Mr. Mehdi, the Keeper

After a 2 year hiatus of focused writing, I’ve remembered how much of a positive impact it has in my life. It encourages my reflection, forces me to concentrate my thoughts, and allows me to share my life with the rest of the world. So, for the first time in about 2 years, here’s another adventure from my life, this time, in Istanbul, Turkey.

Overlooking the Spice Bazaar in the Eminonu district of Istanbul stands the old Buyuk Valide Han, an Ottoman square that has housed traders and merchants for over 400 years.

Thanks in part to Daniel Craig and the 2012 James Bond film, Skyfall, the backstreet market has received a slight increase in tourism over the past few years. Bond (Craig) flies through Buyuk Valide Han on his bike, traversing up staircases and then onto roofs at the Grand Bazaar to chase a man who has a list of undercover agents.

Skyfall

Mendes, Sam, director. Skyfall. Metro Goldwyn Mayer ; Columbia ; Albert R. Broccoli's Eon Productions LTD., 2012.

While the film is enticing and the action ranks highly among the Bond chase-scene aficionados (YouTube commenters), the quick pace leaves the viewers with minuscule glimpses of the surroundings and particularly breathtaking views.

Often called the best view of Istanbul, the top of Buyuk Valide Han has a viewpoint at the rooftop that Instagrammers and urban explorers alike sought to get to. This can prove to be rather difficult when the area is primarily workshops and residential spaces that are frequently used by locals.

If you were to look up Buyuk Valide Han reviews for the sunrise, there are two frequent comments you will find. 1) You will witness one of the picturesque sunrises of your life and 2) It is nearly impossible to find the entrance to the top without direction. It is even more difficult when the urban explorer chooses to search for the market at 6am in the pitch black, unlit streets with little knowledge of Turkish.

In my experience, there is nothing more daunting than traversing an unknown, abandoned building in the dim hours of the morning with no understanding of the local language, and having your phone as the only light source. I honestly felt like a video game character on a quest, navigating through dark hallways and climbing up stairs in hopes of finding the door to the rooftop. The only sounds were grunts of blacksmiths and craftsmen at work, toiling away to make handmade goods to bring to the Grand Bazaar hours later. There were seriously moments where I felt like I was about to be robbed around the next corner, or I’d run into some company I was not supposed to run into. It was eerie.

Enter Mr. Mehdi (click link to see the cutest old man ever).

70 years old, standing at about 158cm (5’2”), and equipped with the cutest, friendliest voice you will ever imagine, Mr. Mehdi is the keeper of the view. Mr. Mehdi stands watch at a behemoth iron gate leading to the top, and only by slipping him a few Turkish Lira ($1) , would he allow you to enter using his keys.

Unfortunately, due to tourists and locals going up and jumping on the rooftop domes, the original way up to the rooftop has been closed. Roofs have been broken, people have gotten injured, and the government has put the rooftop under “restoration", except no progress has been made at all in a couple years. It’s essentially closed.

Nevertheless, the enterprising Mr. Mehdi found another rooftop on the opposite side of the square, where he continues to guide wanderers to the most outstanding viewpoint of Istanbul. You can see the tops of the religious bastions the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia, as well as a perfect shot of the Yeni Cami. You can feel the bustle and trade at the Spice Bazaar as well as the famed 700-year old Grand Bazaar. You can hear the ferries on the Bosphorus and through the Golden Horn. You stare into Galata Tower in its 1550th year of existence.

I love how you can witness the cosmopolitan heart of humanity across centuries and millennia in a simple view. Mr. Mehdi will offer you a cup of Cay (“chai”) which is the traditional Turkish black tea. Cuddle with one of his tens of kittens on your lap while you overlook the world, or let one climb into your bag and claw at you while you try to wake him from his nap.

across the golden horn

Some stranger ruining the beautiful view

Check meow-t

Good thing I’m not allergic to cats at all…

Mr. Mehdi, I highly doubt you’ll ever read this but thank you for sharing your rooftop with the world. It encompasses eons of culture and heart.

