JANIE IS OFFICIALLY AN AGGIE! WHOOP!
We couldn't be prouder!
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
New Year's Eve...What a Night(mare)!
I have put off writing about out New Year's Eve "adventure" in Istanbul until it is just a faint memory...BUT, it WAS and adventure so I feel like I need to post it...let's hope I can remember everything that happened...
I will also post the pictures here, but it was raining and cold and a nightmare so they aren't very good and I can't even tell you what some of them are.
When Taner, the manager of the apartment we were staying in, came by the apartment on New Year's Eve we asked him where we could go to celebrate and he told us about a "street party" in a nice upscale part of town. We knew exactly the area he was talking about as we had already ventured up north to that area of town to visit the Military Museum only to find out it was CLOSED that day...Anyway, we all got dressed up and ready to go see some local street party to celebrate New Year's Eve. Ha! It didn't really do us any good to dress up because it was raining...and it wasn't a hard rain, but it was steady...add that to the fact that it was probably 40 degrees and it is already looking like it is going to be a miserable night. Well, we decide to take the funicular up to Taksim Square where we SHOULD have transfered to the train to get us closer to the party, but MY husband likes to walk....in the rain...and cold...uff. So, we traipsed through the rain and cold all the way to the part of town where the street party was....
When we got there it literally was a big huge street that went downhill. It was decorated beautifully. The pictures are kind of blurry, but you get the idea. There was loud music playing and people celebrating...and we decided on the group think route...apparently...and followed the crowd down this "red carpet" towards the music and decorations (living in Saudi makes us giddy when we see any decorations...no matter how weird).
As we went farther and farther down the "carpet" my claustrophobia started to rear it's head. I have been in situations on NYE before where we have almost been crushed (Jax Brewery, New Orleans among others) so I started getting a little nervous. I made mention to John that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but we were being lured by the sounds of revelry and music and wanted to see what all the hype was about! Our group think overrode our intelligence at this point. After a few more minutes we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of an aimless and very drunk crowd. At this point we couldn't go back the way we came because it had disappeared in to a sea of people. Our only option was to trudge on towards the music...and hopefully a way out. As we got closer to the music it got worse and worse...the crowd was drunk, packed in, and at a dead standstill. I started getting worried that the five of us would get separated or that one of us would get pushed to the ground and get trampled. We looked everywhere for an out and there just wasn't one. Just when I thought we were making some progress pushing through the crowd a stupid dance song would start playing from this "stage" where the music was originating and the drunks would start jumping up and down. Janie, Ali and I got separated from John and Madeline. We were pushing as hard as we could to get past one person and then the next. I started praying that the way I was pushing was the way John and Madeline had chosen to go. I was certain I had just lead my children to their demise. In the middle of this I kept screaming at Ali and Janie, "STAY WITH ME!" which just made them mad and annoyed at me...he he. I was in full on panic mode because we were being literally crushed. Not only were we being crushed, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity for the already "handsy" European men to grope my children. I didn't want them to see that I was panicking, but it was hard. At this point, I lost Alison. I was still kind of with Janie, but Alison was gone. I couldn't see her and I started to panic even more! Janie and I kept pushing and pushing our way through the crowd until I lost her as well. I knew that she was behind me somewhere and Alison was in front of me somewhere. I was hoping that John and Madeline had made it somewhere safe, but I couldn't see ANYTHING. Next to me in this crazy crowd was a man with a baby. I am not kidding. A baby. It was so crowded and scary because people started pushing and yelling because they were pushing that this man had to carry the baby above his head so she wouldn't get crushed. Behind me was the mother of this baby. She was also in full on panic mode, but unlike me, she had let loose. She was SCREAMING, what I assumed was Russian, in my ear like a crazy person. CRAY-ZY woman. I understood her panic, but we were all in the same boat and I had lost MY "babies" too. After what seemed like an eternity of her screaming and clawing at me I finally turned around and screamed at her to "STOP IT! BE QUIET! STOP PANICKING! I LOST MY BABIES TOO! WE ARE GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT! QUIT! RIGHT NOW!" Not sure she spoke any English, but it made me feel better. Just as I yelled at her to stop yelling, I spotted John who had made his way to a stairwell of some sort. There were businesses in basements of buildings and there happened to be one that had a strange planter built around it. He had gotten Madeline and Alison in the stairwell away from the crowd and what I felt was certain peril by thousands of drunk tourists...although my panic mode might be exaggerating my memory. Once we were all together again we made our way up the hill and out of the crowd. We started our trek back to Taksim Square...still in the rain only now I began to involuntarily cry (no one saw because I was behind everyone) due to the fact that I had almost gotten myself and my children crushed.
It was a really really long walk back to Taksim...or so it seemed so because I was spent, wet, and NOT drunk like the rest of the country. We ended up back in the basement (as it was overcrowded) of a restaurant that we had been to earlier in the week where we got some food, got warm, and dried off. That is how we spent our NYE 2011...in the basement of a Taksim Square restaurant soaking wet, but not crushed.
