A budding scientist?

This past weekend, my (Jessica's) language teacher invited me to go to a nearby village with hot springs for a small trip, just the two of us. She told me that we would need to leave early in the morning to catch the right ferryboat and so I stayed the night at her house the night before our trip.

I hadn't worn my favorite shoes (pink converse low-tops) in a while, and so I decided to use them for the trip. As is the custom here, when I arrived there, I took off my shoes and left them on the porch. We had a great evening with dinner and meeting lots of her relatives. The next morning, we woke up early, packed up our bags, and headed out to catch our bus. I looked down and saw many shoes on the porch, but could only find one of my pink shoes; the other was missing. She and her mother looked all over for the other one while I sat on the porch hoping they'd be able to find it. They were unable to find it, and so her mom offered me a pair of wooden sandals to use for the trip, as I'd packed no other shoes.

They explained that about 2 years ago, a couple of dogs had come around for a few nights barking and waking them up, and they figured that it must've been the same dog that came and got my shoe and dragged it away.

Last night, as I was relating this story to my captivated audience (Doug & the children), I got to this part of the story and Ethan scrunched up his face and said, "THAT's not a very scientific theory. A dog came around and barked two years ago, and so he must've come back and eaten your SHOE???" We laughed and laughed. Maybe we have a budding scientist on our hands. At the very least, he's developing his logic skills. :)

We still have no idea what happened to my shoe.

Walking Like Egyptians #1

Well, we're here, on vacation in Cairo... and it is HOT! And full of amazing sights!

Here we are at the base of the Great Pyramid of Giza, which seems to infinitely stretch upward:

Here's the view of Cairo from the Pyramids:

Doug, Ethan & Maranatha enjoyed a camel ride...

... and we all got to see the famously noseless Sphinx:

It's quite an incredible thing to be walking around in Giza and glance up to see the only remaining wonder of the ancient world:

The boys actually climbed up into the Great Pyramid with Doug (climbing up a shaft to the Gallery & Burial Chamber for King Cheops):

Here's the view from our balcony (not too shabby!):
We all enjoyed watching the sun set for the first night of Ramadan:

And I say to myself, "What a Wonderful World!"

Most of the time, living in another country, it's just "home". Once you get past culture shock, even if it's strikingly different from what you've always known, it becomes your daily norm.

But sometimes there are moments you look around and think, "my kids get to ride bikes by the sea, with cargo ships and very, very old history all around them?"

Or, "I get to make dumplings from scratch with local friends?"

Covered women admire my children while we're out for walks?

I shop at a local outdoor market where vegetables are this beautiful & fresh?

And in my Sunday shopping, I walk past shoe displays like this?

Our children have a perspective on the world that is unique among their peers...

... and we are blessed to be able to spend downtime as a family at parks with tulips and water all around.

And I say to myself, "What a wonderful world designed by an incredible God!"

A Kazakh Engagement Party!

We were invited by some of our new friends to go to the engagement party (really, it's the time when the groom technically goes to "get the girl" from her family) of his cousin today. Doug and Ethan ended up going along, as Ethan is growing to be good buds with the 9 year old son of our friends. Because our friends' family lived in Brooklyn (yes, in NY) for the past decade, the son speaks both great English and great Turkish, which is excellent for Ethan. They've been inseparable the past few weekends.

You can see Ethan & his friend Barish here, as the groom's family went to "get" the girl.
(Click on any of the pictures to see them larger.)As the groom's party walked down the street, they met an old patriarch from his side of the family and stopped for a chat. This Kazakh elder was probably giving words of wisdom before the couple came together.
Here's the happy couple, meeting their guests together:

They served tasty fried breads, cookies, cakes, and muffins, and plenty of milk tea. It was the first time Doug had tasted milk tea since we lived in our previous home in Central Asia several years ago, and spent regular time drinking milk tea with Kazakh friends there. Milk tea is made with a special type of tea and milk is added, seasoned with salt and drunk from a bowl.

The couple and the party guests left the one house to go into the bride's family home for a ring ceremony and exchanging of gifts.

The house was packed; Doug said at one point there were nearly 100 people in the one apartment.

Their rings were connected with a ribbon, and they placed them on their fingers and the bride's brother cut the ribbon. We still aren't sure of the meaning of this tradition, but we'll keep asking questions and learning as we go.

Here you can see the lamb boiling to be ready for dinner. You can also see, up on the far left, what Ethan's friend Barish looks like from the front. :)
Yummy palao. It's been a while since we've eaten it, and it really is delicious!

It's very fun to begin becoming a part of the community here... Doug's brain is fried after hearing & speaking Turkish (& small bits of Kazakh) for nearly 10 hours today, but our hearts are full of joy to have friends and be able to share in the celebrations of their joyful moments.

