Celebrating the Winter Holiday in Turkey

(Joni) As I mentioned in my previous post, the vast majority of Turks don't celebrate Christmas. However, many of them do celebrate the New Year, and they do it very similarly to the way Americans celebrate Christmas - tree with lights and decorations, giving presents, even Santa (Noel Baba, which means Father Christmas in Turkish) comes on New Year's Eve here! This is why I said Winter Holiday in my post title... Even though in our house, we were very much celebrating Christmas, a lot of the lights/decorations/festivities we are seeing around us are because of New Year!

Karum Mall in the town center has some beautiful star/snowflake decorations.

Since we believe in celebrating Christmas as the birth of Christ and not just a winter holiday, we tried to maintain our family traditions that would help us keep that in mind. So we did our Advent Tree (where we read a short Bible story and put up an ornament every day of December) again this year, and we enjoyed that a lot!

Elias next to our tree in his Phineas & Ferb Christmas jammies that Grandma & Grandpa brought when they visited in the Fall. It's Christmas Eve, so there's only one spot left at the top of the tree for the Christmas Day ornament!

We also threw our own little birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Day, which I unfortunately didn't take any pictures of. But we had a yummy dinner and birthday cake!

Since the postal system between the US and Turkey is expensive and unreliable, rather than mailing gifts to us, our family just gave us money and we did our own shopping for gifts... Elias got so many trains - he's a happy camper! We also had one gift that Grandma & Grandpa had brought when they were here, and it had been sitting in my closet since September! So that was fun for Elias to finally open it!

It was the Toy Story movie and some Toy Story figures. He loved them!

Since Elias had so many days off school, I tried to fill them with fun Christmas-y things like watching Christmas movies (His favorite is the old claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer!) and making Christmas cookies!

My favorite Christmas cookies - peanut butter blossoms! Elias liked the melted Kisses more than the cookie part - he definitely comes by his love of chocolate honestly. :)

We were also able to Skype with our families on Christmas, which was a blessing. Thanks to modern technology, we were able to watch all of them open the Turkish gifts we had sent, which was so much fun! :) So we had a nice first Christmas in Turkey, and we get to keep celebrating since the holiday the Turks are celebrating is yet to come! We're looking forward to seeing how they celebrate the New Year!

Preschool Christmas Party

(Joni) As a general rule, people in Turkey don't celebrate Christmas. Because of this, we've been surprised and pleased to learn that Elias' international preschool in fact makes a HUGE deal of Christmas! They've been learning Christmas songs all month, doing Christmas crafts, having one day when everyone wore red and green, and then Friday was their huge Christmas party. (It was the same format as the one they threw for Halloween.)

Unfortunately, Justin had to work, but I was able to attend the Christmas presentation from Elias' class. The class filed in wearing adorable Rudolph hats they had made from their handprints.

Then they sang a series of songs in English. We had been hearing Elias sing them at home for weeks, so I knew he knew the words, but he must just not like performing with a group because he just sat in his chair rather than participating in the singing. Here are a few of the songs (Elias is seated on the far left.):
Then the highlight of the party was that Santa came!! He made his big entrance, and then one by one each child sat on his lap and answered the questions "What is your name? How old are you? What do you want from Santa?" The kids had varying levels of proficiency in English, but I could see a great improvement in the ability of the kids to answer those questions since the Halloween party. Elias still wouldn't answer them even though he obviously knows English. :) Here is Santa's entrance and Elias on Santa's lap. The lady helping him is Ms. Olga, the school's phonics teacher. Elias LOVES her, and you can see him answer her questions (He said "Yeah." to all her questions.) rather than Santa's.
One funny note about his class is that the boys in his class almost all said they wanted Angry Birds from Santa! Who knew Angry Birds was so popular among 4- & 5-year-olds in Turkey?! Although Santa asked them what they wanted, he gave them all the same gift, which was a small Santa that dances and sings Jingle Bells. (See it pictured below.)

Then they had a spread of Christmas cookies, which Elias enjoyed immensely.

And they sent him home with a huge bag of fun things.

Clockwise from top: Paper bag with wreath craft, dancing Santa, cookie on a stick, bag of cookies/candy from his teacher, stocking craft with bag of popcorn/cookie/candy/winter rubber duckie, and gingerbread man/Christmas tree/snowman crafts.

