This ones for all you lovers out there...

Next week is Valentine's Day and I hate that holiday. Call me old fashioned, but I like my romance to be spontaneous and genuine, something done for no reason. But every February people are held hostage at arrow point by a fat little cherub and forced into romance, whether they want to be or not. Now some of you may be saying I hate Valentine's Day because I'm single, but I hated it more when I was dating someone. I actually prefer to be single on Valentine's Day, because that way I can do whatever I want and there's no pressure.

Now, even though I'm not a fan of Valentine's, there is one thing about it that I do love...love songs! Be they lovey dovey bits of fluff, or wonderfully poignant, I can't get enough of them. So, from classic crooners to pop tarts, here are some songs to put you in the mood, whether you want to be or not:

Maybe I'm a planner after all

For me one of the most exciting parts about a trip (aside from actually being on the trip), is the planning. During the planning process I unleash my inner nerd. I read guidebooks, spend hours looking up sites on the internet, and make calendar schedules. It gets pretty bad, but I LOVE it. The unlimited possibilites of where we can go and what we can do & see. It's just soooo exciting.

I'm leaving for Italy next week! I'm meeting my friend Cassie there. We'll only be there two weeks, so we decided to stick to three cities: Venice, Florence, and Rome. She gave me free rein to plan out our trip, mainly because her work schedule is pretty crazy in the winter. Little did she know the neurotic beast she would unleash. So far I've made four different calendars. I'm actually working on the final one right now. The best part is filling in what we'll be up to each day. I'm not so delusional that I think we'll stick with the schedule, but at least it's there if we want it.

Next stop (according to my calendar) Italy!!!

In the states we call that being a creeper

One of the hardest things for me to get used to here was peoples reactions to the girls. The Turkish people LOVE kids. And when those kids happen to be the most adorable, little blonde girls, look out. We tend to draw a crowd no matter where we go. And without fail, people give them candies and cookies. People want to kiss and hug them. They want to pick them up and pass them around to their friends. They want to take pictures of the girls. Generally, if the girls are up for it and the person asked our permission, we let them take pictures. Example: We went on a boat tour up the Bosphorus, which ends in a little town on the Asian side. At the restaurant we went to, the waiter recognized the family from the last time they had done the trip. He whips out his phone to show them the picture he had taken of Elsa, 4 months ago. It kinda creeps me out to think of how many pictures of the girls there are, floating around out there.

If someone back in the states did the things that the people here do to the girls, I'd be calling the police. But here, it's all from a very genuine place. It's hard to teach them stranger danger, when there isn't really any danger. I have become super relaxed about it. I've even started relying on strangers. At the local market, the owner adores the girls. So while he is doting on them and giving them sweets and passing them around to the guys who work in the shop, I get to do my shopping unhampered. It's fantastic!

However there is a down side to all of this. As much as they love to tell you how beautiful the girls are, they also feel free to try and tell you what you are doing wrong with them. The best example of this is when I have Elsa in the stroller. She tends to be a floppy sleeper and will loll her head about, which concerns some the of elderly people around here. And they try to share these concerns with me, in Turkish...which I do not speak. So when they realize that I have no idea what they are saying, they take matters into their own hands and try to move her head so that it will stay straight, which is always a losing battle and usually ends with them waking her up. I've had to be quite firm with some little old ladies here, that Elsa is fine how she is and they should just leave her be (me making my mean face, and doing a lot of gesturing to imply, "Stay away from my sleeping child!"). These kind of encounters usually end with the little old ladies saying something in Turkish, that I'm sure amounts to calling me an unfit mother, as they walk away shaking their heads. But I don't care, because Elsa is still fast asleep.

In the end, I just have to keep reminding myself that when I get home, I should not except candy from strangers.

I see carrots in your future...

I was walking through Oratakoy last Sunday with a friend of mine. We were heading to the House Cafe for dinner when we saw them in front of the restaurant...fortune telling rabbits. Now, I had seen some of these clairvoyent coneys once before while in a cab going through Sultanhamet and had immediately decided that having my fortune told by a bunny was something that I had to do. It was my duty as a tourist. Sadly I hadn't been able to find them the last couple of times I had gone back to that area. Fate finally stepped in and threw some in my path.

We walked over, and the fellow who ran the rabbit's booth said we just had to tell them our names. Once we told the rabbit our names he held up a holder with little pieces of paper stuck in it and the rabbit picked one out. Then we were told to make a wish and the rabbit picked another piece of paper for us. Finally we came to the best part, getting to hold the little bunnies. They were all fluffy and cute... Anyways, after we gave the bunnies back, we read our fortunes. Oddly enough, they made sense. Although, not particularly well written (but what can you expect from animals with no thumbs), they had a certain truth about them. Don't get me wrong, I list fortunes from rabbits just above those from cookies, but we both agreed that they were pretty dead on about us. I should have asked for lottery numbers.