Iceland Emailed!

Well, the word is out: In a week, George and I are leaving for our last big hurrah of the summer - our trip to Iceland! Saga country, here we come!



Over the last two weeks, we have planned, re-planned, and planned again our itinerary. This included a sorry day in July when we realized we had to scrap our intention to trek around each of the western fjords, considering we'd planned only about 4 days on the Snaefellsnes Penninsula. As luck would have it, we're still hoping to visit the home of Iceland's hakarl industry. Putrified shark meat. Mmmm-mmmm!



Also on our list: Reykjavik, an evening bike tour of the coastline around Reykjavik during the midnight sun (22 hours of sunlight, and a high of 55 F in August!), Stykkisholmur, a ferry trip around the fjords in the Breidafjordur, Grundarfjordur, and Videy (a small volcanic island off the coast of Reykjavik). Not to mention trying to figure out how to say the names of all of these things. We have it on good authority (Hanna and Marko) that, try as we might, we will fail.



More (pictures, too) to come!

Thanksgiving 2010 - Meat Cupcake Edition

International Relations Part Why Me?

Me being successful as a Fulbright scholar:
So, I am completely ill. SO sick, and no dayquil. I want to die. The other day I slept for six hours in the middle of the day (totally erasing my "Jet lag is SO last season"), and my host mom/landlord came home and asked if I needed doctor. When I said no, she said, "then you eat." Then I said... um... Jenna sick. no eat. And she said "no eat doctor. no doctor eat." Then she made me eat buerek, which is bready oily fetaey parsleyey pastry stuff.

Burek Recipe: 1 pan phyllo dough, 6 oz crumbled feta, 4 oz creamed cheese, 1 beaten egg, 2 T fresh parsley, 1 T fresh dill, 1/2 cup better, 1 cup olive or grape oil. Eat repeatedly. Retreat to bathroom.

I thought I was going to puke all night. Then we had it for breakfast. And again for lunch. Also, at dinner she told me that both "um" and "sick" are "no say" in Turkish.

I looked them up, and "um" is an expletive for the female genitalia, and "sick" is the same, but for males. Thanks, Redhouse dictionary, for the specific translations.

So to recap:
Kind Turkish host mother: "You bad? You hasta [which I now know means ill]?"
Jenna: "&$#%& Jenna &%&&$@#"

Dear Fulbright,
Thanks again for the investment in my visit here to improve American-Turkish relations. About that, you're welcome.
love, Jenna

International Relations

Türkiye welcomes you! I got in on Sunday, July 2nd, and already I've made a big splash with the international community.

I had little to no time to wallow in my homesickness on the flight over, as the Bosnian man sitting next to me for the eight hour flight was very talkative. Especially after I told him I hadn't slept in days, and would like to sleep now, and for the next eight hours. Instead, he regaled me with tales of his job as a prosecuter for the US Embassy in Bosnia, including informing me that it would take just one call for him to find out if I had lied on my taxes, in which case he would be sure that I would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In other words, we were fast friends.

Mehmet, my cell mate and new husband.

After the meal, he started his Bosnian stand-up routine:
1) This guy calls home in the middle of the day, and his little son answers.
*in high-pitched prepubescenttesquee voice*
"Hello?"
"Is yourmotherr there?"
"No. She's in the bedroom with another man."
"She is? Then do me a favor. Go to the closet and get the gun."
"Alright." And the boy goes to get the gun. "What do I do now?"
"Go in the bedroom and shoot them both."
So the boy does this and comes back and says, "What do you want me to do now?"
And the man says, "Nothing, Elam. Now go outside and play."
And the boy says, "My name is not Elam."

And..... Scene.

Good one, right? But also with a message, because "the woman got what she deserves anyway."

Then there was the one about the bird who wants to "get some", and keeps getting rejected by the female bird, until when she gets "randy? Or do you know horny better?" he is able to turn her down, because he is masturbating.

This one he barely made it through, he was laughing so hard. Oh! Those Bosnians and their humor!

In all, the flights were pretty much the worst I've ever experienced. In the middle of the night/flight to Munich there was a big racket a few rows up, and a woman ran to the back of the plane. Shortly thereafter a flight attendant came down the aisle in full toxic clean-up gear. After awhile word came back that while the woman slept her seat mate had woken up and vomited all over her. She then puked all over herself. After the clean-up, they were both moved to business class. Score for them.

