Chess Master

Now that I am working I am finding it very difficult to write regularly, but my goal is at least once a week.  This week Selcuk was in the U.S. attending to various research responsibilities so it was just me, the kids and the grandparents.

Nehir can now read.  His teacher is teaching a few letter sounds at a time so right now he can read words that are made up of the letters a, i, e, l, and t.  He is very good and he really seems to enjoy it.  He has also learned to play chess and he loves it.  He plays whenever he can.  He taught BabaAnne and Dede to play so they can play with him when Baba and I cannot.  Tomorrow they are having a celebration for Turkey's Independence Day.  His class will be singing the national anthem and his teacher told them they must stand still to show respect to Ataturk.  He has been practicing singing and standing still all week.  He is very cute.

Taylan has been super fussy.  He has a cold and cries a lot.  He also gets mad when I play with Nehir.  Nehir gets mad when I stop playing with him to attend to Taylan.  When Nehir and I are playing lego, the baby can't come into Nehir's room because he will smash all the parts.  Usually Baba watches Taylan while I help Nehir with homework and then legos, but because he was out of town, BabaAnee was watching him.  Taylan howled miserably until I gave up and went and picked up the baby.  This made Nehir howl and I ended up holding a howling Taylan while a howling Nehir was clinging to my leg trying to keep me from leaving the bedroom.  Ay ay ay.  This is the first time I have really seen them that jealous of one another.

For the most part I am enjoying teaching the little kids at the day-care/kindergarten, but I also find it difficult and awful sometimes.  Today I almost cried while I was teaching the six year olds because they are SOOOOOOO HYPER.  There is one child that I think has a real behavioral problem and should probably be receiving special interventions.  He is completely disruptive ALL THE TIME.  I think he needs to be evaluated and apparently the other teachers do too but the parents refuse.  Oh well.  It makes teaching that class a nightmare.  There are two other boys in that class who clearly have ADHD, but I find that easier to deal with.  The problem is all three of these kids are in the same class so when the very troubled boy is acting out (which is always) the other two boys go berserk.  The other kids are getting more hyper too, I think because that is the only way they can get any attention.  It is really hard.  Oh well.

Happy Turkish Independence day.  I will post pictures this evening, right now the kids want to go to the park.

Taylan's Big Adventure

I am posting some pictures of Taylan's trip to the US.  I don't have pictures of Nehir to post right now because we loaded the Bayram pictures onto the wrong computer.  I will get them later this week and post some.

Taylan coloring at Grandma's house.

Grandma reading to the boys

Derya reading to Taylan

Taylan walking with his hands behind his back, exactly the way Nehir used to!

Hugging Aunt Laura

Yes, I am finally writing an entry.

Sorry to all of you who have been wondering how my kids are.  We were in Ankara for a week without internet access, and then last week I went on a whirlwind trip to the US to change my visa from tourist to work.  Taylan and I flew Tuesday morning, arrived Tuesday at 1:30 (because of the time differences), then Derya drove us to Mom's for one night, then we went to NYC the next morning to fix my visa, back to Mom's for one more night, then back to the airport on Thursday afternoon.  We arrived back in Turkey Friday morning.  It was a very bazaar experience to be home for such a short time, but it was great to see Derya, my parents, Laura, Mandy and the boys.  

I lied and told Nehir I was going on a business trip in Turkey because I thought it would be emotionally difficult for him to go an only stay one day, or to have to stay in Turkey knowing I was going to the US.  I have only been away from Nehir one night before this, when he was three.  I was afraid he would be really upset, but I gave him a little necklace and told him it represented that I love him and am thinking about him even if I can't be near him.  I also promised to bring him Legos.  He liked the necklace, but it was really the Legos that made my leaving OK, the first thing he said when I got back was "Which Legos did you bring me?"  The boy loves Legos.

He is doing great in school.  His teacher thinks he will be the first in his class to learn to read. He is also getting better at writing.  He started staying late on Thursdays for soccer practice and he enjoys that.  He had fun during Bayram too.  Seker Bayram (sugar festival) is the biggest holiday in Turkey, and I think the whole Muslim world.  It marks the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting.  For three days people visit relatives and eat yummy food, especially sweets. The kids go from door to door saying "Bayram kutlu olson!" (happy bayram) and people give them candies.  The kids also receive money, new clothes, and sometimes other gifts from parents and close relatives.  It is a bit like halloween, a bit like Thanksgiving, and a bit like Christmas.  Schools are off for the whole week.  Nehir spent a lot of time playing with cousins. His older cousin, Jonbek, was particularly nice to Nehir.  He was such a wonderful friend to Nehir despite the age difference, I was so grateful to him.

Taylan had his lower back molars come in and one of his incisors.  He was pretty cranky and at one point his gums were bleeding. Poor guy.  He likes to run away after while we are changing his diaper.  He also likes to grab things he knows he is not supposed to touch and run away.  He laughs while we chase him through the house.  He clearly remembered everyone in the US and after the initial shock, he was very happy playing with all his relatives.  

Selcuk and I are well.  Teaching is going fine.  Selcuk's parents are doing well too.

BabaAnna and Dede Arrive

Taylan wants to go out.

           Taylan crawling on me while I take a picture.

   Nehir playing Cheetah Man at the park
   More Cheetah Man.
   Taylan inspecting his stomach.

BabaAnne and Dede arrived in Istanbul this morning.  This means the kids will have lots of time with them, which is good for everyone.  A side benefit is that Selcuk and I can sometimes get out on our own to explore the city.  What we have been able to do has been limited because of the kids, although I have to say, Nehir has been very cooperative and has been willing to walk quite a bit through museums etc.  

