The Good, the Bad, and the Gross

First the good: The entire Sirin family, meaning Selcuk's parents, their five children, their four married childrens' spouses, and their four grandchildren (with a fifth present in utero), were all at the summer house for a family reunion over the past three days. It went great. The siblings had a lot of fun together, swimming, taking turns preparing meals, fishing, etc. Cagdas and his family had to leave first, but the rest of the family is still here.

The bad: I am avoiding writing. I have a number of projects I could/should be working on, but I am too busy relaxing and swimming to get to them. I'll be paying for this later for sure.

The gross: Poor Taylan got a bad stomach virus and spent the night barfing. He is OK, but not feeling great. Hopefully it won't last long.

Well, that is the exciting goings on here. Below are a couple photos of some of the kids.

Nehir, Selcuk, and Zerrin (Cagdas's daughter) fishing

My boys relaxing in the pear chairs

Getting Organized

This is what it looks like to pack for four people for a year-long stay away from home.

For the most part, the days at the summer house are passed in a low-key manner. We usually wake up when the kids do, maybe 8:00 or 8:30, and I will read to them for a bit. Then they play or do workbook and have breakfast. The adults usually have breakfast later, around 11:00-ish. The kids spend the afternoon playing or having screen-time (or whining and complaining, depending on what kind of day we are having) while I either work or avoid work. I usually take the kids to the sea sometime after 4:00 pm to avoid prime sunburn time, and after they get bored and go home, I will usually work out in the water. Then it is a late dinner, a walk to the bazaar with the kids for treats, then books and bed. I will then hang out with Selcuk and his family for a bit before hitting the hay myself. 

The exception to this routine is when we have either errands to run or have planned an outing. Because the new house was unfurnished, we are doing a lot of errands to shop for house things. We are almost done with the furnishings except for a few bookshelves etc. The shopping was at first fun, and then got tedious because we had to keep going for things we didn't realize we needed or things we forgot. Even the most tedious trip, however, has a built in bonus if our errands are in Soke, and that is the little village we pass through on the way there and back. It is up on the mountain and the road through the village is lined with stands where the villagers make gozleme and baslama, as well as sell home-made olive oil, honey from their farms, and local produce. Gozleme is a delicious flat bread cooked over a concave pan over a wood fire, then folded with cheese and greens inside. Baslama is also cooked over the fire and is s fluffy, circular bread that is about an inch thick. 

The women who make the bread are generally dressed in typical village clothes, which means a flowery head scarf, tied casually, a long-sleeved shirt, and either a flowery long skirt, or flowery baloon pants. We met one women who was particularly kind and sweet and made the best gozleme ever. Here is a picture of us together:

Yes, it looks like my butt is roasting over that fire, but I assure you, my butt was and is fine.

Here We Go Again

Well, it has been four years since my last post for this blog, but it is time to get it going again because we are here for the year again. I am so excited to be in Turkey again and expect this experience to be smoother and more comfortable than our first year living here. One reason is that we moved from the old summer house to a new one. This one is yards away from the sea which means it never gets too hot, and it is simple to take a quick swim whenever I want. The house is lovely and I feel absurdly luck to be able to enjoy it.

Another reason that I believe this year will be great is that the apartment in Istanbul will also be conveniently located and pretty. We will have a view of the Bosporus, and be in easy walking distance of Bahcesehir University. That brings me to a third advantage, I have already taught at Bahcesehir and will feel more comfortable and ready than I was last time. I am also teaching a course I am very excited about, "Psychodynamic Theory." Finally, and most importantly, the Sirin children will all be living in the same city for the first time in decades. My sister-in-law Ayse has a very nice husband and a new baby girl named Destina, and  my other sister-in-law is expecting a baby girl in September. My brother-in-law Cagdas has a cute three year old named Zeren, and so the cousin fun will be bountiful. I am looking forward to the Sirin siblings having many fun evenings together.

