Christmas! and such Holiday things

Wow. It has been a long time since we posted on here! Sorry about that! There's been a ton happening and going on. We've been learning and growing a lot, and we've been enjoying the adventure!
I guess we should start with Christmas. Which, by the way, all of our students believe is tomorrow. It has been so strange to be in a country that doesn't celebrate Christmas! Our students kept telling us we were confused because we thought Christmas was last week. They just combine the Christmas idea with New Year's and so don't understand our excitement or traditions. But, we had a good Christmas nonetheless. We made do with a few things we could find for decorations. We got a shrubbish kind of evergreeny tree and found some lights and balls to put on it. We couldn't find stockings, though, so I got a new pair of slipper boots to substitute for our missing stockings. We enjoyed Christmas eve with movies and food, and I woke up at 7:00 on Christmas morning, all excited like I was still a little kid or something!
But, we had a fun time giving presents to each other, even though some of them are stuck in Istanbul in customs at the moment. Later on in the morning we went to meet a friend at the mall and watch some girls from our University help in making the biggest ebru (a type of marbling art) ever. It was an attempt for us to get in the Guinness World Book of Records even! After that, we headed home and talked to our families for a while. It was a wonderful weekend for us to relax and celebrate Christmas and remember why we have Christmas in the first place. We sure did miss our families, but we are thankful to have each other while we are here. Tonight we'll be celebrating the New Year, and as tempting as it is to wake up at 7:00 and celebrate it with the East Coast again, I am looking forward to sleeping in. :-)
Aside from the holidays, we've been working our way through another semester. This one has been challenging because Jeremy and I both have repeat students - those whose grades were not good enough to go to level B. So, they work well sometimes, when they come to class, and feel like it, but many days it is a struggle to motivate them.
We've also started working on the language more fervently by buying the Pimsleur program. It has been fun to go out and work on our Turkish with people we meet. We still have a long way to go, but it has been fun. Thanks so much for all of you who are thinking of us and missing us. We miss all of you and are thankful for your love and encouragement!

Happy New Year!!

Thanksgiving! (sorta Turkey style)

Well, it seems that the holiday season as fully hit in the states. Though both of us have been away from our families on Thanksgiving before this year was definitely a lot different than any other one. It was somewhat difficult to watch friends at school counting down the days till they got to leave school to go spend a long weekend with families. Or to see the pictures of families getting together for the holiday. But we are very grateful for where we are and what we are doing.

We did not get Thursday off here so had planned to celebrate on Saturday. Last year we started a few traditions that we hoped we would be able to continue wherever we were in the world. Partly because neither of us are huge fans of turkey, and cause we were hoping to travel, our thanksgiving meal is non-traditional. We made three different kinds of meat this year: lamb meatballs, cubed beef, and chicken fingers. Then we each scoured the internet to find dipping sauces to make. We've discovered that we are both really big fans of mayonnaise based sauces. So we had two very similar mayonnaise and ketchup sauces (but both had some special ingredients to give them a unique twist!). Then Kylie made a pepper tarter sauce. I made a honey mustard. Then we had a repeat from last year with our alabama white bbq sauce. Then we also had some really good mashed potato balls, cabbage, and a baked, kinda breaded onion (that one needs some work still!). For dessert we had really gooey brownies.

We both finished the meal quite stuffed! We were also very grateful that the power came back on. We had just put the first of the meats on to cook when the power went off. Sometimes when that happens it is a few hours before it works again. This time it was just 15 minutes or so.

Another thing we had started last year was to set out all of our post-it notes. Then throughout the day as we think of things from the last year that we are grateful for we write them down and stick them on the wall. It is a lot of fun to think back on all the incredible things we have been given over the last year.

Thanksgiving wouldn't be completely right without some football though. So we went out in the evening and played together. It was good to burn off some of the calories from the meal!

While it was definitely not the same as most traditional thanksgiving celebrations, we still had a great time. We really do miss our family and friends. We are so grateful for how all of you have stayed involved in our lives. God has blessed us so much in allowing us to know and be influenced by each of you. So while we are far away from you we are grateful for you. We are also so grateful for the ways that we have been able to grow to feel more at home where we are now. It is a huge gift to be really happy and excited about where we are now. We are grateful for the many new friendships and experiences that we have had over the past few months here. We have lots to be thankful for!

More pictures: http://on.fb.me/hG3hNg

Istanbul! (and a few other adventures from a week of bayram) (part 2)

So we seem to be staying about one significant event behind with the blog. We had a really good time this weekend celebrating Thanksgiving here. We hope that you did as well. There will be pictures and more coming shortly.

