Nikki's onboard...perhaps overboard...

Merhaba benim arkadaslar!! Seni cok cok ozledim!!

I recently glanced through a little photo album that Ash posted on his Facebook Profile entitled "Guzel Istanbul," and all the sweet memories of all of you and the fun times we had in the dorms and on the streets of Beyoglu flooded my mind, body and soul. Oh how I miss each and every one of you! I can't believe that so much time has gone by since our days in the dorms. In some ways it seems like just yesterday we were sneaking bottles of Effes past the guards, hit'n the bong in the bathroom, and excusing ourselves in only a towel through our tiny kitchen on the way to the shower.

Since then we have each gone our seperate ways in life, love, and the pursuit of happiness. Fortunately we are blessed with modern technology and staying in touch has been relatively simple (for some more than others of course). I remember sitting in Natercia's dorm room (601) one day chatting a bit about our past, our future, and The Alchemist among other things and we continued come back to and express our feelings about how truly special our group of friends in Istanbul had become over time. We shared how deeply appreciative we felt to be there in that place and time and be a part of such a momentous experience.

I also remember verbalizing a daydream about how great it would be if there could be some way in which we could get our group to reunite every few years or so throughout our lives. I even went as far as conceptualizing a plan where a different person would host the group in their home country for each reunion. As we all move on in life we would bring our husbands and wives and even eventually our children. Our children would then have the chance to meet and become friends with other children from all over the world! Just as I started to go on, Natercia slapped me out of it and said "wake up, Nikki, wake up," and explained the likelihood of my dream becoming a reality.

Perhaps there is really no way my entire dream could become a reality but I am indeed beatified that an idea tossed out to the blog almost a year and a half ago to organize a reunion with 10-15 people from all corners of the world is truly materializing.

You can bet your bottom dollar that you will see me on/around June 17th at our favorite Galatasaray High meeting spot, enthralled to see each and every one of you again.

*Sniffle, sniffle, wipe a tear*

Okay, lets start confirming plans.

The ONION: will be expanding from print to streaming video...(newly updated to fit blog discussion theme)

Condoleezza Rice To Voyage East

Accomodation in Istanbul - please read, this is important!

Since I am still in Turkey I was delegated the responsibility of taking care of accomodation. In order to do that, I need a few answers from all of you.

1) Aakash and I thought that it would be best if we all stayed in some dorm-like (read cheap to keep the spirit) place somwhere around Taksim. We could walk everywhere and we would be able to hang out all together. Any objections/other ideas? - Please let me know

2) I also need to know who is coming and when (how many nights are you planning to stay in Istanbul, which days). In order to be clear, could everyone please send me an e-mail with this information to ivuskawalterova@gmail.com? It would be great if you could send me this information within the next two or three weeks. Thanks!



P.S. I am also making sure that Fred joins the party, so we should be all set :)

Monica's on board!

I'm psyched! Okay, so I just got an official, permanent, non-contract job with wonderful benefits doing great work which I really enjoy with awesome people! Wooo oh, it's working for a Foundation on the corporate philanthropy side of things! It also means that I can now officially book my vacation time which is 12 days but I might be able to work it into 3 weeks with sick days and a few other things.

So.....I know some people are going to Europe, others are talking about Iran/Syria... with three weeks it's not so much time to be country hopping all over the place so I'm thinking 1 week in Istanbul of some hard core reminisching, tributes to old time aka party central, fred is invited. Then I'd like to head off to the beaches along the Mediterrean coast, Antalya, Fethiye, Bodrum...and take it East, near Van Lake. I would be up for some Syria/Iran border crossing depending on time.

Istiklal, mediye, Galatasarey here we come!! Mid to end of June/early July is awesome! Oh by the way, where will we stay in Istanbul?