One more note: we were excited to learn that the bride & groom will be moving to our neighborhood once they are married, so we hope to get to know them better as time progresses.

Everyday Things

Here are some pictures taken around Istanbul, to give you the flavor of daily life here.

This first picture shows a classic outfit style worn by conservative women here-- black underclothing (fully length pants or skirt) with shoes, long overcoat, and headscarf:

Here's one of what must be hundreds of these little food shops found around Istanbul.
They sell simple sandwiches, drinks, and chips (and ice cream in the summer!).

A classic grandma type here in Istanbul
(in front of a Starbucks, which are also fairly plentiful here):

She's less conservative (see the pants? and the hair showing?).

Fishermen are plentiful here:

I may have mentioned this before, but cats are everywhere here. And I mean everywhere. To people who are new to the city, it takes some getting used to... but I can tell you-- I'd much rather have cats than rats. And though I've seen plenty of the former, I've never even seen one of the latter. :) So give me cats anyday!

And this last picture is of the gypsy class here... they often carry around these big trash bags (you really can't get the scale of it from this picture- it's very large when full) and dig through the smaller dumpsters in each neighborhood/alley to find recyclables. We sort our recyclables separately so they won't have to dig for ours. So virtually nothing goes to waste in this city that can in any way be reused or recycled!

Ephesus: Road Trip

We drove down to Ephesus for our family's first major road trip here in Turkey on the three days following Christmas, and WOW! It was GORGIOUS!!! We passed many shepherds and sheep...

... and so many fields of olive groves, grape vineyards, and mandalina orange orchards on the way.

The kids had fun and plenty of distractions with Nana & Papa on the trip!
And some people slept, since the trip both there and back was long:

We saw many beautiful country homes and pastoral scenes...

... and stopped at an outlet mall to grab some coffee at Starbucks! :)

On the way home, we came up the coast, passing Smyrna & Pergamum and going through the mountains south of Troy, which had lots of snow.

And the Aegean coastline is absolutely awe-inspiring. Even in the dead of winter, it takes your breath away with its beauty. It was incredible to imagine the Apostle Paul's ships sailing along these coasts.

And we even saw a Mount-Rushmore-in-the-making. Ataturk (his name means "Father of the Turks") is the founder of modern Turkey, and is honored throughout the country in pictures, monuments, and more. But this mountainside homage of Ataturk in Izmir was by far the largest tribute we've ever seen:
Next up, I'll share pictures of the ruins in Ephesus-- it was AMAZING!!!

City Sights

Here's what it looks like to walk in our city...

A street ice cream vendor:

Dried peppers and vegetables colorfully decorate various booths:

A Trip to the Harem- JUST Visiting! :-)

Jessica's friend, Lindy, came to visit for a short break between some summer classes, and so we did a little sightseeing this last week. It was a real treat, since we live in one of the oldest continuously-lived-in cities in the world.

One of the first things we did was go to Topkapi Palace to tour the treasury (which was full of really huge emeralds, all kinds of royal gifts, Ming vases, and ancient relics) and the harem. Since we couldn't take pictures of the treasury, and the Harem was the most interesting part anyhow, I wanted to share some pictures from our peek inside the royal Harem inside the palace! I am not exaggerating when I say that we were gasping in amazement at the beauty nearly everywhere we looked as we toured the harem.

In use for hundreds of years, the last of the women left in 1909, just a hundred years ago.

In the entrance to the harem, there was amazing mosaics and tilework:

That section led to where the eunuchs (black African guards for the King's women) would sleep, eat, and guard the harem. This courtyard shows the windows into each individual eunuch's room:

As we walked through, we noticed that there were not (of course) any areas which were accessible to the outside... everything was either well-protected (if it was a courtyard) or completely enclosed, so as to keep the harem women from being spoiled by outsiders. This is a picture of the ceiling (letting in sunlight) as we walked down a hallway.

There were two large mirrors in the transitional hall between the eunuchs quarters and the area where the women lived. One can just imagine all the primping that these mirrors have seen!

A view of the closets and dressing area inside one of the harem rooms... only the most beautiful and intelligent women from the empire were chosen for the King.

Here, you can see a closer view of the closet door design, which was intricately detailed in mother of pearl. We probably saw at least a hundred of these doors throughout the harem... it was so lavishly decorated.

The stained glass in various rooms were absolutely beautiful-- but this one (for me) stole the show-- each one is probably 20-30 feet tall:

Here's another example of the tile artistry we saw throughout the harem:

This was the main living room/salon area of the harem, with plenty of seating for many, many women and their children. Being there, it was so easy to visualize all of the catty conversations and one-upping that must have taken place throughout the centuries of this harem's usage:

And of course, all the windows were barred. Here's a view of Istanbul through the "eyes" of a woman in the harem.