Saturday, January 30, 2010
Name change
I just realized that, husband travelling all the time, I am not "O. the expat wife", I am "O. the expat mom". So I just changed my name! I know husband's voice quite well, but I have a hard time remembering his face. Would he remember me next time he walks into the house?
Oma (Grandma) is out of hospital
Oma has a new hip since last Tuesday and she is today out of hospital. We are very happy to hear that she is feeling better than the last hip operation and she is getting better sooner! Big hugs to Oma.
How to dechipher kids
Sometimes they are so upset about something that I almost get angry. It's so hard to understand what is the matter. However, if I can say one magic word and solve everything, I feel great. Why am I talking about this? Since we are back from Europe, A is having trouble adjusting back to her life in USA.
It all started with the swimming lesson. She doesn't like swimming, but she tried and she was improving. That's before we left. The first lesson after vacation was 1/2 hour crying. She just cried and cried and cried. The teacher - a young guy called Tom - had to carry her around during the whole lesson. The second lesson was quite the same. She did agree to go to the pool with F's teacher - a young girl, Jessica -. Jessica's students hadn't showed up, but of course next week she had her own class. Then, after talking for hours, Miss A told us what was upsetting her: she didn't want to put her head in the water and she didn't know how to say that. Last week, her third lesson after we came back, I told Tom that she was upset about going underwater. Miss A didn't go under water but she did float on her back for more that 5 seconds without holding and she had a fun lesson! That was it!
School had its share, too. Now, Miss A LOVES her school and her teacher. I just couldn't figure out why she was crying the second day of school. Why, why, why! It breaks my heat to send her to the class crying. Net day though, I knew what was happening. Her foot was hurting - she has a wart that just doesn't want to leave her, and she didn't know how to say it. The whole morning before school, I repeated her "my foot hurts, I want to go home." Obviously it was enough for her, she went to school as happy as usual. Her teacher told me that she said couple times "my foot hurts" but she didn't want to go home. Solved!
Happy kids, happy mother!
It all started with the swimming lesson. She doesn't like swimming, but she tried and she was improving. That's before we left. The first lesson after vacation was 1/2 hour crying. She just cried and cried and cried. The teacher - a young guy called Tom - had to carry her around during the whole lesson. The second lesson was quite the same. She did agree to go to the pool with F's teacher - a young girl, Jessica -. Jessica's students hadn't showed up, but of course next week she had her own class. Then, after talking for hours, Miss A told us what was upsetting her: she didn't want to put her head in the water and she didn't know how to say that. Last week, her third lesson after we came back, I told Tom that she was upset about going underwater. Miss A didn't go under water but she did float on her back for more that 5 seconds without holding and she had a fun lesson! That was it!
School had its share, too. Now, Miss A LOVES her school and her teacher. I just couldn't figure out why she was crying the second day of school. Why, why, why! It breaks my heat to send her to the class crying. Net day though, I knew what was happening. Her foot was hurting - she has a wart that just doesn't want to leave her, and she didn't know how to say it. The whole morning before school, I repeated her "my foot hurts, I want to go home." Obviously it was enough for her, she went to school as happy as usual. Her teacher told me that she said couple times "my foot hurts" but she didn't want to go home. Solved!
Happy kids, happy mother!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Govern-mental
Govern-mental agencies want us to do some pretty weird stuff sometimes. I had my share.
We got a letter from a Dutch authority that pays child allowance in the Netherlands. We are not talking about big amounts here, it's really REALLLY not much. Anyway, they check every two years if the kids of the families living abroad are still alive and living in the country in question - I can imagine it.
An authority in the host country (for example: Dutch embassy, police, post office..) is asked to fill a form (just a piece of paper which states the names of the kids and there are dots for date of death, in case it has to be filled in). Even the idea of it gives me chills by the way, I will get to the point faster, I am not enjoying this parts of the story!
I went to the post office, kind of shy and feeling stupid, but trying to look confident. "I want to get this thing done and at once!" The clerk at the post office was very friendly, I was hoping he would just sign the paper. He read the letter from the Dutch government and ... sent me directly to the Village Hall. "Mmm, it is not going to be done at once. " A the Village Hall, I got two clerks who looked at me like "What is she talking about?" The nice thing about the Americans is that they seem used to deal with these kind of strange stuff, they almost always take it serious. Finally, after talking a while, they sent me home with the promise that they will call me to let me know which papers I need to present.
