Turkey

I just arrived home (well, just arrived meaning two days ago) from a week long trip to Turkey with a few of my fellow GSB classmates. This trip marked my first visit to a country in the Middle East and my first time visiting a perdominantly Muslim country. Well.... I have been to Indonesia and Malaysia, but I only spent about 5 hours in each country.

Our vacation started in Istanbul, which was the capital of Turkey from 1453-1922. The Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, and Topkapi Palace were a few of the tourist attractions we visited during the day. Our evenings where filled with dinners in trendy restaurants and after dinner clubbing. Our tour guide in Istanbul had a PhD in history, and was able speak in depth on the attractions. With me being the history buff I am, I liked hearing about the intricate details of the buildings and monuments we visited.

Cappadocia was next on our list of places to visit. This region of Turkey is known for its cave houses. For hundreds of years, people lived in homes carved in the caves, and spent time hiding from enemies in underground villages. The last inhabitants of the caves didn't leave until 1953! Imagine that! In 1953, people in America where driving around in cars and eating TV dinners while watching I Love Lucy, while people in Cappadocia lived in caves with no electricity and traveled around on donkeys. Well, I shouldn't look at that as odd since there are people in the world who live like that now.

One of the highlights of Cappadocia was culture night. We had dinner and a show at a Turkish entertainment spot where we saw traditional dances and donkeys! I was looking forward to seeing the belly dancers, thinking that there would be three or four women in traditional costumes doing their dance. Wrong. It was a belly dancer and she was dressed like a stripper. She had on heels, a skirt with a very high slit, and a bedazzled bra. Well, it was more sequined than bedazzled, but it had the same effect. Whatever.

After Cappadocia, we returned to Istanbul for a day of cruising the river and shopping. We ended the evening by going to dinner and getting our bags ready for our flight home the next day. Overall, the trip was fun. I'll post some pix and upload them onto my computer.

My mom’s visit

My mom was in the town for the past few days, and, as usual, we had a blast! I was excited for her to come because I used her visit to officially begin touring the city of Chicago. We started out on Thursday by going to the Field Museum to visit the King Tut exhibit which is on a two year U.S. tour right now. After the museum, we walked down towards North Michigan Avenue, hung out around there a little bit, and then stopped over at the Art Institute. Thanks to Ford Motor Company, entry to the Art Institute is free on Thursday and Friday nights, so we saved a few bucks there.

Friday was pretty low key. We went to see Little Miss Sunshine, walked over the Navy Pier for a little bit, then went back towards downtown to have lunch at Maggiano’s. After lunch, we headed over to Daley Building (I think that’s the building we went to) to see a huge Pueblo Picasso metal structure. That evening, my mom decided to stay in to rest for the next days’ activities.

Saturday was the day my mom was waiting for. It was the 77th annual Bud Billiken parade. This parade was founded to support education and Chicago public schools. It is held the second Saturday in August… just before school starts. And I’ll tell you what, it really does promote education. My favorite float was presented by Washington Mutual bank. Their entrant consisted of a motorized float with huge books of different subjects stacked on top of each other. Subjects included ‘Reading’, ‘Writing’, and my favorite ‘Mithology’. In addition to floats, the parade had a few celebrities, including Barak Obama, Marquis Houston, and the Chi-Lites. The parade crowd proved to be amusing as well. We saw hoochie mamas, lost kids, and people offering to take pictures of families with a Polaroid and selling them for $1.

After the parade, we went back to my place, picked up my car, and headed over to Ikea. For those of you not from Raleigh, the ability to say “Hey, I think I’ll go to Ikea today” is a big deal. You can’t really do that in Raleigh. The closest Ikea is in Maryland, which, for me, was at least a four hour drive. Anyway, we arrived at the huge blue and yellow building, which looks like all other Ikea’s I have seen, and shopped for about two hours. I ended up with three book shelves and a few other odds and ends. Now that my bookshelves are up, I can begin taking pictures of my apartment and posting them here for you all to see.

