Lessons unlearned...
- you cannot pour browned ground beef grease directly down the drain. (It never gets to the drain for those who've never tried it....it just immediately sticks to the sides of your sink until you and a lot of soap scrub it off)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Sunday nights....
The calm before the storm.
A nice relaxing/busy weekend under our belts....and denial of the coming days of language learning.
Friday, I (Steph) went out to lunch with two girls from my language class. We are making this a weekly celebration and it is entertaining to have 'girl talk' with women from around the world. We went to the Pizza Hut buffet. I was delinquent in my sign reading and got stuck with the salad bar buffet instead of the pizza buffet. Oh well, it was good salad!
Saturday, we tempted fate and boarded the ferry to the "Big Island" despite cloudy skies. Happily, Micah befriended several teenagers on the 80 minute journey that kept him busy eating their picnic food and starring in their cell phone photos. Strangely, we ended up on the same boat home and Micah was loved a second time by those great girls. It made Mom & Dad relax a little..... It started pouring as we neared the island. We were not swayed. We paid for two over-priced "in pouring rain" special umbrellas and started exploring the quaint streets. Then we dodged into a nice-looking restaurant for our first kebab meal since we moved here. Yum. Many restaurants here (including dessert places or coffee shops) have multiple floors so people can take advantage of the view. They often have a separate wait staff and display window of treats for each floor despite all belonging to one restaurant. We had the second floor nearly to ourselves which was perfect since Micah was bemoaning the loss of his afternoon nap on this rainy day. After lunch, the rain slowed and we hopped onto a horse carriage ride to St. George's Monastery. Buyuk Ada is much like Mackinaw Island in that there are no cars, just bikes and horse carriages! No fudge, but lots of yummy ice cream. That may have been Micah's favorite part - waffle cone dipped in chocolate with sprinkles with 3 scoops of yummy ice cream.
Today - a friend of our neighbor's came and created a shower curtain rod for our uniquely shaped bath-tub/shower! Hooray!! We will have standing showers now! AND, he installed our toilet paper holder and a ceiling fan. Ah, the little things in life.....the comforts of home. He's coming back tomorrow to put in our other 3 ceiling fans so we'll be ready for the beastly days of summer. PTL!
A nice relaxing/busy weekend under our belts....and denial of the coming days of language learning.
Friday, I (Steph) went out to lunch with two girls from my language class. We are making this a weekly celebration and it is entertaining to have 'girl talk' with women from around the world. We went to the Pizza Hut buffet. I was delinquent in my sign reading and got stuck with the salad bar buffet instead of the pizza buffet. Oh well, it was good salad!
Saturday, we tempted fate and boarded the ferry to the "Big Island" despite cloudy skies. Happily, Micah befriended several teenagers on the 80 minute journey that kept him busy eating their picnic food and starring in their cell phone photos. Strangely, we ended up on the same boat home and Micah was loved a second time by those great girls. It made Mom & Dad relax a little..... It started pouring as we neared the island. We were not swayed. We paid for two over-priced "in pouring rain" special umbrellas and started exploring the quaint streets. Then we dodged into a nice-looking restaurant for our first kebab meal since we moved here. Yum. Many restaurants here (including dessert places or coffee shops) have multiple floors so people can take advantage of the view. They often have a separate wait staff and display window of treats for each floor despite all belonging to one restaurant. We had the second floor nearly to ourselves which was perfect since Micah was bemoaning the loss of his afternoon nap on this rainy day. After lunch, the rain slowed and we hopped onto a horse carriage ride to St. George's Monastery. Buyuk Ada is much like Mackinaw Island in that there are no cars, just bikes and horse carriages! No fudge, but lots of yummy ice cream. That may have been Micah's favorite part - waffle cone dipped in chocolate with sprinkles with 3 scoops of yummy ice cream.
Today - a friend of our neighbor's came and created a shower curtain rod for our uniquely shaped bath-tub/shower! Hooray!! We will have standing showers now! AND, he installed our toilet paper holder and a ceiling fan. Ah, the little things in life.....the comforts of home. He's coming back tomorrow to put in our other 3 ceiling fans so we'll be ready for the beastly days of summer. PTL!
Sunday, May 16, 2010
For one reason I love Michigan
I came across this website while looking for Michigan photos. Wow. I love Michigan. And I need to get better at photography! These photos are awesome!
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jensenl/visuals/album/2006/pictured/
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jensenl/visuals/album/2006/pictured/
day by day
Well, life has taken on a sort of rhythm here and we are having less to post about. We go to class, we go home and study, we lay on the couch and watch Micah be cute, and we go to bed.
We have been reflecting on some of the readings in our texts....I can't remember if I posted about them or not. It seems like most readings talk about a person who is a doctor and has a busy life but lives for the weekends. The weekends always include dancing and eating out with friends until early in the morning. It is interesting to have the opportunity to look at a culture from the outside as it helps look at your own. Rick and I have wondered, is that what most Americans do too? Just waiting for the weekends and the chance to let loose and party? Wouldn't it be so much better if each day was exciting in and of itself because it was a gift given with its own treasures? So, we're trying to keep our eyes more open to see what delights happen in between the weekends. And funnily enough, we seem to get our own dance party with Moo most nights. His best dance moves include endless circles that make him fall on his bum and quick stomping of the feet. A future on the stomp circuit?
One of our classmates from our first language class came to church with us today. What a special gift to discover that she has a similar background to us though she comes from Finland! I actually learned last week that there are many Michiganders with Finnish roots...similar climate I guess. It was great fun to reconnect with her and share stories of exploring the city. She will only be here through June, but how fun to have met her and developed a friendship in these early stages of getting rooted here.
I survived my first Turkish presentation and I have celebrated by reading 200 pages of an English novel by Clive Cussler, Shockwave. It is nice to read something fun in English to ease the language headaches. ;-)
Have a great week!
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
çok ödev var
This is the daily chorus for our language class, "Much homework we have!" This week I am to give a 20-30 minute presentation in Turkish about Michigan. Yikes! Searching the internet for appropriate photos has made me miss the gorgeous scenery of Michigan's coastline and forests. We will need to find more places like that. We did go to the Belgrade Forest a couple weeks ago and it was very pretty. Our friends claim it to be beautiful in the fall with the leaves changing. We have yet to see if it will match Michigan's grandeur. ;-) There was a beautiful lake that we walked around. More nature adventures needed!
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Rumeli Palace
Well, this is my third time trying to post this message...so I may keep it short and add more later. We went and visited this castle last weekend. It was a beautiful day and the panorama was awesome. Micah tried to climb all the steps, but his nervous parents drew the line at the outer wall stairs. Too scary without railings! This was built in the late 1400s. Wild!