My kids are having a bit of trouble adjusting, but that is to be expected. Nehir is fluctuating between being very sweet and fun to talk to being surly and grumpy. Taylan is having a lot of trouble with his Turkish, and that is causing him to be much more angry and defiant than he usually is. This morning, however, they both have seemed to turn a corner. Nehir read out loud to Taylan and Zeren, then we all drew pictures for awhile.

I will post some pictures soon.

Well, the title no longer applies but...

I am going to keep blogging because a) I enjoy it and b) no matter where we are, we always have friends and family who are far away and this is a good way to keep people updated. I was going to change the title but I realized as I was about to delete the old one that I have emotional connections to that title and I just can't stand to change it. So, "Our Year in Turkey" will continue even though we are no longer in Turkey and I will probably keep going after one year.

Anyway, we sold our house but are waiting on a short-sale so we are living with Mom for the time being. We hope the sale will finalize mid-August. It has been nice catching up with my parents, Laura, Mandy and her family and friends. The trip home was AWFUL. The morning we were supposed to leave I came into the kitchen and found Taylan standing with an open bottle of children's Tylenol in his hand, licking the lid. I had no idea if he had drank any and, if he did, how much. After checking on-line and learning that an overdose could lead to liver failure, we grabbed all our luggage and set off for the hospital. I told them the maximum amount he could have had and they thought it was unlikely that he had toxic levels, but they wanted to watch him and run tests. We explained that we had to catch a flight and so they gave us medicine that I had to give him every four hours for sixteen doses. Well, Taylan did not like this medicine and so every four hours, I had to try to either trick him into drinking it or force it down his throat. Mostly, tricking did not work. Keep in mind that I was alone with the two kids, Selcuk has to keep working in Turkey until mid-August. So, I had to give him a dose of medicine he hated, without the help of any other adult, on the first leg of the flight, a dose in the restaurant in Heathrow, and two doses on the next leg. Each time he wailed and gagged and flailed and spat. It was terrible. In addition to that wonderfulness, Taylan also spilled chicken, a cup of milk and a cup of water all over my lap during an on-line meal. After that I went into the bathroom, allegedly to clean him and myself up, but really it was to cry. When we arrived at Heathrow I learned that they had decided the flight was too full to keep my stroller above and so they had checked it below and it was going straight to Newark. This meant I had to deal with a three hour layover with a two year-old, a six year-old, and no stroller. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, Nehir was very helpful. A year ago he would have been running around like a crazy monkey, but he has matured a lot and so he either held Taylan's hand or pulled our carry-on luggage the whole time. This did not mean that the layover was easy. At the airport restaurant, after the screaming gag-fest that was his third dose of medicine, he spilled his water all over the table and both he and Nehir left vast amounts of their suppers on the floor under their chairs. We managed to board our second flight on time and, other than the medicine, things went OK. However, once we got to the US the passport guy was rude to me - I won't even go into it, but it just topped off a hideous trip perfectly.

Our first week back was a bit crazy. I had to close on our house, I got tonsilitis AGAIN and had to go on antibiotics, which made me really sleepy and I was still jet-lagged, and Taylan started cutting to giant molars and was absolutely miserable. Despite these things, it was a pleasure to be back and now that we are all feeling better and back on US time, I am feeling very happy. Nehir and his cousin Daniel play almost every day and they just love each other. Taylan is still somewhat out of sorts but he is not in as much pain and is returning to his cheerful self. The best thing is that they can play and make noise without the crabby neighbors complaining about it.

Last Day

It is hard to believe, but our year in Turkey is almost over. Today is our last day and we are all feeling a lot of mixed emotions. Turkey has been a fantastic experience and we all fell in love with Istanbul. We will miss our Turkish family and friends, but we are also looking forward to reconnecting with friends and family in the US.

Nehir has matured so much this year. This morning we went out for a wonderful breakfast in Yildiz Park and Nehir was so polite and fun to be with. Just under a year ago Selcuk and I vowed NEVER to take the kids out to eat again because Nehir was so wild and rude and Taylan's eating habits were just gross. Well, we obviously broke that vow and Nehir is a pleasure to dine with. He has also learned how to be a good friend. Last summer he was constantly screaming when his friends would touch his toys (and they would scream when he would touch theirs) but this year he and his buddies played all day and into the night with hardly any squabbling. He is thoughtful and funny and smart and we are so proud of him.

