Life's Full of Ups and Downs

This week started out with lots of "ups."

MONDAY: We went to Emirgan park with JoAnne. Who knew there were parks like this in this crowded, crazy city?! It was amazing. A dozen different play areas, a huge pond with bridges and water fountains, and hundreds of picnic tables in endless groves of trees. In April, the park is full of tulip sculptures and the park is insanely crowded on weekends, but on Monday, the place was all ours.

TUESDAY: JoAnne took me to the Tuesday Bazaar in Levent. We left our little girls with JoAnne's housekeeper (I WILL be getting me one of those) and had a great time. It was a crowded street full of people selling EVERYTHING - clothes, jewelry, housewares, fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, olives,...It was incredible. I loaded up on fresh fruits (LOTS of cherries), vegetables, pistachios (Amelia's new fave snack), olives, and a much-needed rubber spatula. Knowing my numbers and a few Turkish words, I was able to get what I wanted and pay what was owed. After shopping up an appetite, we ate a Turkish specialty - Guzleme. A freshly-made flatbread filled with a seasoned potatoes, pickled spinach and fresh feta cheese then grilled on a huge round griddle. It was FABULOUS! I will be going back to the Tuesday market if only for the guzleme.

WEDNESDAY: To quote a scene in "Waiting for Guffman" - our day was "boring, boring, boring, boring." It was raining outside and I was super exhausted and couldn't muster up doing much of anything. But since we all need to get out during the day, we did our default outing to Joker (the toy store), french fries at Burger King, and a stop at the Macrocenter for Pringles and Fanta.

THURSDAY: Once again, JoAnne rescued us from a day of boredom and took us to Rumeli Hisari (Rumeli Fortress), a defense castle built in the 1450's. It was amazing. It was a hot, humid day, so we didn't get to explore too much - as our 3-year-olds were getting too tired climbing stairs and I was getting too tired carrying Chase up all those stairs. I'm sure we'll go back when Matt can help tote children and keep them from falling of the ledges. A highlight was seeing the pirate ships sailing along the Bosphorus in preparation for an upcoming festival.
FRIDAY: With no set plans, I decided to venture down a nearby street to McDonalds to let Amelia play on the HUGE outdoor play area. (Although McDonalds goes against all my beliefs in nutrition, my daughter LOVES french fries and needs to run and climb daily, and sadly McDonalds satisfies these needs). So, with Chase on my back and Amelia in the stroller, we set out to navigate the busy streets of Istanbul. We made it there easily and in record time - I'm learning my way!! :) But as soon as we got to The Golden Arches, Amelia sees a huge Ronald McDonald statue, freaks out and asks to go home. I talk her into staying for a happy meal and dining al fresco as far away from Ronald as possible. It works and the kids happily eat their french fries, sharing some with the birds, then we sneak past the statue to venture to Mohini to play. Of course, we stop to get a mini ice cream cone on our way out. (Amelia wanted a lollipop this time, but the guy tried to charge me 2TL ($1.50) for a dum-dum sucker so I made Amelia get ice cream instead since it was a much more reasonable 1TL).

We walk home at high noon in very hot, humid weather and arrive home drenched in sweat, but happy to have had a fun morning out.


SATURDAY: What is not to love about Saturdays?! Just the word "Saturday" makes me happy. Mostly because it means my husband is home. And I must admit that the main reason I'm happy he's home is because I don't have to take care of the kids by myself. (Sorry hun). We had planned to go to IKEA to pick out furniture for our new apartment, but since it hadn't been finalized yet, we decided to save that trip for another time (more on our apartment later...). So we went to Carrefour - the French version of Wal-Mart - to pick up a few things and just check it out. The highlight was finding guzleme bread so I could make my own guzleme (which I did on Sunday and filled with roasted zucchini, spinach, garlic and cheese - yum!). Afterward, we found a play structure to let the kids run around for a bit, then ate at a nearby cafe on the waterfront, and took a nice long walk along the Bosphorus to watch the fisherman and feed the birds. I hope every Saturday can be this wonderful...
SUNDAY: Matt and I gave talks in church on Sunday. We knew this would happen very soon as there are only 30 members - they are happy when they can hear someone new speak for a change. Our church building is a far cry from what we're used to in America. It is a teeny apartment on the 7th floor of a run-down old building along a crowded narrow street. The branch president, Murat Cakir, is pushing for a larger building and official recognition of the church in Istanbul. The branch is growing rapidly with several new families moving in this summer. Very exciting. There are 2 little girls close to Amelia's age - Allison and Josie - but Chase is the youngest and the only nursery-aged child. There are a handful of Turkish members, but most are Americans living in Istanbul or visiting from BYU as study-abroad.

