Day 1

Its only been a little over a day…and I already have SO MUCH TO SAY!!!!! I have a feeling you will be reading extremely lengthy blogs posts from now on…

The airport :

Saying goodbye to mommy dearest turned out to be A LOT harder than I expected….aka I was BALLING. Then the security lady wouldn’t even let me hug her one last time- THANKS ghetto security lady. Thanks a lot.

Anyways, flight to NYC was fine, about 2 hours; I then had to connect to…ISTANBUL, TURKEY! I knew I should eat before getting on the super long flight, but all I could find near my gate was this weird organic health food stand…so I got this weird pasta salad thing…but it was pretty good! I also got an extra big bottle of smart water for my noggin….just kidding.

The flight actually didn’t drag on as long as I expected it to- I watched a movie and a couple TV shows and slept….and then I was here….here in beautiful Istanbul!

The meet:

So as I got off the plane, the ‘what if’ nerve set off in my brain! I started worrying things like “what if my friends jokes come true what if I get kidnapped AHH!”

After I got my visa and went through the passport line, I saw a familiar face with a big smile- it was Dr. Mete Duren! I greeted him and he introduced me to some important person of the airport. That person led us down a special hallway away from everyone else (You know , the REGULAR people?) and brought us into his fancy schmancy office where we were quickly served waters by other people. It was all kind of a blur because I was so surprised I was getting treated like I was important or something…oh and they were all speaking Turkish…

Anyways, they finally told us to follow them out of the office because whaddayaknow, I didn’t have to get my bags from baggage claim like regular people, my bags were already taken care of.

We got in Dr. Duren’s car and came back to his home in beautiful Kemerburgaz, where his wife, 2 children, and many others greeted me!

Everyone has been SO sweet to me! I have met 2 of the other people responsible for caring for the kids and teaching them.

It is now 7:45 pm and I am writing this as the kids watch a Disney princess movie I brought. We just finished dinner recently…let me explain how it works around here:

We sit down at the table (the dining room/kitchen is in the basement!) and the food is already served by the housekeeper. It is kind of like a small feast; there are so many different dishes and you just serve what you want on your plate (one dish had lots of paprika so I stayed away!) But they had a kind of Turkish rice, a fruit and olive oil dish, 2 kinds of chicken (SO GOOD!) French fries (what?) special kind of pizza, and other turkish dishes. I thought it might be more formal, but when the mom was finished she got up and said she’d see us later and was going to the city! Then Dr. Duren got up and said he was going to the office…and they all just left their dishes there for the housekeeper….I still brought mine to the kitchen and cleared it even though I was told I didn’t have to. I just feel weird/bad getting :”served” Anyways, I am SO thrilled to be here, and this is such a nice family! J Time to play some more with the kiddies! I still need to unpack and am running off little sleep! Ahh!

Oh, did I mention they gave me an iphone today? Yeah, really.