Star of the Week

Nehir had a great week. He brought home his first official report card and it was excellent. There are three categories, excellent, good, and needs improvement. There are thirty to forty sepparate skills that they grade, and Nehir was excellent in all except about five where he was good. The ones where he was only good were all related to organization and tidiness skills, so, no surprises there. He was very proud of himself and we were thrilled.

He was also very happy because he was finally chosen to be the "Star of the Week" in English class. Once a week the English teacher chooses a student who has done the best in English and puts their picture up for a week. Nehir has wanted this BADLY since school started. Now, given that he is fluent in English and actually helps the teacher with translation during class, İ would have thought he should have earned this honor earlier, but İ guess he either goofs off during class or else the teacher is using this to motivate learning and Nehir didn't seem to need motivation. Anyway, he got pretty discouraged so İ told him to tell the teacher how he felt. A couple weeks later, he finally got selected. Last night, while İ was reading to him, he quietly said with a smile on his face "İ'm the Star of the Week." You could tell he was so proud that his picture would be up all week. He is so cute.

Taylan is learning and growing too. He understands English and Turkish but still says very little. Last night he started saying "bak" meaning "look" for the first time. He loves attention and knows how to get it. He dances, makes funny faces, shows off all his "tricks" and, if all else fails, screams. He and Nehir are playing together more. They like to run around and make weird noises - which İ am sure the lady downstairs is thrilled about.

Selcuk has made the second round of cuts for the W.T. grant and so did his friend so he is very happy. İ am happy too.

JOY!

America has elected an amazing, brilliant and inspiring leader, and we have made it clear that we reject racism!

Selcuk and I started watching at 1:30 am, and at 6:00 am, Barack Obama was declared the winner.  I cried as I watched the crowds on TV cheer.  Then Taylan came in, pointed to the screen and said "Obama."  Nehir woke up and drew a picture of Obama.  We are all so happy on this historical day.  

Turkish Holiday

Taylan and Nehir eating breakfast.

Taylan snoozing with Baba.

Nehir took this picture of Taylan.

Nehir sleeping with his new transformer on his pillow.

Nehir's birthday party.

On Wednesday we celebrated the day that Turkey became a Republic (as opposed to a kingdom).  Nehir's school had an assembly in the morning, and a march at night.  The assembly was disorganized and Nehir's class didn't do anything.  The march, however, was quite fun.  We met at the High School and were given torches.  We then marched down the road -with the marching band leading the way- heading towards Ataturk's house.  Before the marching band kicked in I really felt like we were in one of those scenes from an old monster movie - the angry villiagers bearing torches and pitch forks.  It made me laugh. Our little march soon merged into a much larger crowd.  The torches started to seem dangerous and I got a little claustrophobic, but it was still fun.  We walked down to Ortakoy where we caught most of the fireworks.  On the way people sang patriotic songs and chanted "Turkey is secular and secular it will stay!"  It was fun.

Halloween came and went without any party, they don't celebrate it here, obviously.  I bought Nehir a couple candies and that was it.  We went to a lovely park today.  It was a forest tucked inside the city and overlooking the Bosphorus.  It was a great place to walk.  

Taylan has learned to say Obama and really knows who he is.  I am so proud : )

GO OBAMA!