Sunday, which was yesterday, was my mom’s last day in town. We went to brunch, and then hung out in my apartment until we had to leave for the airport. Overall, we had a fun time, and I’ll miss her until I see her again.

About unpacking and Lollapalooza

All of my stuff arrived Friday. To give you an update on space, I went from a 1360 sq ft 2br/2.5bath house to a 760 sq ft 1br/1bath apartment. I sold some furniture and gave a lot to Goodwill before I moved, but I don't think I did enough! My apartment looks so full! I'll need to buy some storage trunks and bookshelves to store everything.

By going through this moving process again, I realize that unpacking is like Christmas. You put all your stuff in boxes, but since you are hurried and stressed while doing it, you don't remember what you put in each box. When the boxes reach the new place, you open them one at a time, and are excited to see all the stuff you haven't seen in about a week(or, in the case of move to Japan, six months)! It is so fun!

When I haven't been unpacking, I've been exploring the city of Chicago. It really hit me this past weekend how close I am to the heart of the city. I started hearing really loud music Thursday morning. My first thought was "Oh, some garage band is practicing", but they kept playing the same song over, and over again, which was the 80's song "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood. I begin thinking "This stinks. Good thing I'll be in class during the day so I don't have to listen to this." But, soon realized, I was wrong. What I was hearing was a sound check for the Lollapalooza festival held in Grant Park, which is across the street from my apartment. I was able to hear muffled sounds all weekend from the acts who took the stage. It really hit me on Saturday night when I was able to hear the set given by one of the festival’s big draws - Kanye West. Guys, I am really close to so much in the city. Seriously, you all need to come visit!

Well, gotta go. I'm about to walk down to street to check out a hair salon.

Life: act 5

Welcome to my new blog and thank you for reading my first ever posting! I started this blog so that my family and friends can know what I'm up to during the next two years. I also hope that writing in here will improve my writing and grammar skills since they have been disintegrating over the past several years :o/. Oh, and as the months go on, I hope to become more humorous in my writing. My first few blogs might be a little dry, but that should change as I get back into the swing of writing.

Anyway, I arrived in Chicago a few days ago and am ready to start stage five in my life. "Stage five" you may wonder? Well, let me give you a quick rundown on the first four. See which stage you entered my life in:

Stage 1 - April 26, 1979: I was born in S. Jersey and lived there for 10 years where I attended St. Mary's Hall located on the riverbank of the Delaware River in Burlington NJ. Those were happy times.

Stage 2 - August 1990: This was the month my mom and I moved to Japan and lived there for five years. I made a lot of friends while living there, many of whom I still talk with today. I also ate a lot of Japanese food. Weird thing is, when people I know visit Japan now, they tell me about these really odd dishes they ate, and I’m all “Who took you out for dinner? Next time, go to Yoshinoya and call it a day” In 1995, we moved back to New Jersey where I completed high school. Those two years weren’t very significant, so maybe we should call them state 2.5

Stage 3 - August 1997: During this time I moved to Pittsburgh, PA, and started classes at Duquesne University. I was involved in many things – The basketball band, a sorority, and a couple of clubs in the business school, among others. When I was putting my MBA apps together, I would look at my activities, then look at the number of courses I took each semester, and wonder how I did it all without having a mental breakdown!! .College was a blast; but, had to end at some point, which leads me to...

Stage 4 - May 2001: I made a move by myself to Raleigh where I worked for IBM. I didn't care for either of my jobs that much, I shouldn’t have been an IT person. Seriously, if I could back to my freshman year of college, I would have studied dentistry… or economics. Overall I liked working for IBM, and made long lasting friendships with people I met within and outside of work.

Stage 5 - August 1, 2006: I made the semi-cross country move to Chicago, IL, where I will become a full time MBA student at the University of Chicago. Throughout the next two years, I will use this blog to let everyone know how school is going, and how other parts of my life are going as well. Like wise, let me know how you are doing. My blog's email address is listed on this page so feel free to drop me a line....