So it was a fun Christmas celebration! And now Elias is off school for 10 days, which is practically unheard-of in Turkey. Since they don't celebrate Christmas, they don't have a school holiday. But I'm sure the International Preschool teachers enjoy the break! :)

The End of the World (Kıyamet Günü)

I wanted to chronicle something about the last week. Friday, December 21st was the day that supposedly the Mayan calendar ended (even though this supposedly isn't true) along with the world. This was a big deal in Turkey and the talk of my students and co-workers the past couple weeks. Şirince, a Turkish village on the Mediterranean, was somehow prophesied to be a "safe" haven and saw its population swell as a result. Tom Cruise was even rumored to be coming.

On Thursday, one of the 4th grade teachers had an "Apocalypse" (Kıyamet Günü) party and several students promised not to be in school on Friday. Indeed, Friday's attendance in my classes was the lowest all year.

One of the local malls had a clever marketing scheme around the day. This poster reads "The apocalypse is happening at Kentpark Mall! 110% (off)" The fine print says "100% Kentpark Mall, 10% off all purchases over 100 lira." Clever!

When I got to school on Friday I was reminded that we still had until about 1:20pm local time before the apocalypse was supposed to happen (times for each city were tweeted out quite a bit). Thankfully, the world didn't end while I was with my 2nd grade class. But the low attendance made it one of the most well-behaved classes of the semester.

Long-Distance Family Photo

(Joni) My family traditionally takes a large group photo every Christmas, but this year we're in Turkey and my family is in two different US states, so that makes taking a photo together rather difficult. However, my sister ran across this cute idea on Pinterest, and she tweaked the idea to work for us. So we made letters to spell out the word FAMILY, and we took different photos to fit, then patched them together into what turned out to be an ADORABLE group photo! (Click to enlarge.)

F-Us
A-Our son, Elias
M-My parents
I-My nephew
L-My other nephew
Y-My sister and her family

A really funny thing about this photo is that my sister and her family live in Georgia, so it was 70 degrees (F) the day they took their photos... They were sweating in their long sleeves! On the other hand, it was absolutely freezing in Ankara when we took ours - we stripped off our hats and coats just to quickly snap our photos before putting them back on! In fact, the morning after we took ours, we woke up to a layer of snow!

But it was fun to be able to collaborate on this "family photo" together, and it helps me still feel connected to them even from far away.

A shoutout to learnturkisheasy.com. If you're learning Turkish...

(Justin) Gül Öztürk has been a big help in my language learning. She writes very helpful Turkish-teaching posts at http://www.learnturkisheasy.com. She has a parallel site that simplifies news stories into simple Turkish and includes an audio file as well. I wanted to give her a shout-out as she is trying to generate income from her work. You will find her sites linked on the right hand side of this page as well.

There are so many freely available resources available for learning Turkish, and so many Turks eager to help people learn. We're quite thankful for them.

Aşure

Aşure (Ashure) is a Muslim holiday commemorating several events in Islamic history. It is traditionally the day Noah's ark settled on dry land. Tradition holds that Noah's family made a Thanksgiving-like meal with what they had left after so long on the ark--namely some beans, dried fruit, and a bit of meat from the animals they sacrificed. This was made into a stew called aşure, or Noah's Pudding. Muslims celebrate this event over a season, making aşure pudding and giving it out to neighbors as a symbol of friendship and goodwill.

Three neighbors brought us some aşure as a treat. All of them had nuts, pomegranate, and figs which made it quite sweet. Two of them also had beans and chickpeas, which contrasted with the sweetness. All of them were very high in calories, which is why it's traditionally a cold-weather treat. 

The first bowl we received - it was beanless and the one we liked best.

The beans made this one a little iffy for us!

Turkish culture says that when someone gives you a food item, you return their dish with another food item in it, so Joni returned the bowls to the neighbors with some homemade pumpkin bread. It coincided with our own Thanksgiving, so we enjoyed the parallels. Justin attempted to explain the parallel to one of the neighbors and it was met with an "Okay." :-) We were very thankful that we had several neighbors wanting to reach out to us in this cultural way, regardless of whether we loved the dish or not!

Parent-Teacher Conferences and Other Meetings

(Justin) This past weekend I had a working Saturday; I had to be at school by 11am. I wish I had a picture of the freshly planted flowers in the front flowerbed, given that it gets below freezing every night now and these plants will be dead in less than a week. Why the urgency for a Saturday? It was Parent-Teacher Conference Day!