After church was a Linger-longer, with wonderful food (JoAnne brought a 7-layer Jell-O with cool-whip to make it feel like a real Mormon gathering) and a chance to talk with people in the branch - especially our good friends, the Reynolds, who live in the countryside so we don't see them very often. Amelia ecstatically wrestled with some boys and came away with a few bumps and bruises and Chase walked around eating the kids' abandoned food. We thought it a fabulous way to conclude our great "UP" week and weekend.

And then came our "DOWN" moment...

We get a phone call from our relocation agent telling us that the apartment we had secured with signed contracts and all, was no longer for rent. The landlord's son had been living there, but they decided to rent it out. The contract had been drafted and signed and we were just waiting for Nike to get the payment to the landlord so we could get the keys. Well, the landlord's wife found out they were renting it and freaked, saying she wanted to keep the apartment in the family. So needless to say, we are frustrated. We lost the first 2 apartments to diplomats and now this one which was the last available 4-bedroom apartment at Istinye Park. We are bummed, depressed, sad,...and homeless in 2 weeks if we don't find a place. This is the only place we want to live and we can't believe it's not happening! Now we have to find a new area to live in or get a 3-bedroom at Istinye. We don't want either. We know we will be fine wherever we live, it just wont be as convenient or comfortable. HUGE bummer. So our next several afternoons this week will be spent looking at more housing complexes. Yuk.

We got this news as we were driving home from church and being distracted, we ended up taking a wrong turn and got on a free-way leading over the Bosphorus bridge into Asia. It was actually quite beautiful and I'd always wanted to go over that bridge...

Well, now I'm off to get see if Seba Dream is our new apartment complex.

Houseing Woes

During our 2 previous trips to Turkey, Matt and I spent several days with a relocation company looking at various housing options throughout Istanbul. My very favorite place was/is Istinye Park Residences - close to Matt's work, shopping, swimming pools, gym, play structure, restaurants, and plenty more. We found a great 4-bedroom flat, and after convincing Matt he didn't want to live in the country :), we chose to live there. We told the landlord we wanted it and thought it was going to be ours. But the day before we flew out here, they told us they gave the apartment to a diplomat since doing so kept them from having to pay taxes on the apartment. Argh! Luckily there was ONE MORE 4-bedroom flat, so we jumped on it. Matt met with the landlord, said we'd buy it for what they were asking but would pay more if they added a few extras - washer/dryer, closets, and light fixtures. They came back to us with a WAY increased rent, which we couldn't afford. So we told them to forget the extras and we'll just buy it "as is" for they price they initially asked. They said they'd get back to us last Friday, but still no word. We are SO FRUSTRATED. We packed our belongings with THAT apartment in mind and I will be heart-broken if we don't get it. They have smaller, 3-bedroom flats, but they pale in comparison to the 4-bedroom. So do we take a 3-bedroom to be in Istinye Park? Or get a bigger place elsewhere? I'm still hanging onto the thread of hope that the landlord will say we can have the apartment we want. Send good vibes the landlords way!

Unfortunately, our weekend was a bit blah because of this housing issue. We waited around all day Saturday to find out if we needed to go look at different housing or if we got the apartment. In the afternoon, we decided to go back to Mohini to forget our worries, eat ice cream, and let the kids play. It was bright and sunny as we walked there, but 2 hours later, it was POURING rain. We were only a mile away from our place, but we decided it would be best to get a taxi. The taxi driver was annoyed when we told them to take us to "Akmerkez" since it was so close and when he dropped us off, he asked for 10 TL (~$8) for a 3 TL cab ride. We said that was too much, and in the voice of the Soup Nazi, he repeated "Ten Lira!" We gave him 7 TL and told him 10 was too much and closed the door. We wish we had only given him 5, but were still a bit chicken. Not a good ending to our already yucky weekend.

Here's hoping this week brings us finalization in our housing and a much happier weekend!

