Water for Elephants: My first swap.com book

Hello!! I've been so busy lately. The new quarter started and I've been working constantly. I feel very productive. However, working that hard after a couple of weeks at home has taken its toll on me and now I have the flu :(. But I also have some good news; I  passed the qualifier! If you don't know let me tell you, I am a PhD student and I needed to pass the qualifier so that I could still be a PhD student. Now I just(!) need to pass the candidacy and defend my dissertation to become a Dr, still a long way ahead but I feel happy that I am done with the first stage...

Book cover

Now, on to the latest book that I've read: Water for Elephants. I got this book from swap.com for just a shipping fee :). As the name implies swap.com is a website that offers a platform for people to exchange their books, CD's, games etc with each other for free (not including the shipping fee). You don't need to worry about "not receiving your item"  because if something like that occurs swap.com will send you a new one and charge the member that failed to send the item. I have exchanged "Angelology" for "Water for Elephants".

swap.com logo

I learned a lot about circuses while reading the book. The writing was really good and although the story is pretty much predictable after a point I enjoyed it very much.  An interesting things is that the story is told from the perspective of one character at two different stages of his life. I don't think it is a must-read but I would suggest it.

Katy Perry Concert!

It's been a week since my last post... I've been working hard for my qualifier and finally I took the exam on Friday. I hope I'll pass it! By the way, I have been working hard but I didn't miss Katy Perry's concert which was last Tuesday :). I have decided to take advantage of what America offers. I have enjoyed both Britney's and Katy's concerts. They were great. Katy was much more of a chatterbox which I really enjoyed. During the show she talked about her ex-boyfriend who was from Ohio and how she used to visit often. I was thinking that this was just part of the show and she would change the name of the state to please the crowd according to where she was performing. I was surprised to read online that she did actually have an ex-boyfriend who was from Ohio.

She came on stage with this outfit and sang "Teenage Dream"

Katy was sick but she didn't cancel her Columbus show and to my surprise her voice was not bad. She actually performed most of her songs live. She seemed to be enjoying her new found fame and wanted to give her fans what they wanted. I am glad that I went to see her show, you could feel her energy and she seemed to be a fun person. I didn't know half of the songs she performed but they seemed to be fun and catchy. She has 5 or 6 shows left in North America, you can take a look at the tour dates here.

California Dreams Tour set list:

1. "Teenage Dream"
2. "Hummingbird Heartbeat"
3. "Waking Up in Vegas"
4. "Ur So Gay"
5. "Peacock"
6. "I Kissed a Girl"
7. "Circle the Drain"
8. "E.T."
9. "Who Am I Living For?"
10. "Pearl"
11. "Not Like the Movies"
12. "The One That Got Away"
13. Medley: "Only Girl (In the World)" / Big Pimpin'" / "Whip My Hair"
14. "Thinking of You"
15. "Hot n Cold" (contains elements of "I Want Candy")
16. "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)"
17. "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)" (contains elements of "Girls Just Want to Have Fun")
18. "Firework"

Encore

19. "California Gurls"

One more thing, "Peacock" is a funny song :).

Performing Peacock

Cake Decorating... Preparing a feast for the eyes

I am soo into cake decorating at the moment. Having got cable for the first time since we moved to U.S. I've been watching all the "cake shows" to catch-up :).

I was introduced to cake shows with Amazing Wedding Cakes, which is shown on We TV. The show visits 4 bakeries located in different cities and you get to see all the work that goes into creating a wedding cake from scratch. There are so many different types of wedding cakes. You can go for a really classic one or a very dramatic one with many vibrant colors. It is simply up to your imagination...

This cake was designed by Robin at Gateaux  from the show Amazing Wedding Cakes for a bridal shower. Both the bride and groom were pilots and the places on the maps showed meaningful locations such as their honeymoon hotspot

I have also watched Ace of Cakes and Cake Boss. Ace of Cakes is shown on Food Network and Cake Boss is shown on TLC. Right now my favorite show is Ace of Cakes. They rock! They made cakes for the latest Harry Potter movie premiere, Super Bowl, 30 Rock Cast & Crew, the Oprah Show and for many more great events, people and shows...