I survived my first veli toplantası, or parent-teacher meeting. For 90 minutes, parents queued up to talk to me about their kids. Most of them wanted to know if their 2-4th grader was speaking and pronouncing English properly. I wanted them to know more about their kids behavior, so that's what I focused on. Some parents were surprised that their child was naughty in my class, but most are used to hearing such things. This was the single best test I've had of my rapid-fire-mode Turkish, and it went well. Probably averaged something like 30 seconds per parent.

Much less fun have been the teacher meetings of recent weeks, including something called Şube Öğretmenler Kurulu (abbreviated ŞÖK, which sounds kind of like "SHOCK!" This is a teachers' meeting where every student in every grade is discussed individually by the homeroom teacher and all of the branch teachers, like myself. These averaged 2.5 hours for each grade, and are held three times a year(!). What's frustrating about meetings is that there is a lot of talk about problems without much hope of solutions.

Suppose there is a child who is violent, curses his teachers and classmates, gets his friends to behave naughtily, and destroys school property. Suppose also his parents think it's the teachers' job to teach the kids proper behavior and respect-- not the parents' job. In America, such a kid would be held outside of class in detention, sent home, or suspended in order to preserve the classroom environment for the rest of the students. In Turkey, that's illegal until at least 5th grade. Some schools do it if their administration is brave enough. Not ours. So, the solution to really problematic kids is often... to do nothing. "Sabırlı olmamız lazım," or "We need to be patient." I mentioned previously that there is no special education in the schools; for kids that are physically or mentally disabled, there is little to do other than love the kid and hope for the best. The school psychologists can help kids deal with anger and emotional issues, but can do little to help a kid with a disability. This can make for a very difficult classroom environment. 

So, ŞÖK serves more as a way for teachers to share information about the child's background. In many cases, I felt greater sympathy for the child. She cries because her dad is in jail, he is violent because his parents are divorcing, etc. But then you think, "We're going to meet three times a year to hear these stories again for as long as this kid is at the school. I've seen plenty of 10th graders who behave very badly and have been the subject of these meetings for 10 years without any change. This is depressing." 

In the end, it's mostly the good kids' parents who come speak to you. The really difficult children have neglectful parents or their parents just don't want to hear about their kid's behavior. I think every teacher reading this can nod their head and say, "Exactly."

I won't write about the "teacher's council" meetings we have with all teachers and the principal, but these are also interesting depending on the principal's way of running things. The "normal" way in Turkey is for it to be strictly controlled top-down with no speaking by subordinates. My principal, however, opens the floor to new ideas and thoughts, which sometimes create controversy leading to longer meetings...

Celebrating Thanksgiving

(Joni) Holidays can be a difficult time of year for people who live far from their families, so we weren't sure exactly what to expect from Thanksgiving this year. However, we were blessed with lots of opportunities to celebrate with dear friends, so we didn't have much opportunity to be too homesick. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at any of our gatherings, so I'll just have to tell you about them instead.

Since Turkey doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving, Justin had school that day, so he didn't get to celebrate as much as the rest of us. Elias and I, however, went over to some friends' house at noon and had a very enjoyable lunch! There were 4 American families and 1 Canadian couple there, and one of the highlights for me was that my Turkish tutor also came and brought her sister! For both of these Turkish girls, it was the first time eating American food, and they were bowled over at all of it! They said, "This is delicious, but I'm going to be so fat after it's over!" I told them that was how it was supposed to be. :) Elias was SO EXCITED about getting pumpkin pie... He is his father's son in that regard!

Then we went home and Elias got a rest while I baked some dishes for our evening party! I was so pleased that a friend had given me some cream of mushroom soup and fried onions (neither of which are available locally) so I could make green bean casserole - a necessity of Thanksgiving in my book. We can't get canned green beans here either, but I found this Paula Deen recipe that used fresh ones, and it was delicious. I doubled the recipe, and there were no leftovers! I also baked my old standby macaroni & cheese recipe, and that was a hit as well. After Justin got off work, we went to another friend's house with 6 American families, and we had a great time celebrating with them as well. One of them thought to bring the game Catch Phrase, and it was fun enjoying a game together! (Although we did have to make the rule "No Turkish Allowed!" - some spoke better than others!) Elias got another piece of pumpkin pie, so he was happy.

Then Elias had a THIRD Thanksgiving party at preschool on Friday! They had been working all week to make adorable costumes:

Elias was so proud of his turkey costume and his feathered headdress!

