Catching Up

Every week, I get to shop at the farmer's market (pazar) on our street. A few weeks ago, I was especially inspired by my weekly haul, the colors, variety, quantity, etc. so I laid it all out for a little photoshoot. It still makes me drool thinking about all of the flavors and freshness!

Ronnie went on a week-long trip last week, so I got all emotional and made him let me take some pictures of him. I love that guy, and am glad he is back home safely!

My mom was able to send me a little care package, among the contents were our House M.D. seasons, Adobe Lightroom (my birthday present), and some shirts I had her dig through our storage bins for. We set up a skype date to dig through my clothes bins for shirts I wanted, and these are the ones I picked out. I must have been in a striped mood or something!

The other day, I followed some "pintsperation" (that can be a word right?) to make some squash/eggplant chips that turned out to be fairly decent. The squash ones were better than the eggplant ones. The first time I cut them too thin, so the second time was more successful. While I was on the kick, I also tried to make some apple chips, which really turned out well! The only thing is that I don't think it was the best type/most delicious apple to begin with, so once the apples start to get better this fall I can't wait to try this a little more.

I had the opportunity to attend a local bachelorette party (henna night), and these were our party favors! We had fun taking pictures with them at the party - I will try to do a post on that soon!

Hobbies

The other day I had some extra time, and there was a little project that I had been thinking about tackling for a while - so I seized the day! Our china cabinet is backed by some cheap, somewhat stained plywood, so I wanted to paint it. I went shopping, bought a new shirt and nail polish, and then headed to a paint supply store. I couldn't really remember any of the vocabulary that I knew for paint supplies, but between hand motions and looking around I was able to find everything that I needed!

Before and after. If you look closely, you can tell that it (white) doesn't match the wall (taupe or something), but if you look even more closely you can tell that the crown molding is white, so it really matches that (not shown in picture). Yay for finished projects!

Birthday Breakfast

I have to admit that a good breakfast is one of my (Jessica) favorite things in the world, so that is exactly what we decided to do this year! We knew of this one place that had eggs benedict on the menu (a rarity here), so we grabbed some American friends and ate our hearts out! Thank you all for making my birthday week a special one =).

Visiting a summer house

We had the opportunity to visit our language teacher's summer home one weekend. It was beautiful, relaxing, and we wish we could have stayed longer. We got to spend some quality time with her family and summer home neighbors, and it was definitely a language immersion experience! Here are some pictures from our weekend. 

I went with her to get some milk straight from these cows! We didn't milk the cows, but it was that fresh. Unfortunately, I didn't taste the milk, but I am sure it was an experience.

Well this happened...

Ronnie was playing basketball and rolled his ankle. The following ensued...

Phase 1:

Phase 2:

 

Phase 3:

I am happy to say that nothing was broken or torn, everything is off, and he is walking normally. 

What an adventure...

Ramadan Festival

Right now, we are ending the month of Ramadan, which for people here signifies the end of a month of fasting all day (eating only at night) and praying. We went to one of the more popular areas of town because we heard it is a spectacle to see the crowd of people all breaking fast together at sunset. Due to the crowds at this particular place, there were so many street vendors, some sort of ceremony/concert, and even fair-like booths set up. It was amazing to me how many locals (not just tourists) were out to join the fun! UPDATE: Scroll down to the bottom to see a short video clip.