To finish up our week of Bayram we wanted to share some of the pictures we took from Istanbul. We had such a good time. 6 days was not enough to even scratch the surface of all the things there are to see in the city. Over and over we were amazed with just how large the city is. Many people don't realize that Istanbul is the largest city in Europe with a population of at least 15 million, and when you include the unofficial residents maybe closer to 20 million. The city sprawls on and on. It really is amazing. There is also an amazing amount of beautiful and historic places scattered all throughout the city.

Our visit to Istanbul was a really refreshing time for us. It was great to get away from work and school for a few days. We also got to spend some really good time with friends from the states who are living and working in Istanbul. It was really encouraging to hear and see what is going on in their lives. We are really grateful for the hospitality that they showed to us while we were there.

I could try to describe all the things we saw but instead just look at the pictures! You can see the whole album here (including captions) http://on.fb.me/hMGo5Y .

Istanbul! (and a few other adventures from a week of bayram) (part 1)

This past week was a weeklong holiday as the country celebrated Kurban Bayram. This is one of the biggest religious festivals of the year throughout the Muslim world. It is also known as Eid al-Adha in Arabic is the festival of the sacrifice. Leading up to this week we asked some of our friends what this holiday meant for them. The answers varied widely from something that almost resembles Thanksgiving and an emphasis on spending time together as a family to an opportunity to remember the poor and also a significant religious act. If nothing else, it leads to a number of interesting conversations as we try to learn more about the country and the people here.

Because of this holiday we had had 9 days off of work (from last Saturday through today). We were quite excited for the time away and so had made plans to go and visit Istanbul and some of the friends we have living there. It was fun to get away as tourists and get to explore all of the sites of the city. We felt like we saw a lot, but a week was not nearly enough, more about that later.

On Saturday morning, we spent some time around the house getting things somewhat straightened up before we left. We also had to get two boxes ready to ship back to the States with presents for Christmas. We spent most of the morning try to find suitable packing materials and boxes to ship everything in. We were able to get the last box we needed from our friend Seljuk who works in the little bufe (shop) in the apartment complex. Kylie spent a long time getting things neatly packaged and ready to go and then we headed downtown to find the post office. We took the bus towards the area where we knew there was one and a little ways before our stop we spotted a post office. So we jumped off and backtracked the few blocks only to find that branch was closed. So then we walked up into the main part of town hoping to find another one, but not knowing really where it was. We were starting to wonder about what to do when I looked down at the two guys standing in front of me and realized that they were carrying messenger bags full of letters. Perfect! Ask the postal carriers where the post office was. The guy was even nice enough to walk us back to where we could see it before sending us on our way. We got to the post office and eventually found the right counter and explained what we needed to do. We were a little surprised with how simply it was going. But then the guy started asking us what was in the boxes and pulling out each of the items that had been neatly wrapped, labeled, and arranged (albeit in newspaper but better than any wrapping job I've ever done) and opening them up. Thankfully after the first three or four (out of a lot) he decided that there was nothing too harmful and stopped unwrapping the presents. So now we just have to hope that they arrive within the 10-14 days they told us (but we are banking more on 20 or 25).

After getting the boxes shipped we went to find a place to get baklava to take with us to our friends in Istanbul. Since Gaziantep is famous for its baklava this is the expected gift anytime we leave the city. As we walked into the baklava shop we were greeted with "welcome on board" by a guy in a Turkish Football Federation warm-up suit (we assume he learns most of his English by traveling). As we ordered our baklava we found out that he and the other two guys in there were referees who had flown in to Gaziantep to referee the Gaziantepspor-Fenerbache match later that night. So with that piece of information, and since it was bayram, we decided we should go try to get tickets and go to the game. We walked the few minutes to the stadium and found the place already pretty busy with fans decked out in the teams colors. We got ushered into what we think was the fan club office, we aren't really sure, but they sold us two tickets for the game that night and even included jerseys in the deal as well. We were pretty excited. We went home and did a few other things to get ready for our trip before heading back to the stadium that night.

The game was quite the experience. It was a little bit different than the Colorado Rapids games I've been too (the Rapids who, by the way, I'm really expecting to win the MLS Cup tonight!). When we found the gate we were supposed to go in at we had to make our way past the 10 and 12 year old kids who were being dragged away for trying to sneak in, or something. Then we went through a series of floor to ceiling turnstiles that felt a lot like cows being herded through the stockyards. Then at the end we were met by security guards who frisked us, took away our water bottles and almost took away our camera too. Finally, we went up the ramp into the stadium.

