I first came to Istanbul, I brought only clothes. My first trip home for my brother’s graduation last May, I left Turkey with empty bags, and returned with mostly board games. You see, one of the many things that Izzy and I have in common ...
Surprise Visit!
Leyla showed up by surprise last week and we all went out and had a great time this past weekend. I’ll just give you some pictures because as usual the weekend was pretty intense, and I am still tired from it. Sisters: Leyla and Berna From ...
Lucky
I hear it everyday; “Conrad, you are so lucky.” Friends, people I meet, coworkers; They all share this opinion. I have been called “[my company’s] spoiled child,” “the luckiest employee in Turkey,” and many o...
Turks Save the Day
A friend of mine contacted me a few weeks ago to ask for my help. Her mother, Kathie, is the assistant dean of Duke’s business school (I think that is her position), and she is interested expanding Duke’s executive MBA program to Istanbul...
Halloween in Turkey
On Wednesday night, Izzy and I went to a Halloween party in Bebek (I haven’t mentioned this before, but Bebek is the worst place in the world traffic wise. I hate Bebek and usually avoid it at all costs). Despite the party being in Bebek it was...
Best weekend ever!
Current Mood: EsctaticSo yeah, I had the best weekend ever. Izzy and I went with a few exchange students from Koc University (where Izzy studies) to a rock climbing festival in Olympos outside of Antalya in the south of Turkey. If you want to skip ri...
Two weekends: Diving, climbing and hiking
I had one heck of a weekend. Since Ramadan ended, I had a four day weekend. Thursday Izzy and I went rock climbing; we were the only ones there. Then Thursday night we took a 14 hour bus ride to the south of Turkey to a charming little diving town...
Weekend Report: Ankara, hiking and Diplomacy
This entry will be mostly pictures.Well I had a busy weekend. On Friday, I got up at 6am to take a bus to Ankara where I had a meeting with one of our suppliers. After my meeting, I met with a friend of Parisa’s (one of my friends), whom lives...
Another day climbing in Ballikaylar
Current Mood: HappyI was supposed to diving on Saturday, but on Friday night the guy running the trip said that I couldn’t go because I was a foreigner and they needed to file some extra paper work because I was a foreigner. So at the last minu...
Turkish Coffe and Tasseography
Current Mood: Cool I had to look up Tasseography too, so I will save you the trouble and start off this entry with its definition (according to wikipedia.org): << Tasseography (also known as tasseomancy or tassology) is a divination or fortun...
Ant’s Birthday
Ant’s Birthday was about two weeks ago, but I just got the pictures from Izzy (he was on a week long hiking trip in the south of Turkey). Still exhausted from my vacation in the US, I took a nap and showed up for the clubbing half of the night...
Istanbul Windsurfing Championships
I didn’t compete, but I stopped by to see what was going on. The third leg of the Istanbul wind surfing championships was held at the wind surfing club I go to, less than 2 miles from my house. So on Friday afternoon of last week, we stopped by...
Rock’n Coke 2007
This weekend, I went to Rock’n Coke 2007 with Izzy. What’s Rock’n Coke? Rock’n Coke is an outdoor music festival sponsored by Coke, that takes place at a small air field not too far from where I live (in other words, really fa...
