Klima

It's been really hot here. Some days the temperatures are in the 90s but I suspect the heat index is higher with the humidity and the stored heat radiating from concrete and asphalt. I don't remember last summer being this hot. We kept our windows open and had a constant breeze running through the apartment. It was still overly warm but bearable. The downside with open windows and nice breezes is the dirt coming in and covering everything. This summer, the breezes have not been running through the apartment as much so it turns into an oven. Sometimes even when we did get some breezes, they felt like they were coming out of the furnace that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown in. It gets hot enough (in the kitchen) that the peanut butter is runnier, A's gummy vitamins are almost melting, and even the chocolate G brought home this afternoon for A (after being gone for 4 days, he wanted to treat her) melted within minutes of sitting on the counter.

As I write this, we're getting a klima installed in our bedroom. A klima is an AC unit, similar to the AC window unit in America. It does the same thing but looks different. A klima has two separate units: one outside unit that is attached to the wall outside a window, which is connected through a drilled hole in the wall to an inside unit that is hung high up on the wall against the ceiling. We can take this klima wherever we move.

We have a klima in the salon (as they call the living rooms here). It was already there when we moved in the apartment so that was nice. This klima we definitely cannot take if we move. It's wonderful to sit in the air-conditioned salon but the klima doesn't cool the rest of the apartment. Poor G and A sleep drenched in sweat in spite of the overhead fans in their respective rooms. I have been sleeping on the couch in the salon for back support and for the AC. I still get hot and sweat in my sleep when the AC shuts off periodically.

I feel like a pansy for getting a klima, when I have friends who don't have one. Some of them were telling me that they take several cool showers and even get up during the night to take one. Some are fortunate enough to live high up on a hill where they get fresh breezes (in other words, no dirt are blown in) and sleep on their balconies. My language teacher tells me she sleeps on the floor occasionally because it's cooler. I think it's worse in India. I've had friends living there tell me that they put the bedsheets in the fridge and put them on the bed at night at an effort to cool down enough to sleep.

So, yes, I may be a pansy but I've had my fair share of suffering from the heat while growing up in Florida. I've experienced heat exhaustion and passed out briefly. I've also nearly thrown up from the heat. I remember playing soccer in summer league, in 90+ heat, and then heading straight for the sinkhole to swim and cool off after a game every Saturday morning. I worked an entire summer outdoors for 40 hours a week in jeans and boots.

Anyway, I'm thankful for the klima, especially in the last days of pregnancy. I'm thankful that I can shut the windows and not have to clean up the dirt covering everything, especially since I'll be too tired from lack of sleep to clean up much when the baby's born. I'm thankful that my tiny 2-day-old newborn, soon after coming out of the pristine environment of the womb, won't be breathing in smog and dirt while she sleeps in our room.

I have 15 days left til the due date but I really need to stop counting down because it could be sooner or later. These days, I'm sleeping less and less. I don't know how one can be so tired and still be unable to sleep. I can't even nap anymore. Somehow I function okay during the day. It's probably by the grace of the Father.

I'm still very excited about the baby coming soon...

Random Acts of Kindness

We have a "charge card" for public transportation where we load money into it and use up the money as we flash the card on a little machine perched next to the driver after boarding the bus. The machine chirps and different colors flash indicating different things along with the remaining balance on your card - green ("your fare has been charged now git"), blue ("oh, free ride 'cause you're a student or disabled"), and red ("you ain't got no money on yo' card, get off!").

A couple of days ago, I borrowed G's "charge card" to take the bus and meet the summer volunteer on our team and we were going to meet someone together. I'd lent my "charge card" to someone and forgot to get it back so that's why I filched G's card. No matter. I got on the bus and flashed my card to the little fare eater machine. It flashed red. The card "ain't got no money." Before I could hop off and figure out what to do, the driver had already shut the door and started rolling.

There I was, getting a free ride. I stood there right next to the driver, wondering what to do. I couldn't just slink off and hope the driver says nothing. Integrity is at stake and my conscience would kill me. I pulled out the card from my wallet (you can scan through wallets and not have to whip them out - awesome, no?) and scanned it again, hoping it was a mistake. It flashed red and showed a balance of .47 lira. A fare usually costs roughly about 2 lira or so. Yep, no money on the card. And I most definitely informed G of this when I eventually got home.

I held up the card at the driver and said, "yok," (one of the, oh...five words I know in Turkish) indicating the card was empty. We were approaching the next stop and the bus was slowing down. I made a move to get off the bus but he waved me aside, which I interpreted as "go sit down." Right at the moment, someone tapped me on the shoulder and insisted that I sit down (I think my belly is big enough to alarm people) and exactly at the same moment, a man came out of the hot interior of the bus and scanned his card for me.