The whole arena had an ominous feeling with a heavy mist hanging over the field. There were police officers encircling the field spaced about 5 yards apart with their backs to the game just watching the stands. Our tickets sort of told us that we were supposed to be in the fan section with all of the jumping, dancing, singing crowd that watched like none of the game. We stood with the group for about the first 30 minutes of the game. We met a few college aged guys who were really nice. We got asked about 200 times where we were from. After a while one of the guys we met took a scarf from a younger kid and gave it to me. I tried a bunch of times to give it back but he wouldn't let me. So I at least got a picture with him (and we got to celebrate later!). We were enjoying the game, although it was hard to really watch because of all the fans. Then about 30 minutes in one of the police officers pointed to me and called me down to say something through the fence. I didn't really understand what he was saying, other than that since Kylie was a girl we should leave the fan section and go sit down. So we decided we should obey. It was hard to tell if we were getting the celebrity or the six-year old scolded child treatment.

At half-time many of the fans made their way to the only concession stand on our half of the stadium. It was just a table right behind the goal with a couple of guys selling chai and simit (the two turkish staple foods). This meant though that all of the fan section had to walk past where Kylie and I were now sitting to get to the food. This turned into a lot of just stopping and staring (again back to the celebrity or six-year old question). Pretty soon there was a huge crowd circled around us and only like five feet back. It was really odd, but there wasn't anything to do or anywhere to go. After a minute or two of this awkwardness some of our friends from the first few minutes came by and started yelling at people to move and leave us alone. For the rest of the game if anyone really even stopped and stared within a few seconds someone would walk by and just smack them and tell them to keep walking. It was kind of funny to watch.

During the second half we were able to watch more of the game. Sometime during the half someone else came down and gave Kylie a scarf. So we were both fully decked out in jersey's and scarves. Gaziantepspor came back from down 1-0 to tie the game with maybe 20-25 minutes to go. Then not too much later they got a second goal to pull ahead 2-1. It was awesome. The stadium went nuts. My friend who gave me his scarf jumped over a couple rows of seats before I picked him up and we yelled to celebrate. It was great. The game ended 2-1. A really good win for Gaziantepspor over one of the "big three" teams from Istanbul. It was a great first Turkish football game to watch.

After the game, we went up to one of our new favorite places in the city. It is one of the only places we know to find really good coffee. It is a third-floor cafe that overlooks one of the main streets into the downtown section of the city. We went up there to get some coffee and warm-up after the game. As we were sitting there drinking our coffee we heard a huge commotion down in the street. We looked off the patio to see a whole parade of fans still celebrating the victory.

The whole experience was a great start to our weeklong holiday. It was all rather spontaneous, but we thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, the first day of vacation has already taken too much space. So we will do another post with stories from our week in Istanbul.

Here are a few of the pictures from the game:

    The boy who gave me his scarf! :-)

You can also find more pics here: http://on.fb.me/9fw0NH

November!!

It's already November! Time goes so fast! A lot has happened in the last few weeks, and together we have realized that we haven't written for a while! Well . . . we'll try to hit the highlights.
School has been going well. Our students are a lot of fun. We have been learning a lot from them, and hoping that they are learning lots from us. Sometimes I'm not sure though. There are days when the students seem determined to not put forth any effort in our classes, and those are the days I give them the lecture about being stuck in level A for the rest of their lives. It at least makes them think!

Last weekend we had a day and a half off for Cumhuriyet Bayram (Joom-hurry-yet Bye-rum). That is the celebration of the day that Turkey became a country. So, we enjoyed the time off to start getting in the Christmas mood, buy Jeremy some new pants, and go visit Rum Kale with some of our fellow teachers. That was AMAZING.

