warmer.
I’m worried that if I wait any longer to post, I’ll have gone a month without an update. And that is simply not acceptable.
I’ve written several starts but as soon as I get going, something else comes up and I close my laptop.
It’s been a while. Lots has happened. Lots of feelings felt. But however I find myself feeling, I can always say I’m thankful. And I try to. As often as possible.
Right now, I’m sitting in my bed feeling a little under the weather, listening to instrumental versions of Christmas hymns. The whole month of December has been completely different than any month I’ve had here. School has been pretty plain. Normal. Then, the weekends…
The first weekend of December was spent entirely with my dear friend, Alara. That Friday night, Laura, Conor, and I met in Taksim to have dinner while Alara and Mert went for a dinner themselves. We had lahmacun, a regular of mine, and walked around a little bit. We ended up just sitting in Taksim square near the big statue talking and people watching. It was chilly. But not too cold yet. When Alara was ready, I met up with her, and Conor and Laura headed home. Alara and I met up with her dad in Levent, I believe, and he took us to their house on the other side. We stayed up super late talking and catching up. It was so good. I can’t even describe how good it was to be with my friend. It was like nothing had changed. We talked just like we always have. And it was great.
The next morning, we woke up kind of late, ate some pancakes, and went to the market to buy ingredients for home made mac and cheese. I wanted to test it for the Rotary Thanksgiving party the next day. It turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. :)
Later that night, Alara and I went out to a place near the Fenerbahçe stadium to watch her friend’s dad play in a band. It was nice! The band played of lot of songs that I knew. And Alara’s friends were great. :)
We got home around 1 and went to sleep. Woke up the next morning, had breakfast, and Alara’s dad took me home. I start to get cooking for the party. We had a great chat in the car. I’m very thankful to have this love and support in my life. Especially being a foreigner here. It’s amazing.
I didn’t communicate well with my host family that weekend. My Turkcell was dead and my blackberry messenger was not working. It was the first time I think my host mom was at least a little frustrated with me. I felt really bad, but at the same time, I felt a little more like a daughter… a bad daughter but hey. haha. :)
During the week at school, if I’m by myself, I sit in the library studying Turkish as much as possible. I’m done killing myself with the guilt of not speaking enough. It shuts me down and causes me to not speak at all. So, I’m just going to study and Yasemin checks my exercises. I’m learning. And I’m loving it. It gives me more confidence to speak anyway. I’ve hit a lazy spot over the last week, so it’s time to pick it back up. I have a feeling that it has to do with the holidays coming up.
The next weekend… well I’m trying to remember what I did… Oh yaaa.
I went with my host family to their friends’ house. Spent some time with the younger kids playing ping pong and chasing their little puppy around the house. Had a yummy lasagna dinner. Fell down the stairs. Haha. Boy, was I sore the next day.
Saturday morning, we woke up to snow whirling around the house. It snows more in my area than it does in most places in Istanbul. So it was sticking a little bit. Yasemin woke me up and we got bundled up and went outside. The first snow of the season. :) It was really nice to wake up to.
Later, we went to the European side. I met Asli and her precious daughter, Elif, and we went to an Italian circus. Acrobats, tigers, a clown, and a cute little lion cub. It was really fun. Elif and her friends were adorable of course and I just enjoyed chilling with everyone. Speaking of chilling… it was coldddd outside. Poor Asli spent a long time trying to get a taksi home in the freezing wind and icy rain. I stayed inside with Elif and we talked about whatever I could think to say in Turkish and petted a cat. Haha.
I went to my host grandparents’ house afterwards to meet up with my host family. My host mom’s father was not doing very well that night and she encouraged me to go stay with her friend Pelin at Laura’s host family’s house for the night while they stayed there. I went to Metro City to meet up with Laura and Conor and we walked around a bit. Later, Laura’s host parents picked us up and we headed to her house. But not before picking up a cake. Hakan, her host dad’s, favorite. It was made of chestnuts instead of the bread with chocolate icing. I was surprised how much I liked it. My favorite part of staying at their house is always just chatting with Pelin in the kitchen. She had a fruit cake from Corsicana, Texas. I thought that was interesting… I ate the pecans off the top. :D We went with the girls to buy a few movies to watch. Pelin offered to let me drive her car but of course, I couldn’t do that. ;)
Laura and I got a scary movie and watched it the next morning.
