Greeting from Turkey! Just as a warning ahead of time this post might ramble or repeat things because I am trying not to fall asleep. My goal is to stay awake all day so that tonight I'll just pass out.
The past 2 weeks have been pretty great. I know I said I'd post about California sooner but I forgot. I'm so glad I got to spend time with English and Timmy. We didn't do a ton but that was perfectly alright with me. It was nice just being able to relax. The things we did do were really fun. English's friends came over for ice cream one night and then lasagna the next night. Timmy, English, and I saw I Am Number Four. It was really good. They definitely left the end open for sequels. We ate at In-N-Out Burger, Chick-Fil-A, and a sushi restaurant. Then on Saturday English and I drove to Haight-Ashbury to go thrift store shopping. Haight-Ashbury is where all the hippies hung out in the 70s. There are still alot of hippies there and alot of weed. We would be walking down the street or standing in a store and all of the sudden all you could smell was weed. I thought it was pretty funny.
The first couple days I was visiting English and Timmy they were dog sitting for some friends. The dog's name was Mozie and he is really cute but man I felt bad for Ninja because Mozie likes to hump. And Ninja was his main victim. It was just bad news. Poor Ninja.
After I left California, I came back to Minnesota in the afternoon and that night and the next day I just visited people. I got to see Luke Koskinen, Amy Smith, Tori Utley, Jacob Nelson, the Jensens, Pastor Steve, Mark and Josh, I even got to see my friends Malcolm and Abdi for a minute which was nice. Oh and Josie! I love Josie. She is just great. It was awesome being able to say goodbye.
On Wednesday I convinced Dad to have a Ray Day for the boys, so they got to stay home from school. We all forgot about that they would need to get their paper route covered if they were going to come to the cities to see me off, so at the last minute they were scrambling to try and find someone to cover for them. After calling 8 different people no one was able to cover for them, so I had to say goodbye in Rochester. That was pretty uneventful. I'll miss them both but they're boys so it wasn't as big a deal to them.
I got to drive to the airport (hehe) and we made it in an hour and ten minutes. New record? I think so. Dad parked the car while Mom and I went inside and of course I forgot my wallet in the car so I had to call Dad real quick to get him to grab it. It turns out both of my bags weighed under 100 lbs so I didn't have to pay for either of them! We thought we were going to have to pay $60. Leaving Mom and Dad was pretty difficult. I think we were all trying not to cry but some tears slipped through. As I'm standing in the security line I probably turned and waved at least 5 times.
Just a quick side note, it is really difficult for me to use apostrophes. I have to make a concious effort to put an apostrophe in words. Curse you Blackberry for always putting them in words for me.
After I got through security, finding my gate was easy peasy and I just waited. I flew to Chicago first. For my trips to Colorado and California, I flew Southwest Airlines but to Chicago I took American Airlines. It was very different than Southwest. With Southwest you board in a certain order but then you can sit wherever you want. Not with American or any other company I think. But on American you do get a full can of soda. Of course I chose Dr. Pepper. It was tasty. At the O'Hare Airport, to get to the International Terminal you have to take the train/subway/shuttle or whatever you want to call it. The beautiful thing about airports is the amount of signs there are. It was easy to find.
I have bad luck with Dr. Pepper and Security checks. I had a full bottle of DP that I had bought in Minneapolis but I had drank yet in my backpack. I asked one of the security dudes if I was allowed to have this and he was like No and started laughing saying that I should just chug it. That is an impossible task for me but I was like I'm at least going to have one drink. So thats what I did. Took a drink and dumped it. So disappointing. But after I got through the guy asked me what I did with it and I told him and he laughed. Again. I'm glad I can be a comic relief.
The International Terminal of O'Hare is a lonely place. There aren't any restaurants or cafes or anything. There was one snack stand where I got something to drink but that was it. I had to cancel my phone while I was there and it took so long I had to do it as we were boarding the place. The lady I talked to did not understand why I wanted to cancel my phone. It was difficult and annoying, but I finally got it done. Turkish Airlines is pretty awesome. The seats were this sweet teal color and I ended up getting a window seat with no one next to me. I basically slept and watched tv and read the whole time. It was beautiful and easy. We got 2 meals, dinner and breakfast. They gave us these little bags with an eye mask, a tooth brush, socks, and ear plugs. The eye mask saved my life. I put that thing on and just knocked out. They actually made us shut our window shades because we were flying into the sun so it got light very early. The tv that they had had The Big Bang Theory on it so I'm just sitting in my seat giggling to myself, hoping no one else noticed. It was a great flight. It was what I think International flying should be.