That afternoon, I got the phone call. P had to go to the Village Hall himself with his passport and drivers licence- I didn't understand why (why am I never enough????), plus we were to show the kids. So after school, I literally brought the kids to the Village Hall, with their passports, to show the clerk that they are alive. The funny thing is, the pictures on the passports are pictures of kids growing up like crazy. A's passport picture is from when she was 4 weeks old! Luckily, the visa pictures were a bit recent. We passed the test! The paper is signed and on its way to the Dutch Government. We're done for the next two years!
We got a letter from a Dutch authority that pays child allowance in the Netherlands. We are not talking about big amounts here, it's really REALLLY not much. Anyway, they check every two years if the kids of the families living abroad are still alive and living in the country in question - I can imagine it.
An authority in the host country (for example: Dutch embassy, police, post office..) is asked to fill a form (just a piece of paper which states the names of the kids and there are dots for date of death, in case it has to be filled in). Even the idea of it gives me chills by the way, I will get to the point faster, I am not enjoying this parts of the story!
I went to the post office, kind of shy and feeling stupid, but trying to look confident. "I want to get this thing done and at once!" The clerk at the post office was very friendly, I was hoping he would just sign the paper. He read the letter from the Dutch government and ... sent me directly to the Village Hall. "Mmm, it is not going to be done at once. " A the Village Hall, I got two clerks who looked at me like "What is she talking about?" The nice thing about the Americans is that they seem used to deal with these kind of strange stuff, they almost always take it serious. Finally, after talking a while, they sent me home with the promise that they will call me to let me know which papers I need to present.
That afternoon, I got the phone call. P had to go to the Village Hall himself with his passport and drivers licence- I didn't understand why (why am I never enough????), plus we were to show the kids. So after school, I literally brought the kids to the Village Hall, with their passports, to show the clerk that they are alive. The funny thing is, the pictures on the passports are pictures of kids growing up like crazy. A's passport picture is from when she was 4 weeks old! Luckily, the visa pictures were a bit recent. We passed the test! The paper is signed and on its way to the Dutch Government. We're done for the next two years!
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Belated Welcome to 2010 - Izmir
I finished the photo album of 2008 just before we left to Europe for the Holidays. The result was so nice that my New Year's Resolution was undoubtedly to keep up with the blog. Of course the events and experiences are not so exciting anymore, but when I combine the story with the pictures and make a yearbook, the result is quite precious. And I forget things, who, where, when of events. It is nice to have a record and be able to go back. Such a treasure for the kids for later!
December 5th, I left with the kids to Turkey. The whole week, P was gone to some meeting I don't know where. I was driving the kids to the school and to their activities while I was packing for the trip and preparing the house for the coming weeks. The last one is not the least of the tasks. Last January when we were back from our vacation, the house was a mess and we had to live in an apartment for four weeks. The day before we left, I had Richard here to make new holes in the family room ceiling (nice hobby!) to insulate the pipes above in case it got very cold while we were gone so we didn't get frozen pipes.
The first snow of the winter came 2 days before we left. Although it was very nice to see snow, it also meant that I had to unpack the winter stuff (boots, hats etc) for the kids. I did try to resist, telling the kids that they could perfectly survive two days without them, of course the kids won.
In previous years, packing went on till midnight the night before the trip, but this time, I was ready without loosing sleep. It sometimes pays to be a house wife! The day before we left, We went to have dinner with Hester and her two kids. (I met Hester couple months ago at the Dollar Tree Shop, she is a Dutch girls who lives not too far from us). After dinner at IHOP, where fruit flies were clouding the pancake syrup (slightly exaggerated), we went to drive through the Winter Wonderland. That was so cute! The Saturday, which is the day we left, I took the kids to see Santa at the library in our town with Chris and 'Little' Lauren. It is amazing that I was doing such things with the kids on the day of our trip. It's a new concept for me! The limo came to pick us up in the afternoon (a Mohawk with tattoes, Chris was worried for us!), we got at O'Hare and flew - thanks to my loving husband - business!
