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

Bags packed...#1

The last two weeks have been a crazy time as we get ready to head overseas. It was a lot of fun spending the last week or so with my family. It was a pretty hectic time as Emily was getting ready to leave for her freshman year of college and Kylie and I were packing for Turkey. It turned into a rather humorous clothing exchange between Kylie, Emily and Melissa. One would sort through their clothes and then run a pile up to the other with a pile of their "old" clothes to go through and then end up coming back with a pile of "new" clothes to sort through. So Emily and Kylie both took whatever they could fit into their suitcases...and the rest Melissa added to her collection. But by the time it was all said and done we were able to get everything we wanted (or at least think we'll need) into four suitcases.

While packing and getting things ready took up a lot of our time the highlights were definitely getting to spend time with family. Nate, Kylie and I all went out Sunday evening to a pizza place downtown. Kylie had found a good deal online for this place so we knew nothing about it. When we got there we realized it was inside of a London-style pub. The pizza was pretty good. The clientèle was a different story. Our favorite was this really young looking kid who decided that our table on the patio was a great place to crash land to smoke his cigarette. He was so drunk but pretty much minded his own business and at least made an attempt to keep the smoke out of our faces. When he got up to leave things got really shaky. He fell on Nate. Then finally made his way inside and fell onto another table and sat for about 10 minutes. Then he got a friend...or something...to walk him across the street. This guy really helped me see where the idea for Frogger came from. But he made it away safe and sound...safe at least.

Another highlight of the week was Monday night. Mom made a really good last meal for us. Then Emily had spent ALL day going through dozens and dozens of old family videos and pulled out some of the funniest. It was really, really fun to watch them all and see so many old memories. We were all so different when we were little. Emily wins the prize for opening the most presents...she had a hand in every single birthday and Christmas present that ANYONE got. Melissa and I tie for the worst birthday candle blower-outers...except I was 8 and she was 2. So I guess that might put me in last place...even with Nate's covert attempts to help. It was a lot of fun to spend time together before we all scatted again.

Now Kylie and I are out in PA with her family. We leave tomorrow morning to drive down to spend a week in the Outer Banks. We are really, really excited! I am sure we'll post pictures before too long. Well, gotta get back to unpacking and repacking our bags for this trip.