The show Ace of Cakes takes us inside the wonderful Charm City Cakes bakery. The bakery was founded by Duff Goldman in Baltimore, MD in March of 2002. Their slogan is "You dream it, we'll bake it, you eat it"! They are not a typical bakery in which you can just walk in and grab what you like, you need to order your cake pretty early and up until recently they were only making custom cakes that were outside most people's price ranges. However, they now have Cakes for Two which basically means you can order a cake for your special event from a selection of cake designs. These cakes cost $250 each and in contrast to its name they feed up to 15 people. If I ever visit Baltimore I'll probably order one before going so I can pick it up when I get there :).

Charm City Cakes: Nightmare Before Christmas

Duff Goldman with his cakes

Charm City Cakes: From the Exorcist, I am really scared of this cake, it is terrifying!

Charm City Cakes: Anesthesia Machine

Charm City Cakes: A history book

I've posted a couple of photos of my favorite cake designs. I have also started looking into cake decorating classes. Once I'm done with my qualifier I want to sign-up for one. I even chose my cake decorating kit. Cake decorating looks like a fun way of utilizing some spare time and since I'm such a big cake fan, I think it is perfect for me :).

Turkish Delight

As most of my friends know I'm probably the number one person in their lives that has such a strong relationship with almost anything sweet. I can eat anything from simple candies to chocolates to five-star desserts. There are very few sweet things that I don't eat. All my life I was the one that had the biggest sweet tooth among my friends :). Therefore, I also love Turkish Delight but since there are many different kinds I especially enjoy a couple of them very much.

Before Turkish Delight is cut into cube shaped pieces

Turkish Delight known as "lokum" in Turkish was first found by Bekir Efendi, who moved from his hometown Kastamonu to Istanbul and opened his confectionery shop near the Yeni Cami Mosque in 1776 during Ottoman Empire's reign. You can now buy these sweet things in boxes but originally you were supposed to bring a handkerchief with you before you went to the store and when in the store they would put the delight inside your handkerchief. "Lokum was introduced to Western Europe in the 19th century. An unknown Briton reputedly became very fond of the delicacy during his travels to Istanbul and purchased cases of it, to be shipped back to Britain under the name Turkish delight".  For more information visit here. I watched a documentary about Turkish Delight a few years ago and in the documentary a lady said that when Turkish Delight became so popular in Britain there were many people who tried to replicate the sweet however they were not successful. At the time there was a specific technique that you had to use so the delight would not be runny or sticky.

Turkish Delight cut and ready to be taken out of store :)

However, now you can find Turkish Delight around the world. It is probably named differently in some places and the taste will definitely vary. In my opinion the best ones can be bought during the bus trips you take in Turkey. If you are traveling for more than 3 hours the buses will have a rest stop where you can find many treats to buy especially a wide range of lokum flavors. I love the rose and chocolate flavored ones and the ones with pistachios inside but I prefer the ones that aren't sprinkled with coconut.

Turkish Delight up close

Turkish Delight on display

I've done my detective work and in North America you can find these delights in Middle-Eastern/Turkish stores or online. Also I believe some of the Americans were introduced to Aplets and Cotlets as Turkish Delight. I will be trying them very soon :).

Aplets & Cotlets: Will be trying them soon

I would've given you a recipe but I haven't tried making Turkish Delight before and I don't know which recipe is the best among the ones I found online. As I've told you earlier it is hard to find the right density of the delight so it is not too soft or too hard.

Lychee

Lychees with skin

I've met a new fruit and fell in love with it :). Its name is lychee. My husband was introduced to this fruit by one if his Chinese friends while working in his office. Later, he was able to find them in our local Giant Eagle and bought some for me. I was doubtful at first and at that point I realized that I wasn't so open to tasting new edibles. However, I really liked the taste, I think it tastes like rose water. Actually I recalled the taste of rose flavored Turkish delight when I bit into the fruit. I will be making lychees my healthy dessert option from now on :).

