Getting out of the City

On the rare occasion that we actually get to get out of the majorly congested city with millions of people,

it is wonderful.

This is just a little bit of the beauty that we get to see.

Thanksgiving in Pictures

Turkey Day in Turkey

Wow! Where do I even start?!  I am thankful for so many things today!  I can’t believe today is Thanksgiving!  In many ways it doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving…maybe because I was one of just a handful of a people in a city of millions that celebrated the holiday today.  It has perhaps been the most adventurous Thanksgiving ever…
I woke up this morning and my roomate, Jess, and I ventured to our local neighborhood pazar to buy some produce! Honestly, I could not have had a better start to my morning!  First, I woke up and could see blue sky and it was crisp and clear outside…incredible!  It actually feels like fall today - what a blessing! We walked the about a kilometer or a little less to our local pazar…I love that walk! I absolutely love grocery shopping and even more than going to the store do I love buying fresh produce from the open air markets and picking out which vendor has the best looking produce.  I feel so grown-up getting to make those decisions and picking out the absolute best apples, or whatever we happen to be selecting, from the immaculately stacked bins of produce.  As a side note, the way that they display their produce here truly is an art and it is beautiful!  We had to get carrots, cranberries, mushrooms, apples, and a few other things.  We successfully purchased (while succesfully understanding what we were purchasing - perhaps a bigger victory) our produce and headed home.  Since we had several kilo’s worth of produce in bags, we decided to not walk home but to take a minibüs that was supposed to go right by our street…but as nothing is ever easy in this city, we quickly learned the difference between “ömür” and “incirli” - they are the same on the otobüs but not on the minibüs haha.  Yeah, so that ONE minibüs our roomate told us not to take to come home…definitely took that one! Haha! As soon as we crossed the highway, we knew we were not going to end up near our house so we got off and walked home - it was equally as far, if not further, than the walk would have been originally from the pazzar!  Of course, we came laughing all the way home.  Now we know which minibüs not to take - sometimes trial and error is the best way to learn here!

After our marathon run through the neighborhood, I had to run up to our apartment and get ready for Thanksgiving dinner! Speaking of Thanksgiving dinner, I must say that it FAR exceeded my expectations of ever celebrating Thanksgiving outside of America! I was thoroughly impressed to say the least!  We had the whole regular menu: cornbread stuffing, bread, cranberry sauce, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, turkey (now I can say I have eaten turkey in Turkey haha), pumpkin casserole, jello salad, cooked carrots, pasta, dressing, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, pumpkin cheesecake, creamy delight with cherries, and I’m sure a few others that I can’t remember but surely tasted today! :)  We even made ice for our drinks - we were American all the way today. Honestly, in some ways, I had set low standards on my expectations for what Thanksgiving would taste like (I didn’t want to get my hopes too high for my favorite holiday meal) but everything was incredible and delicious!!!  Probably because it was all made from scratch…not short cuts with canned vegetables or canned soup mixes!  So naturally, it has to be incredible…and it was :)

My roomates and I all celebrated Thanksgiving this afternoon with four other American families in our city.  I was so blessed to fellowship with them this afternoon and to feel like I had a family to enjoy the holiday with!  My roomates definitely are like my family here and I am so thankful for them! If you know me and are with me around this time of year, you probably know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday! I love everything about it! I love fall and I love that Thanksgiving is in the fall!  I love all the food that is served and the low-key, agenda-less afternoon that always follows the meal…hopefully with a good cup of coffee and lots of laughs :)  I love that for one day out of the year, I don’t care what I eat and want to try from the variety of creative cooking that is displayed across the kitchen counter.  I love hearing people tell stories and reminiscing about their childhood…I had all of that today! So thankful!  Yes, I did miss being with my family…it is my first Thanksgiving away from my family.  I expected today to be much harder than it was…yes, I do miss my family and it would have been great to be with them today but God is SO good to give me joy on the day that I thought was going to be the hardest to be here!  He gets all the glory!  I cannot praise Him enough!  Today was a great day!!

