food poisoning & meeting jesus

yes, you read that title right...."food poisoning" AND "meeting jesus". what do those 2 things have in common? well let me tell you!

this week, i had my very first and hopefully last experience with food poisoning. i went to a nice dine around seattle meal on monday night, had some crab cakes and ate way too much and went to bed early. then at 2am i woke up, not really knowing why, and i couldn't go back to sleep. by 4am i was feeling even worse, still couldn't go to sleep and finally threw up. after that i think i threw up almost once every hour for the next 6 hrs. it was horrible!

see i'm not the type of person that gets sick like that... in fact i've often thought i must have a super iron stomach b/c i never throw up. but that tuesday, it was like having the flu plus the added "bleh" factor of puking. i had literally no energy, i could barely walk upstairs to try to get more water or something to settle my stomach. a friend was nice enough to come over to deliver me some "safe" foods to eat and i could barely talk/hang out with her before wanting to just lie down and go to sleep. never again do i want to experience that!

now where is the "meeting jesus" part of this story? well, it's kinda funny because throwing up like i did this week will always remind of me of when i first met Jesus. see when i first started my journey into figuring out what i believed about God, Jesus and everything it was around my birthday, and that year i drank a bit too much and ended up throwing up a lot the next day. which is why it reminded me of when i first met jesus... or at least when i began that journey.

it's also quite ironic that today is also Good Friday and as i sat in service and reflected on my life with Christ i was again reminded of that birthday many years ago where i threw up a bunch and was introduced to Him... the 2 things will always go hand in hand in my memory. it's truly amazing how much my life has changed since that day and i'm SO grateful for the life i have with Him. how AWESOME is our God and how AMAZING it is that He loves us so much that He laid down His life for us!

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." 

Romans 5:8

Turkey - Food and Fun

since my last flashback post of turkey was more about how the trip impacted me, i thought it would also be good to have a post on what i did and what i ate while i was over there. anyone who knows me knows that one of the best parts of traveling is the eating and my friend definitely helped me to try all the local foods! the best summary would be to view my FB photo album of turkey, but if you want a written summary here it is:

Izmir
went bowling, had dinner and games at a friend's house, road the ferry across the bay, saw the konak tower (famous Izmir landmark), went to Kameralti (Izmir's mini grand bazaar), had the best cup of Turkish coffee at a cafe in Kameralti, spent a day visiting Ephesus, went to Sirince (quaint countryside village), had an amazing Turkish breakfast at a hilltop restaurant that overlooked all of Izmir

Istanbul
stayed with a family on the Asia side of Istanbul and caught the ferry over to the Europe side every morning (great way to start the day on the ferry with a cup of chai), saw the Sultan Ahmet Cami (Blue Mosque), went to the Yerebatan Sarnıcı (ancient underground cistern and aqueducts), Kapalı Çarsı (Grand Bazaar), Mısır Kapalı (Spice Market), the Aya Sofya, ate a grilled fish sandwich near the water at the Galata bridge, walked thru Istiklal Caddesi (Independence Ave), got a personal escort to a hard to find and AMAZING restaurant called Ciya, drank hot cups of Sahlep while walking around at night (love this stuff!)

Food in Turkey!

Left to Right, Top to Bottom:

• kunefe (ku-neh-fey) - cheese coated with really fine, little rice noodles that is then deep fried, and then covered with a honey-like sauce with pistachios spinkled on top
•  cay (chai) - strong tea served in small glasses like this and need to add 1-2 sugar cubes b/c of how strong it is
• van kahvaltisi (vahn kah-vahl-tah-suh) - turkish breakfast consisting of assortment of cheeses, tomato, cucumber, olives, honey, sour cherry jam and bread
• sac kavurma (sa-ch kah-vuhr-mah) - roasted pieces of lamb w/veggies on a sizzling large iron plate
• sevket-i bostan (shi-ev-keh-ti boh-s-tahn) - local plant root cooked with lamb meat and a special sauce
• many types of baklava
• eggplant & lamb pide (pee-deh) with yogurt
• Köfte (Kohf-tey) - turkish meatballs and Piyaz salad - white bean salad
• dessert plate at Çiya (Chi-ya) - candied eggplant, tomato, olives, walnut, pumpkin, orange and others (I can't remember)
• assorted local dishes at Çiya (Chi-ya) (from closest, clockwise): 1) flax seed with a local root in a lemony sauce, 2) apricot, plum, nuts with meat in a sweet sauce (my fave), 3) bulgar pilaf, 4) garlic shoots and meat in a minty cream sauce, 5) ckickpea and meatballs in a tomato-lentil type sauce
• like a quesidilla with spinach and feta inside baked on a hot iron half dome
• iskender (is-ken-dair) - cubed bread on the bottom with doner meat on top with tomato sauce and drizzled with butter and a dallop of yogurt on the side
• meze (may-zey) plate at Çiya - cold appetizers, usually olive oil type dishes, some dishes had a nice kick to it too
• Mantiı (mahn-tah) - Turkish style ravioli with ground meat inside and covered with a tomato, butter and garlic sauce and yogurt
• lahmacun (lah-ma-jun) - flat bread with minced meat on it with sauce and spices

Turkey...not just a normal vacation

this is my first flashback post, so i'm going to go back and write about my trip to Turkey which started off 2010 for me. sadly i can't seem to remember what happened in 2009...again a reminder why i need to blog more!

i traveled to turkey on 12/29/2009 and kicked off the new year there! i spent 5 days in izmir and about 5 days in istanbul. i decided to go to turkey b/c a really close friend of mine had moved there a year before to pursue God's calling as an m worker. i was really intrigued by turkey b/c i knew so little about the country and the people/culture there, but had slowly learned more as my friend would share about her time there. i was also curious about the life of an m worker and wanted to see/meet/experience a little bit of what it's like living over there. so while this was a vacation trip for me, i would have to say that it unexpectedly became a lot more than that for me.

flashback

everyday i'm reminded that even though i'm "young at heart", my memory is definitely not as good as it used to be. it's got me a little worried (maybe i've been watching too much grey's anatomy this season...if you know what i mean you must be a fan too!), but it also has me thinking that i should really make blogging a higher priority even though it does take some time for me to do.

i first started blogging b/c i saw it as a way i could share my life and hopefully, indirectly, bless others (esp the youth i was serving at the time) by sharing what God's been teaching me, showing me or walking with me through. that's still my hope, but a new reason for me to blog is simply to help me remember major events, ideas, thought processes so that i may hopefully learn from them and also remember God's faithfulness, provision and direction in my life.

so with that said...i'm making it my goal to blog more regularly this year! i was also inspired by a project a friend did last year, but i think that's way too ambitious for me right now....gotta take baby steps. i will definitely have some flashback posts, though, so that i can try to capture some of the events that happened over the past year or so that is missing from this blog (i know there's more than a year missing, but i think a year is about as far back as i can remember). hope you enjoy flashing back with me!