Peeled and ready to eat lychees

Lychees were originally cultivated in southern China, Malaysia and northern Vietnam and introduced to the west in 1782. Well it wasn't introduced to Turkey because I haven't come across any lychees in super-markets in Turkey. Furthermore, I couldn't find a translation for the word lychee. Lychees are more recently grown in California, Hawaii, Texas and Florida and I believe our lychees are coming from one of those states.

Rose flavored Turkish delight

Lychees have a total of 66 calories in 100 grams. About nine lychee fruits meet an adult’s daily recommended Vitamin C requirement, which is pretty good because last night I ate 11 of them :). They are pretty expensive in Giant Eagle, they cost $5.99/lb. However, 11 of them cost around $1.00 so it is a cheap desert option in addition to being healthy. I learned that I can usually find them in Asian grocery stores for cheaper. We checked out our local Asian store and were able to find them but they were greenish yellow and as far as I know ripe lychees should be brownish red in color so we didn't get them. I think they may have been longans though. I haven't tasted them but read that they're similar in taste to lychees but they are yellowish in color.

Longan

Green Tea and its Health Benefits

About two weeks ago we went to a Sam's Club. In case you don't know Sam's Club is owned by Walmart and you have to purchase an annual membership to shop there. They offer bulk products that range from tea to meat. In addition to grocery items they have electronics, office supplies, furniture and even jewelry :). Hence, they have pretty much anything you want but most likely in bulk. Some of the prices are great compared to most of the grocery stores that we usually prefer to shop at. However, you have to be careful because  not every item is cheaper. You may assume because they sell in bulk they will always be cheaper but this is not the case, don't forget to read the price tags! We don't have an annual membership but we were able to get in because they had an Open House for three days so any nonmember could shop. I guess they have open houses couple of times a year and if you don't have a big family to feed shopping a couple of times a year will be enough for you. For example, I think I bought a year's worth of green tea supply :). I've been drinking at least 1 cup of green tea since we went to Sam's Club.

A cup of green tea

I know green tea does not taste very nice but it is good for your health and since no one is getting younger I think protecting your health is very important. Here are the most known benefits,

1) fights cancer and heart disease
2) burns fat
3) prevents diabetes
4) boosts your immune system
5) simulates metabolism (good for weight loss :) )
6) reduces tooth decay
7) reduces and prevents acne
8) slows the aging process so that you get less wrinkles :)

You can read here and here. I think the second link is a very good source about the health benefits of green tea. If you're thinking of drinking green tea to lose weight then you have to drink about 4-5 cups of green tea. If you drink that amount of green tea your body will burn about 70-80 calories more so if you're thinking of going on a diet drinking green tea will be beneficial. However, by merely drinking green tea and not doing any diets or additional exercise you'll be able to lose about 8 pounds (3.7 kg) per year, which is pretty low if you want extreme results. Read here for more information about the relationship between weight loss and green tea.

Gifts from Turkey

While we were in Turkey we received a couple of gifts from friends and family. I want to thank them once again. I've posted photos of our gifts,I think now our home feels more like a traditional Turkish home. We finally have some accessories!

In case you don't know evil eye beads are very popular in Turkey and are used to ward off the looks coming from an evil eye that may cause harm to the person,home,car etc. that it is directed at.

The tulip part is made from glass (handmade) and the evil eye beads (the blue/white colored beads) are to protect the home and they are nice looking beads that are usually attached to traditional gifts such as the one above

These are usually hung on kitchen walls so that the owner(s) of the home will always have food on the table. You can notice the small evil eye beads on this traditional gift too.

In many cultures elephants are believed to bring good luck so we have them hanging on our walls :)

A tomato shaped pitcher. We are currently using it for water.

A sweet little bottle opener to use and decorate our fridge

Breathtaking Photos

I've stumbled upon some wonderful photos. I wanted to share them with you so you can also feast your eyes :). The colors are so vibrant, I feel happy just by looking at them. Unfortunately I had to scale them down so that they would fit the page and they've lost a bit of their effect. Please click on the photos to see them in their original size.