I sat down, chagrined. I thought, "Hey, I do have the fare in coins. I'll just go pay that guy." The passenger across the aisle saw me digging the coins out and he gave me the characteristic facial expression particular to this culture, which I understood to mean, "don't worry about it."

I was stubborn. I have trouble with people paying for me, especially strangers. I tried to pay the guy and I could tell I offended him. I pocketed the money, thanked him, and went back to my seat.

Acts of kindness from the driver, a random stranger who paid my fare, and the person who gave up his seat for me. I'll never see them again in a city of 16 million.

I got off the bus and met with our volunteer, who I will call "J." She's a sweet girl. I told her about what happened, slapping my forehead about it. I'd felt like a doofus for not having money on my card. Wait, it was G's card. Blame the husband.

We went on our errand together which brought no result. I was a bit deflated because we'd tried to find this person before and didn't have luck then either. So, J and I went to Starbucks.

I ordered a giant (I forget the Starbucks lingo...tall, grande, something?) mango smoothie. Oh, my. It was perfect for a hot day. I gave my debit card to the cashier and it didn't work. It's really annoying because our debit cards don't work with certain locations and it mainly depends on the bank the business uses. I tried to tell the cashier to use a different swiper machine thingie with a different bank but J offered to pay for my and her smoothies. Of course, I protested and of course, she refused to let me pay her back.

Another act of kindness. Wait, I'm not done yet. I've got one more.

So, we chatted and finished our tall-grande-something mango smoothies and it was time to go home. I'd forgotten that I needed to load up the "charge card" to get home. I wasn't sure where the closest ATM was and so I decided not to bother and just walk home instead. J insisted on putting me on the bus, using her "charge card."

J teased me saying it was my day to be pampered and paid for! :-)

Fourth of July

We, along with three other families in our small group and a group of student volunteers, celebrated the Fourth of July on a secluded beach on the Black Sea. I wouldn't say that we celebrated the signing of the Declaration of Independence exactly, but we made up our own festivities with swimming, cooking out, exploring, and s'mores over a bonfire. No fireworks, no patriotic songs, no BBQ pork, no red-white-blue decorations, etc. It was more like an excuse to have a party on the beach :-) For G and I, I doubt that we'd even notice it was a holiday if someone hadn't gotten the idea to go to the beach for the afternoon and watch the sunset with s'mores over a bonfire.

The beach we went to was similar to the one we went to at Easter (see post here). The water was clear, shimmering blue and green in the sun, and the calm waves were very nice. I especially enjoyed swimming, which gave such a buoyant relief from my big belly. I vote the sea to be better than the pool for prenatal swimming. A had a blast swimming, playing in the sand with other kids, floating on the raft, and enjoying her very first s'more. She was one tired, salty, sandy little girl when we finally went home after the sun set at 8:45 pm. G had fun, too.

All in all, it was a good Fourth, even though it didn't feel like the Fourth. It occurred to me as I type this that it could be years before A experiences a genuine Fourth of July celebration in the States with fireworks, parades, horseshoe/cornhole games, BBQ pork, thick layers of bug spray, watermelon seed spitting contests, in-your-face red-white-blue decorations everywhere, etc.

Sunset on the Black Sea: love the shades of purple

I hope you all had a good Fourth. 

These Days...

We're slowing down a bit and returning to some semblance of our normal routine: busy, but not overwhelmingly so. I've talked about slowing down for the last few weeks of pregnancy but I was talking in terms of planning my schedule and not overcommitting myself. I'm just slowing down just in the normal, day-to-day stuff since I have little energy these days and the heat is draining as it is. I'm not doing as many chores or focusing very well on my language work without nodding off. I hardly cook anymore because who wants to cook in a hot kitchen with no central AC? Baking is definitely out. I don't need to have a bun in the oven and be in an oven myself. I'm napping again; that second trimester of boundless energy and nonexistent naps is now a distant dream. My feet and ankles are starting to swell slightly. G has been good with picking up the slack, just like he was when I was in my first trimester and useless. 

37 days until my due date. Yes, I am counting down. I try to keep my mind off and I try not to complain but it's hard to avoid noticing the lack of energy and struggling through it. Well, one day at a time.

On to other things... 

We celebrated our fifth wedding anniversary on Saturday. G made me a rare treat: GF pancakes and even served them on a tray. Very sweet man. We intended to go out that night for Mexican but collapsed at home after taking A for a haircut. We nixed the Mexican food plan and I think we watched a movie instead. 

