Happy Fourth of July

I want to start by saying that we know many of you wish you could read about us more often. I know you miss us greatly. The reality is that we do not have consistent access to the internet while we are on our trip so we are having to take advantage of every starbucks trip to catch up. In all honesty most of my starbucks time is being used to catch up on the happenings of the day's Tour de France stage, so that is leaving little time for writing. Please bear with us.

This week we put our bags in the car and staked a claim on the spare bedroom at Emily and Josh's house in Santa Cruz. For those who don't know Emily is Erin's sister and Josh is her new husband. Most of our visits with them involve so much laughing that I end up wheezing by the end of the night, this trip was no different. We will miss having them close to laugh with us. I may also miss shows like Tosh.O and Wipeout. On the last day of our visit we loaded up on Dramamine and went to Monterey to take a whale watching expedition into the Monterey Bay. It was a beautiful day and a great trip. I think we were all glad we had been properly drugged because the water was bumpy. We did get a chance to see two Humpback whales spouting and sounding in the gulf as well as some Risso Dolphins, Seals and a Black Albatross. It was a great way to finish off a fantastic visit with Emily and Josh.

After our stay in Santa Cruz we headed back north to Alameda for a slice of Americana on the fourth of July. It included your classic small town parade including veterans on the flatbeds, children throwing candy and horses high-stepping in their fancy clothes. My favorite float was labeled P.T.W.I.T.P.L.Y. People That Weren't In The Parade Last Year, poking fun at the feeling we all had by the end of the long parade. At the end of the line, the unsung hero of every parade that includes horses, the street sweeper. I decided to include him since he too is an integral part of the americana parade.

On a more personal note I ask that you keep my aunt in your thoughts and prayers this week. Yesterday after a brave and courageous battle with cancer Bev passed away in her home. Aunt Bev had a great smile and brought laughter and happiness with her where ever she went. We will miss having her at our gatherings, but her memory will live in our hearts forever.

Let the tour begin!!!

Wow. Sorry folks that it has been such a long time since the last entry, Erin and I filled our last few weeks with goodbye activities as well as packing, so by the time we got to the end of the night we were exhausted.

First off, Thank you to all of you SLO friends for a great 10 years of good times and experiences. We capped off our last evening in SLO with a trip to the Cliffs where we had a great time with many friends who dropped in. And check out the sunset that happened that night, gorgeous; a great way to end our residency of SLO.

Sunset at the Cliffs

So now the A & E Tour of Cali has begun. It started with some true SF experiences including being stuck in traffic waiting for the toll plaza on the Bay Bridge. A tremendously cold and misty night at AT&T Park to watch the Giants beat the Red Sox and watching a rally for some pride weekend activities; all of which we deemed a San Francisco Treat (Ding Ding), especially the topless yoga happening at the rally.

We survived the "Candlestickiness" Erin's crew from elementary school

The view from Dolores Park, SF

We then went to Patterson to help celebrate the 90^th birthday of my Grandma, a great opportunity to see family and say some goodbyes. There was a great turn out of people to honor a woman who has lived a great life filled with great friends, a wonderful sense of humor and so much life experienced. My grandma and several of my other relatives expressed excitement for our new adventure and they all encouraged us to experience as much of life as we can. The more and more we talk to people about the next few years the more I become excited for the trip.

Since we are so very excited Erin and I have broken into our Turkey books to map out the places we want to visit as well as to learn about the History and culture of the country we will soon call our home. Now that we know more about our future home we will begin sharing more Turkey fun facts or events. Hopefully one of these events will inspire you to come visit us soon. So here it goes:

Fun Fact #1: Camel Wrestling: December marks the beginning of the Camel-wrestling season in Turkey. Unlike its cruel cousins the dogfight and cockfight, this is a sport based on cunning and dominance as opposed to viciousness and bloodshed. During the mating season male camels naturally will wrestle each other in order to establish dominance and win the hearts of the prize females. When camels are very young they will be purchased from Iran and begin their 4-year training to learn their own strategies and special moves. During the wrestling season the camels are brought to a stadium where their prize (a female camel) is paraded in front of them. Like the once wild animals they started out as the camels are then placed in head to head competitions that last 10 min. each and eventually lead to one camel being named the winner of the match. The winning camel is awarded the female camel and up to $25,000. Now, come December, you will all know where you can find Erin and I, we’ll be at the wrestling matches. For a preview of the excitement check out this you tube video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvq5gDuclS8

Don’t forget to keep checking the picasa we album below. I continue to add pictures to it. See you all later.

A SLO and Painful goodbye

Let the tour begin!!!. Now that we are basically done with work and are only 2 weeks from no longer having an address in SLO we have started to make sure and say a proper goodbye to the city we have loved and lived in for the past decade.

