Routine

We've been in our new house for a couple of months now and already it feels like home.  Summer is over, my brother has started school - which he loves, Autumn is here with brown crisp leaves hanging loosely on the trees and whopping great conkers which keep falling out of the sky and landing on cars, even my pram hood!  Findlay has been collecting conkers, which Mum has put in a basket outside our front door.  My brother is now famous in our neighbourhood.  On the school walk in the morning he's greeted by the guards at the entrance to our complex....then he's greeted by the hairdressers who are taking breakfast outside their shop.  We toddle on a bit and Findlay says "Gunaydin" to the man who is selling artichoke from his car.  Artichoke man smiles, says good morning back before offering Findlay a collection of shiny conkers.  Before hitting school Findlay is greeted by the man on the corner who sells simit and then by the guards at his school.

Playing in the Garden after School

Mum is amazed by what we are all learning. At the corner of our street is a big tree which is heavy with ripening Olives.  She was showing Findlay them this morning and he asked "Does that mean its nearly Olive season?"  Mum smiled.  This is our life now.  Peach and Fig season is almost over and we are moving on to Fish, Orange.....and soon Olive season.

Our lovely routine consists of trips to the local gurme market for meat where Mum has been learning how to say half a kilo, minced and sliced, Monday at the market where we've discovered a lovely stall with men who offer us cay (tea) and then, for a small fee, will keep our fruit and veg and deliver it to our house later in the afternoon.  We are enjoying traditional Turkish breakfasts with mother's of Findlay's school friends and weekends are spent in the park with Daddy and taking strolls down Bagdat Caddesi.  We are sharing pick ups from school with our new friends.

It is so funny that what was unusual for us before has become very normal.  We phone, and pay for huge bottles of water, we eat cheese, tomato and cucumber for breakfast, we order takeout food A LOT, we walk to school, we don't always have a bath every night, Findlay talks of his friends Doruk and Erai.....

Being an expat is not like being a citizen of that country.  We will always be "different."  For example, I don't think I will ever be able to wear sock when it is 25 deg outside, Findlay and I won't ever manage to stay up until 9 or 10pm as it seems a lot of the Turkish kids do and nor will Mummy be thinking of hiring a live in Nanny and full time cleaner not because she doesn't want to or that she doesn't agree with it, its just not how we do it "back home."

  

It takes time to find that equilibrium of bringing your own culture into a country which has a very different (yet wonderful) outlook on life but we are getting there and learning to enjoy the best of both worlds.