I know, I know...I'm so behind!

Faithful readers...my apologies for being M.I.A. lately.  I had a good friend come to visit in mid-October, I played tourist guide for one of the wives of a colleague of a woman who is the wife of one of DH's work colleagues (yeah, try figuring that out!) and then I started Turkish class, which is three days per week, and I've had trouble adjusting my writing schedule to my new whirlwind life. But ok, enough excuses. I owe you all a TON of updates.

Starting with...

Go to hell. I look stupid. I hate this harness.

Many of you have asked me how Gozer is adapting to life in Istanbul. It's been a bit rough for him...I mentioned before that he thinks cars will stop for him, and he's used to doing his business in grass and/or on a tree. We have some green areas near our place, but one of them is routinely occupied by a large golden retriever-like stray (don't worry, Istanbul spays/neuters them, gives them ear tags and treats them for disease).  The stray is really very friendly, although the first few times I was afraid he was looking at Gozer like he was a burrito on a rope.  Funny enough, it's the dogs on leashes that tend to be very aggressive here--I don't think they have many opportunities for socialization, so they don't get the friendly butt-sniff.  But anyhoo, Gozer has become very particular about where he can go, which usually means I or my DH end up on these crazy long walks...which are very stressful because he wants to run into the street, eat all the cat food and other crap on the ground, or (my favorite) he keeps getting touched, roughly, I might add, by high school boys or men who think it's funny to tease him. After a few scares where a cab missed him by a few inches, I decided it was time for the harness.

Buy yourself some recognition.

Lil' G just does not care when you pull on his throat collar, so the harness it is. Plus, he looks cute, right? I like to think of this as his "go to hell, Mom" face. Good practice for real children. :-) But anyway, since we started using the harness walks have been better, and he's lost a bit of his self-consciousness and now just does his business in the middle of the sidewalk, which is charming for passers-by and embarrasses me to no end. I'm sure my Mom will point out this is also good practice for having kids(!!). But, despite the rude dudes and boys, Gozer has certainly charmed a lot of the women in our neighborhood, including these two very bored shop girls at an import store up the street (need bacon in Istanbul? This is where it's at!) who love to give him salami when we walk by. Turks aren't used to seeing a dog do tricks, and his "high five" is especially popular. :-)

For all your button-needs!

Now, to explain a phenomenon that I have only seen in Istanbul...there is something weird going on here regarding retail sales.  I realize that to some extent in Europe you still have areas where people prefer to go to small shops to get each thing rather than one big shop at a mall. So, you go to the butcher for meat, the bakery for bread, etc. Jewelry stores also come to mind as having homogenous stock. However, I have never seen that principle applied to so many different types of things:  watches and clocks, or trophies and plaques, or stamps.You might think that's not so weird, but consider the second part of the situation--you have districts for each of these items. Our place is in the lighting district, which means store upon store and street after street with only lighting.

Stamps. "Nuff said.

Then a part of the street only for LED lighting. Then you stumble upon another street where all they sell is trophies.  One of my personal favorites is the olive oil store that I pass on my way to school.  They have the saddest store window you can imagine--three shelves, each with three cans of olive oil.  So, so strange. I took pictures of these stores for you. :-) That's all for now...I have a lot of homework to do before class today and tomorrow Gozer and I are leaving for Prague! More on that when we return.  Until next time, xoxo.
P.S. I got here September 20th, and since then we've had two overcast days, and then sunny with the temperatures in the upper 70s, lower 80s. In October!

We all need disco balls.

This one is actually pretty.