We've been in this city for just a few days over six months now. I know this because legally we can only drive in Turkey on our British licences for six months after coming into Turkey. We're hoping to have our Turkish licences come through in the next few weeks (thankfully there's a process to swap our British licences for Turkish ones rather than having to sit a driving test here) but until then I can't drive. L did a weekend hop to the UK a couple of weeks back, which starts him off on another 6 month period, so he's now the official family chauffeur.
Six months. That time has flown by. We still get asked fairly regularly if we've got used to life here. Our answer is usually 'yes and no'. On one hand, we have settled here. This is home. We have pictures hanging on the walls and a flat full of the messiness and paraphernalia that comes with family life - artwork on the fridge, drawers with odd socks in them, Duplo bricks behind the sofa and random objects stuffed down the side of sofa cushions. We have different names to distinguish the different parks within walking distance of our flat. The employees at the little supermarket we go to most regularly know the boys by name. We have routines, regular places that we go and know when our preferred city centre car park is most likely to be full and when we're likely to find a space. Our life in Istanbul feels a long time ago.
On the other hand, it's only six months. Six months is not a long time. We're still discovering lots of new places in the city and get caught out by road systems that do unexpected things. And if we were in the UK and moved area, I wouldn't generally expect six months to be long enough to establish good friendships (unless of course you're a student or maybe a young-ish single person). And that applies even more so when the friendships we are slowly forming are cross-cultural, so it is not a surprise that six months does not feel long at all.
Last Friday L's work permit arrived, valid for a year, and this morning we submitted the paperwork for the boys' new residence permits. My residence permit application will be done in the next couple of weeks. With that work permit comes a sense of stability, or at least a sense of temporary stability, in knowing that we can be here until at least next February. As foreigners, our ability to live here will always remain fragile. But the last six months have seemed particularly fragile, as we moved to this city, started building our lives here, establishing a business, on the hope and expectation that we'd be able to stay.
Our first six months here has gone. I remember when we marked six months living in Istanbul and it was with the realisation that a quarter of our Istanbul-allotted time had gone. Now we have the privilege of marking six months here and knowing that we have permission to be here for another year, and God willing, for a long time after that.