I will tell not too long about the two weeks in Turkeys and the two weeks in the Netherlands.
The first two days, the weather in Turkey was great. We were out in t-shirts - of course only us, it is still winter for Izmir standards. - We went to the parks, let the kids play with other children. The weather got less warm after that, it didn't stop us enjoying our stay. F and A were totally crazy about Yanki and Arya, their cousins. Yanki was mostly at school, but we still got to see quite a lot of him. It was funny to see that Yanki was enjoying playing with A and F was spending her time running after Arya, making jokes and laughing with her. My parents enjoyed spending time with the girls and I used every opportunity to give them some private time - going shopping, seeing friends etc. Everyone seemed happy and in good spirits, which honestly not always the case. My parents were seeing more of my aunt and uncle and Burak's kids were very close to my parents, happy and excited to see them each time.
What did we do? I went to the Wednesday bazaar and came home with a bunch of stuff that I could live without. It was very fun, though. The second week, I took F with me in the afternoon, for a short visit. I wanted to show her what a real bazaar meant. We looked to the clothes section first. She was trying to see everything, her eyes open wide: men making funny noises to attract customers, the socks sellers with pairs hanging from their heads like a hat, sellers walking on the stands by their goods... We then went to see the food section. I think the most interesting was the cheese and the fish stands and of course the stand holder with the wooden leg. I think A would have been too young for it, but F is at the age that she can understand - a bit.
The first week, we went to have dinner at Hesna's. Asli came with her son Atahan. F played nicely with them, though sometimes the boys had their thing. Cem is a monkey like F, that made me feel home. Funny, I can't remember what A did, I think she was between Cem's room and the living room, playing.
One nice day, we went to the zoo. Arya was the guide, she walked the whole time without even looking at us, and we had to follow. The Izmir zoo looks so nice, I am quite proud of it. The girls were talking a while about going to a petting zoo. so we did. We were lucky. There was almost no one and the guy who was working there brought carrots to the girls and they fed the rabbits. Then they were allowed to go inside the fence and sit by the goat, the sheep and the donkey named "Sucuk" - some kind of spicy sausage. F and A were by this, the first kids to go over the fence! I wanted to take P to the zoo but we didn't have time.
I went out on the first Saturday with Aylin Y, Ayse's college friend whom I met last year. We had nice talk and I am glad to get to know her better. She is an incredible talented artist, unfortunately she is not doing enough about it - yet! I felt humbled by her talent, my writing seemed so beginners' work. At home, 2-3 am, my parents were still awake. The kids were not very easy on them, so my thought of going to Istanbul for one night was out of the picture.
On Sunday, there was a puppet show. It was in the context of a cultural festival. The group was from Indonesia and it was absolutely nothing for little kids. The puppets were shadow puppets (sorry if there is a special name for it) and the play was accompanied by loud music and sound effects. Oh, I almost forgot the some kind of ancient Indonesian dialect that boosted through the speakers. But, never the less, F got interested in behind the scenes while A sat on my lap, closing her ears. Yanki is a bit older, so I think it was more interesting for him. After the show, there was a workshop about making puppets from a special leather the group brought from Indonesia. Of course my mother managed to get the kids to sit and make holes and shapes in the leather. We couldn't produce any puppets but well, the experts make it in at least a month! The real puppets are gorgeous I have to say and the amount of work is immense. Aylin came to join us at the theatre and she got to see her little love A.
I spent one night at Filiz's house with the girls. They live at the other side of Izmir, somewhere close to Cesmealti, not too far from where we got married. She has a dream house for the city people. A house with a big yard, sharing a swimming pool and other common places. The only thing is that it's far from the city. She picked us up with her car from Bostanli port and took us to the other side on the ferry. We picked up her son from the daycare/school run by a German woman and went to her house. Her dog scared the girls for a while, but they got used to it after a while. We talked about the education systems (Timur just started the school) and I was surprised to hear that she knew a lot about Montessori. There's supposed to be good Montessori school sin Turkey, an info that I didn't know. Later that evening, Deniz A, Serkan O and his wife Aylin joined us for dinner. I was happy to meet Aylin at last. I think last year she hated me for holding Serkan up and making her wait at her friend's house. I think now we are good! It is always so nice to see the old friends but one evening is just nothing. I don't know how fast it all went, the evening was over on a dime. Of course the girls who couldn't sleep in the different environment didn't help it at all. I spent quite some time running and trying to shush them.
