While in Michigan we stayed at a rural mountain lodge in Harbor Springs.  Needless to say, it was a step removed from the life I head been living days before.

“The best cheapest whiskey.”  I’m told its what my grandfather drank.

Family on the deck of the lodge.

Family members teaching me how to loose at beer pong.

Inside the lodge.

Looking back on some old photos for the year.

What the hell is going on there?

After spending nearly the entire weekend stuck in our apartment working, Rob, Brian and I decided that we had to get out.  This is what we saw on our Sunday afternoon stroll…
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A mosque in Tophane.... looks like a storm is coming

I want to submit this photo as an exhibition.

Outside of the Istanbul Modern Museum of Art

Turkish street meat, delicious!

The ceiling of a mosque

Well, I do apologize for my silence on this blog in the past couple months.

As many of your know, I have decided to take my leave from Jet Set Zero. Rehabilitation of my knee went well in Korea, but it wasn’t quite enough to fully heal it. Upon return to the U.S., a physical therapist explained that my patella had been slowly rotating and left to its own devices, would have dislocated again. I don’t fault the Korean medical system, which was superb; just turns out that having someone explain a medical problem in your native language is pretty important. Who knew?

So I am back in the U.S., rehabilitating my knee, looking for work in the Bay Area, and readjusting to a life not on the road.

It’s been a whirlwind of a year. As part of the Jet Set Zero lifestyle, I’ve ridden ostriches and mini-tank treads. I’ve dared the culinary gods of Vietnam and Thailand, and braved the cold streets of Tokyo. I’ve drunk with Vietnamese Bankers, Japanese salary men, and Korean University students. I was taught how to make sushi and how to fire dance from the same person. I jockeyed my way through Saigon traffic, navigated the rail systems in Tokyo and Seoul, and patiently endured being passed up by cabs because I was a foreigner. In Seoul, I dislocated my kneecap while dancing and wound my way through the Korean medical system. I lived in internet cafes for 3 weeks and a tiny box of a room for 3 months. I sang Karaoke (poorly) in every country we went to. Our friends abroad took us to clubs, restaurants, theme parks, gaming cafes and gaming tournaments, a wedding, a snow temple, a cherry blossom festival, and so much more. It was an adventure in friendship, budget living, cultural immersion, and discomfort zones.

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Hey there. You look good. Wait what’s that? I look good? Yeah, ohhh yeah.

This is the sixth version of our website, which I pulled together in an absolute mind-bending 32-hour marathon of coding, learning, recoding, crying, then recoding again. I’ve built six websites to-date for this project, and every time there have been innumerable hiccups… so bear with us.

Oh, and give us your feedback and bug reports! web [at] jetsetzero.tv!! Hell yeah!

Not only one of the first stops on the trip, but also the only time I’ve ever seen a combo bakery/yarn shop.

The yarn-shop-bakery-cafe.

Wherever I go, they have Baklava.

Bacon, cheese, hash browns, eggs stacked.  Yeahhhh.

You probably don’t know but this last week I had to return home for my Grandmother’s funeral.  It was held in a small town in rural Michigan where my mother’s family has lived for generations.  I hadn’t been there in over 21 years, so it was a strange experience to walk through an entire town both rich with family history and filled with memories from when I was 4. A lot of extended family showed up and I learned that I had a lot more cousins then I knew.  Most of them seemed to be named “Brian” or “John”.

Over the next few days I’ll be putting up some pictures from the trip and try and share some of the experience of going from central Istanbul to rural Michigan and back.  Five days, and over 75 hours of travel later here I am.

On my way to the last airport bus for the night. Istanbul.

Thirty-five hours later. “Cross in the Woods”, the world’s largest Crucifix. MI.

Last night our local team, Besiktas, played Manchester United.  I REALLY REALLY wanted to go, but unfortunately I am poor and tickets were expensive (200 euros expensive).  So instead I hung out at home and watched the game on our Shov TV.  Besiktas ended up losing 1-0, so now I don’t feel so bad about not being there.

I really want to go and experience a game here before we leave.  It seems to be pure insanity.  One day I was on the bus driving by the stadium and Besiktas was practicing that night and I think there must’ve been 200 people hanging outside trying to get a glimpse of their favourite soccer (whoops, I mean football) star.

I also love the jerseys.  The BJK logo is really small and they all say COLA TURKA across the chest in huge letters.  I will one day own a Cola Turka jersey.

I’m just thinking about the madness of a hockey game back home and I know that football matches here kick the shit out of those.  So if anyone in Istanbul wants to take me to a Besiktas game that would be much appreciated, or if anyone wants to send me money so I can afford to go to a game that would be super cool.  Yay, go Besiktas!

No, there is no hidden lolcat.

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1. Stare at the center of this window as long as you can (at least 30 seconds)
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