Istanbul, the land of apple tea, rugs and catcalling

Turkish Coffee 'aka mud'

This past weekend I was able to get away for a few days and have some days in the sun with my girlfriends. After a hard few weeks it was just what the Doctor ordered. :)

Istanbul is famous for many things. The food is amazing. The coffee is good but muddy. The mosques and museums are beautiful and insanely old. The textiles are cheaper. Etc, etc...but what Istanbul means to me are these three things. 

1. Apple Tea

2. Rugs

3. Catcalling

I would go to Istanbul just to see these lamps.

Apple Tea, Istanbul's gift to the world. It is so good! It is like hot apple cider without the weird cider taste. :) 

The Rugs and textiles are amazing right now. It makes my infatuation with aztec print very expensive. I bought five pillows and two rugs. Whoops. :/

Catcalling. This is the worst thing about Istanbul. Walking around Istanbul, it does not matter how you are dressed, all women get yelled at, touched, stared at etc etc. It can be really uncomfortable for women who already feel uncomfortable with forward men. But my friends and I realized that most of the men were actually just being friendly! If we ignored them then they started yelling more, if we answered them with 'No thank you's or 'We have already eaten but thank you!' they would always back off and say 'Ok well, next time! Enjoy your time in Istanbul!

Have I mentioned the humus and apple tea yet?

Spice Market Shopping! Expensive but Amazing. 

The Eye of Sofia (the history of this is amazing, a must see)

Molly smelling a lemon and mint tea. 

My friends and I began playing a game, we began making a list of things the men say to us. Most of the things in the list are hilarious and not inappropriate in the least, but they were still yelled out loud, across stores or roads.  Some of these things are inappropriate and were added to help show what life is like as a woman living or visiting in Turkey. Hope this doesn't keep you from visiting this beautiful place...it really is one of my favorite places in the world, you just need to go with a good attitude, a good 'Back Off' face and always travel in packs. :) 

TOP 13 THINGS MEN YELLED AT US 

(REMEMBER THAT MANY WERE DUPLICATES)

1. 'Hello Girls! HERE I AM!'
2. 'Let me guess...Chinese?'
3. 'Hola señoras bonitas.'
4. 'Beautiful Ladies please check out my big menu!' (NASTINESS)
5. Mmmm...(yummy noises) 
6. 'I have the best rugs in Istanbul! Best prices! And touching is free!'
7. A man literally walked up to one of us, handed her a ten lira (ten dollars), and said "Please feel free to shop in my store!"
8. 'It's my birthday ladies! Help a fellow out!'

Smiling through the catcalling

9. 'It's pay day today, not for me but for the sellers, so please help me out!'
10. 'Hello beautiful ladies! You are from Germany, no? ' (As he touches my friends hair. Thankfully she did not see it because I know she would have punched him right in the face if she did.)
11. 'Let me guess...SISTERS!'
12. 'Please take me home! '
13. (My least favorite) Looking us up and down and literally making a catcall, a kissing noise. 

Confession

Going through a 12 Step program is one of the most beautiful yet difficult things a human can go through. Currently Daughters of Bulgaria's outreach team is going through Servants Anonymous' 12 step program called Formation of Servants. Like I said, it is extremely difficult but beautiful. I am learning so much about myself and my insane capability of trying to fix myself over and over again expecting different results instead of running to the Lord.
The serenity bible is a companion for the 12 step recovery. It gives you verses from the bible to go through for each step. Currently I am on Step 5, this step is about Confession and I really enjoyed what the Serenity Bible says about why should confess our sins to one another, the benefits of honesty.

Four positive things happen in Step 5 sharing:

1. Our shame is reduced through confession. We know that confession is an ancient tradition in Christianity and that it is an indispensable ingredient in the healing and renewal process. 
2. Step 5 sharing allows us to express our grief-to expel the resentments, the anger, the fears that eat away at us and keep us from living life to the fullest. 
3. We take a major step toward honesty. Perhaps the single greatest barrier to recovery is the inability to be honest. In Step 5 sharing, maybe for the first time in our lives, we open our deepest, darkest secrets and most private hurts to another human being. 
4. Addictions, by their nature, isolate us from other people and from God. Step 5 sharing breaks down the barriers we have erected through our addictions. 

Sharing is the beginning of the end of our isolation. 

AMEN!!!

 

Myers Briggs Rule Breaking

As many of you know, I am a bit obsessed with Myers Briggs. :) For those who do not know who you are I would highly suggest taking the test. Learn about what your tendencies are and how to work better with others. If you don't want to take a test look below at the picture or ask yourself how you approach rules and figure out what you are. :) 

Have fun!