New Week, New Me

In the course of a year, I've graduated, moved into an apartment with three roommates in a new city, played in an adult baseball league, been a principal in a commercial, started a job, traveled around the country, cheered on the Dawgs in the Pac12 'ship, and so much more. Needless to say, 2016 was a wild ride.

With the start of the new year, one of my driving goals is to experience San Francisco more. I started today by visiting the CityScape Bar above the HIlton (which happens to be the tallest hotel on the west coast!) and downing a glass of wine while blogging and collecting my thoughts. This is quite possibly the best view of the city, and is 360 degrees. I plan to come here MUCH more often.

Credit to Zagat on this pic. It's raining today, but I plan to come up here more often and grab some awesome shots.

Over the course of the next year, I hope to learn something new every week, enough that I can blog about it and write an expository piece that makes sense. At the same time, hopefully I can be able to look back at this time next year and see 52 things I've learned, accomplished, seen, tried, etc.

This year, I hope to get better at cooking and keeping track at what I spend on food, in a sustainable but fiscally responsible way. One of my roommates and I have decided to try cooking through Cooksmart, which helps align our grocery lists to recipes. Basically, it allows us to simply our shopping trips by consolidating the ingredients to buy, and converting them into a bunch of meals. Yesterday, my roommate made a spectacular soup with lentils, chard, Italian sausage, and other ingredients. I was honestly astonished at how delicious it was, how filling it was, and how easy it was to make (aka I was taking a nap while he made it). The soup was flavorful, had enough food to fill me up (which is a saying a lot!).

Financially, I'm trying to keep track of what I spend on food by charting in Excel and using PivotTables (thanks, OpMgmt major). It may not be the most efficient way or best visual display, but it's fun for me to apply some of the things I did in school and work to my personal life. For example, yesterday we went to the grocery store and spent a fair amount on groceries. Some of those are perishable, some can be kept forever. Some we'll use up quickly, and some we wont. Additionally, we've signed up for a service called Imperfect Produce, which delivers 'imperfect' fruits and veggies to your door. These are the ones that aren't sold in supermarkets because they're deemed 'ugly'. Imperfect produce for imperfect people sounded like a perfect match to me, and it also supplies my apartment with fresh fruits and veggies we can plug into our Cooksmarts meal plan, at a reasonable price!

Lastly, I hope to take more pictures of my life. I'm thinking this site might become more of a weekly blog (assuming I have time, which I really hope I do), of what I've done, what I've learned, and the person a postgraduate 22 year old millennial living in a metropolis is evolving into. By this time next year, it'll be interesting to look back and see who I've become.

No more plain chicken, rice, and green beans for a while (hopefully).

How I Became a 22 Year Old Father

*Record scratch* *Screen freeze*

Yup. That's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation.

I had the pleasure of being the father to this little girl. Unfortunately, I am no longer a father. I was one, though, for a brief 48 hours in June. But how's that for a clickbait title!?

For a while, I've been subscribed to an email list which sends out extras casting. Basically, when a TV show or commercial is filmed and they need random people walking around in the background or sitting in chairs drinking coffee, they'll cast extras for it. I applied for a "young adult Asian" extra role for an aerospace commercial, and surprisingly, I got it. (P.S. if you're interested in this, it's really easy money if you get casted!)

When I arrived on-site at 6am one morning, I was bused to the tarmac where I sat by another young male who does acting for a living, and an Asian family with an absolutely adorable 6 year old girl. The bus took us to a station where we were greeted by a host of free food, drinks, etc. For a college student/graduate, free food was more than appreciated. Also there were about 30 others of all ages, that were to be in the shoot. Among these people were talent they flew in from Australia and Europe (???) and people who have acted in small principal roles for TV shows and just looked the part of an airline crew. 

