March 4th

Gizem is getting married!!! I cannot believe it... I woke up with this news and still am trying to process it... congratulations my darling... I wish you all the happiness in the world!!!!

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I went to my first Moda Photography class last night in San Telmo...Mariana, the teacher, is an amazing photographer who went to school in NY. 

She has her own studio with great equipment. I loved the class. It was suppose to be for 2 hours but we ended up working for 3.5. There was a model... a girl who was around 15-16 years old, with long blond wavy hair and a waist so tiny that I could wrap one hand around it. We mostly worked with her and learned "low-key" and "high-key" shots... We spent some time working with the lights and angles. I wish my spanish was better which would have helped with my directions to the model and understanding more about the instructions in the class... Oh well...Mariana showed us some photos of famous fashion photographers and then we analyzed some of the pictures we took... It is only me and an other girl in class... So it is almost a private class. This was the first of 5 classes... exciting.

on a separate note... it has been raining continuously here... I have been mostly watching it from indoors...

tonight... movie =)

back in town

I recently moved to my new house on Loyola and Thames.... I love it!

However life crisis is catching up with me... not having a real job, money or a way of getting it makes me nervous and depressed...  

it rained yesterday all day... what a great reflection of my soul. 

Irina and I will take a class from Sebastian Arce in an hour... that should be nice... or nerve-breaking depending on the people attending the workshop...

Brazil

What a long vacation.... I knew that three weeks was going to be a lot but I had no idea that I would miss *home* this much... Brazil was different,fun,filled with sun, water and caipirinhas... Needless to say I am glad to be back to real life...

Salvador y Morro de Sao Paolo (Feb 5 - Feb 10)

Irina and I took off on the 5th of February. After 3 connections, we reached Salvador... A city with much culture, history and scars... our first stop was maybe the only place that we didn't feel as safe to be in. There was sort of a hunger in locals' eyes towards something better, softer, nicer mixed with an anger towards those who possessed it by birth. We spent the day and a half with one of our friends from Chicago and his local friend G(don't remember the full name), master of Capoeira.

~guarana (a Brazilian soda, one of my fave non-alcoholic Brazilian drinks)

~Pao de queijo   (cheese ball... but it is soooo delicious.. Irina got me hooked on them)

~I bought my first brazilian bikini (blue) in the ferry station at Salvador...

we took a 2hour long catamaran to Morro de Sao Paolo... One of the most famous islands by Salvador... Extremely cute island, very very touristy... Great place to just hang out at the beach... not much water activities... We stayed in a kinda crappy hostel for very cheap... 

~lots and lots of Caipirinhas and Moqueca (seafood mix with an amazing sauce) 

~I took my first capoeira class... i love it... It is so extremely hard and requires strength though... i might check out some classes here in BA...

~we also met with a girl I talked on CouchSurfer.. her and her bf were so nice to take us out for coffee and give us tips about our travel...

~Last night we went to a party on the other side of the island... "The Full Moon" Party... was very cool, great music, dancing and booze under the full moon.

Itacare

Left Morro at 10am on the 10th for Itacare... It was a 5hour boat+drive (kinda crazy roads) with 7 other people in a mini-van. Was very easy to find our hostel in Itacare... 

By the way, this town is very nice. We fell in love with it as soon as we got in... Our hostel was also very cool.

We made a friend at Jungle bar (the hottest bar of town =) ) He really liked me and Irina.

~Amazing fruit and amazing coctails with fruits...

~we did a waterfalls and beach tour... i saw the most beautiful beach I have seen in my life...

then Irina left me on valentines day...=)  so I went on a tour (Marau island) with 3 couples who didnt speak English or Spanish... Was not as bad as it sounds though... we had sign language... 