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!  Serve the Lord with gladness!  Come into his presence with singing!  Know that the Lord, he is God!  It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise! Give thanks to him; bless his name!  For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations. Psalm 100

I am so thankful to be thankful today! I could write an endless list fo all that I am thankful for: the opportunity and privilege to live in the country and city where I am living right now, to have my eternity secured for me in heaven,  an incredibly supportive home fellowship that has loved me to the place where I am today and has encouraged me to take so many baby steps along the way, my roomates that I live with here - they make me laugh every day, my wonderful boyfriend, Michael, who keeps my inbox full while I’m gone and who I also can’t wait to see in 22 days, my precious friends here whom I have been able to share Truth with and labor in prayer for, my friends at home that are an incredible source of encouragement to me, the list goes on and on…

I am several hours ahead and I have celebrated Thanksgiving already when Turkey’s are just barely popped into the oven and everyone at home is dreaming of the incredible meal that they will devour in a few hours…as you get ready on the other side of the world to give thanks today, please don’t forget the price that has been paid so that you may have joy today! Give thanks every day for that precious gift!

p.s. THANK YOU Michael for Skyping with me today!!!

Village Life

SO much space

market day

"SLOW"

We just don't see a sunrise like this back in the city

My Life

Public transportation.

Pretty much sums up my life here.

10 Snippets of Life Recently

1. Me, umbrellas, wind & rain do NOT go well together. My umbrella (which I reluctantly purchased a few weeks ago in anticipation of the winter rain here) had a fight with the wind this week, and lost. It joined the massive graveyard of broken umbrellas that cover the streets on a rainy day here.
2. Quiet rainy mornings have been my place of solitude this week. Actually, they have been for my entire time overseas. Quite ironic for someone who is generally not a morning person. The Father has woken me sometimes a couple of hours before my roomates and it has been such a blessing - not because I don't love being with them (I do!) but because it has been wonderful to sit in silence, drink my hot tea, think, pray, journal, read the Word...
3. I finished reading John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress this week! I am ashamed to admit that I have never previously read this book, but now I have and I am so glad! It was a huge encouragement to me to read of the believer's journey through life - the battles, victories, sorrows, joys, lessons learned, etc.
4. As I finished one book, I started reading another: Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life by Donald Whitney. This has sat on my shelf at home for literally a couple of years now and I have finally resolved myself to read it. The first couple of chapters I have read left me feeling pretty raw. It's going to be a growing process - a good one. One that I trust will leave me more conformed to the image of my Father.
5. Banana bread, banana cake, banana muffins, etc. have become a staple in our house. We have blown through probably a couple bags of flour, but can't help buying the cheap bananas.
6. Sarah & I enjoy spending a couple of hours each week at a local coffee shop (usually Starbucks - not a lot of choices here) reading and talking and journaling. I always enjoy the combination of writing, talking, people-watching and sharing our ups & downs. This week, we sat in a particular Starbucks that was unusually overwhelmed with English speakers - I hardly knew what to do with myself. I couldn't help but eavesdrop in on all their conversations (mostly because I could understand EVERYTHING they were saying)! I didn't even have to think at all in listening! Is this what America will be like in a few weeks?
7. We have mold growing on our walls. Not cool.
8. If there were one thing I could have made room to bring with me it definitely would have been my rain boots. I am so sad they are at home in America.
9. We celebrated my roomate, Vonda's, birthday on Friday! We started the day with a lazy morning and roomate breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes. Later, we went to a coffee shop and spent some time with some of our American friends. So thankful for a day without rain today!
10. I have decided that for the month of November I am going to post a picture for every day of the month. I hope this will give a good depiction of daily life here.

