August 4
th was the first day of work for Steve. I woke up with him early in the morning because I had to escort him to his "service bus". In Istanbul everything can be expensive but if you work for a company that employs more than 50 or 100 people (not sure about the exact number) you get free transportation and free lunch. So that morning I waved him good bye like a mother sending her kindergartner off to school and came back home to the other three children. It was also their first day of summer "mini" camp. The camp that I signed them up is in the afternoon between 2 and 5 PM. There is of course transportation but the first day I had to take them in which I wanted to do anyway. So around 1.15PM we arrived at
Darussafaka. It was like an old dusty Mexican town during fiesta. Nobody really wanted to move, wanted to answer questions, wanted to be available. With great effort I first registered the kids with the service bus. Filling out three identical forms, answering questions, listening to directions is so much fun especially when I have all three tired children with me. They have an enormous capacity to get on my nerves by either asking irrelevant questions or by touching things they should not be touching like other people, other people's stuff, loose cables that are sticking out of walls etc. etc. Luckily somehow this all seemed cute to the service bus people and they were very helpful. After leaving their stand I was still not sure how all three children will be led by their teachers from the camp to the same exact bus that afternoon. By then the camp came to life, there were kids in colorful shorts and t-shirts everywhere, and somehow I managed to find the classes that the kids belonged (of course they are all in separate classes).
Mert first plays basketball and then swims; Maya and
Cem first swim then they do gym. So I decided to stay with Maya and
Cem for a while and helped the teachers get the kids into their swimsuits. Then I had to hold
Cem's hand all the way to the pool as he was not sure that he wanted to do any of this camp stuff but to my relief as soon as he saw the pool he was happy. So I was wondering what kind of pool the kids would go in as I was certain that it was not a kiddie pool. And it was not - it was an
Olympic size indoor swimming pool with 6 lanes. And here comes the genius Turkish mind, in order to make the pool shallow for these youngsters they put tables in the pool. Yes tables as in big rectangular tables that you buy at Sam's Club or Costco for your bake sale or for your party. And they were not even
continuous, they were scattered here and there. Somehow the tables were secured to the bottom of the pool and although it induced in me some horrific images of
drowned and never found children everybody else seemed to be OK with this arrangement. I watched the swim class a little bit. The class sizes are really small, 4-5 children with one swim teacher but there are also one or two teacher or teachers' aides outside of the pool who are watching the children all the time. So I left the crime scene with some relief and started my journey towards Steve's office.
Steve works in
Kucukyali which is in a far away corner on the Asian side and we live on the European side. Luckily his firm gave Steve a company car but of course on his first day he had to drive it home somehow. The only thing I could think of was that I would go to his office and we would drive back together so I could show him the way. I took "
deniz otobusu" (very fast boat) from
Kabatas to
Bostanci, then a cab from
Bostanci to his office. The cab driver (this should be and will be a separate post: the cab drivers of Istanbul) was talkative to say the least and during our short drive told me that I should have saved enough money to buy a house. I always admire people who can dispense their opinions so freely.
And there is the company car, it is French made. Very nice car but the whole control panel is completely different than anything I have driven in my life (mostly Japanese cars I have to admit). For example "D" in the shift is now an "A", there is no "P". In order to "P" the car now we have to put it in "N" and push a separate button to activate the breaks.
Every time we want to put it in "P" which does not exist as I said we start the windshield wiper and the water... So we were like Mr Bean in one of his endless vaudeville... And of course if you add to this chaos the kids who demand the air to be on, the air to be off, the top to be on, the top to be off, their window to be down and their window to be up... Emotions can get out of control, hearts can be broken. Enough said.
Monday also was the day we met our landlord. We had an appointment with him at 6PM sharp and although the new car pulled all its tricks on us and we came all the way from the Asian side we made it with 10 minutes to spare (somehow in Turkey we are more on time than ever, very odd). The meeting went really well, until we started talking about the rent amount. Our landlord all of a sudden declared that he would like to get 100
YTL more than what the
apartment was advertised for. I was so stunned and so was the agent. We somehow managed to stick to the original amount and our landlord also agreed to start the rent in middle of August. So we shook hands and called it a deal.
Yeey... One less thing to do on the to do list! We have a house!
Tuesday was a fine day - the kids merrily went to their swim camp and I had lunch with
Turna and her baby in
Kanyon.
Kanyon also deserves its own post but I am sure it has been done many many times. We ate lunch at
Num Num which is the Turkish version of
Cheesecake Factory (similar menu but smaller portions). Then
Turna's mother joined us and just before we left we stopped by a baby boutique. Of course it only sells the top of the top, Bugaboo strollers that are close to $1.500; little dresses that start from $100... We
oohed and
aahed...
Turna was so happy to see that she can get this stuff in US for a third of the price tag. I felt a tiny tinge of jealousy mixed with relief that I don't need to get baby stuff anyway :)
Wednesday
Cem refused firmly to go to camp. Since I thought he was just really tired I agreed and he took his usual 3.5 hour nap in the afternoon while I was visiting his future preschool. Well at least
someone's school is arranged. One down two more to go. Wednesday afternoon I had to exchange money for deposit, August rent and commission which totally broke my heart. It is not an exchange rate, it is change rate... You give dollars and you get change in return. Pitiful... But by Wednesday evening we had a signed contract and keys to our new house.
Thursday I promised
Mert, Maya and
Cem that I would take them to swim camp but in the morning we decided to visit my brother and
Zeynep who were also at home. While me and my brother were having coffee the kids were playing nicely in their room or so we thought. But actually this is what happened: a little devil told them to take
aaalll the board games the
Usman kids own, open the boxes and dump them on the floor. Then dive in that mess and throw it in the air because it is so much fun. This is the picture you should have in front of you now: monopoly banknotes slowly falling to the floor like bird feathers from a very big pillow... And the kids throwing more of them in the air. All in slow motion. I was speechless. I don't want to remember our futile attempt to clean it out, all we could do was to put everything in one box and let
Emre sort it out later. Sorry
Emre!! Then I took them to their camp and again I had to hold
Cem's hand all the way to the pool. Again as soon as he saw the pool he forgot about me. Maya's teachers asked me whether she really understands Turkish because apparently she does not listen to anything and does her own thing. What a surprise! And Turkey meets Maya.
While the kids were at the camp I decided to tackle this Turkish public elementary school that is close to our house. This school is not my first choice but my first choice did a lottery thing and we were not even qualified to enter the lottery - really long and annoying story I will fill you in later... So this other school was suggested by our first choice and I wanted to check it out myself. My first visit was really short as the assistant principal had just returned from his vacation and did not want to entertain any new registrations that morning. My second visit this Thursday afternoon was not much longer than my first - I did manage to speak to the principal this time who essentially shooed me off by saying that I had to wait one more week. Come back later is the motto here in Istanbul public schools. What's the hurry?
I want to finish this blog with our Sunday morning breakfast experience. We went to
Hisar, a beautiful location along
Bosphorus, you sit outdoors and it is very very casual. The menu is very simple, eggs, cheese, different breads and lots and lots of
Turkish tea. The weather was wonderful, the kids were eating like horses and we really enjoyed the whole thing until we got the bill. With tip, parking and the food it was $100!! We quickly determined that this beautiful experience should be reserved for special occasions like anniversaries and birthdays.
OK I am posting this now and I promise to work on the pictures - they are coming soon!!