Nehir continues to do well in school.  He is not keen on homework, even though there is so little of it and it is so simple.  I don't blame him, he really only has three hours between coming home and going to bed.  It is an intense schedule for a five year-old.  

Taylan and I go walking most days.  We walk Selcuk down to Ortakoy and then he takes the bus to work.  Taylan and I stop at the park for awhile, watch the boats, maybe buy a pastry, and then make the long, steep walk back.  It is a great workout, especially with the baby in the backpack.  Starting tomorrow, I will have to leave Taylan with BabaAnne and go with Selcuk on the bus for my first day of teaching.  I will be at Bahcesehir two days a week, and it looks like I will be working at BJK nursury school three mornings a week.  That is a bit more than I wanted to work, but it will help a lot financially and I will still have three afternoons with Taylan, and of course the weekends with the kids.  We'll see.  If I hate it I can quit, but I think I will enjoy it.

Lots Going On

We have been very busy settling into our life in Istanbul and getting used to new jobs and school.  On the weekend we did some sight seeing and went to see Topkapi palace on Saturday and Dolma Bahce on Sunday.  They are both residences of Sultans, Topkapi is older, and Dolma Bahce is more jaw-dropplingly luxorious.  Both places are beautiful and historic and we had a great time at both.  Nehir was especially jazzed about the armory at Topkapi.  

   An example of the spectacular tiles at Topkapi

                         Family Photo at Topkapi, overlooking the Bosphorous

   Nehir, thrilled, next to a gun display

  Me and Taylan

Taylan inspecting a box

Nehir is doing great in school so far.  He now takes the bus to and from and after some initial nervousness about this he now enjoys it.  He had his first homework ever yesterday and he did it well.  He reports having made many friends and he likes his teacher very much.

Nothing else to report.

Yildiz Park

First graders only had a four-day school week this week, so today was free.  I took Nehir and Taylan to a nice little park down a very steep hill from our house.  This meant a very slow, difficult climb up and enormous staircase to get back home.  Nehir was really cooperative and didn't whine much at all (as opposed to my internal dialogue which was whining away). 

Later that day the whole family went to a beautiful, huge park called Yildiz Park (Star park).  The kids played in a play-area, and then we took a tour of a Mansion built in the late 1800s by the Ottoman Emperor, Abdul Ahmet.  It is incredibly luxurious, full of gorgeous furniture, chandeliers, vases, paintings, etc. etc. etc.  It was very impressive.  We then drove around to see how big the park is, and it is giant.  We stopped again at this odd and fun outdoor gym area. There are a whole bunch of glide-motion machines out in the open where anyone can use them.  We all had fun trying the different machines, and Nehir was especially entertained by them.  

We popped into a little grocery store on the way home and I met an American who is married to a German who is living in Turkey for the next three years.  She seemed really nice and had some good information for us about the neighborhood, like where and when the Bazaars are.  I fought the urge to launch into politics but I was dying to ask what she thought of Obama.  I want an American friend to share my enthusiasm with!

School!

Well, we are here in Istanbul, in our new apartment.  Selcuk found a really nice place for us to live.  It is in a section of town called Levent, and our area is called Levensim.  It is in the European side of the city, very close to the Bosphorous.  We are up on a hill with a nice view and our apartment gets good light and there is a nice breeze blowing most of the time.  We can walk to the sea and walk along a fun area with little shops, cafes and restaurants.  We have decided, however, never to take the children to a restaurant again, or at least until they are both over the age of 10.  We keep thinking eating out would be either easier or more fun than eating at home, and then spend the time being horrified by Nehir's table manners and frustrated by having to chase Taylan around or watch as he throws food on the floor. We end up bolting our food so we can end the misery.

The big news, however, is not the move to Istanbul, it is Nehir's first day of school!  He is going to a great school with a wonderful teacher.  Selcuk and I were both carrying some fears about how Nehir would do in school, but we are both heaving sighs of relief after meeting Hulya Oregtmen (her last name is not Oregtmen, that is how they refer to their teachers).  She has been teaching for over 30 years and has taught at the best schools in Turkey.  This is her first year at Nehir's school.  Surprisingly, she knows Ebru (our dear friend) very well!  Ebru was the assistant principal at a school where she used to work.  She was very fond of Ebru and was sad when she left.

We got the drop off time wrong and took him in for his first day a half hour early, so he got to have special time getting to know her.  He told her he likes science (how cute!) and so she read from a science book and showed him some activities they have in the classroom related to science.  We told her about our fears and she reassured us that she is very experienced with all different kinds of kids and loves children very much.  When we picked him up he had had a great time and she told us he had done really well, he was very well behaved and seemed to really enjoy himself.

It is hard to imagine our little guy is starting the long journey of school.  I think having such a wonderful teacher will help him decide that school and learning is enjoyable.  Selcuk and I felt so relieved and enthused about his school and teacher we both were secretly wondering if we should move here for good.  Like Waldorf schools, teachers stay with a class through fifth grade. Despite this, we also realized that is not realistic and we can find excellent teachers in the US as well, but giving Nehir a great experience in school is very important to both of us.  

This week, only the first graders go to school, so they can get used to it and not feel overwhelmed.  They go from 9:30 to 12:00.  Next week regular school starts and the schedule is 8:30 to 4:30.  A long day for little dudes, but that includes their sports and other extracurriculars.  From what I gather, they do different extracurriculars every day, and all the students do them.