First Big Snow in Ankara

(Joni) Last night and today, we got our first big snowfall in Ankara. We've had some dustings before this, but nothing that accumulated much or stayed longer than a few hours. This was 3 or 4 inches, though, and it's COLD, so it's going to stay a while!

This was early in the morning. It kept snowing so we ended up with a bit more than what you see here.

Despite children everywhere clamoring for a snow day, the roads were good enough for Justin to have to go to school this morning, but Elias doesn't go to school on Tuesdays. So instead, we bundled up and decided to play in the snow for a few minutes in the parking lot next to our building. (I'm a wimp and don't like the cold, so we didn't stay out long.)

Elias' favorite things are "flopping" and "rolling" in the snow. He didn't inherit his mama's dislike of cold!

The snow was too powdery to pack into a snowman, but that didn't hamper Elias' enjoyment!

After we had been out for a little while and were about to head back in, one of the men from our building came out to clear the snow off the cars that were parked in the lot. The Turkish culture LOVES children, so he was pleased to see Elias out playing in the snow. He even showed Elias how to make a snowball, and the man told him to throw it at me! I chose not to translate that part of the Turkish for Elias... :) But what I did tell Elias was that he was NOT allowed to throw a snowball at the man! However, then the man said, "Come on, throw it at me!" So I told Elias the man wanted him to throw it at him, and Elias thought that was great! The man threw one back, and they exchanged a few snowballs... Elias' first snowball fight!

Then we were able to move on to my favorite part about playing in the snow... The hot cocoa to warm up with when you come inside!

Elias was so excited about having two big marshmallows floating in his!

So I'm not a fan of winter weather, but having a small child helps at least make it fun! Hopefully we'll get a mild winter this year and it won't last long.

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! :)

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!

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 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

Kid Project: Cheese Fondue

(Joni) I thought that since some of our blogging audience is people who live in Turkey (or other international places), I would post things like recipes and fun kid projects - things that might be helpful for other expat mamas like me! So I'll include not only what we did, but also the Turkish names of things in order to help other mamas that might be trying to reproduce the activity here. Even if you don't live in Turkey, though, it might still be an idea for you!

My 4-year-old son doesn't like crafts, so it's sometimes a challenge to find fun projects to do with him. However, one thing he and I share is a love for cooking! So I try to do things in the kitchen that he can help with, and we have fun together. One kids' magazine we subscribe to and love is Highlights High Five (Huge thanks to my in-laws for receiving it and mailing it to us over here!), and each month they have a kid-friendly recipe. Elias and I have made a few of these (see one here), which are always fun and tasty too!

This Cheese Fondue recipe is actually from the September 2011 issue. Elias has been asking for months if we could make it, but we can't buy apple cider here, so I didn't think we could. However, the inspiration struck me that I bet we could make something from apple juice that would work, so I searched for a recipe. I took my inspiration from this recipe (by an expat in Germany!), but ended up pretty much making it up. I only needed 3/4 c. of cider, so I ended up just using 1 cup of apple juice and 1/2 tsp. of pumpkin pie spice (which I had brought from the US). I didn't want the cider to be grainy from the spices, so I emptied out a tea bag, put the spice in, and then folded and sealed it with a staple.

That ended up working VERY well to let the flavor of the spice into the cider without the spice chunks. (A coffee filter would work as well, but we use a French press for coffee and therefore don't have coffee filters on hand.) I simmered it with the lid on for only about 10 minutes, but it still evaporated quite a bit. I ended up adding more juice to have enough to make the fondue with. It was tasty, though!

So now that we have our "cider," here is the recipe. My comments are in italics:

Ingredients

• bread (I used 4 slices whole wheat bread. We also used some little cracker sticks - kepekli çıtır çubuk - for dipping too, which ended up being Elias' favorite part.)
• vegetables (I used 1 large cucumber, 2 small green peppers, and about 1/4 small head of cauliflower.)
• fruit (I used 2 large apples)
• apple cider
• grated cheese (This would be stellar with mild cheddar cheese, but we can't get that here. I used 1 c./2 slices Turkish Cheddar and 2 c. kaşar. The melted texture was a little weird, but it tasted great. If any of you Turkish folks try this recipe and find a cheese that works well, let me know!)
• cornstarch (mısır nişastası)

Directions
Before you begin: Adult: Make some toast.
1. Cut the toast, vegetables, and fruit into long, thin pieces. (We had brought with us Elias' Pampered Chef My Safe Cutter, and this was the first time he used it! He helped me slice the toast, cucumbers, and cauliflower with his own cutter!)
2. Pour 3/4 c. apple cider into a pot.