Rum Kale is an ancient castle built into the existing stone of a rock cliff along the Euphrates river. It was absolutely beautiful. To top it off, the day was gorgeous - bright sun with some awesome clouds. I was astounded by the beauty. One of the teachers at Zirve had decided to rent a car to go and visit Rum Kale, and was determined to drive in Turkey despite the hesitancy of the rental agency. But, our only incident the entire day was swiping a guys side mirror about 10 minutes into our trip. Other than that and having to back out of the toll booth lanes about 4 times, we were fine. When we got to Halfeti (where we got the boat to go to Rum Kale) a man offered us a ride to Rum Kale on his boat right away. So, we took it and got on. We were thrilled, and snapped pictures all the way up the river. We passed Rum Kale, and kept going to the sunken city - a city that the government inundated when they built a new dam. But, they relocated the people to a city higher up. It is interesting though, because you pull up in the boat, and dock almost right on top of an old mosque. The minaret rises up out of the water right next to you. So, that was pretty cool. Then, we were heading back to Halfeti when we asked about getting out a Rum Kale. The boy who was driving the boat told us that we could not go there because of excavations or something. So we went back to Halfeti. We were pretty bummed about not getting to explore Rum Kale, and as we were trying to decide what to do instead, a man came up and asked us what we were doing. We told him our dilemma, and he said, "What? You can go up to Rum Kale, I'll take you." So, after waiting a little while to see if another group would show up, he sent us to Rum Kale on one of his boats. We got to explore and climb around the ruins of the ancient castle. It was pretty amazing. While we were waiting for the boat, however, we got to explore an old mosque that had been flooded recently. They are working on renovations, but for now it is just open. So, we went inside and looked around and climbed all the way to the top of the minaret. And . . . here is the secret, the steps in a minaret just circle all the way to a point! There are openings where the muezzin stands of course, but the top of the steps is just a point, it doesn't go anywhere! That made me laugh. When we were coming back from the ruins, Jer and I were lying on the front of the boat looking at the stars when we saw the most amazing shooting star we have ever seen in our lives. It was beautiful. Oh, and lest I forget - we also got to see one of the funniest things ever. We drove around a bend on the mountain going down into Halfeti, when we saw a little boy riding a donkey down the mountain - backwards. It was hilarious!

Other than Rum Kale, life has been going well - rather busy, but very good. Jeremy has started taking some classes downtown in the International Relations masters' program from Zirve. He is also part of the Zirve Prep School soccer team. So far they are 1-0-1. On Thursday he left me in Gaziantep to go to Cyprus and get his work visa. Everything went smoothly with that, and now he is back! (I am very glad.) I have been busy with lesson planning, and starting guitar lessons, and this week hopefully I will be able to start my ebru lessons (it is a type of painting that is famous in Turkey.) On Friday night I went to a birthday party for some of my friends. That was fun. Oh, and this week we have had some spontaneous power outages which have been fun. That has been life recently! But, before I finish, one more adventure . . .
Last week we started our Christmas shopping, and we found this one shop of copper and silver things. The man who works there is super nice - we call him Friday. His name is Cuma (Joom-a) which is the Turkish word for Friday. He invited us in for çay as soon as he saw us, so we sat for a while. We ended up buying a few things from him, and then returning even later for a few more things. Then, yesterday we decided to finish up our shopping, and without realizing it, we ended up at his shop again. He wanted us to stay and go to kahve with him, but we didn't yesterday (we had a date planned.) So, we went back tonight to see him. He is super nice. We just sat with him for about an hour at his shop. He bought fıstıklar (pistachios - G. Antep is famous for them) and Turka Cola and we sat on stools by the road for an hour or so eating pistachios and watching traffic, which in reality is very amusing. His shop is on a corner of a street where three different directions are merging onto a one-way. And between the people who decide the one way is not for them, the mopeds on the sidewalks, and the car that died in the middle of it all, we had some good laughs. When the one car died, Jeremy was about to jump up and help, but Friday told him to sit down and watch, keep eating pistachios. It was about 10 minutes of pushing the car the wrong way down one of the one-way streets, trying to get it going, bringing it back up the hill, turning it around . . . I'm not sure what he actually did, but eventually he got going and left. Then, Friday walked all around Çarşı with us. He bought us corn on the cob (a very nice gesture, but don't be fooled - the corn on the cob is put in hot water, I think, but it isn't actually cooked . . . so, it is a little rough to get down.) Then he took us to a little kahve house and bought us coffee. Before we left, he gave us his number and told us if we ever have a problem to just call "Allo, Cuma!" So, we are thankful for the friendship.
Well, for those of you still reading, thanks again for your thoughts and love. We miss you all, but we are thankful for how our Father is taking care of us and working in us. He is good!

İyi akşamlar!

bbq today . . .

So, we had a Prep school teachers' bbq today. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun to just hang out and spend time with some other teachers . . . and eat some very good kebap!!

Zirve - we teach in the farthest building - kinda in the middle of the picture

I think the nets need stretched out a bit

bbq today . . .

So, we had a Prep school teachers' bbq today. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun to just hang out and spend time with some other teachers . . . and eat some very good kebap!!

Zirve - we teach in the farthest building - kinda in the middle of the picture

I think the nets need stretched out a bit

serüvenler seviyorum!! i love adventures!

