Season of Sayonara

 Mostly it comes from living in a college town, but even my friends who are non-University of Florida students & faculty are making me say my goodbyes.  Ed moved south, T (of T&A) went back to Germany, Mallory leaves today... and people I went to grad school with are leaving all the time. 

Wednesday brought a particularly hard Bon Voyage party.  My friend and co-worker at the flowershop was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  She left with her daughter yesterday for a 3-week cancer program in Tijuana, Mexico.  They have a system there that hasn't been approved by the FDA... hence and trip out of the states. The place is called the Gerson Hospital, in case you are interested.

Her doctors here gave her a few months and said there weren't any treatment options, so why not try.  She is a fighter.  We collected some money to give her for her trip and all stopped over Wed. night to wish her well.  I laughed hard at all the jokes to keep from crying. 

Pray for Diane (right)

more photos from the Turkish festival,

why not?

 here you can see my Ebru painting and scarf a little better

By the way, doesn't my friend look like Adrian Grenier from Entourage?

Seriously!

 
I wonder if I'm thinking about how I can possible drink that Ayran....

Affiyet Olsun! (Bon Appetite!)

who loves docomo commercials?

 I DO!  From the cute mushroom docomodake and now this gem.  I WANT THIS

What do you think?  Should I try and get a wooden cell phone in Japan?

Turkish Festival

 I had a big weekend, Gaga on Friday, work and friends on Saturday and Turkish Festival on Sunday

Someone from my Turkish class found out about this, so we decided to organize a class trip.

First food, Sigara böreği (Cigar Borek) 

Then on to Döner (Turkish Gyro).  I asked for no onions in Turkish

LOVE the patterns on the plates

There were a couple stands of artists from Turkey demonstrating Ebru painting or Marbling.

Basically, the artist drops oil paint in a tray of water, makes a design and then floats a paper on it.  When the paper is lifted out of the water, the design is transferred. 

This is the painting the man did for me!  Oil on a very artistic rendering of my name.  Love it!

They also had these beautiful Ebru scarves.  I bought one!

My Turkish teacher, buying some food.

There were all sorts of dance and and singing shows too.  I loved these little kids.  They stole the show.

Afterwards, one of our fellow classmate's family owns a Turkish restaurant in town-- so we went.

I tried Lahmacun, kind of like a Turkish pizza.  Very tasty.

I also tried Ayran, a salty yogurt drink.  It did not go down as well as the lahmacun.

Friends' food:  Iskender

lamb shish

When I dropped my teacher off at her place, she invited me up for Turkish coffee.  How could I resist.

Then she read my fortune in the upturned coffee grounds in the bottom of the cup. 

Apparently I should be expecting some good news!  Let's hope!

Me, modeling my Ebru scarf. 

Gaga!

 Friday (~Friday! Friday~) Kyohei and I went to see Lady Gaga on her Monster Ball Tour in Orlando. 

AWESOME.

At one point she called someone in the audience.  The kid picked up the phone and I thought it was going to pass out. ha ha, it was cute.  She chatted with him for a bit and then said that she does this every concert.  If the fan answers the phone, then Virgin Mobile donates $20,000 to Lady Gaga's charity of choice that night.

On our night she was raising money for Lupus and youth homeless shelters, as a majority of homeless youths were kicked out of there homes for being homosexual.  BOOOOOO to those parents, Hooray to Gaga.

What is up with all my photos being small!?  I have to look into this.

You can't see this, but I was rocking my Gaga t-shirt, but Gaga "pray for Japan" armband, and my "Alejandro" ring!  I was very much one of the most conservatively dressed.  Men, women and children of all sizes were done up in their best Gaga look-alike gear.

The Amway Center is HUGE, but it sold out

 subway car

flaming piano

dancing

My video!

That's the Fame Monster.  As you can see, she was already covered in smeared blood from a previous song.

This was Kyohei's first concert in the States.  I was happy and relived and he enjoyed himself.

flaming bra

Her New Album cover, released at the concert!

Lady Gaga Headlining MTV Japan Charity Concert

More Gaga-Awesomeness to look out for.

Lady Gaga is lending a hand or rather her voice to the people of Japan who have been effected by the countries recent 9.0-magnitude earthquake and following tsunami. The hitmaker will headline the 10th annual MTV Video Music Awards Japan, an event that has recently been called “MTV Video Music Aid Japan.”

The ceremony will air in June and will also feature various Asian stars including Japanese girl band AKB48 who will take to the stage at the Makuhari Messe Exhibition Center in Chiba

Organizers hope that the event will help generate millions of dollars which will be donated to the Red Cross of Japan which has been proving aid to those in need since the earthquake struck on March 11.

This isn’t the first time Gaga has thrown her hat into the ring to help Japan, she also contributed a song to the charity album Songs for Japan which helped raise money for the countries relief efforts, only to follow that contribution up later with a personal check for $1.5 million. Later Gaga also raised $1 million for the countries charities by selling wrist bands.

Kim Il Sung's bday

 

Check out this short news clip on the contrast between NorKor and SoKor on the day that would have been Kim Il Sung's (Kim Jong Il's dad) 99th birthday.

 

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/video/video-north-korea-celebrates-day-of-the-sun/article1986718/?utm_medium=Feeds%3A%20RSS%2FAtom&utm_source=Home&utm_content=1986718

comic relief

With all the terrible things happening in Japan, North Korea and in the personal lives of my friends, thank GOD we can all still laugh at something.

N. Korean dictator Kim becomes popular drink's model

Seoul (The Korea Herald/ANN) - Although Kim Jong-il is the most influential and even sacry figure in North Korea, he is treated as a hilarious icon outside of the hermit kingdom.