One Week Down, 103 More to Go!!!

Today marks being here ONE full week. It's gone by really fast and has been an overall great week (except for the sleep deprivation part). The kids have officially adjusted to the time change, going to bed at 8:30 and waking up at 7:30 - a nice change from the American wake-up time of 5:30am. I hope we don't revert back to that schedule...

I, on the other hand, am sleeping HORRIBLY. It started with Amelia waking up at 3am looking for Morning Doggy and then me not being able to fall back asleep. Now, I wake up around midnight, don't fall back asleep until 2am and then am awake again by 4! This has happened the last 3 nights and it's starting to take its toll. My eyes burn with tiredness all day and I crash by 8pm. Hopefully this will change soon. I've even tried taking Unisom, but it just makes me groggy. Argh. On the bright side, if this keeps happening I'll be quite fit since, with nothing else to do, I do yoga from 4:30-6 followed by a quick run on the treadmill (the gym doesn't open until 9am, but since no one is there that early, I haven't been caught). Then I'm showered, fed and ready for the day before anyone is awake. It's nice to have all that "me time," but I'd rather be sleeping...

Other than no sleep, the last couple of days have been fabulous! On Tuesday, a friend from our church branch, JoAnne Dillard, and her 3-year-old daughter, Allison, who lives only a few blocks away, walked with us to a play-place called Mohini. It's full of fun rooms for kids to play around in with stages, games, Wii's, ice cream, toy stores, and more! And it's all FREE! We will definitely be going there again and again. That is, if I dare cross the two very crazy streets by myself while wearing Chase and pushing a stroller. Not an easy task here in Istanbul where cars don't yield to pedestrians and the curbs are a foot high.

Although we had a fun day that day, it was one of Amelia's roughest with missing home. In the morning she asked if her dear friend Kate could come play with her in Turkey and when I told her she would have to make new friends, she burst into tears saying she just wanted to play with Kate. And after playing at Mohini, I told her we were going "home" and when we walked up to the apartment building, she again burst into tears saying she didn't want to go to Turkey, she wanted to go to our "empty house." It made me really sad. The poor kid misses home. I had no idea she would have such a hard time, but all in all she has fun here too, it's just different.

Wednesday was a Turkish sport holiday - still don't know exactly why - but the important thing is that Matt didn't have to go to work. Yay! We decided to go to a park not far from here called Bebek Parki. With the help of GPS, we made our way there in the car, and actually found the ideal parking spot which was amazing since everyone else decided to go to Bebek Park that day too :) We had a wonderful time! We had a picnic and the kids loved playing on the play structure. Amelia could finally CLIMB!!! She was so happy. And on the way home, we passed through a great little street full of cute shops and cafes that we plan to walk to this weekend. We even saw a Chili's Restaurant and a McDonald's WITH an HUGE outdoor play area. Amelia will be so happy :) French fries, fry sauce and a play structure are all she needs to be happy (oh, and Kate).


Speaking of fry sauce, that is Amelia's new obsession. She loves making it and dips EVERYTHING in it. This morning she even asked to dip strawberries in it. I let her knowing she would never want to do it again. But she actually liked it. Yuk. In adidition to fry sauce, her new faves are mustard and peanut butter - two things she despised until now. Yesterday, she ate bread with peanut butter for breakfast (plus some strawberries and milk), bread with mustard for lunch (along with some Pringles), and flatbread and green beans dipped in fry sauce for dinner. As much as I hate to admit it, this is what she ate. She won't eat meat or eggs, or anything NOT dipped in fry sauce :)

Well, I'm off to enjoy another action-packed day of...hmmm...not quite sure what we'll do today. All I know is it's time to turn the DVD player off and get out and enjoy this beautiful country we are in!!

I Really Need To Learn Turkish...

Matt went to work for the first time this morning. I was confident that I would be fine going out with the kids since we'd be doing things I know how to do - go to the grocery store and the toy store. I had no idea it would be SO different without another set of arms.

I geared up with Chase in a front carrier and Amelia in a stroller and headed down a teeny elevator, through narrow hallways, and heavy doors to the Akmerkez shopping center. It was much more difficult with a parent:child ratio of 1:2 and no handicap buttons to open the doors automatically. We first hit the toystore where the kids had a blast playing with toys. Chase walked out of the store and Amelia went after him carrying a stuffed dog that sent the alarms BLARING! It scared her half to death. OK, time to go.

