Hello Folks! I'm back from Turkey!

I'd like to say I'm all sultry and deeply tanned after my beach vacation, but really, I only got enough sun to make me look like a normal person with actual pigment in their skin. Those first few days on the beach were rough for my fellow beachgoers. Some of them wandered over to my beachchair to request that I stop flashing them in the eyes with a mirror. Of course, once they saw me, they realized it was just the sun reflecting off of my blindingly white skin.

M and I had a great -- and utterly mindless -- time on our vacation. There was absolutely no reason for us to take our brains along as there wasn't a single thing we had to think about while at this resort. Food, booze, entertainment -- it was all there and free. The closest I got to a thought that required higher reasoning was "Do I want a beer right now or a gin and tonic?" And let me tell you, that decision nearly wiped me out. I had to go sit on my beach chair and rest afterwards.

Oh and there's lots to tell. So much so that I can't possibly fit in all into one blog entry. Let me just give you quick glimpse of the past week or so and the next few days to come. (yes indeedy I actually have real live "stuff" going on here in Holland.)

1) The people who opt for all-inclusive, off-season vacations are a smidge different than M and me. Let's just say that, in comparison, we had too few tattoos and too many teeth. Also, we were sorely lacking in gold chains. However, as most of them were German, M did get to practice his skills in that language all week. Part of me was impressed by this. Part of me listened to him blabbering on in German and thought "Oh, damnit, he's becoming fluent again. There's goes my chance of moving back to the US. Now, he's gonna drag me to Germany so he can work for Mercedes."

Of course, this thought was immediately followed by "Hmmmm... I could drive a Mercedes. Must rethink this whole moving-back-to-the-US idea."

2) Dandelion leaves are my new favorite food. No, really. SO tasty. (and apparently, as Google tells me, highly nutritious.) And I know exactly what my father is thinking as he reads that sentence: "Great Ang! When you visit this summer, we'll just put you in the backyard and you can graze."

3) M and I spent two days in downtown Alanya to hike into the 13th-century wall ruins surrounding the city and also to simply soak up a little Turkish culture. (Just because our resort had olives at every meal does not mean it was Turkey. It was Germany/Holland on a piece of Turkish beach.) On the first day we were there, Islamic prayers sounded out over the city from loudspeakers mounted on minarets. M and I both noticed that nobody paid the prayers any attention and nobody stopped to pray. Of course, now that I write that I'm wondering... if you're Muslim, are you supposed to stop and pray when you hear the prayers. I actually have no clue.

4) More Turkey to come, but a brief note about here. The weather is MUCH nicer now and the trees and flowers are finally starting to bloom. (apparently, spring is a month late this year...)

Anyway... let me just tell you... this is a TOTALLY DIFFERENT PLACE NOW. I have to put that in all caps because the 180 I'm witnessing here is nothing short of bizarre. Dutch people who were horribly grouchy and stern just a few months ago are actually smiling at me on the street and saying hello. At first, when they bared their teeth at me, I thought "Oh no, I pissed off the Dutchie by looking it straight in the eye! It's about to attack!" But just as I was about to flee for my life, I heard a friendly "hullo!" I soon realized the unthinkable had happened. I had been greeted by an utter stranger on the street.

5) I have a job interview in Amsterdam tomorrow. Yeehaw! It's for a job that I'm WAY overqualified for. The pay would suck. AND I would have to commute 5 hours every day. But I SO do not care. Not that I don't love that my current job is this blog, but let's face it. You people don't pay very well.

Wish me luck.