We also went to Forum Istanbul and got to shop some.
Then, Pelin and Hakan dropped me off at Kanyon. I bought a book and a white chocolate mocha and hung out in Starbucks for a little bit to kill some time. My host dad picked me up a little later.
Next week of school… pretty ordinary. I switched English classes so now I’m meeting even more people. I wasn’t so sure about it at first, but now I know it’ll be great. And I really enjoy the teacher.
And we have finally arrived at this past weekend!
It was a great one.
Friday night was super fun.
I got off the bus in Etiler and walked to Akmerkez. Read my book in Starbucks, talked to the workers a little bit, and then got in a taksi with Asli and her husband and headed to Kuruçeşme to a Greek restaurant for our Rotary club’s New Years party. Lots of food and dancing. They even brought out tambourines. The music was great. And seemed to be traditional. Everyone really enjoyed themselves from what I could tell. I know I did. After the dinner, it was around midnight and some of us went downstairs to a club called Blackk. We stayed there for a while then headed to Asli’s apartment. I took a shower and went straight to sleep. The next morning, we had breakfast and played games with Elif. She insisted that Asli not speak English to me since she really wants me to learn Turkish. Haha. Me too, Elif, me too. :)
I went back to Akmerkez and found my host mom in the Eczane. We went back to her parents’ house together and I had some lunch. Then, I walked to Metro City to meet Conor, Laura, and Logan. It took us a long time to figure out what to do, but we ended up just going to Taksim for a nice dinner at a random place called Pugly. It was random, but the food was quite good. Especially for a couple of Americans deprived of our greasy foods. Ha.
What a night that was.
We found several nice places but the nicest was probably just walking around Galata Tower. One of the oldest towers in the world. It was gorgeous in the moonlight. One of Conor’s friends lives in an apartment next to it, but he wasn’t home.
After we were done in Taksim, we took the metro back to Levent and had some çay at a little cafe. We just relaxed until my host mom picked up me and Laura. Laura spent the night.
When I woke up, I went with my host mom, Erim, and Yasemin to the market for a quick grocery run. Laura was still sleeping, but we weren’t gone long. It started raining so we tried to be fast. :) Then, we put breakfast together and ate.
I was so excited to be able to take Yasemin out today. I’ve been wanting to for a long time. I needed to do some Christmas shopping so we got on the metro in 4. Levent and went to Cevahir. It’s the third or fourth biggest malls in the world by the way. We should have known how crowded it would have been. Oh well. I felt accomplished. Yasemin and I were on a mission and it was indeed accomplished.
When we got home, we secretively wrapped the gifts and put the first presents underneath the tree. Of course, we won’t be opening them until New Years because that’s how it’s done here. :)
I’m perfectly ok with this. The only thing I really want for Christmas morning is cinnamon rolls for breakfast. Oh, and I reeeeally want to make treats for everyone. Like Peppermint bark and red and green rice krispy treats. Maybe even some fudge. I’ll get to work on that.
Gotta love Christmas. :)
Now it’s getting warmer outside… strange. But the really cold weather happens in February here.
I’m doing well. As I said at the beginning, I’m not feeling well right now, but I’m sure that will clear up soon.
I entered a solo contest at my school and I’ll be singing in the finals on December 28th. So I can’t stay sick for long!
I’m surrounded by plenty of love and encouragement. Couldn’t really ask for much more than that. There are hard days. It’s bound to happen. They don’t last for too long though.
It’s hard to believe that in 6 days, I’ll have been here for 4 months.
I’ll try to post closer to Christmas.
This place feels more and more like home every day.
