Wednesday, April 30, 2008

a love note to you

I just bumped on this love note and wanted to share it with you. Life
in Istanbul is beautiful, sweet and loving. I must admit, I am a
little spoiled...

http://www.superherodesigns.com/journal/archives/001289.html

You are exactly where you need to be.

You are not missing out, falling behind, doing it wrong,
not trying hard enough.

You are doing more than enough.

Whatever opinions you have about it,
however imperfect
This is yours.

Where you are right now.
Sitting here surfing the internet even.
Is perfect.

Friday, April 25, 2008

Amazing opportunity...

Help Needed for Tassajara's Summer Guest Season! The zen center in
Tassajara is a beautiful and peaceful. Check out their
website...http://www.sfzc.org/tassajara/display.asp?catid=4,19&pageid=

and here also some more information on the work schedule.
http://www.sfzc.org/tassajara/display.asp?catid=4,29&pageid=181

The kitchen experience is also amazing, I have their cookbook and I
wish I was still in Bay Area to go up there...

my mom's birthday....

http://www.flickr.com/photos/guliz83/sets/72157604709542388/

it was so much fun!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Breakfast!

Just finished breakfast with family...One of our biggest tradition is
to have family breakfast on Sundays...Today we had probably everything
one can possibly eat in a week over one meal...We even had pastirma
from Kayseri, a meat dish that is very popular...

http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28006

9 different cheeses, breads, pancakes, peanutbutter with five
different jams, spreads, olives, sausages, Sooo grateful to have all
the family at the table, my mom, dad, sister, cousinbrother,
grandmother, my sister's boyfriend! With lots of laughter, great
conversation and my lovely sister's fresh strawberry smoothie:)))

I made eggs from Organico's menu, number 4:))) Scrambled with feta
cheese, tomato and avocado and poppy seed pancakes from 101 Cookbooks.
http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/poppy-seed-pancakes-recipe.html
with slight changes. I added 1 tsp vanilla, 1 tablespoon orange zest,
1 tsp lemon zest, toasted walnuts instead of sunflower seeds and
yogurt instead of buttermilk...Great recipe.

I am also amazed to learn that the father of my grandmother's
grandmother (we figured he lived somewhere around the 18 hundreds...)
was a medical doctor....Probably one of the first Lokman hekim's of
Turkey:))) Lokman Hekim is an herbalist.

Pura Vida in Istanbul!

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

In Madrid

Shocked to see how expensive things are on the other side of the
world...I just paid $7 for a bottle of water and coffee...I miss
Montezuma already! Plus people are not nice here, very serious,
business attire, i already get strange looks with my flip flops...:)
one thing is amazing, yo hablar muy bien espanol!!!! I am impressed
with myself, almost a year and half ago, I had no clue about Spanish.
Soy muy feliz!!!

Also highly recommend coming to Costa Rica via Madrid. The flight was
only 9:30 hours and now I have to chill for about 6 hours and then
home sweet home. No hassle of the stupid US immigration lines and
Iberia is pretty comfortable with not so good veggie meals, but I am
used to that already. I keep wondering why anyone is not interested in
providing healthy food...at least once, so many people would try how
real food tastes....wholewheat, grains, fresh fruit and some miso
soup, ahhh...Hot oatmeal for breakfast with goji berries....California
dreaming....I am hungry!

Monday, April 14, 2008

Amistad

In the last two days, Maria and I made the world's best eggplant
parmesan, vietnamese spring rolls, bubble tea and tarte tatin. We
discovered an amazing black sesame seed cereal drink from a Taiwanese
underground store and visited the Turkish bakery. As always, we
exchanged many new recipes and she is probably the only person I can
leave my Organico recipe book without a beat skipping in my heart. For
the rest of the world, I do have secret recipes.

It is so special to have her in my life, I want to scream my gratitude
to the universe, write it on sand with huge letters, have waves
inscribe it on the ocean. Letting go, opens new doors, flowing with
the universe has never been more joyful.

I promised Maria's husband Jorge to visit a Sufi center back in
Turkey. Can't wait..
One of my favorite Rumi quotes...

What draws friends together
does not conform to Laws of Nature.
Form doesn't know about spiritual closeness.
If a grain of barley approaches a grain of wheat,
an ant must be carrying it. A black ant on black felt.
You can't see it, but if grains go toward each other,
it's there.

Sunday, April 13, 2008

An other Turk in Costa Rica

My dear friend/angel Maria, found this amazing little Turkish bakery
in San Jose and today we went for a field trip. Of course I had to
taste the baklava (yum!) and the traditional turkish bread, pide. We
drove half an hour to get to town and his little shop was nothing
fancy. Zeki, is the owner of the bakery, Istanbul and he has been here
for 5 years. He hasn't been back since and his wife and 2 kids are
back in Turkey. They communicate through email and phone but you can
see from his eyes that he is sad. Lonely. Still searching...I felt
really good talking to him, he was such a nice guy and offered me lots
of help and advice and he understood me so well...The urge to leave
Turkey, the same urge not to go back, not getting adjusted, learning
spanish, he also came here without speaking a word of spanish,...He
misses his family and hopefully they will be united within a year. He
thinks he will have everything he needs once his wife gets here.

http://www.tinjo.com/tj/index.php?id=313


I am leaving for Turkey tomorrow. He asked me to bring Turkish tea for
him. I will do that for sure...Once again, I find myself grateful to
the universe for offering me this wonderful life, sweet and
comfortable, full of fun, with amazing people I meet everyday,
sometimes I wonder what I have done before to deserve this. It must
have baked some sinful chocolate cakes in heaven!

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Matters of the heart

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart.

And try to love the questions themselves.

- Rainer Maria Rilke -

Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Ginga Day!

I got up at 5 in the morning, waited for the sunrise, watched my heart
beat and look over the banana leaves to the ocean. Then went to
meditation group and did yoga...A fantastic class from a great teacher
from New York. It was the first time I heard about Ginga. Ginga
(pronounced jin-ga) is an African word that came to Brazil through
capoeira (the Brazilian dance-fight martial art), and according to
Brazilian author and historian Ruy Castro, it is used to describe "a
way of never taking life too seriously, of fighting hardships with the
proper use of toes, heels and hips, if you have ever met a Brazilian,
you know what this means:))

It was a hard but at the same time super fun class!

She ended the class with a quote from Jeremy Taylor: "Love is
friendship set on fire" So simple and true.