OK I take it back, Turkish is HARD

Yeah Turkish got easier for a couple of weeks but now it's HARD again, past tense has totally screwed me up!!!!!

I seriously need to study harder if I'm going to get through Level 1..................

Sad

Just learnt today that one of the girls from the Turkish class has gone back home, she came here to be a nanny for a Turkish family. I don't think they made her life very easy and I know she found the kids diffcult as they were so spoilt.

I will miss her greatly, she was a very lively girl and brought a lot of fun to the lessons, I hope she finds happiness elsewhere.........

Snow gone..........

Snow has gone again, it lasted all night and was still there this morning but not enough to warrant a snow day darn it!

Hannah has gone off to school with hat, 2 coats, scarf and gloves - dressed like a Turk!!

ETA: Hannah back home bouncing off the walls because there was more snow up in Zek so the kids had fun building snowmen and throwing snowballs ha ha.

It snowing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's snowing, just looked outside and there's two inches so far and it's still coming. I hope it's there in the morning and we get to do a snow day!!

Alex ill

Alex is not well, he started with a cough on Friday but went into school. Went to bed but in the morning woke with a high temperature. Couldn't get his temperature down, stripped him, gave him calpol opened his window still couldn't get it down scary stuff as it was 40.2 at one point.............

Went out to get nurofen gave him that but it still wouldn't shift, eventually it came down in the evening and he perked up a bit. Paul took Hannah out for a bit to the shops to give Alex some space, seems that when Alex is ill she likes to practically jump on him.......................

Turkish is easy...........................

So got to the point now where Turkish is getting so much easier to learn, I'm sure it's going to get harder again once we start doing past tense but present tense has well and truly sunk in!

Here is todays effort:-

I managed to ask questions:-

"Hangi tren Atatürk Istasyon gidiyor mu?" = which train goes to Ataturk Station?

I got the answer in English lol! Then the lady said are you English so I said "evet"! lol! She then pointed out the correct train got on with me and then told me where to get off!!!!


Then I asked this later on:-
"Hangi tren bekliyor musun?" = which train are you waiting for?
This time the answer was in Turkish and I understood most of it!

I figured out that the Turks can't do enough for you if you try to speak their language!!

I am on such a high today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Busy busy busy

So here I am again a lot has happened recently I am speaking more Turkish to people by the day, have experimented with the new metro system, life is good!!

Booked a holiday in Yorkshire for when we go back to the UK in the summer, we are going to Yorkshire with Mum & Lin it should be a really enjoyable 5 days and of course the kids are so looking forward to it! I just hope the sun shines............................

Odd!!!!!!!!!

Went to a meeting in Levent today about the school fees and bus.

On the way back, had a lift from Debra, we passed a Turkish hearse. Wow not seen anything so odd looking it was a bit like a pick-up truck painted green so all open at the back apart from a roof over the top and NO coffin the body was covered but ewwwwwwwwwwwwww....................how bizarre! We got away quick in case we/he crashed, wouldn't have fancied a pair of dead feet in my face while waiting for the police...............

Something Different

Thought I'd do something different today and experiment with the dolmus buses outside our apartments. I've never been on one from our home before only from the sea front. I've been wondering where these ones go to for a long time so as I've got a free day I though I may as well try it out.

The dolmus buses outside our apartments have "Istinye Üstü" on the front and not Istinye Park which is where I was heading for...................anyhow I thought if I get lost I'll just get in a taxi! Got on the dolmus said to the driver "Istinye Park gidiyor musun?" which I "think" is correct for "Do you go to Istinye Park" or it would be similar ha ha!! He said "Hayır blurb blurb Istinye Üstü, ama blurb blurb blurb Istinye Park"..............I think he meant he doesn't go directly to Istinye Park but near it or something.......................

Right off we go heading in the correct direction until...............we turn off the wrong way, bugger, where are we going????? After about 20mins starting to get slight panic, he stops, turns round looks at me and says "Istinye Park ötöbus something something". Everybody gets off and then stands at an IETT bus stop, hmmmmmmmm now I don't know where I'm going to end up! I decide to ask someone "Hangi ötöbus için Istinye Park Lütfen" (which bus for Istinye Park please) she looked at me slightly odd I don't know why, I may have said it wrong anyway she understood what I was attempting to say and replied "yirmi docuz (29) Şişli" and then proceeded to point out the correct bus and informed the driver of where I wanted to get off...........amazing!!!!!!!!!! So one successful trip to Istinye Park shopping mall by bus!

YAY Turkish lessons are certainly starting to pay off!!

Trying out Turkish

Ok so yesterday I decided to try my new language skills on my neighbour as he was coming out the lift and I was putting my rubbish out.

So here's how it went:-

Me: Merhaha (hello)
Him: Merhaba
Me: Nasilsin? (how are you)
Him: iyiyim teşekkür ederım (I am now thinking hey this is going quite well)
Him: blurb blurb blurb blurb çocuklar (something something something children)
Me: Evet, iyi akşamlar (yes, good evening)(having no understanding of what he just said!!!)

Ah darn it he wasn't supposed to say that, it's not in the textbook!

Still reading!!!

So I'm still reading a book about living abroad. Read a true piece in it which is more about kids abroad and it says that your children may ask certain questions like "Dad, why is Mum calling everyone idiots?". I cringed at this because Alex asked Paul this very question about 2 weeks after we arrived here..................

OOPS!!!! Thankfully Alex hasn't started calling everyone idiots too..........

Could've been worse, I might have been using other words..................