My biggest worry, before I even left the U.S. was the Istanbul Airport. I was just plain scared of what was going to happen. I was nervous I wouldnt be able to find the Visa station and that I'd get lost. No. Not even close. When we walked of our plane we were right in front of the Visa and Passport check in. No getting lost. I asked the guy that checked my passport where to go and I didn't understand what he said so I was like ok I'll just follow these people. I knew I didn't need to go International anymore and there were signs for a Domestic Terminal so I guessed that that was what I needed. I was right. I asked these ladies at the security check where to go and they said so through security then I'll see where I need to go, which made no sense to me but I was like whatever I'll just take their word for it. Once I got through I saw exactly what they meant. My ticket didnt have a gate number on it but there were these monitors everywhere that had the flights and low and behold there was my flight. I had a 2 hour lay over in Istanbul and I felt so out of place. I had a tshirt and a sweatshirt on and no make up and my hair on top of my head and just looked like crap. All the women were beautiful and dressed nicely and even the ladies with the scarves over their heads were beautiful. All the men were dressed nicely and even if they had black or gray suits on the majority of them wore brown shoes. Like nice, expensive tan or brown shoes. I was scared to buy any food because I didn't want to embarrass myself.
On the plane to Adana there were probably 4 "White" people, including myself. I did not understand much of anything people were saying. The man next to me did ask me what time it was in English. But I felt bad for the flight attendants because they had to do everything twice. Once in Turkish and once in English. It was an experience. It was a bad experience either. It was cool seeing a different culture. So many people go through Istanbul to get to other places in the Middle East or Russia. When we got to Adana, the airport is so small you exit the plane and you're outside. Its only one level. We headed to the baggage claim only to find out that our bags had been taken to their international terminal. The other people on the plane were pissed that we had to be shuttled over. Thankfully before we went over, I was able to spot John and Wendi outside and tell them what happened. It was no big deal to me. Stuff happens.
John and Wendi picked me up and off to Incirlik we went. It was very interesting getting there. Wendi explained to me that the rules of driving in Turkey is there are no rules. If you think you can do it, then do it. They do pay attention to the majority of stop signs and stop lights. Some of them, people just use as suggestions or don't use at all. When we got to the house I met Scrubs, Angelica, and Linda. Scrubs is adorable and I'm already in "The Club". Linda works with John and Angelica is friends with Wendi. Linda doesn't have kids and Angelica has 2. I'm surprised I remember that. After John and Wendi went to bed I probably stayed up for another hour. Surprisingly, I was able to fall asleep easily. I did wake up once but I did that in the states consistently too. 4 am every morning. But I did wake up for good at 6 am. I had to pee really bad. Around 7:30 I really started to feel tired again. I was kind of in a fog watching the Mickey Mouse Play House with the boys. Isaac and Elijah are both adorable. Its very cute when Elijah does something mean to Isaac and is asked if he did it his answer is always "Yep". "Elijah did you take Isaac's car?" "Yep" and then he gives it back. They're both very sweet. I didn't want to stay home this morning because I knew if I did I would just fall asleep. I'm trying to stay awake all day. I've already had a frappe from Starbucks (Incirlik is the only European base with a Starbucks on it.. I think thats what John and Wendi said) and a Dr. Pepper. Wendi got me this awesome box of goodies. It has books, Dr. Pepper, Doritos, Peanut Butter M&Ms, lotions, a puzzle,a journal, and some other things. I love it. Anyways, Wendi and the boys to the park and met some of Wendi's friends and played with the boys. It was fun. This morning I left the house with a long sleeve shirt on because it was a little cooler, but when we got home I went straight up stairs and put a tshirt on. I was sweating! It is beautifully warm here and I can't wait to wear shorts. Oh man it's gonna be awesome.
So that was an extremely long post, but thats everything that has happened up until this point right here. I miss everyone back home, but I'm excited for my new adventure here.