Then they had a somewhat American lunch: turkey sandwiches, popcorn, pumpkin pie, and apple juice! What's really hilarious is that Elias absolutely refuses to eat school food, but he chowed down on this Thanksgiving feast! He apparently ate not just one turkey sandwich, but two! His (American) teacher laughed and said now we know it's just that he doesn't like the Turkish food they usually serve for lunch!

So we are incredibly thankful for the friends (who feel like family) we have here that allowed us to have a very enjoyable Thanksgiving, and for the precious school that gives Elias such great experiences! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Commemorating 10th of November in Ankara

(Justin) A couple weeks ago I wrote about how Turkey would celebrate its Republic Day holiday just after Kurban Bayram. I unfortunately forgot to take my camera to school to take pictures of that morning's ceremony. Just a short time after Republic Day, Turkey annually commemorates the death of Atatürk, which took place on 10 November, 1938. (This travel blog post gives a brief overview on Atatürk for more info.)

10 November is much less appropriate for amateur picture taking; it's more like a funeral, so I grabbed these pics from the school's Facebook page. Even though the holiday fell on a Saturday, all students and faculty were required to be at the school gym by 8:30am for a ceremony. Students first filed solemnly by a stage with a bust of Atatürk, guarded by two high schoolers with mock flames.

Many students brought flowers to lay on the stage and there were funeral wreaths around as well. Here are the 3rd graders posing with their flowers in front of a larger bust of Atatürk in the school's foyer.

Then everyone formed lines with their classes and stood at attention. There were speeches, a Powerpoint of Atatürk's life and honors, poems read by students, and we joined the entire nation in a moment of silence at exactly 9:05am, the moment of Atatürk's death.  All students and faculty (except K and 1st grade) stood at attention for the entire ceremony, which lasted about an hour.

I would say most Americans can't fathom dressing up and then loading kids onto school buses in the pouring rain for an early Saturday morning ceremony that will only last an hour, and then everyone goes home. But everyone does it with pride and contentment. This ceremony was much more silent and solemn than other holidays. 

Much of Ankara's population braved the pouring rain to visit Anıtkabir, the mausoleum where Atatürk is buried.There was an official ceremony there at the same time as ours.

Below is what it would look like on a sunnier day.

There were similar ceremonies all over the country. At the 9:05 moment of silence, sirens wail, people park their cars, and most everyone stands at attention. This picture got my attention via Twitter. It shows a man getting a shoeshine at 9:04. The captain is "A photograph that explains many things."

It is difficult to describe to people the love and devotion that Türks have for Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. He is, in a word, everywhere.

Bayram Vacation, Part 5: Ephesus

(Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, & Part 4.)

Another exceptionally cool thing about the resort we were staying at is that it was only 10 minutes away from the site of ancient Ephesus by public transportation. It was so amazing to see this historic, beautiful, biblical site! We were very happy that Elias gets to say he got to go there, even if he probably won't remember it.

Justin and Elias in front of the Great Amphitheater

Elias and me inside the Great Amphitheater (See Acts 19 for one thing that happened there!)

We went fairly early in the morning (for Turkey, at least), but we were surprised how many people were already there. This is obviously a destination for tour groups, and it's easy to see why. This place was cool.

The Temple of Hadrian

Elias and me in front of the Library of Celsus.

Looking down on the commercial market

Elias and Justin in front of the fountain outside the Amphitheater

An unexpected thing about Ephesus was that it was absolutely full of stray cats! (Most places in Turkey have too many stray dogs for there to be many cats about.) Elias, of course, adores cats, so this was definitely his favorite part.

Elias trying to climb onto a ledge to visit a kitty inside the Library of Celsus.

At one point, I put my backpack down to get some water out, and I was immediately accosted by a meowing cat who tried to get in my backpack! This seemed like strange behavior until we later saw this man who was carrying around a bag of food and feeding the cats. When I put my bag down, the cat must've thought I was him!

  

Justin had been to Ephesus in 2009 but was glad to take his family this time. We didn't get to hit Selçuk to see the Church of John, House of Mary, or the Ephesus museum, so perhaps another time.

Bayram Vacation, Part 4: Waterpark & Beach

(Read Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3.)

The Aqua Fantasy resort had an unbelievable waterpark! It is one of the biggest in Europe and also the biggest and safest in Turkey. (Even so, there were still a few slides we would never see in the States!) However, as mentioned previously, the water was too cold for us to enjoy it much. We only spent about an hour there.

