Reading............

I am currently reading a 'culture shock' book, it is a parent's guide so it's more about settling your children abroad sort of thing. However in it is a piece about 'reverse culture shock'. I never really thought about this until I read about it but today I find myself wondering what it will be like to go home (obviously not for a long time) and live in the UK again.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm no more walking just outside the front door to a shop or street market full of every single fruit or vegetable you could want, no more popping into the bread shop for that delicious 'just baked' bread, no more 18oC temperatures in December/January, I could go on.....................

Of course there are the positives of being with family and friends again and our lovely home in Nottingham which I miss but there's just this feeling that we might not settle there at all after this life............................

Not Feeling Good

OK so today not feeling quite so good. Don't know why really, I think it's because on my kids birthdays there's usually a family get together so of course that hasn't happened because we are here :(

I felt the same over Christmas because there wasn't the usual family party thing then either. I'm sure this will get better in time, it's just that they're there and we're here.........

As I said I'm sure it will get better in time, sometimes it's just so damn hard being so far away :(

Alex is 10!!!!!!!!!!!

How did this happen, can someone please explain how my baby is a whole decade old?????? Time has gone too fast ::sigh::

Felt bad that I couldn't get the lego kit he wanted but he's quite happy to have something else. Bless him, he's so easily pleased!

Having a party for him on Sunday, few friends over for a play he's looking forward to that!

Overwhelmed AGAIN!

Today I felt totally overwhelmed again, after feeling settled for a few weeks, worrying about nothing, carrying on with life. Suddenly the panic of sorting out a birthday party arises - where to have it, there are places here who organise kids parties but how to organise it when you don't yet speak enough Turkish - PANIC!!!!!

Anyway decided in the end to let Alex have a playdate/party and invite 3 friends over for play and pizza, this idea went down well so invites were sent out today for a party on Sunday! I just hope people manage to find us ok ::eek::

Now just to sort out the birthday cake...........................

Driving..............................

Went to Zekeriyakoy today to drop Hannah off at a party. Thought it might be a good opportunity to get behind the wheel again as I haven't driven since September!!

What made it even harder is that Paul's company car is an automatic, great........

Anyway started off well, had Alex in the back telling me how well I was doing tee hee! The strangest thing was driving on the other side of the road, I kept wanting to get over to the left, it just felt so unnatural!! Drove for about 20 minutes until we came to a place called Bachekoy, I pulled in and let Paul take over, I'm so not ready to drive in traffic yet! However I think we'll try and take the car up there every weekend so I can have a go!

On the Buses!!!!!!

Haven't updated my blog since last Sunday gasp shock horror!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway went to my Turkish lesson as usual, went to get on the bus and it was already at the stop BUT there was no driver. The doors were open, people were sat on it and the engine was running - what do I do? Do I press my akbil onto the payment machine and just get on like I normally do or what?????? So I hovered for a while thinking no I'd better not just get on. Anyway a man came up and got on and put his Akbil onto the machine and sat down, so I followed suit..............

On thinking about this, that would never happen in the UK, a bus, engine running, no driver, people just allowed to get on?????? There is so much trust in this country that people will actually do this kind of thing. Unbelievable as in the UK there is no trust because I'm sure some people would take advantage of such a situation and just not pay, I'm not saying that there aren't people over here that wouldn't have paid but I've not seen any crime here as such, it feels so safe here.

Also people are so honest here, take for example our local breadshop. When I first went in there shortly after we arrived I asked for bread "Ekmek lutfen" and he said "bir veya iki" so I said "bir" (one). He gave me two so I gave him two lira (one lira for each loaf) and he gave me one lira back so I was confused. He then said "problem yok", so I took this as he'd given me a free loaf as he had not seen me before!!!! Since then I have never had a problem giving him too much money when I'm not sure of the cost because I know he won't take advantage!!! They seem to say that phrase a lot here "problem yok" goes for everything!!

Quiet Day in

Had a nice quiet family day today at home with the kids. Paul was building lego with Alex and I was playing games with Hannah!

However I did make a visit to the local shop to get some veg for tea, I love it here how you can just walk out your home/apartment 100 yards or so and get fresh fruit and veg which was probably delivered to the shop that day and probably picked the day before so it's always so fresh. Fruit here tastes so good I've never tasted anything like it, the kids love it too so that's a big bonus!! I get my bread from the local bread shop every day, it's baked in wood fired ovens and is still warm when I buy it, absolutely beautiful! Nothing here is pre-packed, processed or frozen everybody cooks everything from scratch, it's a good job I was used to doing that in the UK otherwise god knows what we would be eating!!

Another thing which still surprises me is how cheap food is to buy, I no longer shop in the supermarkets because they are so overpriced. I buy all my food from our local mega-market - kind of like the size of a Sainsburys Local store if you like but with a lot more variety of fruit and veg, fresher food and one very jolly Turk behind the meat counter ha ha bless him he always speaks to me in Turkish and if I don't understand he speaks very broken English and then I answer in very broken Turkish!!!!!

Different Side.............................

I can honestly say that just lately I have seen a different side to the Turks. When I first came they appeared ignorant, unfriendly, downright rude................

However when sitting on the bus on Thursday on the way to my Turkish lesson I was doing a bit of revision, obviously the book I was reading had EF written on it which is the language centre I attend for my lessons. A Turkish lady sitting next to me said something, I didn't pick it all up but recognised the word "Oğrencı" which means student so I said "evet"!! She then said "Nerelisin"? So I said Ben Inglizim which means I am English! Then she proceed to shake my hand and muttered something else of which I had no understanding but I took it that she was impressed that I was bothering to learn their language! First time that has happened!

It snowed, it snowed, it snowed!!!!!!!!!

It snowed last night, woke up to a lovely scene of white roofs everywhere, very pretty!

Kids are disappointed though, they thought it would be a snow day. Actually secretly so was I :( School was open as usual and I'm off to my Turkish conversation class later!

Second Turkish Lesson

Went to the second Turkish lesson today, it's starting to get so much harder as we started bits of grammar (groan) it's the grammar that always confused me on the course in the UK I just couldn't get my head around it - words sink in easily but grammar is something else............................

Turkish Lesson

Went to the first Turkish lesson today, it was sooooooooooooo easy!!!! Probably because we did a crash course in the UK so I knew most of what was being taught today. Kept quiet though, I didn't want to come across as the "class smart arse", but still my gave a fair share of responses! It's good to know though that there are people out there who have the same problems with pronounciation as me!

Weather was awful today, heavy rain ALL day, apparently this is normal for January along with the odd bit of snow, urgh come back sun!

Quiet Day

Not done much today, cleaned house all through, going round shops in a minute to get food for later.

Starting Turkish lessons tomorrow YAY!

Kids gone back to school

Kids have gone back to school today, house feels too empty :(

Tess going home

Tess is going home tomorrow. We enjoyed her time here with us, the kids are sorry to see her go home but we will hopefully see her in April!

New Year

It's New Year!!! I can honestly say that I feel this will be a good year for all of us!