I try to find an elevator to get one floor down to the grocery store, but can't find it. So I decide to carry the stroller down the escalator. I hold Amelia's hand to get her on the escalator then reach for the stroller. Amelia freaks out and tries to climb back up and falls and bangs her knee on the grooved edges of the stair. She is WAILING! By the time we reach the bottom, there is a nice Turkish man who stops to help and 2 security guards coming to see what happened. I have no idea what they are saying and I'm trying to calm Amelia down and "talk" to these people. Before I know it, they are wisking us down a long hallway to the elevator and down to a doctor where they put ice on her swollen knee. She is crying even harder at the thought of being at the doctor. She finally calms down when the doctor gives her a pen that lights up. After a few moments, I say we're OK and they help guide us back to the grocery store where a canister of Pringles makes Amelia's pain go away. At least now I know where the elevator is :)

Her knee is swollen and you can see the 2 bruises from the escalator.
She is covered in bumps and bruises since she runs everywhere she goes
and is constantly falling and running into things. We go through
LOTS of band-aids

After our eventful morning, we decide to stay in for the rest of the afternoon. The kids had fun playing and watching movies and eating almost an entire bucket of cherries. I pulled out my Turkish dictionary and start writing down words to help me communicate. My Turkish is pretty limited to "merhaba" (hello) and "tresecurler" (thank you). This gets me pretty far, but it's time to learn more.

Matt wasn't going to be home until after 7, so we decided to go outside for a walk after dinner. We saw a green space out our window and tried to walk there, but never made it. I was too scared to cross the street :) But we did find a patch of grass with big rocks that Amelia could climb. It felt SO good to get outside. The weather here is wonderful. Windy, but warm. I have been craving warmth.

All in all, we are having a great time here. Although we do need to get the kids sleeping better at night. They think going to bed at 9pm is just a nap and are awake from 12-2am. Ugh. I'm up at my usual 5am and they sleep until noon. Today I woke them up at 9am and hope we have a better night.

Matt had a good first day at work and picked up a temporary Passat to drive (our permanent car will be either an Audi or BMW wagon). A Turkish co-worker led him home and Matt says he would have no idea how to do that himself. It's going to take a while to get used to these crazy streets and horrific traffic. There are 15 million people here! It is insane. And they all need to drive at the same time :) They say a 4 mile drive could take an hour at the wrong time of day. Yikes. Matt better plan to leave work at an early hour...

As for my kids, Chase just started saying "no" and I love the way he says it. And he will say "Hey, Sis!" whenever she walks in the room. Too cute. And Amelia makes me laugh everyday with the stuff she says. She is talking like a grown-up, but I love that she still calls the color gray gravy, pretzels are pencils, and when counting, she gets to twelve then repeats "eleventeen, fourteen, sixteen,..." I love my kids!

Our First Day in Istanbul

Our first REAL day in Istanbul started a bit late. Matt woke me up at 11:30am as he left to talk with our future landlord (who gave the apartment we had chosen to an American diplomat since doing so relieved him of paying taxes!). Luckily, there is another similar apartment in the Istinye Park complex that we hope will be ours. Keeping our fingers crossed...

I fell right back asleep and the next thing I hear is Amelia saying, "Mom, open your eyes, we're in Turkey!" It was 12:30pm. I don't think I have ever slept in that late in my life! Felt SOO good. We played for a bit and had some breakfast (again just bread, jam, and fruit). As Amelia played with her princess dolls, she asked if Kate could come to Turkey to play with her. Kate was Amelia's best friend and kindred spirit in Portland. We miss you Kate and Laura!!

Chase didn't wake up until after Matt got home at 2:30! With the day half-over and still without a car, we decided to explore the mall attached to our residence. First stop, WATER! We were dying of thirst since we had no bottled water and you can't drink tap water here. So we found the food court and got "iki su, lutfen" (two waters, please). Of course the waters were not refrigerated and about 75 degrees, but we chugged them regardless.

