My new bike!

The shadows make her look like she has 8 billion spokes, but man is she beautiful!




Look at how beautifully the carbon fiber was laid!

my poor expired bike!

I had a slight altercation with a car today - I am fine, but my bike is totaled. ugh!! Note that the right chainstay and right seatstay are completely gone.

even the seat came off -


and the top tube was completely cracked in two - with a nice hole in the top (the hole is hard to see because it blends in nicely with the black carbon)

Biking in Wisconsin (June 08)

Here are some photos from Wisconsin - one of my favorite places on the planet!  It is an amazing place to just be - but it's especially amazing for biking.

   

Our house and the road leading away from it.  It is actually hillier than it looks!

 

The farm across the way from ours, and another farm in the area.

  

a random road and a random calf - both beautiful.

LiLynn and Ernie's bash (14 June 08)

Here are a few photos from LiLynn's festive affair last month.

  
     

     

    

Catch-up: Ontario, Stockholm, and final Turkey bits

Hi all,

I've been very remiss in keeping my Adventures up to date. So, I'm now posting photos from the end of Turkey, my trip to Sweden in November, and a trip to Ontario and Ann Arbor last weekend. (I know, Ontario and Ann Arbor doesn't seem like much of an adventure, but heck - I had to show my passport four times!)

I'll go in (chronologically) reverse order, for those who are too busy to look at photos from last June!

Ann Arbor - Ontario
Last weekend, I drove to Rob's house in Ontario (west of Guelph) and then we went on to Ann Arbor to see Geoff and others - and to eat like pigs. Very fun! The big gap however, was that Marn wasn't there. It's just not right without her.


Geoff and Rob at Leopold's- very typical. (I started to make a link to Leopold's - but their web site is so different from the L's of grad school days that I didn't even bother. They're closing anyway...)

The other bonus of the weekend was getting to see Rob's homeland. Dr. C has built himself quite the marvelous one-room house on some family property just spitting distance from his family farm. The house is straw-bale and off the grid - all his power is generated by the wind and sun.

The house with solar panels, wind turbine, and of course a barn.


Rob's 'bedroom' (left) and kitchen and bath (bathroom is behind that wall)

It was cold and absolutely beautiful the morning we left for A2 - so while RC went to do his chores on the farm, I took photos around his house.




and before I regretfully had to hit the road home, I got to see his cattle! In addition, we went to his parents where Mrs. C gave us hot tea and cookies; and his dad was watching curling on TV.



Sweden
Thanksgiving week, I went to Sweden to be the external opponent on a Ph.D. defense. That in and of itself is worth pages of description - but you'll just get the short version.

Before I went to Linkoping for the defense, I had a couple of days to wander around Gamla Stan (oldtown) Stockholm.



This is the Swedish Academy, where the Nobel Prize committee meets!



The defense experience in Linkoping was phenomenal. I loved the process (though it kicked my butt!), and the people.


Jennie - a very relieved defendant! Jennie et al. at her celebratory dinner. The man to her left is her advisor, Per.


The tradition with this crew is that the grad students plan the evening's activities and the defendant has no idea what will happen. We did a lot of singing - much of it with Per and Jennie dressed in chicken costumes. It was hilarious! (Jennie did her research on junglefowl - the wild type of chickens.)

Turkey - Cappadochia

Cappadochia is known for their amazing landscape. Inside these spires (which were formed by erosion), people have carved out homes and churches. In fact, this was one of the strongholds of Christianity in the 14th (?) century. (FYI, these Turkey photos were taken by Samantha L.)




Inside these ancient churches are extensive and well-preserved paintings - astounding.

Elbeyli

Here are some final photos taken on our last day in town.


The main family who took us in while we were in Elbeyli - Cemil and Halil; and the women and boys of their family. I'm sorry Dad isn't in this!



The fields looking very different than they did in spring.

Istanbul


The Blue Mosque at dusk.

Son güle güle

Final goodbye.
I am in Istanbul and fly out today. I am in a real funk. Sam left earlier this morning, so I'm sitting here alone and I can't imagine leaving Turkey, Elbeyli, the people...The last four months have had more than their fair share of trials, but overall, this is an amazing place and I've made some wonderful wonderful friends.

When some people are sad they shop. I'm generally not one of those people, but I have to confess yesterday I engaged in some high scale catharsism. For my 40th birthday (don't tell anyone, but, yes, I'm about to turn 40), mom and dad said they would put money toward a very nice Turkish carpet. So yesterday Sam and I went from carpet shop to carpet shop. It was actually very fun. Because I was seriously looking, each shop sat us in their showroom, gave us tea and started to pull out rug after rug. I saw a lot of stunning rugs - most of them far too expensive. (My favorite was an all-silk for about $11,000!) At about 3pm, I was about to give up. I'd seen several rugs I liked, but none that said, "Misty!" I told Sam that we'd try one more shop, and then I was done. When we walked in, I (as I had done at every other shop) told the guy what I was interested in and what colors I wanted. So he sat us down, gave us tea, and then the heavy hitting salesman came in and joined us. We just sat around and chatted for maybe 30 minutes or more - not talking about rugs at all. Our salesman was very nice and funny - so we had fun chatting. Then he seamlessly moved the conversation to rugs, at which point the first man (who was in his late 20s and looked like a young Tom Cruise!) pulled out three rugs right away that were what I had described (which was not done at every other shop) and one undoubtedly said, "Misty!" So we sat there and chatted, and I stared, and said I couldn't afford the rug. Over the next hour of chatting, looking, walking around the rug, the price came down almost $600. So I am now the proud owner of a Turkish carpet! It has made an already problematic luggage situation even worse, but Sam and I will figure it out. (Sam gets tons of kudos for hauling all sorts of luggage for me on her journey home!!!)

All of my final photos are on Sam's camera, so I will post photos when I get them from her in a few days.

Cappadocia

Hi all -
I will tell more and post some photos later, but for now - Cappadocia was amazing!

Now that we're back, I'm really focused on getting everything ready to go... I can't believe it's already time to go home. I'm going to miss Elbeyli, the people, and Turky more than I can say. I'm trying not to be too depressed about saying goodbye -

and FYI, I mistyped in my last post. We leave for Istanbul very early on 10 June, not 9 June. Our flight out is at 4:45am, so Sat night (9 June) we are going to Antep and will stay in a hotel. Then we will have an entire day in Istanbul. Unfortunately, my trip home includes a 20 hour layover in Frankfurt - and most of that is overnight, so not a lot of time to play. (With my baggage, it will be a pain to leave the airport, anyway.) I will finally be in Ithaca Tuesday evening (12 June).

Talk to you soon!