Quick Guide to Myers-Briggs Types- How They Approach Rules

Emily H.Business Instructor, Team Facilitator, CAPM, MBTI Certified, B.A. Linguistics

ENTJ: I make the rules.
ESTJ: I've written down the rules and made copies for everyone.
ESFJ: I've bent over backwards to fulfill all the rules.
ENFJ: Rules are great – they help us be better people.
INTJ: I've discovered all the inconsistencies with the rules and therefore consider them void.
INFJ: These rules are not benefiting me. I'm making up my own rules.
ISTJ: I've completed everything according to the rules.
ISFJ: These rules suck!!! *goes along with the rules*
ENFP: Ooops! I didn't realize there were rules!
ENTP: I've discovered these rules are not actually fulfilling their purpose, let me explain why.
ESFP: Is there a fine for breaking the rules? I'll just pay that.
ESTP: Watch me break the rules!!!!!
INTP: I've figured out a way to bend each rule.
ISTP: These rules are important for others, and if I feel like it I might follow along.
ISFP: I'm breaking all the rules, but it's okay because I don't think anyone noticed.
INFP: Completely unaware that rules exist, worried about why everyone seems so stressed.

Servants Anonymous

https://www.safoundation.com

Daughters of Bulgaria has been in conversation with Servants Anonymous this past year. They have encouraged us to go through their 12 steps program called Formation of Servants. It comes from the Alcoholics Anonymous' 12 steps program but instead of combatting alcoholism we are combatting our daily lives and our idols that keep us away from fully knowing Him and enjoying Him. 

All I can say is that is that I wish all humans had to go through this. It is not easy. But it is good. 

Can you imagine if the church started having these groups and began holding each other accountable.? Can you imagine the restoration? The vulnerability? The community after people begin realizing that we are not alone in our sin? 

We are all in recovery and we all need Him to help us. 

THE TWELVE STEPS OF ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS

1. We admitted we were powerless over alcohol - that our lives had become unmanageable.
   
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.
   
3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
   
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
   
5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
   
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
   
7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.
   
8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
   
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
   
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.
    
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
    
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics and to practice these principles in all our affairs. 
    

His Promise to Us

“Fear not, O Zion;
    let not your hands grow weak.
17 The Lord your God is in your midst,
    a mighty one who will save;
he will rejoice over you with gladness;
    he will quiet you by his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
18 I will gather those of you who mourn for the festival,
    so that you will no longer suffer reproach.[c]
19 Behold, at that time I will deal
    with all your oppressors.
And I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
    and renown in all the earth."
Zephaniah 3:17

Japan, the land of perpetual eating.

I had the wonderful opportunity to go to Japan and spend Christmas with my brother Hayden. Hayden is stationed in Okinawa and happened to have 96 hours off for Christmas! So I booked my ticket, praying the Marines would not drastically change it's mind, and flew 30 hours to see my sweet brother.  The traveling was longer to Japan but the cost was half as much as it is to get to the states. Thankfully.

Our Christmas feast!

In Okinawa we celebrated Christmas on the beach. We ate, drank, played games, ate, shopped, ate, went to the aquarium and ate some more. It was wonderful. A wonderful vacation with one of my favorite people in the world.
It's strange to live this life where I see my family so little. The last time I saw Hayden was in July and he was not yet engaged. The next time I see Hayden will be for his wedding. So strange how much you miss when you are on the field. Which is one of the reasons I jumped at spending Christmas with Hayden. Here are a few things we did. :)

On Christmas Morning we woke up just in time for our church's Eve Service. Beautiful way to wake up!

Our view from our balcony. Amazing. And WARM!!!

Best sushi I have ever had. 

One of the many SOBAs (soup)

We ate so much!!!

Visited a butterfly farm!

I thought I was snow white. ;)

We saw some really cool animals!

I've been sick...

I've been sick. Really sick. We have had lots going on with Daughters of Bulgaria and I have had to do them while being sick all week. Which meant...my new apartment has been filled with boxes and nothing has really been unpacked except the kitchen. And I am hosting our team's christmas party this Thursday. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed and unmotivated.

Yesterday my dear friends, my sisters, blessed me. They came to my apartment. They unpacked my boxes. Rearranged the furniture. Decorated my room. Cleaned my living room. And decorated the whole apartment for Christmas. 

My friends have a gift for 'nesting' and 'decorating'. They not only unpacked and cleaned but they made my apartment look beautiful. 

Sometimes I listen to the lies that are in my head. "You are alone". "You have to do this by yourself." "No one cares about you." "If you were normal you would have a man to help you." Bla Bla Bla...BUT then the Lord chimes in and reminds me that not only am I not alone because He is here with me, but He has also given me a beautiful family here that loves me and takes such sweet care of me! I am truly blessed by them and would not trade a single one of them for anything. Thank you my dear friends.

My Kitchen all ready for the Christmas Party! Love my chalk board!!!

Can you find the minion?

 In my living room there is a space with tile that looks like it was created for the Christmas Tree. :) So I knew that I needed to get a big tree this year. I tend to collect ornaments when I travel but I was still nervous that I would have a bare Christmas tree! So as I walked around the city I would find cute ornaments and buy one, two or three...mostly owls and sheep ones. :) Once I had unloaded all of my ornaments and started putting them on the tree I realized...I HAD PLENTY! 

Love these birds. 

Found this Advent Calendar in a shop here in Sofia. Can I get a Roll Tide Christmas?!?!