Life Discoveries

• I decided I really like hot tea.  Due to the absence of liquid CoffeeMate creamer here in this part of the world, I have been forced to expand my horizons beyond French Vanilla and Caramel Macchiato to discover alternative hot drinks to enjoy on chilly fall mornings…I like to try new things so this is probably good for me (especially since hot tea offers a lot more nutrional value than the artificial flavor we pour into coffee).  Since caffeine seems to have no effect on me, my primary motive in finding an alternate drink is my extreme love for holding a mug full of hot, steamy goodness in my hands.  It’s so comforting and relaxing.  I still love coffee though and am a sucker for a big cup of piping hot coffee with some delicious creamy goodness added to enhance the flavor…I will be anticipating many good cups when I come back to America!
• I love to read.  I am so spoiled, especially in my slow mornings, to lay on the couch and read.  I learn so much about life by reading and seeing the world through a different perspective.  I am encouraged and challenged as I read.  I haven’t always had a love to read, but for some reason over the past few months, I have decided to challenge myself to keep learning through reading on my own.  I like to learn, so this is good.
• I love grocery shopping. I used to love all kinds of shopping, but I have recently realized that unless I have a list and know what I am going to shop for, I get easily irritated by aimlessly wandering through stores.  Grocery shopping is my favorite.  It is task-oriented, thanks to my lists I love to create, and it presents endless opportunities for imagination of looking at all the different foods and thinking of combinations and new things to create with all that is available.  One of my favorite shopping excursions here is to the local open-air market where we can buy nearly any kind of produce we want…cheap!  It always makes my heart happy to go and pick through tomatoes, apples, etc…searching for the perfect ones.
• I love cooking.  I believe that my creative side comes out in the kitchen rather than through paintbrushes on a canvas.  This fall, I have re-discovered, or maybe only just discovered since my cooking abilities previously consisted of: spaghetti, lasagna, rice and a couple of other staples.  This is the first season in my life where I have had to learn to create a menu and plan meals for the week…through being challenged to do this, I have discovered that there is more variety in food than ramen noodles, rice, spaghetti and bananas with peanut butter! Shocking, I know! This week, I successfully made homeade (since everything here has to be made from scratch) cornbread to go with chili.  I even found cornmeal at the pazzar…finding some ingredients really is quite a chore!  I am excited about the new recipes that I have collected this fall and can’t wait to use when I get home and in my own home some day.
• Worshipping in another language is awesome!  This weekend, I had the privilege of joining a local body of national believers for their weekly service.  It blessed my heart tremendously!  While I didn’t understand anything from the message (except that at some point the speaker was talking about “fruit”…I am assuming fruit from the life of a believer haha), it encouraged me to look around the room and see nationals listening intently and eager to learn what was being taught.  Many of the songs that we sang I knew in English…but singing them in Turkish was way cooler!  Even to sing in two different languages, but to the same God is such a blessing and honor!
• Journaling is my saving grace in another culture.  What would I do without my journal?  I write about everything there.  I just finished one journal this week and my excitement to start a brand new one with crisp pages was out of control…ok maybe i’m exaggerating a bit, but i was super excited!  It is so cool to look back over the last couple of years that are encompassed in my previous journal and see where I have been…literally and figuratively.  As I am starting my new journal, I wonder where life will take me before I close the pages to it.  I am so excited!  I hope that my children can read my journals some day and learn about me…my joys and my hurts…the thoughts and emotions that I experienced that were sometimes too raw to share with my friends.  It’s where I have really learned to cultivate a personal realtionship with my Heavenly Father through journaling prayers.  So often when we are out during the day, something will happen and Sarah and I will look at each other and say “i have to journal about that tonight!”  There have been many nights that I have come home exhausted, but forced myself to stay up late and journal and process through everything that happened that day…it always leaves me encouraged and at peace to move on.  If you don’t journal or have a way to process your thoughts on paper…I would greatly exhort you to begin now! You won’t regret it!
• I love watching sunrises over the city.  I have had the privilege of watching sunrises in so many different places in my life: mountains of Colorado, water in Maryland, big hills in Virginia, flying in an airplane, the airport in London, etc. And now, looking out over a great city jam-packed with millions of people.  I have an incredible view from my apartment and I have come to adore mornings here.  If you know anything about me, then you know that especially over the past couple of years being in school I have become notorious for staying up way too late and therefore been forced to sleep past the sunrise to get a decent amount of sleep.  So, the fact that I am consistently up to see the sunrise here is a miracle.  I love it!  I love to sit and watch the city start…and journal about it! :)
• I walk fast.  For some reason, living in a large city, I have developed this incessant need to walk fast…everywhere!  I have always moved fast…my mom has often commented about my brothers and I that we have two speeds: “go and sleep!”  We are notorious for our inability to sit still for very long…Come on…life is short and there are places to go and people to see.  I need to make every minute count.
• Laughing.  This may be one of my favorite words in the English vocabulary and it is certainly one of my favorite things to do!  I have learned over and over again this fall of the necessity to be able to laugh at myself.  It is the best medicine and free therapy.  Sarah and I laugh so much together…on the bus, laying in bed at night, at the dumb things we say, and almost certainly we will pick the most inopportune times to burst into laughter!  It keeps us going though!  Learn to laugh at yourself. 

