Back on the bus

So, last week Seyfi was out of town, and I had the car all to myself. I didn't have to share it, I could use it whenever I wanted, most importantly, I drove it to work and was able to leave early or go to Starbucks on my way to work and not have to worry about sharing the car.

But this week, this has not been the case. Seyfi is very busy with the last minute aspects of leaving the country, so he needs the car to get to all of the different places. Guess where this leaves me...

On the bus. Now, I am no longer going to the garage and getting into my car and off to work I go, nooooo, I'm leaving early racing to the highway to flag down the bus as it goes buzzing past me to get onto a hot bus to get to work. It is not fun.

(I will add at this point something that I love about Turkey is that most business offer a free service bus to their employees, my workplace included.)

The problem really is that tomorrow, being the last day of work, I need to clear out all of my things. Guess how I am bringing them home... the bus.

Well, that's not true, my great friend Alice has told me that I can put all my things in her car, and she will make sure they get to me.

I really can't wait until we get to Belgium and Seyfi gets his own car and I can have this car all to myself again.

How did I ever survive before I got my license?

The Village- Kayakent

When you are leaving somewhere, there are many things that need to be done, but I think that the worse thing is saying goodbye to people. This past weekend we said a lot of goodbyes to Seyfi's family.

We decided to drive to Seyfi's parent's village to say goodbye to Seyfi's aunts, uncles and cousins.

Seyfi's village, is a wonderful example of a traditional Anatolian village. There are covered women in their gardens looking after the gardens, men tending to their sheep as they lead them to and from the fields and children running around playing with each other regardless of their ages.

I love going to the village, it is so quiet there, you can hear the birds chirping, and the sheep bahhing. It never feels too hot there, and the food is always very delicious. I saw the biggest snail just crawling along.

This was the first time that Alara has been there, and she loved it, She could run around and play with the other children, and made friends, she picked cherries right off the tree and ate them, she ate watermelon and got all dirty. What more could a kid want?

Featured Blog!

I'm so excited to say that this week I will be a featured blog on Picket Fence Blogs.

This is a great site to find other 'mom' and 'lifestyle' blogs on. It works on a vote system, so, if you would like to vote for me, there is this button here:



or you can vote with the button at the bottom of the page.

Thank you for your support!!

Friday Favourites- Julie and Julia

Now, I have read, My Life in France by Julia Child, and Julie/Julia by Julie Powell, and I thought that the way that these two books were combined into the film was really well done. I loved the way that the plot followed these years in these two women's lives.

I really enjoyed reading My Life in France. As a women who has moved to another country, and lived and accepted the new place as home, I really respected the way that Childs loved and embraced France. It is not easy to come to a new country, learn the language and live there without being negative or constantly comparing it to home, but I felt that she never did this, she seemed very positive of her years in France.

I must confess, the reason I loved this movie, has more to do with the Julia Childs scenes, rather than the Julie Powell. I love cooking, I love Paris (at least I think I'll love Paris) and I love watching people learn to speak French!!

I know I could comment on what a great actress Meryl Streep was in this role, and she was, but the truth is, it was the food and the settings that really drew me to this movie. I loved all of the cooking scenes, basically any of the scenes that had food in it made me happy.

I'm sure that most people of seen this movie, but I would also recommend reading Julia Childs' My Life in France. Bon appetit!

20 days....

The house looks like something is going on, there are boxes and everything is off the walls, and a lot of things have been given away, or sold. It is coming up very quickly.

Seyfi will get home tomorrow night, and thank goodness, he will not be leaving again! The only thing is that I think I may have to pretend to want to watch the World Cup again...

I have only four more days of work, before my new role as 'housewife' begins. I think I prefer the title 'domestic engineer', but we can argue over these nuiances at a later date.

Now, I do have a confession to make, I have not been putting that much effort into the whole 'learn French before you get there' goal of mine. I can honestly say that I study for maybe two hours a week. Let me be honest here, I'm a language teacher, and I know that is not even close to being enough...

Anyway, I came to Turkey without knowing even one word of Turkish, and I am now fluent, I can learn so much better when I am actually in the Belgium, using the language naturally... right? are we buying this???

I know I promised earlier that I would work on my French everyday, I'm a promise breaker, there I said it! Sorry!

*By the way a big Happy Birthday to my Dad! He is celebrating his birthday in the mountains, and I can't call him.

Alara and Leyla

*warning* This post in no way suggests that we are even thinking about having a second baby at this time.

I have this fabulous friend, Andrea. She's British, and uses some of the cutest words- she calls knee highs, 'pop socks'- when she is feeling fat she calls herself a 'lardy bloater'- and when something is expensive, she says it is 'dear'.

Besides the adorable vocabulary, Andrea is a great mom. She has got a son who is a bit older than Alara, and a daughter who is 4 months. We have been a great support to each other through out the 'rough' times of being a mother.

Alara, and Andrea's son Kadir have been friends for as long as Andrea and I. The two of them get along very well together. However, it is Andrea's little girl Leyla who Alara is completely in love with these days.

In the beginning, Alara really wanted nothing to do with her, and I was not allowed to hold her, she would look, but that was it. Now, Alara wants to play with her, hold her, and today she has started tickling her. When we were watching Leyla at the park and she started fussing, Alara told me to 'hold baby'. I think we've made a big break through.

Now, this in no way means that any of us here are ready for a second child. It just means that now when we see another baby, I can hold it too.

Alara- our Singing and Dancing Queen

Alara has always loved to dance. She's been dancing since before she was properly standing and walking. She has some very interesting moves, there is the ballerina turn (hands over head and turning), there is the sway and clap (AKA the Jim), she dances the Turkish Halley (while holding a napkin) and many more.

However, this week, after watching the Lady Gaga episode of Glee (if is an old episode), she has learned a new dance move, and has developed a love of Lady Gaga and music sung by the Glee kids.

What is this dance move you ask? She does a downward dog (hands and feet on ground) and starts kicking up one of her feet, and then switches to the other. I think she is getting ready to be a break dancer, or a b-girl.

As for the singing, she picks up anything that could be a microphone and starts singing into it. Today, we were at my friend Andrea's house, and she picked up a flashlight, and used that as her microphone (picture above). She also picked up a children's bowling pin, gave it to Andrea's son, and then told him that he was holding it wrong, and showed him what to do.

I feel that this singing and dancing is a definite sign of a happy girl. I hope that she maintains this theatricality, and doesn't get the stage fright that I have!