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.  

RAIN! Plus, BabaAnne's Cooking Marathon

Wow, it is raining here!  In coming here for five years I have seen it rain twice, today is the second.  It is only a very, very light sprinkle, but man, it is unusual in these parts.  Yesterday was cloudy and breezy but insanely hot.  I guess we are not used to humidity.  So that's the weather update.

Oh I am so bummed to be missing the convention coverage!  I can't get a live-stream here and so I can only read other people's reaction to the speeches.  From what I have read it has been fabulous.  I have to say I really wish I could feel more a part of this historic election.  I think Barack Obama is an amazing candidate and I wish I could be involved.  I keep getting emails asking me to host or attend events or to get involved with voter registration and I am sad that I can't.  I have to find a way to watch Obama's speech today, I JUST HAVE TO!  Derya is sending my Obama T-shirt that arrived after I left.  I am hoping to find other ex-pat Obama supporters in Istanbul so we can have an election night party.

We have sickness going through the house.  Selcuk was sick for several days, then Taylan was sick and ran a fever all night and most of the next day before we took him to the Doctor.  He was put on an antibiotic.  Now I have a cold.  Oh well we are all recovering.

BabaAnne is nearing the end of a cooking marathon, which she began Monday afternoon.  She bought vast amounts of tomatoes and red peppers so she could make salca (pronounced salcha, meaning tomato or pepper paste) and a kind of dried soup base called tarhani.  First, she washed all the peppers, split them and took the seeds out, and then laid them to dry on newspaper on the roof.  Then she cut up the tomatoes, put them into big buckets of water, put lids on them, and let them soak for a day.  Then she borrowed the neighbors food processor (how she and others managed to make these things before food processors is beyond me) and spent at least an hour mincing up the peppers.  Then she spread them out in pans and put them on the roof.  Then she started smashing the tomatoes through a pan with holes in it, sort of like a sieve, and then cooked many pots of smashed tomatoes, and tomato water on the stove for hours.  Then she spread out the smashed tomatoes and the reduced tomato water in pans and put them on the roof to dry.  Meanwhile, she also put some smashed peppers and tomatoes in a huge bucket, added some other stuff including flour and yeast, and let it sit with a lid for several days.  The orangey mixture rose to fill the bucket, and then she and Nehir dropped blobs of it all over a tablecloth so it can dry.  She was careful not to mush it down while putting it on the table cloth.  After this dries I am assuming she will grind it up and put it in jars.  I have had tarhini soup and it is made from a crumbly powder.  So I guess when all this stuff dries she will have crossed the finish line.  It seems like the hardest part of the work is over, and she did it all in tremendous, oppressive heat.  She is pretty amazing.  I have been told the reason for doing all this work as opposed to just purchasing Salca is that it is tastier and healthier.  BabaAnne is clearly much more industrious than me.  Put another way, I would have been kicked out of my village for sloth if I was born where and when she was.

Happy Kids

Today we went to the beach in Guzelcamli and had a great time.  Nehir has left his fears behind and has discovered his inner fish.  He loves to swim and as his confidence grows so do his skills. Earlier this summer trips to the beach involved essentially forcing him to go, and then Selcuk and I would take turns being the one who had to take a break from swimming to follow Nehir around while he rolled around in the sand, getting completely covered in the stuff.  When we were ready to go, one of us would have to force him to take a shower to get the bulk of the grit off of him, and this would involve much shrieking.  

Now he can barely wait for us to get our beach stuff set up before he plunges into the water. He has learned to take a breath and keep going and to dive under to pick stuff up.  He was really happy today, which makes all of us happy too.

Taylan too had a great time, but he always does.  He loves the water and only complains when we try to take him out before he is ready.  There were no waves today so he could walk along in waist-high water and he thought that was cool. He also enjoyed running up the beach into the sand and then doing a belly-flop into the sand.  This meant another trip back into the water to rinse off the sand, followed by another belly-flop, etc. etc.  It was great to see both kids so happy.

Nehir's giant drip-sand castle.

Taylan taking a dip in a little bucket.

A Young Photographer's Debute

A couple of days ago Selcuk let Nehir wander around the neighborhood with our camera.  He really enjoyed taking pictures and he seemed so pleased when I downloaded them that we decided to have a little party to show his pictures.  We took him to the store where he picked out the treats: Chocolate milk for the kids, soda for the grown-ups, chips, cookies and fruit.  He invited two of the neighborhood kids that he plays with the most, but when we asked about grownups he said "I am NOT dealing with grownups! If YOU want to invite the grownups, then YOU do it."  Selcuk and I cracked up noting how much he sounds like me sometimes. We did end up inviting several grownups that are always kind to Nehir, and we had a splendid time. Nehir and his buddies were very excited about the snacks and the idea of a party.  After everyone had some snacks I showed Nehir's pictures plus a few I had taken of the neighborhood kids.  Nehir received lots of praise and I could tell he felt great.  Below are some of the photos he took.

Most of his shots are of flowers.

He also likes taking shots of trees and I thought this one turned out nice with the sun shining through the leaves.
This is a cute little vine BabaAnne planted in the veggie garden.
This is our house from across the common area.
Self portrait.  Note the missing tooth. It finally fell out a couple nights ago.