My Update

Hey everyone, it's been just over a week since my last post so I thought I'd update ya'll on what's going on over here.  The weather is finally cooling down (it's 70 degrees at 530pm....pretty nice day actually), therefore people are now using coal to heat their homes.....thus entering the slightly smoggy/smoky months.  Last week I also bought a leather jacket made from extremely soft lamb skin from Mustafa, where all NATO members get at least one jacket.  He gives a 50% discount to us, so I got mine for ~$200. I found a VERY similar jacket online (wilsonsleather.com) for about $600, so I think I got a pretty good deal.

For those who haven't heard, the Denver Broncos cheerleaders were here a few days ago as part of their USAFE (US Air Forces Europe) tour.  Because we have such a small US contingent here, the 3-star "highly recommended" that he see us at the event.  They had free food and I was at the BX shopping for dish towels and candles anyway, so how could I resist?

Some good news and bad news for me:  Bad news is that the Istanbul trip in 1 1/2 weeks got cancelled b/c some people backed out and they didn't have enough people to get us the good prices. Boo.  I'll probably try and take Carissa up there (maybe for New Years?) when she comes out here in December/January.  The good(ish) news is that I found out yesterday that I'm going to Stavanger, Norway for 2 weeks for a NATO exercise.  It will be a little cold up north, but should be a really interesting experience.  I really don't know anything about the job yet, so the reason that their bringing me along is to "learn" (and because they lost one of the 2 other English-first speakers of the group, so they needed another).

Lastly...I finally got AFN (Armed Forces Network), which has some sports and regular TV shows...most importantly, they play most NFL games on Sunday (yay), so I can watch the Seahawks get spanked by the likes of the Raiders (boo).  I also finally got my internet connection, which is surprisingly fast here.

FYI...I updated my blog so that you don't have to be logged into Google to post comments (I think)... Here are some pics that I recently took (There are more pics on my most recent album posted to FB).

Here is the bay near the Kordon, where a lot of the nice restaurants and cafes are....I only have to walk about 150 yards to get to the water...Very pretty, just don't swim in or eat fish from it.

Right down the street from my apartment.  The smoky air sucks,
but creates absolutely gorgeous sunsets 

Couldn't leave a pic of this out...The PA guy here took a pic of me,
but I haven't gotten it from him yet.

Ciao!