Rio(Feb 15- Feb 18)

I flew to Rio on the 15th. The first night I was at a hostel in Santa Teresa... up in the mountains... By this time I was homesick and felt kinda lonely... Next day I met up with Graeme and Candice(Sarah's friend) in Ipanema beach, at the hostel we ended up staying for the next 3 days... Graeme showed us around before he had to leave for Canada... It was a great day... as far as I remember ...=)

Candice and I had alot of fun in Rio at our amazing hostel with the slowest staff ever. We have couple inside jokes now. Rio was mostly beaches as well... and caipirinhas... and sushi... =)  

Oh and we got manicure and pedicures for 15R (7DOLLARS)

we took a 18hour bus to Floripa... to save money... plus we had sleeping pills...and music and snacks

Floripa ( Feb 19- Feb 26)

This was the part of the trip where all of us got together... Graeme was not able to make it due to his grandpa's illness.. He flew back to Canada...

Candice and I stayed in a really cool hostel the first night... We hung out at the pool, met some people... Tim the pilot, Maha the weird accent guy, Shanon the canadian and The french guy.  TJ and Adam met with us the next day and we moved to the house that they rented for the whole group. Sarah, Johnny and Karl arrived in the afternoon... It was nice to be altogether... 

we drank, smoked hookah (since they brought it with them =) ) and chatted. The next day I was really sick... So I was mostly at home in the next 4days of the vacation.... I watched some TV shows and mostly just laid down... All in all, it was fun though...

and finally I am back in BA.... still staying at Johnny's but moving out on the 1st to my new, cool apartment back in Palermo...=) I am "stoked" about it.

in search of a rich husband....

now I understand why my mom kept telling me that money is very important in defining your life/lifestyle...

argh...

New-s-

Trip to Brazil is only day away... We are going a bit unplanned which brings more excitement to the journey... I bet I will have stories upon my return...

I might have found my new apartment after much search... It is pretty, has lots of light and a balcony... It has colored lights (you can switch it to blue, green red..HOW COOL?!) =)

I am still waiting for confirmation...March 1st should be my move in date...!

A new month

February is here... I moved in to my new room temporarily... Sleeping on a hammack is more fun than I thought... Steelers won the superbowl... The only reason I know this is because I was working all night at the Bar while it was packed with Americans watching the game...I am still looking for an apartment for March and April... This is stressful =( Also, what is NOT stressful is that I am going to Brazil on Thursday for 3 weeks... Hooray!!! Salvador, Morro, Rio, Belo Horizonte y Floripa!! Hopefully will get lots of pictures taken and some writing/reading in during the long bus trips in between cities.. =)

How is everyone else doing? I know I havent been good updating the blog which probably resulted in loss of interest in reading it... Sorry about that... As I said, time flies faster here!!

January 31

Today is my last day at my beautiful, cozy apartment on Malabia... As an "almost still romantic" I am quite sad to leave it... as I was packing "my life" into the three suitcases I have now, i realized once more that possessions are of no importance to human kind. I dont know why I like holding on to every little thing. Maybe I am scared that my mind will play me tricks and one day I will end up forgetting everything that mattered. than those possessions will keep me alive and as "me".

~time to finish packing and wait for the landlord...

January 28

This is what happens with life.... In the beginning, time is not an issue... we take our time making choices, living life without realizing our surroundings, actions, the world or the sure-death. Carefree yet unconscious.  As time "goes" by, we run out of it... 

I ran out of it. I figures, the world started revolving faster. And though I cherish every moment lived, I often want to do a superman trick and fly around it so fast to go back couple hours/days at a time. 

I haven't been writing here, or anywhere for a while. As I think about this, I get even more frustrated and my stomac spreads its ulser out. 

meanwhile, I am working on my ideas at a slow pace... Stuff will come out, I trust...

Check out the Group page on Facebook: Mavimtrack Photography  and   Mavimtrack Tourism

Also, the site is still under construction: www.mavimtrack.com

I am now looking for a new apartment to live in, plane tickets for a trip to Brasil and a source of income... =)

I miss you all.

January 16

I keep waking up over and over to catch the time I feel like I am losing. I constantly feel like I am late for something and the time will never be enough for all the things I want/need to do. I also have a constant back

Mar del Plata

Where me and Derya spent our 4day new years vacation.... i would like to tell the story but it is one that loses its meaning after it is told. Plus, i dont have the will...