Some Things We Eat

This City Never Sleeps

Near Death Experience

Reason why i shouldn’t get up and out of the house early on a Saturday morning:
I am not compentent of reading and following simple instructions early in the morning.
for example, this morning when the elevator said “3 kişilik” (translated: 3 persons), logically the 4 of us would have split into 2 elevators, but instead my 3 roomates AND I all piled on and shut the door to head up to have breakfast with our friends…we didn’t go up.

As soon as we hit the button to go UP, we immediately sunk DOWN…fail.

We all had this immediate realization that we were stuck in the elevator and had no idea of what to do next!

We all said to each other “don’t panic”…as if that makes everything immediately better haha

We tried using our phones to call or text our supervisor we were going to visit…

fail…no service in that elevator hole…good to know :)

We were all a little nervous, but it was so funny…we wanted to take a picture of us all stuffed in there, but couldn’t find a camera in the tight space.

Soon, we heard the second elevator coming down and the lights to the lobby came on…after a quick sigh of relief, we all started banging on the door and yelling…it was Buddy!  We have never been so glad to hear his voice! 
His words to us: “I hear you. Please be quiet. I’m trying to find someone to get you out of there.”

He was going to find the kapaca who had the magic tool to unlock the door for us so we could step up and out into the lobby full of fresh air! 

We were so embarassed as we crawled out of the sunken elevator and had to face the kapaca and our supervisor. Although it must have been quite the site to see four “Yabancılar” (foreigners) crawling out of an elevator that smaller than our kitchen table…and all girls at that.

The 5ish minutes we were in that elevator seemed like an eternity, but the funniest thing that has happened to us…I always wondered what I would do if I found myself in that situation. Now I know…
what i learned from being stuck on the elevator:

• when it says 3 people is the limit in an elevator…they mean 3, NOT 4…i won’t ever break that rule again. ever.
• don’t panic…help will come
• breathe slowly through your nose…don’t use up all the good air
• stand still…it keeps the air cooler
• cell phone’s don’t work in elevator shafts
• i should probably learn how to say “help” in Turkish if I ever find myself in an emergency situation again

 

Life Recently

9 weeks down.
9 to go.

It is SO hard to believe the days in front of me in Centra Asia are now smaller than the ones behind. Hard to believe, and bittersweet at the same time.  Often the days go by slowly, but the weeks and months are going by quickly as i look back over them.  I don’t want to forget anything and I am trying to be more intentional to record the little things about life that I am learning in every day life here on the other side of the world…so here are some little snippets from my life recently of things that have happened to me and things that I have learned.

• I love people-watching.  I always knew this but being in a new and different culture is especially exciting.  I have decided that people-watching in airports are my absolute favorite.  I love watching reunions of people and friendships, old and new.  I have loved the hours sitting and drinking coffee in the airport this fall waiting…
• I can now say that I have washed an entire kitchen-full of dishes in an entire day…OK, so I didn’t do it single-handedly but Sarah and I have accomplished this task together! 
• I don’t really miss American food after not eating it for two months, but I really miss liquid coffee creamer…A LOT!
• Living in another culture requires that you sleep a lot…I learned very quickly that I couldn’t stay up until after midnight and expect to jump out of bed at 7am the next morning!
• I have learned to sleep in the car while traveling in Central Asia…I have never done this successfully before, but can say that I have slept quite well at times propped up in the bus or van.
• I am currently a proud possessor of peanut M&M’s from America!!  A sweet volunteer brought them to Sarah and I last week and we are planning to ration them to last for the remainder of our time here! 
• Dunkin Donuts exists in my city here…enough said…why has it taken me two months to discover this?!
• I feel so much safer now that I have discovered that my roomate brought a police baton from America to ward off the bad guys.

Rain

I have learned about dealing with the rain while living in a country that receives A LOT of rain in the fall & winter:

• Nationals get it. I do not. I was the only wet person on the metro today.
• Sperry's are not completely waterproof.
• The person who invented rainboots is a genius. Why didn't I make room for those in my suitcase?
• I still love thunderstorms. They are just better when you are outside & not in the middle of them.
• FACT: It is raining too hard when rain starts coming through your umbrella.
• I am still NOT a fan of umbrellas. Living in a country that rains a lot has not changed that about me. I don't expect that it will either.
• Banana bread is a great snack to make on a rainy day.
• Eat the banana bread with a homeade vanilla latte. You're welcome.
• I love rainy days.

Little Children

We just spent a week babysitting these bundles of energy!!