It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Thought I'd share some pics of the kids & a few funny things about our new neighborhood:

(1) A popular star of a Turkish reality show lives just a street or two over from our new place. Though we have yet to see him, he's reportedly always surrounded by a crowd.

(2) There's a car that often drives down the major road in our neighborhood (it's the one our apartment faces)... and it has a horn that plays the theme song from "The Godfather". They honk it far too often, but it still cracks us up.

(3) This new neighborhood is full of people from all around the world, so it's fun to walk around and see the variety of people God has made. In contrast with America, Turkey (like China) is a nation full of mostly one kind of people, so it's unusual to have a place where there are so many different nationalities in one neighborhood.

(4) We live just around the corner from a place that serves one kind of food we LOVED from our old overseas home... loghman! (Click that link to see a large picture.) YUM!

(5) Though it's an older, more working class, neighborhood, it's right by the Sea of Marmara, so it's a great place to live-- fairly cheap housing, right near the water-- very rare in Istanbul!


We're enjoying the new place. Just thought I'd share some fun trivia about it!

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!

European Day Trip

Living in Istanbul makes trans-continental trips a breeze. Just hop a ferry or cross a bridge, and you've gone to another continent. We live on the Asian side, so last week, we took Jessica's parents to the European side for some sightseeing.

In front of the Blue Mosque with the grandkids

Inside the Blue Mosque

Nana & Ethan love the roasted chestnuts sold here in Istanbul (and then of course they sing, "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" ... "chestnuts roasting on an open fire...")

Our family in front of the Hagia Sophia through a gate in the courtyard of the Blue Mosque

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:

Family Pictures: A Trip to the Turkish Countryside

Here are some pictures of our family from our day trip to the freshwater trout farm. We enjoyed a lunch of fresh trout, bread, cheese, and veggies, and then went outside!

The kids enjoyed an afternoon of exploring...

... and finding!

After a tumble off of a wall, Daddy took Baxter down to the stream to wash off the dirt,

and all was well again!

It was SO nice to get out of the fast-paced city life for a day!

Our "Neck o' the Woods"

Here are some photos from various places in or near our section of Istanbul:

Bakeries are in abundance (thus the reason Turks aren't as thin as the Chinese were!) :-)

Simit men are all around town, too--
these are similar to large soft pretzels with the tops coated in seeds

Mosques and minarets are everywhere (and we hear the call to prayer 5 times each day). Some of them are plain and nothing to look at, but some of them (particularly the ones that used to be churches) are especially beautiful.

I took this picture at a park we went to near the bridge that connects the European and Asian sides of Istanbul. This picture is taken from the Asian side, looking past a cargo barge to the European side.

Around Town

Sunset at the "Iskele" (Ferryboat port) -- behind the building, you can see what we call "The Big Apple" (it's actually a giant apple-green hot air balloon that people ride in order to look out over the Bosphorus Strait, which separates Istanbul into the European and Asian sides).
One of our favorite parts of the mall nearest to our house is that they almost always have live musicians who play classic and fun music... it's relaxing, and the kids love watching them play.

The boys liked this creative swordfish display (it has a red pepper on it's nose) at the fish market last week. Note the "evil eye" hanging just above all the fish, up at the top.

Here's a picture of a mosque we passed on a walk home last week (sorry it's a fuzzy picture, it's the best I could do). The lights of this one in particular are so brilliant against the night sky. Some young men walking past us laughed at us for taking a picture, but this definitely isn't something you see in America everyday.

I've been wanting to get a good picture of this for a while, and this one really isn't what I was hoping for, but I snapped it when I had a chance. It at least gives you an idea of how they do billboard advertising here. One billboard isn't enough-- they usually have anywhere from 4-10 of the same exact sign all in a row, and then the next advertisement will start after that (also having multiple signs in a row).

At first it seemed unnecessary to me, but I've realized that it may actually be a good tactic. How many times have you (in America) passed a billboard and not gotten a chance to read what it was about? By the time you notice it, you've almost passed it. But here, you notice it, and you still get several more chances to jot down the phone number, or the location of the event, or the info about the sale or whatever. It's an interesting and probably effective marketing technique.

Seen and Heard This Week...

We have a few quotes and stories from our home to share this week. Perhaps you'll enjoy and laugh about them as much as we have! (The picture alone is proof that we have at least one very goofy daughter!)



BAXTER WANTS TO GROW UP, part one:
Baxter: (pointing to Doug's mustache) "When can I get one of those?"



CROSS-CULTURAL COMMUNICATION:
Ethan had a British friend, Jimmy, over and they were drawing men. He asked if Ethan thought he should draw a "smart" (meaning well-dressed) man. Ethan excitedly answered yes, so Jimmy drew a man in a blue suit-- indeed, he looked very "smart"(British meaning of the word).

Later, they were talking about their drawings and I asked what their drawn men do for a living. Jimmy answered that his man was an inspector.

Ethan added, "yeah, cause you have to be very smart to be an inspector."

Jimmy said, "well, you don't have to be very smart. You just have to be a normal person, really."

Ethan looked confused, but shrugged and went off to play with something else.



FRIED EGG REPORT:
Fried eggs are a family favorite around here, and the kids often eat as many eggs as we do. But lately, we've noticed an interesting trend:

Ethan (5.5 years old), our active oldest son, eats 3 fried eggs. Baxter (3.5 years old), growing taller by the day, eats 4 fried eggs. But our dainty little string-bean-thin Maranatha (21 months old) eats FIVE fried eggs, every single time we eat fried eggs. It's funny the way they grow. She consistently is out-eating the boys at nearly every meal these days.



BAXTER WANTS TO GROW UP, part two: [A little context, first: about 90% of the time, when Baxter and Ethan disagree about something, Ethan's right. He just knows more about the world right now, and is older, so Baxter ends up eating crow a lot.]

But on this particular day, they were disagreeing and Baxter was right, and they both knew it. Ethan was ready to let it go and move on, but Baxter wanted a little acknowledgment:

Baxter: "You say 'yes, sir' to me, Ethan."

Ethan: "I'm not saying 'yes, sir' to you. You're not the daddy."

Baxter: "But I will be a daddy one day. You say 'yes sir' to me."

Ethan: "But you're not a daddy right now, Baxter. I'm not saying 'yes sir' to you." (And he left the room to go do something else, and that was the end of that conversation.)

:) In the next room, I couldn't stop laughing.