Signs You've Been Here Too Long

I happened to stumble onto an article written by a Spanish expat living (or lived) here in IST. It's 50 signs you've been in my country too long. I didn't identify with some of the items on his list (mostly has to do with partying, alcohol, or food I can't eat), especially one item that says you're thinking about growing a mustache. I can't grow one but I can see why he said that; so many men here wear mustaches. Anyway, I deleted what doesn't apply to me so the list was pared down to 36 signs.

1. You automatically take off your shoes when entering a house.

2. Friends don’t invite you to their homes for dinner, but for breakfast.

3. You know the name of the guy at the bakkal (corner store) on your street.

4. Everything is çok (very): çok güzel, çok iyi, çok ayıp...

5. You have started to answer questions by repeating the answer (evet, evet; var, var; hayır, hayır; yok, yok).

6. You’ve forgotten what it means to recycle.

7. You no longer hear the honking of car horns.

8. You know there is always traffic in Istanbul: the question is whether there is traffic or A LOT of traffic.

9. You know you’ll find a portrait of Atatürk everywhere you go.

10. You have learned to accept yogurt as something salty you drink with your food rather than something sweet you eat for dessert.

11. You hardly hear it anymore when the mosques issue the call to prayer. Five times a day. Starting at 05.30.

12. You have drunk çay when it’s 35 degrees Celsius outside.

13. You know the only way to cross the street is kamikaze-style, with the cars passing just a few centimetres away. Traffic lights? What are those?

14. You know the first rule about Atatürk is: you do not say anything bad about Atatürk.

15. And the second rule about Atatürk is: you do not say anything bad about Atatürk.

16. You ask for a student discount or try to bargain for almost everything.

17. Remember when you used to notice how there was always a joker jumping the queue without anyone complaining? Now you’re that joker.

18. You’re still looking for the cheapest kebab in the city.

19. You do not say "ok"; you say "tamam."

20. You kiss both cheeks with your close friends.

21. It doesn’t surprise you anymore to see two macho guys walking together with linked arms.

22. The entrance to your house looks like a shoe store.

23. You have accepted olives and cheese as part of your breakfast.

24. You have accepted that there will always be soup and yogurt with your food.

25. You have accepted yogurt as a sauce.

26. You think it’s normal to "drink a cigarette," "close the phone" or having it be "raining snow."

27. You call older neighbours "aunt" and "uncle."

28. You don’t get surprised when some people still give prices in millions of liras.

29. You now expect to get a wet-wipe soaked in lemon scent at the end of a restaurant meal (and sometimes will take extra to stick in your bag for the kids -- added by Diana)

30. When you need groceries, you call the shop on the corner and have them sent up to you in a basket.

31. You know that kahvaltı means "under or after the coffee" – and that there is never coffee after breakfast.

32. You know you’ll always find the sugar served in cubes

33. You’ve stopped expecting sauce in your döner kebab and know it is normal to find French fries in it instead (I expect it in Greg's durums) 

34. You only go to the historic part of the city when your friends visit you.

35. You think it’s normal for motorcyclists to ride in the wrong direction, without a helmet, and sometimes on the sidewalk.

36. You know every building has a name of a person on it, and usually two numbers: the old one and the new one.

I would add a few more:

37. You now know all the hand gestures and head movements and eyebrow raises; they are surprisingly numerous, intricate, and subtle.

38. You think nothing of taking several modes of transportation in one trip in the city, which includes a taxi, ferry, metro, bus, minibus, metrobus, dolmus, and tram.

39. You shop at pazars which are the cheapest places to buy produce.

40. You hardly notice the profuse attention and gifts lavished on your children.

41. You drive and lay on the horn like a native.

42. You don't notice the metal detectors and lack of trashcans at the malls anymore, and because of the lack of trashcans, you're accustomed to leaving your mess on the table in the food court.

What Happened to August?

What a blur.

August was a blur. After my last post, we celebrated DB's birthday, found out G's grandfather had passed away after a summer-long decline, then celebrated my birthday, and a week later, G left for the States for 10 days to celebrate the exemplary character and life of his grandfather. Two days after G returned, our supervisors came to stay for about 6 days. We filled the days with meetings and training. After our supervisors left, the following week was chaotic with my ear infection (which can make you feel ill!), A's illness, doctor appointments for the girls and myself, preschool issues, babysitter search, numerous things cropping up, etc. We're now going into the second week of September and I can finally say that we will start settling back into routine.

Whew.

While G was gone, I got sick with the worst allergy attacks I've had in years. As a general rule, I don't really have respiratory allergies. I tend to have attacks when there is a sudden change in allergens. For instance, I once flew to an area of the United States that was in high pollen season and as soon as I landed, my immune system went nuts and I had a bad allergy attack. I was inhaling pollen that we didn't have in Florida and my body was not accustomed to it. In this case, I blame my allergy attacks on the Lodos. It's a wind that blows from Africa, carrying minerals and dust. We have had our windows open all summer long to the breezes and the obligatory dirt blow in and cover everything. I had no problem with allergies. I started to get the sniffles shortly before G left and the attacks became progressively worse and I fell really ill. I noticed that there was an unusual amount of dirt covering surfaces in my house. My black glass stovetop would be covered with a thick layer within an hour of wiping it clean. DB's hands and knees were blacker than usual. I have no idea if the Lodos was blowing while G was gone so maybe it wasn't the Lodos but a just crazy amount of dirt in the air. The locals often blame respiratory illnesses on the Lodos so maybe I'm just acting like a local...

While G was gone, I learned that a cranky, hot, sick, tired mama does not a patient mama make. I know that logically but what I am trying to say that I have learned my limits. I yelled at my girls more than once (cringe). As I spent sleepless night after sleepless night from nasal congestion and waking up to sneeze and blow my nose, I decided to give myself a break for the sake of the girls. I turned on the AC more than usual so that reduced some of my crankiness. I took a couple of days off from language and concentrated on resting as my allergies slowly subsided under the onslaught of Claritin. Instead of the usual 15-minute walk to school to pick up A, I drove the car because walking in the heat exhausted my already-taxed body too quickly and A was melting down more than usual on the walk home, and the two combining conditions made my patience disintegrate within seconds. I got help from local American friends who paid a bill for me, spent an afternoon chatting with me, met with me for coffee (in very strong winds, I might add -- it was the Lodos!) so I wouldn't go crazy being cooped up, and hosted me and the girls for dinner once. I watched a lot of movies at night.

It's sad because I'd started off really well during G's absence before spiraling down into the dark void of allergies - I was accomplishing language tasks, keeping the house picked up (not necessarily clean), doing reasonably well in feeding the girls cooked meals (which was easy with the crockpot and the leftovers stretched two or three days so I didn't cook as often), keeping up the laundry, etc. All that was short-lived....it's the Lodos, I tell you!

Needless to say, the girls survived. They were overjoyed to see their daddy and so was I. I learned a lesson about parenting alone while sick: cut yourself some slack, for goodness's sake. Although I am still suffering slight attacks of sneezing now and then and my subsequent ear infection have healed, I no longer feel ill and my energy and mental clarity have returned. The weather is lovely now that the heat has subsided and the temperatures are in the mid-70's. The cool fall weather does wonders for the disposition; I feel like a new person.

And now, to get back into routine....

(which is a joke between G and I because our life is not normal and a routine is nearly impossible).