I initially applied for the extras part, but when I got there, I was told they would use me in a principal role, as the father to the adorable girl mentioned above. Oddly enough, they'd use the girl's real mother in the shot, but they didn't cast the dad, who also happened to be there in person. So here I am getting my makeup and hair done (first time for everything!), and I'm told I need to dress like a European dad, to resonate with the audience they'll be broadcasting this to. They take me to the dressing trailer where two older women help me dress like a European dad, donning me in a dress shirt, a light blue vneck sweater, and some khakis.

I didn't think I looked like a dad.

Apparently, I looked the part enough. So after a long few hours, they hustle me to the plane and I'm getting on with my "wife" and my "daughter," both of whom are lovely people and a lot of fun to be around (thank goodness). Interesting point here- they actually shot the scene multiple times with "families" of different ethnicities. There was a white/Caucasian family, a middle eastern family, and then my family, the Asian fam. This is to target different audiences with their localized ads- something I never thought about.

So I'm on this brand new plane, and they have me sit in front of the window seat. You couldn't see outside the window because it was masked with translucent paper, and a giant light was shining through it so it looks like you're in the air flying. Next, they instruct the girl to start playing with the touchscreens in front of us, and use the controller. Before I know it, this Australian photographer is snapping photos of us, telling us to smile and look like a happy family.

Next, they had her run down the aisle holding a plane. This was one of my favorite shots, that unfortunately I no longer have access to. But she'd hold the plane over her head and run, run, run down the aisle and sprint into dad's arms. Yup. She ran into my arms.

The next day, after we finished a few more shots as a family, they moved me to a single seat and had me interact with stewardesses, many of whom were flown in from around the world. They'd have me sit there as I was handed a cup of coffee, and then smile. Then they'd cut, I'd give the cup back, and we'd repeat this.. Maybe 30-40 times. At the end of all these takes, I asked the stewardess if she'd done this before, and if it's normal to do so many takes. She just smiled and said it takes as long as it takes... Maybe my 39th smile was the one that did it.

Overall, this was an insane experience. I got called in as an extra, was thrust into a principal role as a father, and had completely new experiences I'd never thought I'd get to have. I got to be a father for a couple days, that was pretty neat. I got to see into the life of a fulltime actor/model, producer, and more. I got paid very handily as a principal, numbers which I would not believe were true if I didn't sign a contract saying it. And above all, I got to be a dad for a couple of days, which was really fun for me. 10/10 would do this again.

If you'd like to see the ad, click here!

Oh yeah, and Go Dawgs.

Bannerwood.

Over the past few months, I've been playing in a summer adult baseball league called the Puget Sound Senior Baseball League. Last year, I was really interested in playing hardball again, and I found this league. Little did I know that I'd find one of my old high school teammates already playing on one of the rosters. I immediately reached out to him, and although it was too late to join, I made sure he'd follow up with me come the draft the next year.

Well, sure enough, I was greeted by a text in early March. And I didn't even have to go through the draft process, my friend "buddy-picked" me to ensure that I'd be on the same team as him.

I started out the season with minimal practice. I hadn't seen more than a few live pitches, had only caught a few fly balls recently (thanks, softball), and hadn't really thrown a competitive pitch since 2009-10. Yeah. Like 7 years ago. Crazy, right?

Playing on this team has been such a blast for me. I have by far the lowest batting average on the team, but I've had the opportunity to play a lot in centerfield where I grew up playing. Additionally, I've had the chance to pitch and can confidently say that I throw harder now than I did in high school. 

My favorite part about being on the team is that we play games all around the Sound, so Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Tacoma (ugh), and all locations. Today, I got to play at Bannerwood Park in Bellevue where I played in high school, and my dad was able to come to the game. That was really neat for me.

Overall, I've loved this whole experience. Getting up and going to the batting cages to swing a wood bat just feels so right. My team is a ton of fun. It has players all over from ages 18-35, and it's neat being able to play with people so much older than I am. The love for the game never dies. Lastly, we're all on somewhat of the same skill level. We're almost .500 and in the middle of the standings, and it's competitive baseball. I've missed it so much, but I'm so glad I got to do this in my last summer here.