A has had constipation issues for 8 months and frequent bladder infections in the last two months. It's heart wrenching for my little mommy heart. I don't really want to go into specifics of what she's been experiencing. I asked A's pediatrician to have her tested for celiac, fully expecting it to be ruled out, and her blood test showed positive for antibodies specific to celiac. I was a bit surprised, but at the same time, I was not since celiac is genetic. According to the doctor we consulted with back in the States, the celiac panel was incomplete and she recommended an upper endoscopy biopsy, which is viewed at the gold standard in diagnosing celiac disease. For now, that is where we are. 

So, the pregnancy, impending birth, and A's medical woes are all that's on my mind lately. I will update on A's condition as I get information.

Celebrate Teeth

Yesterday, our family and the two volunteers helping us went to a cultural celebration for my language teacher's grandbaby. It was a celebration of baby's upper front teeth breaking through. I'll just tell you what we saw and then maybe I can give a brief explanation from what I found on the internet.

The party was small and laid-back. When it was time, the parents and grandparents propped up the 8-month-old baby on the floor with a blanket underneath. They covered the baby with a sheer cloth (I think it was like a decorative tablecloth or a big square scarf) and one grandmother poured what looked like cooked and cooled barley over the baby's head. They smiled and clapped and then quickly cleaned it up. A few minutes later, they brought in a tray full of toys and objects and spread them in front of the baby. We watched with anticipation which object the baby will pick up. It turned out to be an antique camera. Everyone cheered, laughed, and chattered. Afterwards, they brought out food for everyone to eat and the main traditional dish was barley (or whole wheat?) with chickpeas and some candy that looked like jelly beans.

Does that make any sense?

It is believed (and I think it may possibly just be tradition now, not belief) that if this ceremony isn't held when the baby gets its first tooth, the baby will have a tough time teething. The ceremony is to bless the baby with good health and fortune.

So, why wheat? Wheat is significant in this ceremony and especially in Turkish culture overall because bread is such a basic, vital food for survival.  Hence the word "breadwinner." Bread is an enormous part of the diet here and imagine their horror and looks of sympathy when I tell folks here that I cannot eat wheat. It's not just that they love bread and are accustomed to bread being part of every single meal of the day; I think it would kill a Turk not to be able to eat bread as it's part of their identity, culture, and heritage.  Anyway, wheat symbolizes life because they believe wheat was the first food to be processed into food and it helped human life to flourish. Thus, wheat is important for survival just as teeth are important for eating and survival. Teeth helps a human to flourish; wheat helps human life to flourish. Wheat has a lot of symbolism like fertility, love, charity, etc. I think it may also play a role in wedding ceremonies here.

As for the objects on the tray for the baby to pick from, they represent different occupations that the baby might grow up to work in. A plane might represent pilot, camera a photographer, toy piano a musician, scissors a tailor, phone a secretary, toy computer a programmer, ruler an engineer, etc. Yesterday, the father was especially pleased his baby picked the antique camera. I was told photography was an enthusiasm of his.

The traditional food served to guests usually have wheat in it (whole, hulled wheat, pastries, cake, etc) and if everyone eats a helping from each dish, it'll help the baby's teeth to grow strong. I didn't eat the wheat dishes but I think the baby's teeth will be okay regardless.

Life On Speed

I have about 7 weeks left until my due date and I'm feeling the effects of the pregnancy. Life hasn't slowed down at all since vacation. If anything, it has sped up. I keep trying to pace myself so I wouldn't get so wiped out, but sometimes it's impossible not to get caught up in things, to make commitments, to keep plowing on. Of course, our work never stops.

The Monday night after we came back from vacation, I was given a baby shower. I am thankful for the sweet ladies who came and blessed us with gifts to prepare for the baby's arrival.

We have a couple who came to help us out with our work for a couple of months. They're a great couple and doing a great job. We're glad they're here. Besides showing them around and introducing them to people, we took them with us to a place outside of the city with my language teacher and her husband. My language teacher was born and raised there and she had promised to take me there. I was eager because she has told me so many stories. I have to tell you that the area is beeeeyoutiful!! It took us two hours to get there by bus and then ferry. We walked along the sea in such beautiful, breezy weather with mountains towering in the distance, and then took a minibus to her tiny village, just 15 minutes away.

Her tiny, picturesque village is nestled in a gorgeous forest full of enormous cedars and pines on the side of a mountain with a small, shining lake in a narrow valley nearby. It is famous for the hot springs and many from all over the region come there to ease their aches and pains. I have never seen such a true-blue village with cute little inns, cobblestone roads, flowers blooming everywhere, friendly people smiling and waving. The weather there was so cool with the breezes coming down the mountains and the trees keeping everything cool.

