It has been weeks since I have written and a lot has happened. We have been on a number of little outings, the kids have learned new things and been adorable, funny, weird, and more, and we signed a contract to sell our house and may be bidding on a new one later today. So why haven't I been writing? I really have no idea. Oh well, better later than never.
Because Selcuk has been invited to speak in a number of different places we have been able to see some parts of Turkey we have not visited before. One weekend we went to two little towns in the Black Sea region called Kastamolu and Safranbolu. They are in the mountains and they have very pretty houses and lovely surroundings. We stayed in two beautiful, historical hotels. The first was a restored old stone building, I don't know what it used to be, but it was very cool, like walking back in time. The doors to the rooms were tiny so you had to bend over to get inside, and once inside they had a lovely, cozy feel. All the rooms were in a square with the doors facing inward to a central courtyard. The ruins of an ancient castle could be seen on the hill above. The next night we stayed in one of the traditional wood houses of Safranbolu. The room was white with handmade, wood detail everywhere. Our entire ceiling had an intricate wood pattern on it, and there were wall to wall wood carved wood cabinets. It was really beautiful.
The next trip was to Bolu which is also a mountain town. We visited two lakes and enjoyed being out in nature as opposed to Istanbul's hustle and bustle. A few days later, Selcuk and I went to Turkish Cyprus so he could give a talk to school administrators and principals. We left the kids for this trip and it was the first time I was separated from Taylan overnight. He did OK as long as the phone didn't ring. If the phone rang he thought it was me and cried if he couldn't talk to me. When I did call, he cried into the phone because he wanted me to come home. The rest of the time he was happy as usual. Turkish Cyprus is a beautiful place. We stayed at a fancy resort for free because Selcuk was a guest speaker. It was warm enough there to swim in the sea and it was incredibly clean and clear. Staying in a fancy place was fun, but the real highlight was when we went to the nearby town to look at the ruins. The town is full of old churches and crumbling castles, and the town just hums along right beside them. There is a small tourist industry, but most of the storefronts are just regular little shops for the townspeople. I think it is because Turkish Cyprus is not internationally recognized, so you can only visit if you come through Turkey and this limits the tourists. While we were there, there was a handful of other people looking around, but mostly the old buildings were empty. This made it a really enjoyable experience because not only did we get to see the cool ruins, but we also got to see the real face of the town, not a tourist, showy-town. We also so LOTS of lizards, big and small, and I got a big kick out of that. It was really fun but I was very glad to see my kids again when we got home. I bought Nehir a cup that played "It's a Small World" whenever you pick it up to drink. I thought it was hilarious and Nehir liked it too, but it broke almost immediately. We got Taylan a little horse that he loves. He makes it gallop, and eat, and if he has forgotten about it for awhile he will suddenly think of it and go running off to find it.
Taylan's latest skills are that if you ask him what his name is he puts his finger on his cheek and says "Tay Tay!" Sometimes he gets confused and says "Two!" because we also taught him to say how old he is. He is learning to count in Turkish but he will only say the numbers he can pronounce so he says "Bir, dort, bes, alta yedi, on!" Which means "One, four, five, six, seven, ten!" He loves to draw pictures and already is naming his scribbles. He likes to make choo choos and birds. When he is making choo choos he draws long lines, and when he is making birds he tries to make circles and curvy lines. He is a creative genius!
Nehir is doing great in school. He had a class performance last week. The first grades (there are two classes) each did a short improv play (with the drama teacher), then each child recited a short poem about the profession they have been researching, and they finished with a play in English. In the first play the kids were coupled up to play married couples going out to dinner. They pretended to drive, pretended to order, pretended to eat, and then go home, watch TV and go to sleep. I felt bad for the kids who weren't playing married couples because they had to be cars, then tables, then TVs, then beds. They were human props! Oh well, they didn't seem to mind but I know I would have been royally upset in first grade if I had to play a table. Then came the poems. Al the kids were dressed up like their profession and they recited their poems into a microphone. Nehir's project is about chemists so he came out in a white lab coat, and goggles and he was holding a wide, glass beaker with some sciency-looking things inside. When the microphone got passed to him he started to recite and realized the sound was off and shouted "Ses yok YA!" Which means "There's no sound YA!" Ya is a sound of frustration here. It was funny. He then recited his poem at a break-neck speed, then jumped off the stage to see me, realized he wasn't supposed to do that and went back to the stage. Then came the English play. The plot was that a family goes to Disneyland and meets cartoon characters. The cartoons they met weren't actually from Disney, and some weren't cartoons, but who cares? Each kid had one or two lines. Nehir was Harry Potter and after he said his line he was supposed to do a spell. He realized, however, that he didn't have his wand so instead of saying his spell he said "Where's my wand?" in English. It was very funny. Near the end there was some delay getting the music going so Nehir kept lying down in the middle of the stage and yelling "This is my bedroom!" which made the kids laugh, so he kept doing it. Finally the music started, they sang, and the event was over. Nehir was THRILLED that people laughed at him. He is funny dude.
OK, that basically brings us up to the present. Hopefully I will keep up better.