I will also post the pictures here, but it was raining and cold and a nightmare so they aren't very good and I can't even tell you what some of them are.
When Taner, the manager of the apartment we were staying in, came by the apartment on New Year's Eve we asked him where we could go to celebrate and he told us about a "street party" in a nice upscale part of town. We knew exactly the area he was talking about as we had already ventured up north to that area of town to visit the Military Museum only to find out it was CLOSED that day...Anyway, we all got dressed up and ready to go see some local street party to celebrate New Year's Eve. Ha! It didn't really do us any good to dress up because it was raining...and it wasn't a hard rain, but it was steady...add that to the fact that it was probably 40 degrees and it is already looking like it is going to be a miserable night. Well, we decide to take the funicular up to Taksim Square where we SHOULD have transfered to the train to get us closer to the party, but MY husband likes to walk....in the rain...and cold...uff. So, we traipsed through the rain and cold all the way to the part of town where the street party was....
When we got there it literally was a big huge street that went downhill. It was decorated beautifully. The pictures are kind of blurry, but you get the idea. There was loud music playing and people celebrating...and we decided on the group think route...apparently...and followed the crowd down this "red carpet" towards the music and decorations (living in Saudi makes us giddy when we see any decorations...no matter how weird).
As we went farther and farther down the "carpet" my claustrophobia started to rear it's head. I have been in situations on NYE before where we have almost been crushed (Jax Brewery, New Orleans among others) so I started getting a little nervous. I made mention to John that maybe this wasn't such a good idea, but we were being lured by the sounds of revelry and music and wanted to see what all the hype was about! Our group think overrode our intelligence at this point. After a few more minutes we found ourselves smack dab in the middle of an aimless and very drunk crowd. At this point we couldn't go back the way we came because it had disappeared in to a sea of people. Our only option was to trudge on towards the music...and hopefully a way out. As we got closer to the music it got worse and worse...the crowd was drunk, packed in, and at a dead standstill. I started getting worried that the five of us would get separated or that one of us would get pushed to the ground and get trampled. We looked everywhere for an out and there just wasn't one. Just when I thought we were making some progress pushing through the crowd a stupid dance song would start playing from this "stage" where the music was originating and the drunks would start jumping up and down. Janie, Ali and I got separated from John and Madeline. We were pushing as hard as we could to get past one person and then the next. I started praying that the way I was pushing was the way John and Madeline had chosen to go. I was certain I had just lead my children to their demise. In the middle of this I kept screaming at Ali and Janie, "STAY WITH ME!" which just made them mad and annoyed at me...he he. I was in full on panic mode because we were being literally crushed. Not only were we being crushed, but this seemed like the perfect opportunity for the already "handsy" European men to grope my children. I didn't want them to see that I was panicking, but it was hard. At this point, I lost Alison. I was still kind of with Janie, but Alison was gone. I couldn't see her and I started to panic even more! Janie and I kept pushing and pushing our way through the crowd until I lost her as well. I knew that she was behind me somewhere and Alison was in front of me somewhere. I was hoping that John and Madeline had made it somewhere safe, but I couldn't see ANYTHING. Next to me in this crazy crowd was a man with a baby. I am not kidding. A baby. It was so crowded and scary because people started pushing and yelling because they were pushing that this man had to carry the baby above his head so she wouldn't get crushed. Behind me was the mother of this baby. She was also in full on panic mode, but unlike me, she had let loose. She was SCREAMING, what I assumed was Russian, in my ear like a crazy person. CRAY-ZY woman. I understood her panic, but we were all in the same boat and I had lost MY "babies" too. After what seemed like an eternity of her screaming and clawing at me I finally turned around and screamed at her to "STOP IT! BE QUIET! STOP PANICKING! I LOST MY BABIES TOO! WE ARE GOING TO BE ALL RIGHT! QUIT! RIGHT NOW!" Not sure she spoke any English, but it made me feel better. Just as I yelled at her to stop yelling, I spotted John who had made his way to a stairwell of some sort. There were businesses in basements of buildings and there happened to be one that had a strange planter built around it. He had gotten Madeline and Alison in the stairwell away from the crowd and what I felt was certain peril by thousands of drunk tourists...although my panic mode might be exaggerating my memory. Once we were all together again we made our way up the hill and out of the crowd. We started our trek back to Taksim Square...still in the rain only now I began to involuntarily cry (no one saw because I was behind everyone) due to the fact that I had almost gotten myself and my children crushed.
It was a really really long walk back to Taksim...or so it seemed so because I was spent, wet, and NOT drunk like the rest of the country. We ended up back in the basement (as it was overcrowded) of a restaurant that we had been to earlier in the week where we got some food, got warm, and dried off. That is how we spent our NYE 2011...in the basement of a Taksim Square restaurant soaking wet, but not crushed.
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