Justin & Elias standing in front of some of the big slides as soon as we entered. I've never seen a water slide like that yellow one before! People would drop down on a raft and then just slide back and forth until they came to a stop!

Elias overlooking the kids' section of the waterpark, which included that cool pirate ship!

Justin rode a few of the big slides, some of which had features you'd likely never see in the U.S. One was a snake-like tunnel that you rode in a raft, easy except it was pitch black. Elias and I enjoyed watching him go down this racer one from the bridge!

There was also a beautiful private beach that was part of the resort, but the waters of the Mediterranean were also a bit chilly. We did, however, have quite a bit of fun enjoying the various parts of the beach!

Elias loves playing in sand, and we had brought his bucket & shovel for that very purpose. The sand here was interesting - it was very fine and powdery, and it had glitter in it (apparently caused by mica)! So when we went to wash off, we were muddy & glittery! We had fun building sand castles and looking for shells, though!

The resort had this long pier we could walk out on. This was taken at sunset, which is why it's kind of dark.

Elias chillin' on a deck chair out on the pier.

The resort also had paddleboats we were able to take out in the sea. The water was only a little higher than my knees, so I just jumped out to take a picture of the boys in the boat.

It was so beautiful and so fun!

Click to read Part 5.

Bayram Vacation, Part 3: Pools

(Read Part 1 & Part 2)

As we said in our first post, this amazing resort had 10 different pools, but the water was too cold to spend much time in them. (The air temperature was mid-70's, which was very comfortable, but it made the water quite chilly.)

This was a little pool that had several kid-sized water slides, but Elias and Mommy both just preferred chillin' on the edge to doing the slides.

In one of the big pools "swimming!"

The one we spent a LOT of time in, though, was the indoor pool! Not only was it heated, but it had a majorly fun kids' section and a large water slide! There were three different sections: a 1-foot kiddie section, a 3-foot section where the water slide dumped out, and a deep section with lanes for swimming laps. This video shows the whole place well, and you can take a listen to Elias' response to all the fun:

Elias was also VERY proud that he could stand up in the middle section - he liked being able to jump in it!

He was even prouder, though, that he actually did the slide once! He wasn't mentally prepared for going under at the end of the slide, so he wouldn't do it again, but you should hear him talk about how he was a big boy who did the slide and then went UNDER the water at the end! :)

Click to read more: Part 4, Part 5

Bayram Vacation, Part 2: FOOD!

(Read Part 1.)

As I said in the previous post, the food at Aqua Fantasy was all-you-can-eat-and-drink. The buffets were incredible! Besides traditional Turkish food, they also offered more Western-style food than I had ever seen in Turkey before: things like fried chicken fingers, cheesy garlic bread, Italian pastas, rich desserts, and they even served sweet potatoes one day! This is the buffet room:

The four islands in the center were for Turkish salads, fresh veggies, soups/breads, and hot dishes. Then along the left side was a series of cooks making fresh items (like omelets for breakfast), and along the right side was a ridiculous dessert buffet.

They really worked hard to make the displays both beautiful and tasty!

I took this picture on Friday, the day they celebrated Kurban Bayram (the Sacrifice Holiday), and they had this whole roasted lamb there on the counter, and the guy was serving lamb meat there. I said it looked like "roast beast!"

Justin was exceptionally happy to be able to find foods he loved that I would never cook at home. I took this picture of him with the plate below on Friday, the day they served the Bayram lamb.

On his plate are rice pilaf, roast lamb, fried crab meat, sardines, and fried chicken livers. Hey, he was happy!

Then as if all the savory dishes weren't enough, we discovered a guy making fried ice cream for dessert!!

So in addition to the ridiculous buffets for three meals a day, there were also snack bars near all of the pools that were open in the afternoons. Every day for Elias' afternoon snack, we went to the one right outside our room and he got waffles with honey!

That is one happy, sticky boy. :)

This snack bar also served the best pizza I've ever had in Turkey, so I always enjoyed a slice of that for afternoon snack! So thankful for being provided this complimentary week of great food!!

Click to read more: Part 3, Part 4, Part 5

A Tale of Two Holidays

(Justin) The neat thing about Turkey is the co-existence of religious reverence and secular democracy. We experienced it firsthand this week: 

A local supermarket advertises options for your sacrifice holiday.

