Stress

I managed to get Nehir to sleep by midnight, which is like putting him to sleep at 5 in the afternoon in American time.  I also managed to get him up again at 7:20 am the next morning.  Unfortunately, his service ( the van that takes him to school) never showed up, and I was out of Turkish money for a cab.  Nehir was anxious and kept saying helpful things like "What are we supposed to do, just stand here and stare at all the services and ours never shows up?!" or asking me "Why don't we just take a cab?!" over and over even though I had told him repeatedly that I didn't have Turkish money.  I finally accepted that his service wasn't coming and we had to take a cab to a currency exchange office, and then another cab to school.  When Nehir walked into class a half hour late, his class burst into spontaneous applause, and Nehir was grinning ear to ear.  That warmed my heart and helped alleviate my fowl mood.

Taylan and I then walked back to where we could hail another cab home.  There is a small grocery store about a quarter mile from our apartment so I asked the driver to drop us there so I could get some groceries I had forgotten the day before.  While in the store Taylan dropped a glass bottle of carrot juice on the floor, shattering it.  We then set off for home, but a torrential rain had started and the little rain shield on his stroller was not keeping him dry at all so we ran into a nearby office building.  I scrounged around in my purse for enough small change to get us home (taxi drivers often don't have enough small bills to make change if you are carrying large bills) and we took a cab the rest of the way.  

Now we are home and Taylan is listening to the theme song for Bob the Builder over and over and over.  According to my itunes library, it has been played 78 times since I downloaded it several days ago, and two of those days we were traveling, so you do the math.  Yikes.

Readjusting

Our flight home was OK, not great but not as bad as I feared.  Nehir cried after saying good-bye to Derya and told me he didn't want to miss her.  Later he told me he wished there could be two of him so one could live in each country.  I feel bad that the separations are hard on him, but I think overall this is a good experience.  When we got back to Turkey and were driving home he told me the city looked "festy" which he explained means it looks like a festival.  He likes Istanbul and is looking forward to seeing his friends and teachers.

We arrived back in Istanbul late last night, and got back to the appartment at 11:30 or so.  After feeding the kids left over snack food from the flight, we read Harry Potter and went to sleep.  12 hours later we woke up feeling disoriented and hungry.  I got the kids dressed and we took a cab to a local Pide restaurant (pide is thin bread with different toppings cooked on it).  Nehir ate Iskendar (thin meat with bread, tomato sauce, butter sauce and yoghurt) and meat pide, while Taylan and I split a cheese and spinach pide.  Both boys ate copious amounts which was good because neither had had a decent meal in a long time.  Both boys seem to loose their appetite while traveling.  The weather was nice so after breakfast or lunch or whatever meal it was, we went to the park in Ortakoy.  Taylan had a great time but Nehir was feeling pretty draggy.  After playing Nehir and Taylan split a waffle for desert and by then Nehir was so full he could hardly walk.  We had to go grocery shopping, however, so we walked up the road with Nehir moaning and leaning on the stroller.  After a short walk he was feeling a bit better so we got the grocery shopping done and took a cab back to the house.  

Nehir will go back to school tomorrow, poor thing is going to be so jet-lagged.  He is looking forward to seeing his pals.  I will take Taylan on a walk and maybe go to the park.  So life is mostly back to normal.

Home Again Home Again Jiggity Jig

Today the kids and I fly back to Istanbul.  It was wonderful to see everyone, but we are also looking forward to being in Istanbul again.  The vacation wasn't as relaxing as I would have liked, due mostly to a severe cold that swept through the family.  Taylan got a double ear infection and was unusually cranky as a result.  He is on the mend now.  Nehir is sad to be leaving but also pleased he will be seeing his Turkish friends and teachers.  

I will write again once we arrive in Turkey.

The Deadbeat Blogger Returns

If there is anyone still bothering to read this after all these weeks of no new entries, here is the latest on the Rogers-Sirin family:

We are actually in the US for a two week vacation right now.  Nehir is thrilled to be reunited with Derya, Grandma, Grandpa and his cousins.  He had an excellent report card and is rapidly learning to read in English, having pretty much mastered reading in Turkish.  No big news with Taylan; he's cute, really, really, really cute.  He gets jealous of Nehir and when Nehir is the focus of attention he will do almost anything to get the attention back to him.  It is not too hard to keep them both happy and sufficiently attended to, it is mostly just funny to see Taylan's antics.  

My big news is that I got a new job!  I will be an assistant professor at the College of Staten Island starting in the fall.  I am very pleased.  They are starting a new masters program in counseling psychology so I will be able to teach counseling skills courses, which I really enjoy.

Selcuk has his interview for the WT Grant next week. I am sure he will do well, he is a charming guy.

Well, now that my computer is fixed I am hoping I will be a better blogger.  Our camera is broken but we are getting a new one and so pictures will be coming shortly.

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!