It started with a week of goodbyes at the school where we have lived, learned and grown over the years. It was an emotional experience saying goodbye to the women that have acted as friends, mentors and on occasion stood in as mothers (when needing advice on dealing with Charter, or whether or not to go to the ER for stitches). ASI has been a place where we grew as teachers and gained the skills that we will carry with us in our future adventures.

Now that we are down to 10 days in SLO we have kicked in to high gear on the central coast bucket list (things to do before leaving town). Instead of telling you all about it I have put a link below to a Picasa web album. Check out the pics:

http://picasaweb.google.com/102431173849443461259/ItSSoHardToSayGoodbye?feat=directlink

How many more things will we squeeze in? Stay tuned?

Leave your cranberry sauce at home...It ain't that kind of Turkey

After considering your feedback, and weighing the offers from both schools the decision has been made. I hope you are all ready to come visit us in Turkey.

Before our Spain offer fell through I never would have considered Turkey as a place to go, not know anything more than it was in the "Middle East" (a moniker that seems to provoke a little anxiety in our relatives). As we have talked to people and done a little more research on the area we are getting more and more excited every day.

The sad news is that we have to start saying goodbye to some of the place and things that we love about the central coast. This morning as part of a birthday present for myself we went and purchased a new DSLR (for those who need to know it's a Canon t2i). The woman that owns The Photo Shop downtown was so kind and helpful and truly excited in our upcoming adventure. I knew Peggy from back in my film camera days and she still remembered me today when I walked in. I will miss living in a place where you know people and they know you.

We also went out to Avila to enjoy the beautiful weather. We stopped at Salisbury to wine taste and I said goodbye to an old friend Devil Dog Red. Then we met Andi and Dave for drinks

and a walk on the pier. We both agree that it is a good thing we are going to a beach town when we are in Turkey, we would both miss the beach too much.

The Search Continues

Well the search for a legitimate job somewhere in the world continues and it has led us to stretch the boundaries of our search. Yesterday we had a great interview with Jan from a school in Turkey. It went very well and now we have gotten rather excited about living in Turkey. The school is part of a network of private schools around Turkey that serve children from 3 years to high school. We have also been interviewing for a position at a school in Prague, Czech Republic. That opportunity is sounding quite positive as well. So now we have two potential offers from two very different locations Prague and Turkey. While we would be able to work at both schools the Turkish school seems to be more flexible than the Czech school in terms of curriculum. Now we want help from our readers to tell us which they think looks like a better environment for us to live in. Follow the links below to the Wikipedia pages for both cities and read up:                                                                        

Alanya, Turkey                                        Prague, Czech Republic

Give us your opinions. We want to hear from our friends.We should know more by the end of the week if we are actually being offered these jobs, so we will keep you posted.

The Location!

I just realized how silly we were being! How can you buy all of our stuff if you don't know where we are?!   My address is 2817 Garibaldi in SLO.  Drive down broad, turn down Mutsohito, (in between Utopia Bakery and the Grange hall, and follow that street down to the Villa Rosa apartments.

Also: you should know that this is a BYO truck, crates and reusable totes events.  There will be a $10 delivery fee, or a "buy till you fill that box" penalty if needed.

And...  we will be serving BBQ hot dogs and chips, with $2/glass wine (keep the glass!)
So excited!

Auction Items

We have good news and bad news, lets get the bad out of the way. So apparently the job we thought we had with Spain was a scam. Remember that first post about confirming legitness, well we didn't confirm enough. While surfing the web for some expatriate websites Alan came across a warning about a fraud operation pretending to be the Spanish Ministry of Education. The page told the story and it was too similar to our story. So beware to anyone who think they has a job with the Gobierno Ministerio de Educacion de España. Unless you have used their profex application to register, you are being scammed. Do NOT SEND THEM MONEY!!!  Even if it is for a "visa processing fee" you would pay that at the consulate.

Have no fear because the good news is here. We are still going somewhere and we are still having our auction. That is this saturday May 8th, from 12 to whenever the stuff is gone, or until we are too tired to care. We have some awesome stuff, in fact we took some pictures of some of the sweet stuff. Check it out:

                                      
                                                       Erin's Yarn and Crafting Supplies

                                                 4 Computer Monitors and an old Tv

               TONS of books from many authors including  Hemingway, Steinbeck and Eric Carle too.

                                            Picture frames and MOMA quality framed prints.

                                                       Brand new printer never used.

Kitchen Items like knives, an ice tea maker and a John Deere cookie jar complete with aged candy bars inside. (We are not responsible for any illness caused by consumption of aged candy)

                                                     Assortment of awesome headgear.

                                          Vases, Jars and Pitchers filled with corks for crafters.

                                                                  Erin's Snow Board

                                                      

All of these things and many many many more ( I threw in an extra many because Alan has lots of crap). These pictures don't even include most of Alan's things. Hope to see you all there!