We saw the hot springs and heard a legend surrounding it. The story goes like this: hundred years ago, a blind person (I heard man and I heard woman so I don't know which) came to the hot springs, felt the water for the first time, began to splash the water on his face and rubbing his eyes. Then as he walked away, his sight was restored. Thus, many people (including my language teacher) believe the water special powers. If you wanted to get married or get pregnant, you came here to secure your luck. If your stomach hurt or if you had other ailments, you came here to get healed. The history surrounding the hot springs date back to the Roman Empire when the Romans were controlling the region. The Romans developed baths on the hot springs and apparently, the buildings we saw were built by the Romans and still standing. I'm skeptical about that, though. I'm not sure the buildings we saw were 2,000 years old because they were in perfect condition. It could've been that the village kept the buildings up and reinforced them over the years.

My language teacher is very well-known there as she spent her whole life there. We stopped and visited with her relatives, enjoying the shade from trees laden with fruit and drinking whatever they served us. She is probably related to half of the village; she has so many cousins living there. Some of her relatives are Deaf so many of other other relatives know sign language. It was amazing to visit with such sweet, hospitable people and life there is definitely a lot slower and relaxed, away from the frenetic pace of the city.

On Saturday, I got to spend time with a dear friend from the States who was passing through and stopped over in Istanbul to sightsee and see me. There's nothing like a visit with a good friend you haven't seen in a long while. Today, G is currently picking up other friends at the airport. They are his old coworker from G's architecture firm and his wife. They will be staying with us for a few days and we're really looking forward to spending time with them. They are bringing a suitcase full of requested items, treats, and presents for the baby from G's old office :-) So thankful for everyone's generosity!

I guess I'm starting to count down the weeks and days til Baby Baby comes. I'm getting more weary from carrying the extra load, especially since I walk everywhere. Yesterday, I was pushing A in the stroller up and down some hills (on sidewalks paved with stones so it's not as smooth as concrete sidewalks) and my destination had a long steep hill leading up to it. I made it up but was sweating and winded from pushing A, the extra baby weight, and the heat. I made it inside the building, A took off to mingle with the other kids, and when I took the stairs down into the basement, the most horrible leg cramps seized my calves. It took a while to massage the cramps out and it left me sore for the rest of the day and even this morning, the soreness is still lingering. I never had leg cramps with A and even the leg cramps I did get in this pregnancy were mostly at night and always quickly eased within seconds.

So, the weariness, leg cramps, and the uncomfortable nights are making me start counting down to my due date. I still cherish the time I have left to carry Baby Baby because she's all mine and is always with me...until she is born and I have to share her and watch her grow up and away from me.

Okay, I'm done with that bit of sentimentality. I'm looking forward to a great week ahead with friends and great weather. I hope your week goes well!

How To Do Vacation

Morning panorama of mountains, Mediterranean sea, and the beach

We are home fresh from vacation. It's a bright, sunny Saturday afternoon so we plan to veg out the rest of the day to recover from traveling. A is in her bed napping, G is preoccupied with his laptop, and I decided to go ahead and post about our vacation. I remember how I'd promised to upload pictures of our sightseeing jaunt in the touristy part of Istanbul and of our trip to Prague back in January but I never kept my promise. I eventually lost interest as we plowed ahead with our lives without looking back. This time, I don't want that to happen. So, here is our vacation post.

Morning, before the guests descended...

We went and stayed in an all-inclusive resort on the Mediterranean coast. It was our first real family vacation and our first experience in an all-inclusive resort. I have to tell you, it was a wonderful experience. We were so well-taken care of that the only decisions we had to make were what dishes we wanted to eat and whether we wanted to go to the beach or the pool for the day. Ah, the simple life...

A's new friends, two British sisters.  G said it was like listening
to a Harry Potter movie.

Amy (Emmy?), dark-haired British girl from above picture
that A especially liked and cried when they parted.

Before we left, we were told that these resorts cater to Europeans and while I knew this, I hadn't really thought about it so I was unprepared to see so many blondes running around the resort. After living in a sea of dark-haired and dark-skinned nationals, the natural blond folks were a big change in scenery. It was strange to see the white-haired kids running around with white eyebrows and bright blue eyes standing out starkly in their deeply tanned faces. It was strange to see the European edgy clothes and hair styles after living among conservatively dressed people. It was definitely a lot of fun to "people-watch" in this cosmopolitan crowd of Europeans. Germans seem to make up the biggest portion of the guest list but there were many others who hailed from different countries. I even saw some Slavic faces, a sight familiar from my time in central Europe. We made friends with an Irishman whose wife was Serbian and they had a shy 2-year-old boy, whom A befriended and they played together in the beach sand. The Irishman gave us his contact information and told us to look them up in case we ever decide to visit Dublin and we told him that they were likewise welcome if they come to our neck of the woods.