Last Thursday of Izmir trip, P was supposed to come to Izmir. He missed his connection from Munic and ended up flying to Istanbul. He was supposed to arrive at 3.30 pm, he arrived at 3.30 am! From Istanbul, their plane took off and had to go back to Istanbul due to heavy fog in Izmir. According to my father who was waiting at the airport, the fog was only over the airport. Go figure! An American lady in P's plane actually thought that they arrived to Izmir and wished P a nice vacation with his family. P pointed out the sign on the building saying 'Welcome to Istanbul'. After waiting couple more hours, the plane took off again. I wasn't at the airport waiting, my parents didn't think it was a good idea. They were worried about me driving alone to the airport for a plane that maybe would be cancelled anyway. Well, P did arrive to Izmir, but it was hours later than P expected.
P made a friend on the plane, a Turkish business man. He was at a trip to Heerenveen, where P is born. They got to talk and the guy translated the announcements to him. That's how he didn't end up like the American lady! I told P to take a taxi and call me so that I could give the directions to the driver. His new friend suggested to take him to Bornova, half way from the airport, but he ended up driving him to us - so Turkish, even though P does not accept, I would have done too. At 3.30-4.00 am, we went to have soup with them. They were hungry and P wanted to pay them back for their help. It was good soup in good company. I was sorry for the American lady for she still had to go to Bodrum the next morning to the house where she was going to cat-sit! Yes, she was going to cat-sit for 3 or 4 weeks at people's house tat she didn't know. There's supposed to be a website only to match cat lovers to sit their cats when they are taking a long vacation.
We spent Friday with the kids, they were do happy to see P. Saturday evening, my brother was invited to a wedding. The guy who gets married is from Saint Joseph, and I sort of remember him. He was in the oldest class when we started Saint Joseph and I really think he was the guy who dated the most beautiful girl at the school. Burak asked him/told him that we were going to the wedding dinner, too. He had an 'only friends and young family members' dinner at a fancy beer house. The evening turned out to be a success, on my part at least. I talked to friends of my brother that I know from the time we (my friends and I) hanged around with my brother's friends and I also met guys from Saint Joseph. I am one of the first graduates from lycee (before us, it was a middle school, with us, it was extended to high school). We talked about students, teachers (mostly freres) and volleyball. I found out the the groom actually thought me how to serve at volleyball. After the beer house, my brother took us to a club close by. I had wilder nights with y brother, but this was definitely a lot of fun. I was hoping to go to have soup after the bar hopping, but Pinar kind of cut through and said good night to us, dragging Burak to home. I didn't have a headache the next morning but I could feel it just trying to come. Burak was sick the whole day!
Our Sunday plan was to got to the mountains. The girls see the smallest hill and think that it's a mountain. Living in under sea level Holland and then totally flat Illinois could be a reason! Anyway, the weather didn't really allow us to join the mountains, but we got to stand half way to the top and look down to the beautiful view of the city and the bay. We spent the rest of the day with the family, enjoying the precious time with each other. Monday, we left to Holland.
to be continued...
December 5th, I left with the kids to Turkey. The whole week, P was gone to some meeting I don't know where. I was driving the kids to the school and to their activities while I was packing for the trip and preparing the house for the coming weeks. The last one is not the least of the tasks. Last January when we were back from our vacation, the house was a mess and we had to live in an apartment for four weeks. The day before we left, I had Richard here to make new holes in the family room ceiling (nice hobby!) to insulate the pipes above in case it got very cold while we were gone so we didn't get frozen pipes.
The first snow of the winter came 2 days before we left. Although it was very nice to see snow, it also meant that I had to unpack the winter stuff (boots, hats etc) for the kids. I did try to resist, telling the kids that they could perfectly survive two days without them, of course the kids won.