So . . . it is definitely time for me to write a post! There is so much to write, but I will try to not make this a novel. We are finished with our second week of classes! I love teaching. I must say though, that by the end of the week, I'm tired, and all of my students were tired. It is funny, because I gave the same lecture 3 times on Friday. I pointed to the building across from the English Prep building and said, "You see that building? That is university. If you do not start working in this class, you will never go there. If you work here, Level A, Level B, Level C, Level D, University. If you do not start working - Level A, Level A, Level A, Level A - four years!!" I think they got the point. We'll see if it helps!
But, despite an occasional (or somewhat usual) lack of motivation, our students have been doing well and we have really enjoyed getting to know them. They are a ton of fun. And they have been helping us learn Turkish!! We are hoping to be able to spend a lot of time with some of them and hopefully get to share more of our lives with them. So, please keep that in mind.
This week we did not do much other than school, but on Friday night we got together with our friend Erhan and his friend Hakan at SankoPark. That was very fun. I think we laughed for almost 3 hours straight.

Today was a grand adventure. :-) Early this afternoon we headed towards old çarşı, near the castle. We found the soccer stadium and then saw that directly across from the stadium was a muze (museum.)

So, we wandered in and were very excited. The museum was full of steles from the Hittite and Roman periods and also a ton of mosaics from Zeugma - a city on the Euphrates that has just been uncovered in the last few decades. The mosaics were awesome - all different mythological stories and such. (The pictures above are all mosaics from Zeugma. The top one is a very famous picture around here of a gypsy girl - then the middle one is Europa who was captured by Zeus because he fell in love with her, and she became so famous that they named a continent after her, and the bottom one is Poseidon.) Then there were coin collections, stamp collections, signet collections, hair pins, animal figurines, pottery . . . it was pretty awesome.

Next we went and walked over by the castle. There is a little coffeehouse there that has been restored to a traditional Turkish coffeehouse. It is really cute, and sits right underneath of the castle. So, we went in there and got çay. There was a family there with three little boys. They were so much fun to watch. There is a rope hammock-like swing under one of the trees, and the boys were having a blast in it. This provided a pretty funny false cognate story. One little boy was in the swing, and the other one pushed him pretty hard towards the tree. Then the boy in the swing shouted "Hayir, hayir!!" Which, to Jeremy and I in the context of swinging meant, "higher, higher, push me higher!" However, we then remembered that we are in Turkey, and "Hayir" actually means "No! No!" I guess the little boy was more nervous of hitting the tree than he was excited to swing. We laughed. Then we walked around for a little while. I bought a scarf and Jeremy got a cool hat.

One Week In

It is Saturday afternoon and both of us are pretty well exhausted. We have just finished our first week of teaching at Zirve. We are both teaching 24 hours a week. We are both teaching listening, speaking, and reading. The prep school is divided up into about 35 different classes of 16-18 students. The teachers then cycle through those classes teaching the different skills. We meet with our reading students 7 times a week, listening 3 times, and speaking twice. Altogether we end up having about 120-140 students this term (we will have an 8 week term and then it will start over). It has been a lot of fun getting to know our students and interact with them in (and out of the classroom). It has not been so much fun trying to learn all of their names! It was a lot of new people to meet in a short amount of time.

I won't repeat everything that has happened this past week because there has been too much, but I want to give at least some of the highlights. There are a lot of great things about the university where we are working. It really has been a lot of fun. It is a new school and so there are lots and lots of things happening. They are growing at a pretty incredible pace. There are, however, some definite issues still to work out. As of the previousThursday night (before we started teaching on Monday) we had no idea what the syllabus were for the classes we were teaching, what materials we were using, how many classes we were teaching, how many times they met, when they met, where they met...pretty much we knew "classes are starting on Monday!" On Friday morning we had a meeting that gave us a little more information...and a stack of like two hundred pages of materials that some of the coordinators had been working on. It was really helpful...but took most of the weekend to figure out what was what. But we still did not know our teaching schedule (or things like how many times each class met during the week). They told us they would have them ready by the end of the day. So 5:00 comes and they are frantically printing and handing out the schedules. So we more or less knew what the plan was supposed to be for the week. We weren't ready for it...but we at least knew what it was. Then Saturday morning we got an email saying they had to change the schedule and that we could find out on Monday (or it might be posted on-line Sunday afternoon). So then we again had no idea what was up. From our perspective not knowing any answers it was a little overwhelming...for those who were working on the problems trying to find answers it was a ton of work. But in the end everything got sorted out and we all started teaching on Monday morning...only a few hitches...well there were hitches but classes went on all the same. (If you would like more about the saga of teaching at Zirve our other native English-speaking colleagues would be more than happy to tell you every horror of the experience)

