Jihad Tomatoes

Yes JF and I are so excited. Right now we've named him/her Pepin, which means seed or bean in French ;p Pepin la Boule.

But I have to confess my mind is not at ease at all.
I try to find positive things, but it feels like every fibre and molecule of my being is rebelling against this place.
If I took a snapshot of my mind, it would probably look like Edvard Munch's goulish painting.
Yes...SCRREEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!

It doesn't help that people seem to be out to scam us all the time.

From the real estate agent who when asked basic questions like "What are the monthly maintence fees for the flat?" replies, "It's not my job, Don't ask me." And then harasses us to sign a blank lease without any fittings or fixures listed. (BTW over here WE are the ones paying the 12% commission and NOT the property owner. In spite of this fact, he doesn't give 2 shits about finding out basic info for us.) WTF!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?

To the fish place that tried to charge us 80YTL (about SGD$92) for ONE miserable 1kg fish when we agreed on 50 YTL before ordering, paid a 20YTL deposit ONE DAY IN ADVANCE AND waited 1 hour 30 minutes for.

Tell me, how not to get pissed off and depressed?

Recently I met a Singaporean Malay lady who has been living here for 17 years. (She married then divorced a Turk) She's the ONLY Singaporean I know of here so far. She told me that most ppl here, especially landlords don't give a shit about the tenant, they just want to "take your money, and trample on you."

Water and electricity cuts are looming everyday. When they first came into effect in the capital, Ankara 2 weeks ago, the mayor publicly announced that "people should go on a holiday to save water." All the local papers were outraged by this comment especially when they discovered that this mayor was told THREE YEARS AGO of the looming water shortage but did nothing about it.

The upcoming presidential election is also big news here. The ruling party have chosen and backed Abdullah Gul, the guy who announced his candidacy in April which then resulted in mass demonstrations by the Turks and worldwide press coverage. He withdrew his candidacy back then after much pressure, but now he's back in the sadle and announced that he won't back down. The millitary here is strongly secularist and wary of him because he is seen as an Islamist. Hmmm.....I doubt a coup here will be as peaceful & fun as they are in Thailand, with people selling spring rolls and cold drinks to demonstraters and handing flowers to soldiers.

Lately, about twice a day I've been hearing this truck pass by with a loud hailer, some angry-sounding guy shouting away, calling for jihad for all I know. (Maybe it's just the language that sounds angry.) So I look out the window, and turns out he's selling potatoes and tomatoes by the truck load. Wow. The karang guni man's comical beeping horn sounds so much friendlier in comparison and doesn't make me fear for my life. It seems like funny misconception, but just adds to make me feel distrubed living here.

Watch this space...

Yes we're happy excited nervous gan cheong! Just found out. Still in a daze. All cos of this little black dot. :)

Ok so half my planned activities go out the window. But hey I read that Dallas Howard did her own stunts in Spiderman 3 while in her first trimester. So paragliding should be ok huh? :) He he.

And in case you're still wondering, no we don't have a place to live yet, and no I still don't like Turkey.

GET FACEBOOK NOW! (then add me ;)

I've been a little (ok, A LOT) obsessed with Facebook over the last week!!

WOW U get to bite people, turn them into Vampires, play with vibrating hamsters, send growing plants and receive fish! (THANKS FOR THE 3 cute starfish Melissa!!! At least now I don't look like a saddo for sending myself 2 fish ;) Hehe.

And it's ALL YOUR FAULT MEEEEEEEENA!! Nyah nyah nyah! ;p Hee hee, no actually thanks Mel! It's fun, love it! HUGS.

Again, I'm not the speediest person when it comes to blogging, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook etc.
So some of you may think...whaaat? Facebook is like SO OLD. Where have U been Dawn?

Anyways, even though I got a Facebook account some time back, I never used it cos, well, I DIDN'T KNOW HOW. Dumb right?
DOH! (Has anyone watched the Simpson Movie? Me, not yet)

Sometime last week, Melina sent me an email (and some lovely pix from the wedding in France!) to cheer me up cos I'm having a hard time here. She mentioned FACEBOOK and searching for me there, and how it's so useful for finding long lost friends, classmates etc.

So I decide to revive my Facebook account and started getting addicted to it!
I used it to search for my friends and also found an Expats in Turkey forum (cos I'm just dying to converse with ANYONE in English without having to use hand signals!).

So ALL OF YOU READING THIS, JOIN FACEBOOK NOW and add me :) My nick there is BLUSH.
Promise I'll bite U!
And please please please send me things for my aquarium.
(U can stroke my hamster too....I've named him Milton and he's darn cute and vibrates)

Other than that, I decided to tweak my strategy for finding stuff to do here to keep me from going INSANE.
Joined another expat forum and postwhored myself there, got lots of replies about stuff to do.
If all goes as I hope, I might be able to:

1. Volunteer at an orphange/ Little Sisters of the Poor/ homeless dog shelter
(bearing in mind that I may probably have to spend a fortune on taxi fare since I don't drive here)

2. Sing, Act, dance, prance in kids theatre (they do shows for charity) That's if the Director doesn't think I'm pants.

3. Write a comprehensive English guidebook to Istanbul for newcomers
(There is a great French guide done by the French community here, but NONE in English...not as detailed and comprehensive anyway) U gotta LURVE the French for adding "Good places for Brunch" and "Chocolatiers and Patissieries" under the "ESSENTIALS" heading. Muahahahahahah! Vive la Froggies ;)
All proceeds of their guide goes to charity. So I thought I can do the same. With help from the BBC for all the local contacts. (Oh forgot to add that I'm planning to join a women's group which I, in Dawnspeak, christen the Bored B*****S Club. Hehehe. Go figure THAT one out.

4. Start paragliding lessons. Found a guy on the expat forum who does that every weekend and he told me there's a school.
They go to some ulu place about 130km from Istanbul. Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE jumping out of planes, off tall structures, so hey....jumping off a cliff and flying sounds like a lotta fun too! (Knowing the huge KLUTZ that I am though, high chance I may trip on a rock and hurtle face first into a cactus patch)

Anyone done paragliding before? SHARE SHARE TELL ME ALL. I want to know.

5. Try Ulimate Frisbee! Stumbled upon a Ultimate Frisbee group on the forum. They play 3 times a week and seems like a lot of young American college students studying here. Ok, so I haven't a CLUE what Ulitmate is, and nevermind that I'm proabably 10 YEARS older than the average player in that group, but they said we're welcome to join them anytime to play. Should be fun.. Frisbee = running, jumping, catching, throwing. Dawn = pathetic hand-eye co-ordination, stands there n WAITS for the tennis ball/shuttlecock/frisbee to come TO HER, gets doinked on the head by said item.

More later, right now I'm gonna make a sandwhich for lunch with Aunty Maude's delicious life-saving HARE BEE HIAM! (Half pack left...alamak.....gabra....finish how?)