- I've been at language school for the last 6 weeks and have 2 more weeks to go (and still walking up 9 flights of stairs each day, though it's taking slightly longer now!). One of the most random things I learned last week was that elections in Turkey are always held on a Sunday and that alcohol cannot be sold on an election day.
- We attended our first wedding in Turkey. Two friends got married, one is German and the other Syrian and though they had the official wedding in Germany, they chose to have a religious marriage ceremony here. The bride and groom had talked with us before hand and said it was their tradition that the youngest (presumably male and not a baby) guest at the wedding was the ring bearer and did we think J was old enough to do it. While it would have been lovely, J isn't a fan of huge groups of people and has recently developed a habit of throwing things over his shoulder then saying "oh dear", so we thought he was a little too young right now.
We managed to get at least one pic at the wedding where we were all looking at the camera (even if not quite all smiling)
- After a decidedly English-style winter here (wetter than usual apparently!) spring broke through and we had nearly a week of sunshine before winter returned last Friday.
- Our Turkish vocabulary now includes quite a few boiler related words as ours is broken (technically it's not actually a boiler, it's a termoşifon, which means it just provides hot water, not heating). We've also learned that sometimes there are cross-cultural misunderstandings because the repairman assumes that one part of the process-to-get-a-new-termoşifon is so obvious that it doesn't need to be said when the foreigners have no clue at all. The upshot is that after 2.5 weeks with no hot water, we are hoping to have hot water again this week...
- L's friend (who he does language exchange with) came over for dinner and brought içli köfte that his mum had made. The inside is a small köfte, (a Turkish meatball) inside a shell made of bulgar wheat dough, which is then boiled and fried. They taste seriously good but apparently are notoriously difficult to make, so I don't think I'll be attempting them any time soon.
- J has developed a strong interest in vehicles. And by "strong interest" I mean his idea of a fun walk outside is one which involves seeing cars and buses, preferably metro trains and boats as well, and lots of pointing at the sky and optimistically saying "neeowww" in the hope of seeing a plane. If we see a digger, cement mixer or street sweeper, that's a bonus. This is where it does help to live in the middle of a city where there are plenty of buses and always construction work going on!