Elias mixing the cheese and cornstarch. You can see our beautiful plates of chopped items ready for dipping!

3. Mix together 3 c. of grated cheese and 1 tbsp. cornstarch. Adult: Bring the cider to a boil. Add the cheese mixture and stir over medium-low heat until the cheese melts. Pour the mixture into a small slow-cooker or fondue pot.(We don't have a slow cooker or fondue pot, so I just poured it into individual bowls and that worked fine. It ended up being the perfect amount for the 3 of us to have for lunch.)

Dip in!

Halloween Party at Elias' School

(Joni) Although Halloween isn't celebrated in Turkey, Elias' school teaches American holidays. So they'll celebrate Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day, Columbus Day, etc., and they've also been learning about Halloween - things like pumpkins, ghosts, bats, and saying "Boo!" Next week is a huge Muslim holiday, and Elias' school will be closed all week, so they chose to celebrate Halloween a little early with a party on Friday. The parents were invited to come see the kiddos dressed in costume and having a little presentation. It was fun! Each class had their own party, so this is just Elias' Pre-K class.

First the kids paraded out and showed off their costumes (Elias borrowed a Thomas costume from some friends.), and then their teacher, Ms. Janet (an American), made a little introduction.

Ms. Janet is the one in green. The other lady in the witch hat is Ms. Olga, the school psychologist and phonics teacher. Elias really likes both of these ladies! Elias is seated on the far right.

Then each child came up to the microphone and introduced themselves in English by saying "Hello, my name is ____. I am __ years old." Only a couple of the kids actually seemed to know what they were saying. My child is the only native English speaker in the class - I think the rest are Turkish - and he didn't speak clearly into the microphone either!

Standing on the far left is Ms. Ebru, the school principal/owner. Also notice the father in front using his iPad as a camera. I laughed at the number of smartphones and tablets being used as cameras there! I was the dinosaur using a real camera!

Then they sang a few songs in English, some about Halloween and some just kids' songs. Below you'll hear parts of a song about feelings - I make a happy face, I make a grumpy face, etc. - and Farmer in the Dell. Elias doesn't like to sing along, but he obviously enjoyed watching his friends' performance! Some of them were quite enthusiastic! You can hear the parents laughing. :)

School Halloween party from Joni Tapp on Vimeo.

Then there was a big spread of snacks and treats, which was enjoyed by all.

Elias loved the marshmallow pops on a stick! He also loved wearing the Thomas costume - he didn't want to take it off to go home! (But I insisted - no way I'm taking him on public transportation wearing that costume.)

And they sent each child home with a great bag of Halloween-themed crafts they had made at school and lots of candy.

Counter-clockwise from top: Monster bag, bat, and jack-o-lantern crafts made at school; Hershey bar ghost from Ms. Janet & Ms. Olga; Pumpkin cookie on a stick; Pumpkin bag of candy from Ms. Ebru; Fruit by the Foot

Fun!

Mom & Dad's Visit, Part 1

(Joni) My parents came in from Kentucky for their first visit to Turkey, and we had a STELLAR time with them! Rather than doing a huge blog series with all the pictures, I thought I'd just do a 2-part overview of the highlights.

We gave them a great overview of life in Turkey, including the delicious Turkish food!

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant in our neighborhood, just around the corner from our house. They got the full treatment with several courses and delicious food!

Dad is a coffee-lover, so Justin took him to try Turkish coffee. Wow, that stuff is strong! I think Dad enjoyed the home-brewed coffee from our French press more.

Trying Turkish maraş ice cream. Yum! Elias definitely comes by his love of ice cream honestly... from Grandma!

We even discovered a new dessert while they were here! We thought we were ordering plain ice cream, but instead we got Dondurmali Irmik Helvasi. Once we adjusted our expectations, it was tasty!

And public transportation!

They were troopers to stand in the overcrowded mini-buses!

When we all squeezed into a taxi, Elias always wanted to sit on Grandma's lap!

My Turkish language tutor and a friend of hers offered to take us on a tour of the city's castle and adjoining Anatolian Civilizations Museum. Those things were neat, but we had the most fun just visiting with the two Turkish girls!