Our classes have been so much fun to work with. Kylie has done an awesome job of putting together lessons plans and helping me to figure out what on earth I should be doing. We both have gotten along really well with our reading classes (which is good because we are with them seven hours a week). We are doing our best to cover the tons of material these students need to learn and also keep the classes fun. The way the program is structured the students we have are in the English prep school. They have to pass through the 4 levels of the prep school before they can enter their faculty classes in the university. There are 4 terms in the year. So theoretically a student could start off at the bottom level (A, which is where we teach) and by the end of the year pass all the way through level D and then be ready to enter university next year. It is a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time but we are hoping that a lot of students will be able to do it.

 So - school is a lot of work but really, really fun.

On other notes we are still working on Turkish and learning something new about every day. We learn some from our students (although we try to use only English with them). We learn a lot from the Turkish English teachers we work with. We've been able to develop some good friendships with them and that leads to teaching us lots of Turkish. We have also had some really good conversations and our getting to learn more about the culture and mindset of the people and share with them some of our own. So that is always an exciting thing to see.


A few pics: 1, 2: us on our first day of classes (kinda felt like kindergarten...((okay...felt like that for Kylie...for me it felt like my freshman year of college...aka=homeschool!)))
3: It is starting to get cooler and wetter here so Kylie got a jacket and rain boots. They are super, super cool...and even though she's not a purple girl it definitely is cute!
4: During the last week we've had two glasses break or chip so we had to get some new ones. These ones are nearly identical to our favorite ones we left at home...and they just happened to be the cheapest ones too (6 glasses for 4.00tl = $2.85)

Bu haftada

Gaziantep from the castle

Well . . . I suppose we are a little behind on updating this! I'm not sure where to start!
Some blessings - Jeremy has a job now! He decided to go ahead and get his TESL certificate and teach at Zirve with me. He is in the middle of his course work right now, so as you think of it, keep him in mind. I'm not sure if this is positive or negative for him, but this week we also have teacher "boot camp." Some teachers from UNT have come to teach us for a week before school starts. It has been really enjoyable for me at least. I love hearing all of the ideas and suggestions and practical problem solvers for the classroom. So, that has been good. It has also been good to just spend a lot of time with the other English teachers here. We have been developing some friendships with some of our colleagues, and thoroughly enjoying it.
Another blessing is that we have been able to get to know some people that we will hopefully be able to spend a lot of time with. We spent some more time with our friend Deniz this weekend, and he introduced us to his friend Erhan. Those two and Jeremy played some basketball together, and we were able to go to Erhan's house for dinner on Sunday. His mom is a VERY good cook!! She said that she will teach me sometime how to make some of their dishes. It was really fun to be in their house and just visit with them. We got to see some pictures and drink Turkish coffee and çay and have some of her amazing cookies! Then, on Sunday we also went over to Deniz's house after Erhan's for some more çay and just to hang out and talk. It was a really good weekend.

Lastly, we've been working on our Turkish! Some of my friends at Zirve have been taking time to teach us some of the rules, and it has helped to finally be able to formulate some sentences and understand at least a little bit of what is going on! It will still take a long time, but we've at least started!
Dun akşam pazardan meyve satın akduk. Bu akşam lakmacun yemek istiyoruz.
See! Okay . . . so that took a while, but I didn't use a dictionary!! (Then again, it probably isn't all right either.) So, think of us in regards to language. We love learning it, and have so much fun with it, but it is seriously something we want to be able to master. That will expand our relationship opportunities infinitely!
Well, that is all for now. We hope you are all doing well! Thank you for taking time and caring about us . . . we really appreciate it. We do miss everyone at home, but He has been so good to take care of us, and His promises are an encouragement even when we feel alone.

the castle in Gaziantep

Busy First Days

It has been two weeks since we left Philadelphia on our way to Turkey. Looking back at these first few weeks it has been a very busy time.

