He's BACK!

Arda has come back home - he looks a bit thinner, tanner, quieter. The past few days we spent basically glued to each other. I started bawling my eyes out when I saw him on the bus. Two weeks. Only two weeks, and he has grown, physically and emotionally. He seems a bit more tolerant, has more confidence. Camp really did wonders for him. He seems a bit tired - probably because of the 26 km walk (not 16, as mentioned in my other post) and the grueling basketball practice 4x daily, and maybe because he is having a hard time adjusting to the heat and smog here (Uludag has a high altitude and the weather is clear as a, well, mountain top, I guess). Pictures to follow soon.

Friends will be Friends

It's time for all our friends living abroad to make their way to Turkey right about now. Mid-July - August is when we get to see people from our past, people who were our "best man" in our wedding, people who bought their first houses and invited us to see it first, people who still live "over there" - some enjoying their dreams, some yearning to come back.

So Thursday, we went to a surprise birthday party in NuTeras. Asyak is a gorgeous friend we met a few years ago - and her husband Sarp managed to get 20+ people together to surprise her. We went to Mikla by mistake at first - no it was Sarp's fault - he told us to meet at Mikla!!! My dad babysat for Tunca, we had a great time, apparently so did they.

Here's Asyak in all her beauty:
We spent Friday evening going to AltınKek for cake & lemonade for Tunca, then walked over to the beach to watch fireworks, very common during weddings in Turkey.

Saturday evening we were in Köşebaşı with my cool friends Pelin and Tolga and their daughters Mercan and Şiraz - Mercan goes to school with Tunca - Pelin & I went to the same middle school for about 4 years.

Sunday we were in Village Park with Cem & Pınar & Duru, then drove around Beykoz looking for houses. At night we went to Feriye for dinner with Burak's sister - I think that restaurant has the best view I have ever seen in the Bosphorus.

We actually spent the whole weekend eating. And with friends. It doesn't get any better than this.

edit: we got an email from another friend, Cüneyt, Sunday evening saying that they're all here in İstanbul as well, so we met them in Reina for drinks and dinner. Cüneyt was Burak's "witness"/best man in our wedding, Gökhan and Selen are one our oldest friends, Seyhan (sans her husband Burak) and Süreyya and Karen were there for a wonderful blue cruise back in 1997... We all see each other (maybe) twice a year, and life goes on, yet things to talk about never cease and our friendship seems to survive the thousands of miles between us all. Süreyya and Karen's son, Morgan, the "firstborn" to the whole group, was there as well and has truly grown up to be a gorgeous, kind, smart and polite young man - so mature for his age.

Blog Traffic Whining

I want this shirt from Despair:
But I want them to customize it by having it say: "More people read this shirt than MY blog."

And this one, for both the boys (wish they came in kids' sizes):
Despair is filled with stuff that I love. And I always crack up at the way they make fun of themselves... Check out the note on their "shopping cart" page, will ya.

16 Kilometers = 10 Miles

Arda did hike 16 kilometers. We spoke last night. The group started with 18 children, hiking up Uludag mountain early in the morning. Only 8 of them made it to the summit, among them, my sweet Arda. They cooled down at one these glacier lakes near the summit, Arda said he only dipped his feet, but one his coaches swam. The hike took about 11 hours, and afterwards all the kids were sent to the infirmary to get looked at - they all were fine.

I am so proud of him. He is so proud of himself.

Consumption

A few years ago, I was contemplating getting a Vespa for myself. I seldom drive anywhere, usually either walk or take a cab, and with both the boys at school during the day, I thought a cool Vespa would do the trick. I could find a second hand one, and it would be cheaper than taking cabs, and would be environmentally responsible with all the gas prices

One night, while we were watching E.L. Raymond, I told my husband, "you know, I might want a Vespa."

He looked at me, with his incredible lashes and amazing green eyes, and asked:

"Are you so unhappy?"

The cliche of women finding comfort in shopping does apply to me. It might seem shallow, and I am a sucker for shoes and handbags, yet the year was 2002 when I bought my last handbag, and I managed not to buy one single pair of shoes since early 2007. A Vespa, though, now that is what I call a midlife crisis.

I never bought that Vespa. It was not safe to ride around in the treacherous streets of İstanbul, and what if I needed to take the kids somewhere, and everyone would see my butt crack because of the low cut pants I used to wear, alas, no Vespa for me.