Our slice of the Mediterranean

The Mediterranean water was pretty and fairly calm, changing colors as the sun made its trek across the sky. I have to admit that I never did swim in the Mediterranean; G and A did, the brave souls. The sun shone very hot, but the breezes were pretty cool and the water was cold but bearable. The temperatures hovered around 77-80 degrees all week. Just a little too cool for me, as accustomed as I am to hot Florida summers and the warm Gulf of Mexico. I even remember swimming in the Gulf in the middle of a big heat wave and the water gave no relief from the heat since it was as hot as the air itself. Anyway, here the sand was nice enough, considering that most of the beaches of this country are pebbly. It was similar to the darker, coarse sand of North Carolina beaches. Need I say that my heart belongs to the white, sugary sand and the clear waters of Florida? I still love visiting foreign beaches, though...

Running back and forth

Swimming with Daddy

Mommy actually got off the lounge chair 

Building sand castles

The resort itself was pretty cool. There were beautiful gardens and lots of palm trees - just the right tropical flavor. The facilities were very nice and very clean. The service was outstanding. They had a pretty extensive pool..."system" is the only word I can think of it. They had one area just for kids with a fun pirate ship, big slides, medium slides, and little slides for toddlers. There was even a fun moat around the ship, so shallow in some parts of it that it only came up to A's knees. This was pretty much why we chose the resort - all the fun places for A to play! There were a couple of Olympic-sized pools that were sectioned off alone but the main pool was a large, elaborate, connected system with waterfalls and meandering rivers without any real currents. The resort is called "Titanic" and is modeled after the actual ship, "Titanic." Even the hotel itself is vaguely shaped like a big cruise ship and had nautical themes throughout. The staff wore sailor outfits and the hotel had two channels (in addition to numerous European channels) on their TVs - one channel to announce hotel events and the other channel continuously showing the movie....you guessed it, Titanic. 

A section of the pool system at night

One of the waterfalls

Littlest slide

Sliding down with Daddy

Look of concentration as she swam without assistance...

The thing about all-inclusive resorts is the food. You don't have to go out and eat. You don't have to pay for a taxi and hunt for a restaurant. You can just saunter in from your room, the beach, or pool and just pick up a plate and fill it from the wide variety of dishes laid out for your pleasure. The choices can be overwhelming, but with my celiac limitations, it was only a small range of choices so I had it easier. There are snack bars throughout the pool area and on the beach (ice cream!). All that food was free, free, free! The dessert station at dinnertime would make your eyes pop with its gorgeous presentation and all the varieties. The fruit bar was also amazing - plump, deep red strawberries, delicious watermelon, sour green plums, sweet yellow plums, golden bananas, shiny apples, neatly sliced honeydew, perfect cherries, nectarines, etc. A ate her fill of watermelon day in and day out. I didn't gain any weight last month at my last prenatal checkup but I am positive that I more than made up for that during vacation! Who could resist such a smorgasbord?

A's favorite food: pasta and pasta galore!

There were many other perks like (free) clean beach towels daily, nice lounge chairs and umbrellas, free minibar in our hotel room restocked daily, numerous spa/wellness services (massages, etc), nighttime entertainment, playgrounds and trampolines, hairdressers, shops, etc. We never left the resort; we had plenty to do and see. It was nice not having to cook or clean all week long or do anything half-way serious. I think we all needed this vacation, especially before the baby comes in two months.

Cajoling A to take a picture with Mommy

The only good shot...

As I said previously, all our decision-making pertained to food and whether we wanted the beach or pool that day. We didn't loaf all that much, though, since A kept us busy entertaining her every whim. She was forever running back and forth between the water and our lounge chairs. I was forever hauling my big belly clumsily out of the lounge chair to do something for A. That was a lot of work by itself! :-) I'm only 7 months pregnant but feel much bigger than that -- I enjoyed swimming in the pool as it eased some of the strain and weight of the baby. G was the best husband and father: he endured the chilly pool and sea to swim with A most of the time, trotted back and forth to hotel room and snack bars to fetch drinks or some other item, taking A to the potty most of the time, etc. We had a grand ol' time, though, and thoroughly enjoyed our vacation. It cost a pretty penny to come to the resort but it was worth. every. single. penny. I can say that without regret.

So, here's how you should do vacation: go all-inclusive.

One of our increasingly rare self-portraits as a couple