Next, we found a Migros grocery store - which reminded me of Andronico's in Palo Alto. We desperately needed to expand our diet beyond bread, jam and fruit. The kids noshed on berries and olives as we shopped and picked up the basics - fruit, veg, olives, cheese, and chicken. I really wanted to get some fresh meat from the deli counter, but didn't know how to ask for anything. So I just stuck with the stuff I could recognize. Maybe next time I'll be more daring. The total came to 95 Turkish Lira (~$70), and when Matt gave them 100 TL, they gestured whether or not he wanted change. Of course, we want our change. We think they expected a tip for bagging groceries! Do they do this to everyone? or just gullible Americans who have no idea what the customs are? And when we used the public bathroom, the be-scarfed attendant pointed to the paper towels. 5 TL? That sounds about right. We have a lot to learn...


Feeling hungry, we went back to the food court to get lunch/dinner. We chose a place called "Gunyden" (good day) mostly because it had pictures of the food so we just had to say the words to order. Plus they had french fries which is all Amelia ever wants to eat when we go out. So I order "bir kuzu, bir tuvek, iki su, bir salad bar" (one lamb, one chicken, 2 waters, one salad bar - I didn't know how to say "salad" in Turkish, but luckily the sign said "salad bar" so I knew they understood that). The lamb was FABULOUS. I am going to have to learn how they season it - incredible.

Amelia has been asking us if they have a play structure in Turkey since the moment we left Oregon. This girl NEEDS to climb stuff to be happy. We found a fun toy store with rides, games, and slides and played there for over an hour.

Once back home, we just hung out for the rest of the night - playing, eating, having tea parties and watching movies on the laptop. Amelia wanted to watch TV, but we explained that everything was in Turkish. She didn't care and intently watched "Casper the Friendly Ghost" in Turkish on Cartoon Network. I wonder if she'll absorb some of the language just by watching TV? Hmm...

As long as there are bottles and potato chips, my kids are happy.

Eating strawberries in the kitchen nook - great view of the Bosphorus and the Asia side of Istanbul.

Still off track time-wise, we didn't get to bed until after midnight. Amelia was bouncing off the walls - literally. She learned to climb on the headboard and jump off onto the bed which she did over and over instead of going to sleep.

I didn't sleep too well - kept waking up every couple of hours and finally got out of bed at 6am seeing the sun was up. Having this quiet house to myself, I did some yoga and felt invigorated with my surroundings - the gorgeous view of Istanbul with the rolling hills of endless buildings, the taxi's filling the streets, the sound of the "call to prayer," and the smell of cigarettes and city-life. I am so happy to be in this beautiful, stinky place!!!!!

views from the balcony

After yoga, I felt like going for a run, but too nervous to go outside, and the fitness center is only open from 9am-7pm which is completely useless. Ugh. It looks like I won't be running anytime soon. Luckily, I have my yoga mat.

It is now 11am and everyone is still asleep. If only I could have 5 hours to myself every morning!! What a great way to start the day! Yoga, quiet breakfast on the balcony, time to shower AND get ready without interruption, and then time to blog?! HEAVEN!! If only this quiet time didn't mean the kids would stay awake until midnight.

Not sure what the plans are for today, but that's a good thing. The possibilities are endless and we are all up for anything.

WE ARE HEEERRRREEE!!!

WE ARE HEEERRRREEE!!! We made it to Istanbul! It still doesn't seem real that we will be living here for the next two years. Let the adventures begin!!!

As you can see, I've decided to start blogging again after an 18-month hiatus. Facebook is a lot easier and faster and I don't think anyone is really going to read this, but if anything, it is a journal to remember this incredible adventure our family is on in Istanbul, Turkey.

We moved out of our house on May 6th and stayed in a hotel in Portland for a week as we tied up loose ends and sold our cars. Amelia thought the hotel was "California" (since the only other time we stayed in a hotel was in California). The week went by so fast! We were so busy getting ready to move, saying goodbye to friends and family, and caring for our sick little boy that before we knew it, it was time to leave!

We woke up at 3am to get ready and finish packing before our driver picked us up at 4am. Chase didn't open his eyes until he was already dressed, but then smiled and said "Hay-ee!" (his version of "hi"). Such a happy kid. I rubbed Amelia's head to get her to wake up and whispered that it was time to go on the airplane to Turkey. Here eye's popped open and the first words to come out of her mouth were, "Where's my crown?" (Her crown is a sparkly, pink headband that does not come off her head unless it happens to fall off while she is sleeping).