Taylan has grown a lot too of course. He loves to entertain by singing songs or dancing or just being silly. His adorable curls have straightened out but he looks just as cute with straight hair I must say. He is learning lots of words, both Turkish and English. If you ask him a question he will either say "No" or "Ebet" for "Evet" the Turkish yes. He also says "Babat" for "Kapat", the Turkish word for close. He counts in Turkish but will only say the numbers he feels comfortable pronouncing so he says "Bir, uc, dort, bes, alta, on!" which means "One, three, four, five, six, ten!" He likes to rough house but, unfortunately, Nehir Abi doesn't usually like it and so there is some friction there. They are good buddies though and I hope they remain friends as they grow up. Taylan has grown very close to BabaAnne this year and I think being separated will be hard on both of them. However, we will be visiting often and I am sure their bond will continue.

As for me, I learned that I enjoy teaching college kids and I am good at it. I also learned that I do not like teaching preschool children and I am horrible at it. I also learned that I am much more adaptable than I thought. Selcuk had a good year too but he will have to tell you himself what his grand life-lessons are.

Now for some humor. First, a gross but funny incident from the summer house: Two days ago we were eating breakfast when Ayse asked me what was on my pants. I looked and right below the belt in the back I saw what I thought was a cricket, so I reached behind me to get it. When I touched it, however, instead of feeling like a cricket, it felt disgustingly soft and squishy so I screamed and flung whatever it was away. It landed on Ayse's plate: two little feet on the edge of her plate, and the rest of the GREEN FROG hanging down over the edge, hands dangling. GROSS! All day I kept remembering the image of the little frog feet sticking to the edge of her plate and it would make me laugh and feel nauseous all over again. So yeah, apparently I sat on a frog.

Now I will share some items from the menu of a restaurant close to our summer house:

After perusing the "Types of Furniture" section, you can move on to the main dishes where you can choose from:
Chicken Spit
Garbage Spit
Collapse Spit.

Mmmmmmmmmmmm, so many types of spit to chose from.

Well, I don't want to end my blog about this year with THAT, so I will end by saying, Turkey is a wonderful country and I highly recommend visiting. If any of you do ever get the chance, I will let you know what beautiful places you can see, what food you can try, and what fun things you can do.

Thank you Turkey for a fantastic year!

Some Photos

BabaAnne after putting Taylan to sleep by rocking him on her legs



Nehir, his best buddy Sarp, and Taylan in the park.



Nehir and his school buddies (Nehir looks alarmed but really he was happy)



Taylan and Nehir hanging out on Dede



Me with a bunch of pompous philosophers at a conference on ethics and global education.

Back In Guzel Camlı

We are back at the summer house and very happy to be here. The kids are loving being able to play outside all they want. Nehir found his bike almost right away and started biking around the paths immediately. Taylan spent a day being mighty jealous of the neighbor boys trike until the little girl we gave Nehir's old trike to came by and since she is too big for it now, she said we could use it again. Neither the neighbor's kid or Taylan can quite peddal by themselves, but they both love to try and, even better, to get pushed around on the trikes.

Nehir has lots of neighborhood kids to play with and he seems to have outgrown his tendency to freak out when other people play with his stuff. So far the kids like to hang out on our porch, probably because we have lots of toys.

The summer house looks great. The trees are bigger although some didn't produce as much fruit and the peach tree died because there was not much rain this spring and no one was around to water. We have been watering everything and we will replace the peach tree. The jasmine bush is huge but there are no flowers yet, again, probably because of the lack of water, but now that is is getting water İ am looking forward to the fragrant smell wafting accross our porch.

İ can't post photos in this entry because İ am at an internet cafe but İ think next time İ can bring my laptop and connect that way.