 

 

You Never Know What You'll Find in Marshalls

Yesterday me and my husband were in the mood to go outside and visit a couple of stores. We decided to go to Petland and Marshalls.

The puppies in Petland were really cute and there were so many of them. We also took a look at the "not so cute" pets such as piranhas, snakes and lizards. While I was trying to get a better look at one of the snakes I heard a noise behind me and expecting to see someone walking instead I saw a large turtle. He had a balloon glued to his back that read "Thank you" and he was going around the store :). He was fast and you had to give him room so that he could walk because it didn't seem like he would stop :). He was actually a little scary because he was really big. After our fun and a little scary visit to Petland we decided to go to Marshalls.

I really enjoy going to Marshalls because I can usually find lovely pieces of clothing, household items or shoes for great prices. I wasn't looking for something specific but I found a lovely flat that I had been after since the beginning of summer. I was in need of a brown/ochre flat that would be comfortable. Luckily I found one! There were two sizes left, 6 and 6 and a half. Both of them fit me but I bought 6 and a half just to make sure that after walking for a couple of miles the shoes will still fit my feet :). I bought the flats for $34.99 and they were originally $69.00. I posted a couple of pictures of my new shoes. I really love them :).

My new shoes and its box

Wearing the shoes :)

By the way we also bought two pairs of Converse for my husband, one is blue and the other is cream. The blue is like a vibrant blue not a dull one so it is eye-catching :). A pair of Converse cost us $24.99 so we were pretty happy with our purchases.

Femme Fatale, Britney Spears

Album Cover

Last Saturday (08/20/2011) we were at a Britney Spears concert. It was really exciting and fun! First of all it was our first concert experience in U.S. so we didn't know what to expect. However, the concert turned out to be a great show. I can't lie, Britney Spears mostly lip-synched her songs and having gone to an Evanescene concert before we were a little disappointed about that. Amy Lee sang about 10 songs in Istanbul Kurucesme Arena on June 24, 2007 and her voice was to die for. I know that you cannot compare Amy Lee and Britney Spears because Amy Lee does not dance on stage and she only sang about 10 songs while Britney Spears sang 22 songs, so Britney had 12 more songs on her tour set list.

Britney put a great show though, you didn't want to miss anything that was going on stage :). There were lights everywhere, cars and ships were brought on the stage and there were many great dancers. After her last song, Britney brought Sean Preston, her oldest son, on stage and he waved us goodbye. Sean Preston was really sweet, he looked a little overwhelmed by the crowd :).

From the concert in Columbus, OH

Before Britney came on stage, Destinee&Paris and DJ Pauly D performed for us. I don't want to be cruel but Destinee&Paris were pretty bad, I think it was due to the sound system though. You couldn't hear the words of the songs they were singing and it just seemed like they were making a noise. The crowd at Nationwide Arena went crazy when DJ Pauly D came on stage. We had no idea what was going on until I remembered where I had seen DJ Pauly D before. I haven't watched an episode of Jersey Shore but I have seen its posters so I put 2 and 2 together and realized that DJ Pauly D was a cast member of Jersey Shore. To be honest I didn't think DJ Pauly D was all that special. We were a little bored with both Destinee&Paris and DJ Pauly D.

We originally bought our tickets for $32.50 and we were supposed to watch the concert from the very back but luckily there were seats available in the front and they changed our seats. We were upgraded to seats that cost about $70. We also found out that we could've bought cheaper tickets from Groupon but since we were upgraded we were able to get the same deal that was offered by Groupon.