In previous years, packing went on till midnight the night before the trip, but this time, I was ready without loosing sleep. It sometimes pays to be a house wife! The day before we left, We went to have dinner with Hester and her two kids. (I met Hester couple months ago at the Dollar Tree Shop, she is a Dutch girls who lives not too far from us). After dinner at IHOP, where fruit flies were clouding the pancake syrup (slightly exaggerated), we went to drive through the Winter Wonderland. That was so cute! The Saturday, which is the day we left, I took the kids to see Santa at the library in our town with Chris and 'Little' Lauren. It is amazing that I was doing such things with the kids on the day of our trip. It's a new concept for me! The limo came to pick us up in the afternoon (a Mohawk with tattoes, Chris was worried for us!), we got at O'Hare and flew - thanks to my loving husband - business!
I will tell not too long about the two weeks in Turkeys and the two weeks in the Netherlands.
The first two days, the weather in Turkey was great. We were out in t-shirts - of course only us, it is still winter for Izmir standards. - We went to the parks, let the kids play with other children. The weather got less warm after that, it didn't stop us enjoying our stay. F and A were totally crazy about Yanki and Arya, their cousins. Yanki was mostly at school, but we still got to see quite a lot of him. It was funny to see that Yanki was enjoying playing with A and F was spending her time running after Arya, making jokes and laughing with her. My parents enjoyed spending time with the girls and I used every opportunity to give them some private time - going shopping, seeing friends etc. Everyone seemed happy and in good spirits, which honestly not always the case. My parents were seeing more of my aunt and uncle and Burak's kids were very close to my parents, happy and excited to see them each time.
What did we do? I went to the Wednesday bazaar and came home with a bunch of stuff that I could live without. It was very fun, though. The second week, I took F with me in the afternoon, for a short visit. I wanted to show her what a real bazaar meant. We looked to the clothes section first. She was trying to see everything, her eyes open wide: men making funny noises to attract customers, the socks sellers with pairs hanging from their heads like a hat, sellers walking on the stands by their goods... We then went to see the food section. I think the most interesting was the cheese and the fish stands and of course the stand holder with the wooden leg. I think A would have been too young for it, but F is at the age that she can understand - a bit.
The first week, we went to have dinner at Hesna's. Asli came with her son Atahan. F played nicely with them, though sometimes the boys had their thing. Cem is a monkey like F, that made me feel home. Funny, I can't remember what A did, I think she was between Cem's room and the living room, playing.
One nice day, we went to the zoo. Arya was the guide, she walked the whole time without even looking at us, and we had to follow. The Izmir zoo looks so nice, I am quite proud of it. The girls were talking a while about going to a petting zoo. so we did. We were lucky. There was almost no one and the guy who was working there brought carrots to the girls and they fed the rabbits. Then they were allowed to go inside the fence and sit by the goat, the sheep and the donkey named "Sucuk" - some kind of spicy sausage. F and A were by this, the first kids to go over the fence! I wanted to take P to the zoo but we didn't have time.
I went out on the first Saturday with Aylin Y, Ayse's college friend whom I met last year. We had nice talk and I am glad to get to know her better. She is an incredible talented artist, unfortunately she is not doing enough about it - yet! I felt humbled by her talent, my writing seemed so beginners' work. At home, 2-3 am, my parents were still awake. The kids were not very easy on them, so my thought of going to Istanbul for one night was out of the picture.
On Sunday, there was a puppet show. It was in the context of a cultural festival. The group was from Indonesia and it was absolutely nothing for little kids. The puppets were shadow puppets (sorry if there is a special name for it) and the play was accompanied by loud music and sound effects. Oh, I almost forgot the some kind of ancient Indonesian dialect that boosted through the speakers. But, never the less, F got interested in behind the scenes while A sat on my lap, closing her ears. Yanki is a bit older, so I think it was more interesting for him. After the show, there was a workshop about making puppets from a special leather the group brought from Indonesia. Of course my mother managed to get the kids to sit and make holes and shapes in the leather. We couldn't produce any puppets but well, the experts make it in at least a month! The real puppets are gorgeous I have to say and the amount of work is immense. Aylin came to join us at the theatre and she got to see her little love A.