After the tour, we stopped at a cafe, and we had the best time just hanging out together!

Click here to read Part 2!

A Picnic in the Woods

(Justin) If you live in Çankaya and don't have a car you can easily visit lots of neat parks, but it seems like actual wild nature is discouragingly out-of-reach. But luckily we live on the edge of town where a steep valley with walking trails, a woods with a couple of springs, and a great view of the valley and lake below is just a short walk from our apartment. One of the entrances is just outside Elias' Turkish preschool so I explored it a bit before today, but then decided to bring the whole family on a picnic to the woods. It's nice because even though the city is just a couple hundred yards away you can't hear it and you can breathe plenty of fresh air and the smell of pine trees.

View from up on the road. The tall trees in the middle are where our picnic was.

The city has made it a picnic/camping area by piping up some of the springs

Elias splashing in the spring water.

Elias thinks peanut butter & jelly sandwiches are great no matter where we are.

There are lots of quartz rocks to find, and plenty of turtles on the roads.

The roads have been dug and grated for cars, but it's not clear where there's any entrance or exit for them. Some of the roads are just dead ends on the side of the cliff. This is a view of the lake below. On the other side of the valley you can see shepherds tending sheep. It's quite steep.

Unfortunately, some of the nicer spots are littered with trash, part of life here. But there are plenty of green trees, fresh air, and wild flowers.

Not terribly far by taxi there is another larger woods and lake that's more touristy that we hope to explore next week when Joni's parents come for a visit.

Special Delivery: Present from New School

(Joni) This morning we had an unexpected knock on the door. I don't usually answer the door when Justin isn't home, because I probably won't have the language to talk to the person on the other side. However, through the peephole I could see this was a deliveryman with a small box, so I opened the door. It was a small present addressed to Elias, and the crest on the envelope was from his new English school, which he will start on Thursday!

Elias was VERY excited to get a present, and he eagerly opened it up!

It was a cute inflatable penguin that you put water in the bottom section so when you hit it it stands back up! There was also a sweet note from the principal saying how much they were looking forward to having him in their school this year.

What's really funny is Justin had found a toy like this for Elias last week, so he already had a tiger. Now his tiger has a friend!

Elias loves them both and is excited to have them "play" together. In celebration of his new penguin friend, we put in the Go, Diego, Go! episode about Pepito the Emperor Penguin, and Elias put his two friends on the couch with him to watch the episode together!

I thought that was such a sweet gesture from his new school, and we're looking forward to him going there and benefiting from their care!

Celebrating Our Anniversary

Our 7th wedding anniversary was last Monday, but being so busy and tired with VBS, we decided to wait until this weekend to celebrate. We got a babysitter for Elias; this was the first time we'd done that since coming to Turkey, but Elias did great with Miss Brooke. :) Then we went out for an afternoon adventure and dinner. We took the bus out to a district on the northeast side of Ankara called Keçiören. Justin had been out there a couple times, but Joni never had. Like the rest of Ankara, it is a very hilly district, but they have a really neat section where they built amazing waterfalls in the cliffs lining the roadside. It was gorgeous! (In the picture you can make out five different wedding parties getting their pictures made.)

 

Then directly across the street from the waterfalls is this cool building that houses a Turkish history museum and an authentic Ottoman restaurant. The museum is free and houses cool Ottoman artifacts.

Although this isn't a historic building, it was built to look like an ancient Ottoman fortress. Yes, those are stairs going up from the street, and yes, we climbed them all.

 

Behind this building was another series of ethnic restaurants including Turkmen, Uzbek, and Kyrgyz. We decided to try the Uzbek place, and it was cool! Very reasonably priced, Justin had a sampler platter and Joni had chicken kebab. Both were fantastic and served fast, we highly recommend it.

The restaurant is made to look like an Uzbek tent. Most of the tables were on platforms so you're seated on the floor Uzbek style - we wanted the full experience so we sat that way too!

After our delicious dinner, including the best künefe we've ever had, we decided to ride the cable car that crosses over the district. (You can see it going along the top left of the photo with the white building above.)

 

Looking down on the restaurant where we ate dinner (left side)

Looking down on the same waterfall pictured above

So we had a really neat time exploring a new district, and we were so thankful to find a great babysitter for Elias! Happy anniversary to us!