We were really happy with our first concert experience in America. I want to give you some information about Britney Spears' Femme Fatale tour. There are only two more dates left in the North American tour. Britney will be performing in Raleigh, NC on August 24 and her North American tour ends in Charlotte, NC on August 25. North Carolina still has a chance to see the concert  :). I really doubt they will be out of tickets. Starting on September Britney will be touring Europe and after November 15th she will start touring South America. Her tour set list is as follows;

1. Hold It Against Me

2. Up N’ Down

3. 3

4. Piece of Me

5. Big Fat Bass

6. How I Roll
7. Lace and Leather

8. If U Seek Amy

9. Gimme More

10. (Drop Dead) Beautiful (feat. Sabi)
11. He About To Lose Me

12. Boys (Remix)

13. Don’t Let Me Be The Last To Know

14. Baby One More Time

15. S&M
(Rihanna cover)
16. Trouble For Me

17. I’m A Slave 4 U

18. Burning Up (Madonna cover)

19. I Wanna Go

20. Womanizer

21. Toxic

22. Till The World Ends

If you can't make it to her concerts take a look at her latest album, femme fatale because it has received great reviews. Currently my favorite song is "Till The World Ends", it is very catchy :).

How to Survive in America Part 1

Having gone through a lot of problems/adventures/funny moments in a single year I think we have some experience about living in America. Some may find my/our experiences awful, some may find them funny and some may say, what's the big deal it is life, so just get over it :).

In two weeks we will have completed our 1 year in Columbus minus the 3 week holiday we spent in Turkey. The biggest lesson learned during this time in America is you have to fight for a lot of things. People may say you can't have/do something but generally you can negotiate your way through a lot of stuff.

I'm going to list some of my/our experiences and thoughts so it is easier to read.

1)All my friends have had problems with AT&T. Currently AT&T is our service provider for internet and cell-phone numbers. As expected from such a large company, it is hard to get a customer service representative on the phone and when you do you can't get off the phone for an hour. If you happen to forget to ask/tell something then you call them again and be told that your previous customer service representative had not done what you asked for. I think me and my husband have passed the point of getting angry for this stuff. However, we learned that we can negotiate things. For example if they tell you, they're going to charge you $22.95/month for internet and you've read online(on their website) that it is $19.95/month, you have to tell them this information to get the $19.95 price. In other words, you cannot afford to be stupid if you care about your money. For this case $3 per month only makes $36 per year, it doesn't seem much but if you consider that you go through websites to find coupons for $5 off of a meal from a restaurant then you need to always be careful.

2)That makes me want to continue with this "coupon" frenzy in America. We don't have this "collecting coupons" stuff in Turkey. In America they send coupons to your email, mail and from time to time will hand them out to you on streets. You get coupons from a lot of different places such as grocery stores, restaurants, clothing stores, car service places and even from funeral homes. Yes, you did read funeral homes! At first you think why bother with this stuff, but after a while you realize that some coupons offer great deals, for example you get half price meals at some restaurants and considering you have to eat outside a lot during busy weeks/months you need to find places that has better prices. This is how I became one of those online coupon hunters :). We just moved to a new place, and there is a restaurant that we like a lot and the first thing I did after getting a couple of dinners to go from that place was to go online and look for their coupons. Now we have a coupon that says you can get your meal for half price with up to $10 value :).

America wants you to consume consume and consume. However, it is up to you to find the best deal out there and not get sucked into retail therapy during the process.

I'll be back soon with other experiences that include fighting for our rights and how to pay less:).

Mangiz Design

Last year I received a lovely gift for my birthday from my then boyfriend - now husband :). As any other lady out there I love handbags. I think I have about 30-40 handbags. I brought some of them with me to Columbus and I left a whole bunch in Turkey. Now, let me get back to the story of my present :).

My present was a hand-made school bag/laptop bag/ legally blonde style professional bag. Whichever name you feel comfortable with after seeing the pics. I started using the bag a couple of weeks ago and I find it very useful. Unfortunately, the bag is too cute to put my heavy laptop in it but if you have a Mac which probably is half the size of my current laptop then you can definitely use the bag as a laptop bag. I use the bag if I have a meeting with my adviser at the university. I generally put my folders in it but I have to say I did put my lunch in it once :). It has much more space then it seems.

The cutie pie bag

Yes, that is my finger. I'm trying to show all the features of the bag :)

The most special thing about my bag is that it was designed by my husband's friends from high school. His friends have established an online store, Mangiz Design. In the online store you can find cases similar to mine, sleep masks, pillows and wall lights. You can also send them pictures of your own creations and get your unique hand-made items. However, the website is in Turkish and they only deliver within Turkey.