The point of all this ranting and reminiscing about the averted crisis, is that yesterday, as I walked home wearing my beloved yet so unfairly not worn often orange and green platforms, I stopped over at an upholstery store and called my husband to say, "I found the perfect, perfect plaid for the single couch."

His reaction was, "Are you so unhappy again?"

No! I am quite content actually. I miss my son, but he'll be back next week. I am busy with my pottery, consulting for friends, having fun, and will be on vacation in about three weeks. Life is good.

It's just that the platforms were hard to walk on, I needed a rest, and the plaid was just what I was looking for. I really need to prioritize.

I'll do a before - after post of the reupholstered couch soon.

ps.: that rocking couch was the first "new" thing we bought for our apartment other than the lamps when we were living in NYC. And, it is only furniture (other than Arda's crib and our bookcase) that I brought back to Turkey while moving.

Happy Camper

My worries have subsided a bit - here's how my first phone conversation went with Arda, after four days of camp:

A: Hi mom
Z: Hi honey, how are you?
A: Great.
Z: Are you having fun?
A: Yeah. We have so much fun here that we don't want to go to bed but we end up falling asleep really quickly. I guess I get tired after all the fun.
Z: (worried that he's totally making that up so as not to let his feelings out) So, what activities do you like the best?
A: We spent the night on the mountain, in a tent last night.
Z: That sounds great.
A: We giggled so much they told us to be quiet like 20 times.
(pause)
You know what, we have the biggest room in camp.
Z: Who else is in your room?
A: (counts four boys' names, plus his coach) We have the biggest room. It's great. And we get to shower at 6PM every day. Then we play games all night. And we dance.
Z: How about basketball?
A: We have practice, umm, three times I think, but mostly we play. And it's here. I used all my sweatshirts. But they're not dirty. I used my windbreaker last night. And that's not dirty. And my shoes are perfect. They're not dirty either.
Z: Well, it's OK if they get dirty, your coach can tell you how to clean them, or I can send you extras after the weekend.
A: It's OK. I can manage. Oh, I get your emails. And my cousin sent me an email. There was a picture. He wrote that my uncle looks stupid. I laughed really hard. I showed it to all my friends. They laughed, too.
Z: Your brother wants to say hi (I put him on speakerphone)
Tunca: Hi Arda. I miss you (and he gets teary eyed). I miss you.
A: I miss you, too. Are you OK
T: Mom, you speak
Z: Tunca is great. He is going to summer school and swims everyday.
A: Tell him we can't swim here. Maybe this weekend we can swim. I don't know. Tell him there is no pool.
Z: OK. I'll tell him.
A: I have to go.
Z: OK. I miss you! I Love you! We'll talk on Monday.
A: I miss you, too. Yes. Write me emails. I got two emails one day, July 3rd. I got my uncles and my father's as well. I can't write back, though. I don't have a computer.
Z: I'll write to you, don't worry.
A: Bye
Z: Bye honey.

Then I spoke his room coach for a few minutes. He said everything was great, that ARda was really doing well, and he was getting along with everyone.

So I feel better. I still miss him. But I definitely feel better.

Burak also spoke to Arda later, and he said that Arda really sounded happy as well. Ufuk, the room coach, said they have a 16 km hike tomorrow. Yikes. I hope he's mistaken and that's 6km. There's no way Arda can hike 16 kms. I can't hike 16 kms.

What are you doing now?

For those of you who have experience with sending your children to camp, please forgive me if I seem anxious or weird or downright scared.

Arda has been wanting to attend the summer camp organized by his basketball club for the past two years. Last year, I told him he was too young to go. This year, seeing the yearning in his eyes, I gave in.

He left early this morning. I spent most of the day sleeping, the only interlude being picking up Tunca from school and playing chess and checkers with him. The moments I was awake were filled with questions about what my 8 year old son was doing without me. "He must have been hungry, he only had a bite to eat at 6AM this morning" or "will he remember to put sunscreen on?" or "I wonder if he has fallen asleep yet" or "I miss him."

I know that this is a great opportunity for him to experience wonderful things, to improve his basketball, to meet new people, and to grow.

He certainly seemed ready and eager to go this morning. I certainly am not ready.

This is where he went: http://www.geleceginyildizlari.com

There is an English version, as well.