In my day, we had to walk from Asia to Europe. Sometimes in a snowstorm!

This was an interesting weekend....I left for work on Saturday morning in a snowstorm. You can't see the evidence very well in this photo, but I tried my best. It's only November, but the storm lasted all day, and while barely any of the snow remained on the ground, it still looked and felt like a blizzard...

This was mildly disturbing for several reasons (like the fact that my winter coat is sitting snugly in a closet in a sleepy Connecticut town or the fact that it's only NOVEMBER!), but it was mainly disturbing because we were supposed to participate in the Istanbul marathon the next morning, and there was no chance I'd go if it was snowing!

*Luckily* when we woke up this morning (unrelated but notable...after a big win at poker night last night - up 60 lira, collectively between us! It definitely saved us face after a disheartening loss in our last poker night) it was to a beautiful sunny, albeit freezing, day for the marathon. Chris was quite impressive, waking up at 7am to run a 15k starting with the above-mentioned dash across the bridge from Asia to Europe (the one day a year that the bridge is open to pedestrians). I was slightly less impressive, but still managed to walk a 10k, a little later that morning (and with a simit stop midway, with some other teachers. Here are some pics (unfortunately, I have none of Chris, since I was sound asleep while he was racing across the continents)...

Here is the start of the marathon (obviously) on the bridge over the Bosphorus... As I learned today, most of the Turks just use the opportunity to walk across the bridge and then turn around and walk back.

Welcome to Europe:

There was an anti-smoking campaign going on today, but the only (and I'm not exaggerating) sign of it was this odd-looking sad/angry cigarette standing on the side of the bridge. All on it's own. It was very strange and confusing.