At the airport we checked 2 huge Britax car seats and 8 dufflebags of clothes, shoes, toys, diapers, and food you can't get in Turkey (powdered sugar, brown sugar, chocolate chips, peanut butter, syrup...). And still had 4 carryons and 4 personal items, full of snacks, coloring books, books, and DVD player/DVDs. Having all this stuff would have been fine if Amelia and Chase could have carried something, but Matt (the pack-mule) lugged 3 huge carryons, his Nike work bag and camera backpack, while I toted Chase in a front carrier, the diaper bag on my back, a purse overflowing with stuff I didn't need (like I'd have time to read books on the flight!), and an insulated bag with bottles and snacks - all while pushing Amelia in a stroller. We WAY overpacked and were in a total sweat going through terminals, narrow airplane aisles, and visa and passport control lines. But in the words of Dora the Explorer, "We did it!"

This is just our carry-on stuff...

As the flight took off, Amelia was giddy watching the airplane leave the ground and kept waiting to see turkey's out the window ("I don't see any turkeys!"). She was extremely happy during the 5-hour flight as she ate Pringles and skittles while watching movies and playing on her new Leapster - all starting at 6am. Chase loved watching movies, climbing in the seats and charming all the passengers around him.



After a brief stop in the JFK terminal, we boarded the plane to Istanbul. We were in the very last row of the airplane - did they do this on purpose knowing we had 2 children?? We waited and waited for our plane to take-off, but nothing happened. Rumors of fog delay went around, but we were finally told there was a mechanical issue and we may need to change planes and/or terminals! We were dying at the thought of lugging all our stuff off then plane, to another terminal, and onto another plane. Luckily, the issue was fixed and we were able to take off 2 1/2 hours after our scheduled departure.

The first couple of hours were great. Amelia and I had a blast making silly faces and playing rhyming games, while Chase played with a little girl in the seat next to us. After 3 hours, the kids started feeling the tiredness. Both kids struggled to get comfortable (and rightfully so), but soon fell asleep - Chase sprawled in Matt's lap and Amelia in mine. They slept on and off for most of the flight, but Matt and I hardly slept a wink. Economy class with 2 kids was a far cry from First Class with no kids as our previous flights had been :)
We arrived in Istanbul at noon local time, but 2am Portland time. Like zombies, we once again lugged our load through a mile of moving walk-ways and endless passport lines. Amelia was so exhausted and hot (you could feel the humidity), she slithered along on the dirty airport floor whining to take her clothes off. We finally made it through, got our bags, and loaded the Mercedes van waiting to pick us up. As the driver struggled to close the door with everything crammed in as tightly as possible, we realized we had forgotten the car seats. Matt had to go back into the airport, finagle his way back to the baggage claim to get them. All the while, we were sweating in the car, tired and thirsty and wanting to get "home."

We finally got to our temporary living complex - The Akmerkez Residence - where we will stay until we finalize our permanent housing and wait for our goods to arrive. It's a posh place - way too nice for us and our children, but we will happily stay here for a few weeks :) When Matt asked Amelia if she liked living in Turkey, she said, "Yeah, a little bit, but not too much."

I got the kids bathed (Chase pooped in the tub - par for the course) and did just enough bottle-washing and unpacking as necessary then went right to bed. Next thing I know, Matt is waking me up at 9:15pm - I had slept for 6 hours! I really needed it. Both kids were asleep and I asked Matt what they had had for dinner since there is very little food in the house. Matt said they had bread, jam, and fruit - which luckily the residence had provided in the refrigerator. Chase eating a packet of cream cheese with a spoon

After I had the same blah dinner and everyone else being asleep, I happily settled on the couch to check email and sit in this nice, quiet place to resume blogging. Within an hour, Amelia woke up at 11pm alert, in her ballet dress, and ready to play. Soon after, Chase awoke ready to do the same (sans the ballet dress). It is now 1am, both kids are playing and having snacks while Matt sleeps. I wonder when we'll get used to this time difference!! We'll try to get more on track tomorrow...

Anyway, both kids are now in my lap, so I must go. I will try to keep up on this blog to record our adventures and hopefully I'll have some readers to make it seem worth the effort :)

Goodbye family and friends in America and hello future friends in Istanbul! Gule gule!