Sunday, February 14 - Istanbul
I have no concept of what day it is....except that as we strolled through Ortakoy today we discovered many a young couple celebrating this Hallmark holiday with roses, stuffed baked potatoes, and hand holding. Rick said that Sunday is like family day and so the playground equipment by the water was extra crowded with small people today. Micah enjoyed watching the other kids and going down the slide.
We live in 'the safest neighborhood in Istanbul' according to a friend. While this is really nice, it also means we live at the top of a very steep hill. And then we get to hike up 4 flights of stairs once inside our apartment building. It is a lovely apartment though - with lots of natural sunlight (great windows in every room), pretty wood floors, large kitchen countertops, and lots of space (especially with no furniture!) It will be a great place to go home to at the end of a long day of language learning. Rick did a great job picking out an oasis to come home to.
We attempted taking Micah down the "hill" from our apartment in the stroller. I think I'll carry him in the front back in the future and use the stroller at the bottom. Same with the way back up. It was just a little too scary to consider accidentally losing my grip and having him speed down the road at 50 mph. We also attempted carrying 7 bags of groceries and a floor fan up the hill with the stroller. In the future, we think we'll do mega grocery trips less often and hire a taxi to take us up the hill.
We're learning day by day...little by little. I am thankful that cooking has been fairly easy thus far. Kenyan chicken last night thanks to spices from Lindsey! And Chicken cacciatore tonight thanks to "Italian Spice" at the grocery store.
We had tea with some friends tonight. They surrounded us with Turkish, but it was nice to be amongst friends.