The end of our first week here Kylie's papers arrived for her to get her work permit and officially register. This meant a quick trip to Cyprus. As romantic as that sounds we spent far more time in transit than we actually did getting to see things. Our flight was booked from a city about a three hour bus ride away. We ended up getting on a smaller bus that liked to pick people up all along the way. So with that and the occasional stops for the driver to get out and drink ayran and such it took a little over four hours. Then we had to catch a plan. We got into the airport and got our boarding passes without a problem and then we joined the mob pushing our way to the front of passport control. We had no idea really what we needed to do...but after about 30 minutes in line we finally got to the front and we were in the right place. Our flight was really nice. We met a guy who was on his way back to school in Cyprus. He was really friendly and super helpful - especially when we landed and had the name of our hotel and not anything else. He was able to help us find the right bus and then got someone who was headed our way to walk us to our hotel. It was really nice of them. The next morning we got up and found our way to the embassy to apply for paper work. That all went fairly smoothly. They were not any less efficient than most DMV offices in the States. We finished the application process around noon and were told to come back after 2:00 to pick up our papers. So we had just about two hors to see all of Cyprus. We went outside and started walking in the 98-100 heat...and all we saw in any direction were mountains. Who wants to go to Cyprus and see mountains? I mean really! So we turned around and headed the other direction. We found a border checkpoint that divides between the Turkish North Cyprus and the Greek South Cyprus. We weren't really sure what we'd find on the other side so we decided to ask someone sitting by. He turned out to be the owner of a taxi company and had his son take us over to Kyrenia a harbor where a lot of the nicer hotels and restaurants are. It was really pretty down there and so we got to see a good bit of the area. We ate lunch and then our taxi came back and picked us up and took us to the embassy and then back to the airport. It was such a blessing since we weren't really sure how we were going to figure it all out. But everything went smoothly. All our paperwork that we needed to get there went through and we made our flight without too much hassle. Then it was another bus ride (this time only about 3 hours) back to Gaziantep and then back home for the night. So that was our quick trip to Cyprus. We had all of about two hours to explore, but it was still really fun. (For pictures go HERE)

So we were back in Gaziantep late Monday night. Tuesday Kylie went in to work in the morning. At about 10:30 one of her co-workers took us to start applying for more paper work. We had to get a few more forms and the office closed at noon, so we were back to the apartment by the early afternoon. Then on Wednesday the holiday of Bayram (celebrating the end of Ramadan) started. This three day festival seems to make everyone a little bit crazy. Everyone is off of work. Kids get lots of candy. (Actually it seemed like everyone got lots of candy) It was fun (and sometimes a little scary) to watch the celebrations. Since this was our last really long weekend (5 days off) we decided to make a trip to a few cities near by. We went to Adana, a major industrial and agricultural center, and then took the commuter train down to Mersin which is right on the coast of the Mediterranean. It was neat to see some more of the surrounding areas. We are still getting our bearings and constantly making a fool of ourselves in our attempts to use the language. But we are able to get around and see lots of things. I will save the space of writing a full summary of this trip. But you can find pictures and commentary from our trip HERE.

Now we are back in Gaziantep and back to the routine of normal life. Still lots of unknowns but are learning and growing and enjoying the time here.

Settling in and Exploring

I have been planning to write for a while now, and am finally getting to it ... I guess the best place to start would be moving in. Our apartment was way more than we expected. And an added blessing was that the previous tenants decided to leave most of their things (hairdryer, iron, ironing board, cleaning supplies, dishes . . .) which we later found out was only in our apartment, so we are thankful for that! We moved in on Tuesday night and got everything set up. Then, on Wednesday morning Jer and I walked around for a while looking to see what was around our house and also looking for a fan. (It is very hot here in Gaziantep and the nights are long without a fan!) After a while we found the free service bus to my University - Zirve - which is about 7 miles outside the city. We arrived, and once we clarified that I was not actually an international student, we found the right people to talk to and got acquainted with everyone. One of our friends, Murat, took us to get something to eat, helped us exchange money and told us all about the school and everything we needed to know for the time being. 
We left Zirve in the afternoon and stopped back by the house. By that time I was getting tired, but Jeremy assured me he was not yet. So, we jumped on a bus outside our house and just rode it til we felt like getting off. I was fascinated watching the city go by, but Jeremy was asleep before the first stop. We ended up getting off and walking around the city for a while, looking for a fan and phones. We got our cell phones all figured out, but still didn't find a fan. The city is beautiful and has a lot of parks scattered throughout. It was fun to just walk and see the sights. Later we returned home and then went to a little restaurant called Tofil Doner and ate there. Then we went and bought some groceries. 
Thursday I had to be at school by 8:30, so I got up and took the bus. There is NOTHING to do at school right now, so I read and met some people and almost fell asleep a bunch of times. Jeremy came over in the afternoon and then we met some of the other English speaking English teachers and talked to them for a while. Last night, after we got home, we went to eat at an outdoor restaurant. We finished our meal with a cup of chai (which is very normal - but important for this story. :-) We then went home and cleaned up to prepare for our friend Deniz to come over ... Jeremy had met him in Istanbul a few years ago. When he came, he drove us all around the city just showing us around. We stopped at a restaurant called Caradash and had some of the best baklava in the world, and chai. Then we got back in the car and kept driving, and found another really cool outdoor restaurant where people just hang out, smoke the water pipe, play backgammon, eat, etc. So, we stopped there and sat for a while and . . . drank chai. I love the chai here, but I think it might have been part of the source of my tossing and turning all night, so I will have to find a way to limit myself or start my three cups of tea earlier in the evening. 
I also forgot one of the most exciting parts of the day was the fact that Jeremy found a fan! The ironic part is that when we got home after midnight, the power was out, so it did us no good. :-) We stayed up and watched an episode of White Collar together and then went to bed. The power came on sometime in the early morning, so we did get a little use out of our fan. 
This morning I missed the bus, so I had to wait for an hour and get the next one, but there is still nothing to do, so I think that it is okay. My hope for today is that the man will come to fix our gas. Although it is very hot, waking up to a freezing cold shower is not on my top ten favorite things in the world. 
Well, this has gotten very long, so I will finish it off. Thank you all for thinking of us! We are thinking of you as well. 
Iyi ak shamlar! 