I want to thank the creators of Mangiz Design because they gave the case as a gift to my husband and me. Thank you very much! Ellerinize ve akliniza saglik :).

Little Love Stars

I just joined StumbleUpon! In case you haven't heard of this site before let me explain it in a couple of sentences.

StumbleUpon Logo

You become a member and choose a list of things that you would be interested in, for example "clothing", "nutrition", "painting" etc then you get this add-on on your web browser. Whenever you have some free time and want to "stumble upon" great things that would be interesting just click on Stumble!, the add-on you installed when you became a member, then you will get the chance to see different websites that show something that is interesting for "you". You can also like or dislike these sites StumbleUpon gives you so by this way they can understand what "you" like or don't like. I just became a member but it is already amazing!



I stumbled upon a craft's blog, creative kismet. It is such a sweet blog, there are lots of colors, happiness and energy that you get to enjoy. I specifically came across "little guiding stars" on the blog and these little stars took me back to my high school years. I want to give a big shout out to my best friend! She used to make me these little stars and put inside the presents she gave to me during happy occasions. These little stars meant that she loved me and the smaller stars meant that there was much more love coming my way because they were harder to make :). Enjoy the little stars I found on creative kismet. I wanted to share my memories that made me so happy today! I hope you like the stars as much as I liked them. There is also a video that shows how you can make these stars. You can find more videos on creative kismet.
 

Little stars up-close

A jar of little stars

Istanbul Series Tea Glasses - Designed by Faruk Malhan

Faruk Malhan's Tea Glass-Tea Plate Design for Pasabahce

My husband's lovely cousin gave us two tea glasses and tea plates as a present when we were in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. These tea glasses have been designed by Faruk Malhan for Pasabahce who originally designs furniture.

Faruk Malhan

We love our new "not so traditional" tea glasses because the size of the cups are not small and the tea glass matches its tea plate perfectly. Turkish people will know that usually if you're carrying a traditional tea glass with its plate and if you're not careful enough you can spill some of the tea onto the tea plate due to the wobbly tea glass. However, with Faruk Malhan's new design it is very hard to spill tea onto the tea plate because the tea glass sits on its plate perfectly. The design looks modern and most importantly it is very convenient to use. They only ship to addresses within Turkey but you can have a look at an online store.

A more traditional tea glass-tea plate

Goodwill

Goodwill Logo

OK, I know it has been a long time since I wrote anything. It has been more than a month but I will try to write more often starting today :). The reason I haven't been able to write anything is that we've been very busy. We were in Turkey for about 3 weeks and when we came back we moved to a new apartment, got ourselves a car and started working on our research projects. In addition to all this I have a qualifier exam coming up so I just started working for that also. I have to study my notes from previous quarters for the qualifier exam.

Household items at a Goodwill store

Clothing section at a Goodwill store

Today me and my husband visited a Goodwill store, there is a store located within 5 minutes of walking distance from our new place. I recently learned the idea behind Goodwill stores. Anyone can donate to Goodwill's donation centers. I'm planning on donating some of my clothes in the near future. The stores sell these donated items and with the money Goodwill helps people by funding job trainings, employment placement services and other community programs. They actually have many different programs going on. To my surprise I learned that they celebrated their 100th anniversary in 2002. I had no idea that Goodwill was such an old establishment. There are so many different stories of people that have been involved in Goodwill that you can read here.

Reading books

At our local store we found lots and lots of reading books, and the prices are great! For paperback books you pay $0.99 and for hardback books you pay $1.49. The books were generally in good condition. In contrast to the above photo the books were on shelves and much more organized at our local store. I was going to buy Sandra Brown's The Crush for only $0.99 but I thought I'd go back and go through all the books and not just buy a single book. So, I'll be visiting our local Goodwill store again very soon and probably picking up many books. By the way if you check, Sandra Brown's book is $15.95 on Amazon.

We also liked a couple of household items such as photo frames and stuff. We'll be going back when we have more time for browsing. It is great that you get a deal and help people at the same time :).