After barely making it through the landing without losing it myself, the flight to Ankara was mildly better. Until the landing, when the boy next to me turned green during the landing, started sweating, and crawled over me and the man next to me to start vomiting over and over again in the bathroom directly behind us. Until the flight attendant knocked on the door and made him return to his seat before the plane touched down. I gave him my air sick bag and prayed I made it off the plane without the Lufthansa salad he ate all over my pants.



Once we landed, things went well, until the luggage stopped coming and twenty angry, luggageless Turks erupted in Turkish swears and tears. Joanna's bag was one that didn't come, and she got in the line / cluster of Turks waiting to write down their luggage information, as the Ankara airport is without computers. Meanwhile, I guarded our luggage that had arrived from the suspicious Turks who probably assumed we had just gathered up as much luggage as we could to sell at the nearest Bazaar.


Joanna and me supplementing our meager IIE stipends.

Tomorrow: More on how I severly offended our host mother, and purchased a Turkish boy to accompany me to Austria at the Bazaar.

Change Language

Yeah. Okay. So I took that from the blogger page. Look. It's my last day of work, and I'm tired.


Things that indicate I am secretly already fluent in Turkish:

Bin Jenna. Bir Bira luetfen.

See? I can totally 1) Introduce myself 2) Order a beer....though nothing else, so all of my memories of Turkey will be hazy at best. Probably my pictures, too. Har Har!!!

I can also count to 19, and say 100. AND I can ask if there is any bread (and) milk. I know that should be "or"... but I don't know that word yet, OK!

All this after only six months of ravenous studying!!!!!!!!!


Thing I will miss as of 12:20pm today:


Chipotle Fridays (and Tuesdays... and Thursdays)


Thanks for making it a memorable three months, Chipotle.

Easy does it. Hard does it better.

Okay.... so slight change of plans. NO biggie! Just a little... different. For one thing, remember my new best friends I was bragging about making in Alabama? Billy Jean and Jed are going to be so sad, but we aren't going to get to fry up some catfish for another whole year.

Instead, I've got some new new friends waiting for me:

AUSTRIANS!!!!!

(Or as I will now and forever call them, "Austrifriends".)

A few weeks back I got accepted for the Fulbright to go and study all my booooring / totally fascinating linguistics stuff in Vienna. And, after much ado about whatever a quadratmeter is (turns out: big), I even --hopefully-- have a place to live while I'm there.

I'll be doing language acquisition and maintenance research in the the Turkish migrant community in Vienna, and for an added bonus, 12 hours a week of "Native English Speaker" TAing at a UNESCO high school there. Sweet deal? Terrifying? A little of both??

The big bonus of all of this? Apartment in Vienna?? = meh, okay. Great experience teaching English to high school students who are probably faaaar cooler than me?? = yeah... close. Prestige of being part of the research community blah blah blah? = now you're not even trying.
Give up? For a week in September I get to go through a TA orientation in sunny, beautiful, Kulturhauptstadt 2003 Graz!!!! Back to my old Austrian tromping grounds.


I was trying to find a funny picture to put here, but then I remembered: Graz is actually amazing. Not funny "amazing". Actually, truly, gorgeous. Thanks again, Graz.

So the big story is that I also got accepted for this other grant to go learn Turkish before I start in Austria, so before I meet my bff Gunther under the shadow of St. Peters, it's off to Ankara, to get to know the Turks and their CRAAAAAZZZZY language. I just found out classes start July 3rd. What's that you say? It's already June 13th? Oh, I KNOW.


Mom, Dad, I'd like you to meet my host family.

Did I mention I get to find my own housing?

Ummm.. yeah.

So... now that I bragged on and on about understanding the "link button"..... For some reason my super cool "post" is half way down the screen.
Fine. I've learned my lesson. I won't brag / "lie" about my internet prowress anymore. sheesh.

On a more serious note, 3M asked to extend my contract, so I now have a job for longer than the next month and a half! Woohoo!
P.S. Don't ask me what I do there, because after almost two and a half weeks of wowing management with my PeopleSoft skills I still have no clue what it is I actually "do".

Yeah, well maybe you're a showoff!

How sweet is this?


This is from this thing where you can create your own visited countries map.

AND! You can do it for states, too! (See below, where I unwittingly look like I am spreading A)Communism [see above map] or B)Republican jingoism.




(Thanks Saryn for link!)

P.S. In case you hadn't figured it out yet, I totally figured out how to make links. So, who's afraid of the internet now, fool!