The Muslim world was geared up for Eid al-Adha, the Feast of Sacrifice, where Muslims celebrate Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Ishmael. (FYI-- Abraham's birthplace is located in modern southern Turkey.) Schools, banks, and other institutions were closed last week from Wednesday to Sunday (plus Monday, see below). To celebrate, families typically gather together from all over for a large meal. There is often a live animal slaughtered for the meal and also for ritual sacrifice. For example, there is a large place on the western outskirts of Ankara (and other parts of town) where cattle and sheep are sold for slaughter and you can either take the cow up to the hillside to be sacrificed or pay for someone to do it for you. Other people will simply buy meat for the meals from their local butcher. Families distribute some of the meat to the less-fortunate, and there are charities that collect money for the poor if you aren't distributing anything yourself. Children may get candy and other sweets. Here's a good post by an ex-pat woman who has often taken part in the holiday rituals. Those who don't have family obligations seem to travel to the beach or elsewhere for a nice vacation, which is what we did.

Because Muslim holidays revolve around the lunar calendar, the holiday moves around and this year buttresses October 29th, Turkey's Cumhuriyet Bayramı or "Republic Day," which commemorates Atatürk's declaration in 1923 that Turkey was officially a republic. This is one of the biggest secular holidays in Turkey and an important day for Kemalists, those who want to preserve the legacy of Atatürk and his principles to guide the country. There are typically ceremonies honoring Atatürk at all the schools (even though they are closed, students and faculty attend a ceremony in the morning), a ceremony at his grave with air force flyovers, and banks and such are closed.

Banners of Atatürk like this one and Turkish flags will be flown all over town on Monday.

However, this year there was some clash of political ideologies. The current ruling government is not the party of Atatürk and is more religious conservative. They have made some changes to how Turkish national holidays are celebrated. This has led to some restrictions on marches and other demonstrations were planned for Monday. Ankara's mayor sent out a notice for schools to remain closed on October 29th and not to celebrate Republic Day until October 30th (as part of their normal school day). However, the school I work at is very Kemalist and held Monday's ceremonies as planned (after all, everyone had already made their travel plans around being back at school for the 29th).

In any case, it was interesting to experience two of the biggest holidays in Turkey together over the course of six days.

Bayram Vacation, Part 1: Aqua Fantasy

Justin mentioned in a previous post that although his job is difficult, it also has some amazing perks. Last week we received the ultimate of all perks - the school sent their faculty and families on a 5-day vacation to the Western coast of Turkey (a place called Kuşadası, near the large city of Izmir) over the holiday! All we had to do was purchase our airfare, and EVERYTHING else was covered for us. What a blessing!

Like father like son on the flight from Ankara to Izmir (both reading the in-flight magazine). It was just a 1-hour flight, then there was a 1-hour bus ride to get to the resort. Not bad at all!

We weren't sure exactly what to expect, but it turns out that this place was called Aqua Fantasy, and that is an apt name for it. This place really was beyond our wildest dreams! It's an all-inclusive resort where you wear a wristband that enables you access to everything the resort offers: hotel room, all-you-can-eat-and-drink buffet for all three meals and snacks, 10 pools (indoor, outdoor, kiddie, etc.) with water slides, one of the largest waterparks in Europe, a beach (on the Mediterranean Sea), live entertainment, and much more. This resort is obviously geared toward foreigners - all the signage was in English, and almost all of the staff there spoke English as well.

There will be a long series of blog posts showing our vacation, so I thought I'd start with the accommodations.

Our hotel. (Image borrowed from here.) We actually never swam in this pool because the water was COLD and there were plenty of other options.

The place was just massive. It was a fair hike to get from one end to the other, and you can see in the photo above that there was a handy bridge across the center of the pool that took us from our building into the dining hall.

Justin & Elias on the bridge

We were given a Family Room, which means there was an extra bed for Elias, and his part of the room had rolling screens that could close and give privacy between the two sections. That was great!

View from the hall door. You can see the brown sliding doors in the middle.

Elias' section of the room also had a little couch that could've folded out to make another bed to accommodate more people. He just enjoyed playing on it. And there was a little table and cabinet that were perfect for his toys!

You can't see it in the photo, but the bathroom had a full tub, which is actually kind of rare in Turkey. A lot of places (our apartment included) only have showers. So this was a huge treat for Elias to get full baths!

They even had a complimentary fruit plate waiting for us! That's the kind of place this was!

Click to read more: Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5