Celebrating My Birthday

This break from vacation blogging (Yes, there are still a lot more vacation photos coming!) is because I celebrated my birthday yesterday! It ended up being a really fun day, and I thought I'd share a bit about it here! Unfortunately, I don't have any photos, so you'll have to use your imaginations.

First of all, I've been needing a haircut for a while, but my language isn't good enough to where I can go by myself. Plus, I've been hearing horror stories about the difficulty of working with Turkish stylists, so I've been putting it off. Finally I asked a friend - Julie, who has been here longer than me - if she could help me go get a haircut! She lives in a far district of town that I have never been to, so it was kind of my like Joni's Day Out Adventure to go to Julie's district (Batikent, for those of you who might be familiar with Ankara. It takes about an hour for me to get to from my house - 30 minutes on a bus, then 30 more on the subway). She took me to her hairdresser who is located in Acity Outlet AVM (AVM is "Mall" in Turkish). For any locals who might be interested in going, it's called Şahika Kuaför on the bottom floor of the mall - ask for Mehmet. Seriously, it's worth the trip out to Batikent for this guy! He was so friendly and professional, and Julie just explained to him what I wanted and he did it. That might not sound exceptional to people who aren't in Turkey, but from what I've heard, that's pretty awesome for a stylist here.

The hairdresser's shop was different from any I had been to before. There were WAY more people working there than I'd ever seen before! You had the stylists, who were like the superstars of the place, and then a whole horde of people I'll call "minions" that were running around doing the dirty work, and it seemed like their jobs were to just anticipate exactly what the stylist wanted and do it without them asking. First, one of the minions shampooed my hair. Then Mehmet began the cut while chatting with Julie in Turkish. At one point, he dropped his comb, and instantly a minion swooped in with another comb - Mehmet never broke his stride. The minion washed the comb and brought it back, switching it out with the other one, and Mehmet just kept working like nothing had even happened.

So he finished the cut and began to blow dry my hair, and another minion came over with a round brush. They had this amazing system where the minion knew exactly where to hold the dryer, when to hand it to Mehmet, when to take it back again, what angle to hold it. It was hilarious! Then when my hair was styled, another minion appeared with a mirror so I could see the back. I loved the cut, and I was also thoroughly entertained by the show! All this for only 35 TL, which is just over $19. I wish I had thought to get a picture of my styled cut - it looked really cute!

Then Julie and I walked the mall for a little bit. I asked her to help me find some shoes, which I've been surprised to have such a hard time! Apparently I have bigger feet than any Turkish woman is allowed to have, so NO stores carry shoes my size! Julie and I didn't have any luck at the mall either, and she divulged to me that she has people bring her shoes from the States. Guess that's what I'll do!!!

Then Julie took me out to lunch for some Turkish food, which was delicious and we really enjoyed just chatting together. Then I caught the subway back into the town center where I had a language lesson scheduled at Starbucks. Usually my teacher comes to my house, but with my plans in the morning, I wasn't sure I could make it back home in time for my lessons, so she met me in town instead. I was glad to get to go to Starbucks - who would refuse a birthday Frappucino on a hot day?!

After a good lesson, I took the bus home to meet Justin and Elias. They had sweet birthday flowers and a homemade card waiting for me! Then the three of us taxied out to IKEA where we ate dinner in their cafeteria (Swedish meatballs - Yummo!) and did some shopping. IKEA has a free children's play area where you can leave your kid up to an hour while you shop, so Elias loves going out there, and we do too!

So it was a fun first birthday to celebrate in Turkey, and I'm thankful for loving friends and family to help me celebrate!

Elias' Birthday Party at School

Yesterday, Elias' school had a party for him, and it was so precious!! Justin and I both went, and we're so glad to have been there. It was a lot of fun, and Elias felt very special! The first thing we saw was his name and picture on the door when we arrived wishing him a happy birthday! (The literal translation is "It's good that you were born.")

The first thing they did was give all the kids a crown hat, and then they brought out the cake I had made and sang happy birthday in Turkish - the same phrase that was on the door. It was the same tune as the English version, though, so Elias knew what they were saying!

Truthfully, I was surprised and pleased that he managed to blow out the candle himself - I was leaning in to help, but he did it himself!

Then they turned on some music and had a dance party! It was so adorable seeing the kids boogie!

Then they played Musical Chairs, and they arranged it so Elias would win. Umm, happy birthday!

Then came what I think was the sweetest part. The kids all lined up and one by one came to give Elias a birthday greeting! Justin sat by him so he could translate. They all said some variation of happy birthday, but several of them gave him a birthday kiss too! (I was pleased that he let them!)

They also gave him a card with greetings from his classmates, and a present - a mug from the school.

Then it was lunchtime - the kiddos had to eat their lunch before they got cake. Except Elias, since he still refuses to eat the school food. So he sat with his school lunch for a few minutes and then got cake anyway - only because it was his birthday!

So he had a very special birthday party at school! Happy birthday, my big 4-year-old!!

Somebody's Turning 4!

Elias' 4th birthday is tomorrow (May 21), and we like to make celebrations last at least a week! So we've already begun celebrating! With package delivery not being reliable here, we had family members send money so we could buy Elias presents for them. We've been opening up one every day or two for the past week, and he's having so much fun with the new toys! I'll post a photo album soon with pictures and videos of him with his new toys so that those who gave them can see his joy!

We also had a little mini-party last week with just one other family, some friends we knew in Missouri who moved here just a couple months before we did. We had originally planned to meet in the park for a picnic, but that got rained out so they just came over to our house and we had our picnic anyway!

Elias reading a story with Abby and Drew

Abby trying on Elias' birthday hat he made a school this week. This was appropriate, since Abby's birthday is just a few days before Elias', in fact the day before we had this party.

One of the major reasons I wanted to have this party early is because I wanted to practice making a birthday cake from scratch! He'll be having a party at school tomorrow that I need to take a cake for, but I wanted to make one first to make sure I could have something good to take to school. So our friends were very willing guinea pigs to try out my first attempt, which was pretty good!

The chocolate cake was stellar, but the buttercream frosting was a little weird. For the school cake tomorrow, I'm going to do a whipped cream frosting instead. So we're having fun figuring out how to do a birthday in Turkey. More to come tomorrow!