I spent one night at Filiz's house with the girls. They live at the other side of Izmir, somewhere close to Cesmealti, not too far from where we got married. She has a dream house for the city people. A house with a big yard, sharing a swimming pool and other common places. The only thing is that it's far from the city. She picked us up with her car from Bostanli port and took us to the other side on the ferry. We picked up her son from the daycare/school run by a German woman and went to her house. Her dog scared the girls for a while, but they got used to it after a while. We talked about the education systems (Timur just started the school) and I was surprised to hear that she knew a lot about Montessori. There's supposed to be good Montessori school sin Turkey, an info that I didn't know. Later that evening, Deniz A, Serkan O and his wife Aylin joined us for dinner. I was happy to meet Aylin at last. I think last year she hated me for holding Serkan up and making her wait at her friend's house. I think now we are good! It is always so nice to see the old friends but one evening is just nothing. I don't know how fast it all went, the evening was over on a dime. Of course the girls who couldn't sleep in the different environment didn't help it at all. I spent quite some time running and trying to shush them.
Last Thursday of Izmir trip, P was supposed to come to Izmir. He missed his connection from Munic and ended up flying to Istanbul. He was supposed to arrive at 3.30 pm, he arrived at 3.30 am! From Istanbul, their plane took off and had to go back to Istanbul due to heavy fog in Izmir. According to my father who was waiting at the airport, the fog was only over the airport. Go figure! An American lady in P's plane actually thought that they arrived to Izmir and wished P a nice vacation with his family. P pointed out the sign on the building saying 'Welcome to Istanbul'. After waiting couple more hours, the plane took off again. I wasn't at the airport waiting, my parents didn't think it was a good idea. They were worried about me driving alone to the airport for a plane that maybe would be cancelled anyway. Well, P did arrive to Izmir, but it was hours later than P expected.
P made a friend on the plane, a Turkish business man. He was at a trip to Heerenveen, where P is born. They got to talk and the guy translated the announcements to him. That's how he didn't end up like the American lady! I told P to take a taxi and call me so that I could give the directions to the driver. His new friend suggested to take him to Bornova, half way from the airport, but he ended up driving him to us - so Turkish, even though P does not accept, I would have done too. At 3.30-4.00 am, we went to have soup with them. They were hungry and P wanted to pay them back for their help. It was good soup in good company. I was sorry for the American lady for she still had to go to Bodrum the next morning to the house where she was going to cat-sit! Yes, she was going to cat-sit for 3 or 4 weeks at people's house tat she didn't know. There's supposed to be a website only to match cat lovers to sit their cats when they are taking a long vacation.
We spent Friday with the kids, they were do happy to see P. Saturday evening, my brother was invited to a wedding. The guy who gets married is from Saint Joseph, and I sort of remember him. He was in the oldest class when we started Saint Joseph and I really think he was the guy who dated the most beautiful girl at the school. Burak asked him/told him that we were going to the wedding dinner, too. He had an 'only friends and young family members' dinner at a fancy beer house. The evening turned out to be a success, on my part at least. I talked to friends of my brother that I know from the time we (my friends and I) hanged around with my brother's friends and I also met guys from Saint Joseph. I am one of the first graduates from lycee (before us, it was a middle school, with us, it was extended to high school). We talked about students, teachers (mostly freres) and volleyball. I found out the the groom actually thought me how to serve at volleyball. After the beer house, my brother took us to a club close by. I had wilder nights with y brother, but this was definitely a lot of fun. I was hoping to go to have soup after the bar hopping, but Pinar kind of cut through and said good night to us, dragging Burak to home. I didn't have a headache the next morning but I could feel it just trying to come. Burak was sick the whole day!
Our Sunday plan was to got to the mountains. The girls see the smallest hill and think that it's a mountain. Living in under sea level Holland and then totally flat Illinois could be a reason! Anyway, the weather didn't really allow us to join the mountains, but we got to stand half way to the top and look down to the beautiful view of the city and the bay. We spent the rest of the day with the family, enjoying the precious time with each other. Monday, we left to Holland.
to be continued...
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