Fly Away Home

So I am writing this post from the couch in our condo in Gaziantep. We will post pictures and all soon, but first I wanted to write about the last two weeks and the trip out here.

After we left my family in Colorado we flew to Pennsylvania to spend sometime with Kylie's family. We were able to spend a lot of time with our two little nephews. They are so cute and so much fun to be around. We are really going to miss them. Then on Saturday Kylie's parents, her younger sister and a friend, and the two of us all loaded into the car and headed down to the Outer Banks for a week. It was such a good time with them. We were just a 5 minute walk to the beach on the ocean side and just about the same to the sound on the other side. We got to explore all over Cape Hatteras and went down to Ocracoke Island. For Kylie and I it was such a nice break from the preparations to move. We played a lot of games. We taught Kylie's family how to play farkle. Mostly we just spent tons of time relaxing and reading and hanging out together. We were there from Saturday to Saturday. On Sunday we celebrated Tom's birthday and had some of the family over to the house for lunch. Then Monday (and late Sunday night) was final packing (weighing and reweighing the suitcases), a few errands and then off to the airport. It was such a blessing that when we left Colorado we basically were ready to go. Then the time in Pennsylvania and NC was really relaxing and not nearly as hectic as it could have been.

Monday afternoon we got to the airport and after saying goodbye to Kylie's parents and sister went in to check-in for our flight. We got up to the counter and the lady asked how many bags we were checking and I said 4 and she just gave me this ghastly look of shock. Then she said, "you realize you only get 1 each right?" I had checked this before we left and was sure that we got two since we were flying outside of North America and Europe. But she was insistent that it was only one. She asked her manager who also said that it was only one on Lufthansa, but on Turkish Air it was two. So we were resigned to pay for the extra baggage, but the lady said, "let me see what I can do." We aren't really sure how she did it, but somehow she was able to check all four of our bags all the way through and did not charge us anything extra for having 4 (or for the extra .8 kilos that one weighed). That was another really nice blessing. After that our flight to Frankfurt went without incident. Because of weather (or so they said) our flight to Istanbul sat on the tarmac for quite a while and then when we got over the city we were put in a holding pattern. We were a little bit nervous because we had to purchase our visa and go through passport control and did not have a real long time for our connection to our final flight. When we finally landed we rushed through all of the clearances and as we were headed to the domestic terminal it was 10 minutes after our flight was to have begun boarding. So we started to get a little more nervous but as we were running-walking through the terminal we finally found a monitor with our flight on it and it was delayed for one hour. So that gave us plenty of time to find the gate and make it for our final flight in plenty of time.

We arrived in Gaziantep about 9:00. All of our luggage showed up without incident. We were met just outside the terminal by one of Kylie's fellow teachers and a driver. Then we loaded up and they took us to our condo. It was after dark when we landed so we did not get to see much of the city as we drove to our condo. But the few things we saw just down the street (the dondurma (ice cream) and iskender (really really good)) I'm sure will become places we frequent often.

Well, that is all for now. We will write more about our apartment and the university over the next few days!

In the airport on our way to a new home

Our plane from Philly (Airbus A340 was REALLY nice)

Sunset as we were leaving Philly

Over Istanbul on our way into Turkey