I am sitting in the kitchen with all the doors closed due to the big huge ugly spider that is currently on my living room floor. I am not generally scared of spiders, I found and placed a rather large one outside just last night. I have a feeling this might be the father of the darn thing. I saw it sitting on the ceiling and I had to get it down so I can trap it and kick it outside like I did with the other one. I took the long duster and prodded it to get it to move. It didn't budge. I tried again and BAM it fell on the floor. I don't know where it fell because I was too busy screaming hysterically while making sure it didn't fall on me. I ran to the kitchen and called the hubby on the phone. Between a lot of "it's huge" "it has a butt" "it's black" I managed to explain to him the situation, well he guessed most of it. He called my father in law for me. I am expecting him to come over any minute now and find the spider and get rid of it. I have things to do around the house! The question I hear most often is "how is Australia different from America?" Honestly it is not that different. They do drive on the left side of the road and spell "tyre" and say things like "take away" instead of "to go" The portions are smaller and I haven't come across Super Jumbo sized things yet. We bought a box of microwave popcorn the other night, and there were only three packages in it! The streets look very familiar. ACA and I went for a walk yesterday. I told him I felt like I was just walking down South 16th street in Milwaukee. The lawn sidewalk arrangement here is identical to the one in Milwaukee. They don't have four way stop signs though, instead lots and lots of round abouts! I was able to get my driver's license quickly because I have one from the US. They let you change over your US license for an Australian one without taking any tests. I haven't attempted driving yet, I am still freaked out about the left side of the road thing. I feel like we're turning into the wrong lane everytime ACA makes a turn! One difference from Milwaukee is the amount of Turks! We are everywhere! We went to the mall and ACA started pointing out the Turk owned businesses and places where a lot of Turks worked. Walking around I heard so much Turkish! Australia is very different from Turkey obviously. But I felt more at ease in Australia the first day I've arrived here then I did the entire 4 months I was in Turkey. I simply couldn't adjust to the Turkish way of life. The life here is very similar to the life in the US, so I had a rather easy time adjusting. I won't be going back to school this year. The deadline for the application has passed (the seasons are backwards here, we're going into summer now!) and I am not eligible for government aid for another two years. I feel like this is the right time to start looking for a part time job because I pretty much ran out of things to organize or clean in the house. Everyday tasks does not fill up enough of my time to keep me busy, and when I don't have enough to do I revert back to my natural state, which is sleeping! Aight, picture time. I finally got around to uploading new photos to Flickr. Flickr orders the photos on my main page in a very strange way, so they are not in any sort of sensible order. Grr at Flickr for that. This was taken on June 27th, at the chicago airport.
Strange to think this was the last time I saw my brother! He's probably a foot taller now, at the rate he's growing!
We arrived in Istanbul safe and sound. Our house is in part of Istanbul called "Eyup" However it is high up on the hill. So to go to the heart of Eyup you have to go down the huge hill. Going down the darn thing is ok, but going up not so much fun. It is nicknamed "40 merdiven" meaning "40 stairs" To quote ACA, that's false advertisement!! There are a heck more than 40 stairs to that hill!
We walked up the hill to come to Pierre Loti Cafe. It is situated on top of another huge hill. There are cable cars that will take you to the top of the hill but for some reason we started climbing it. As you can see from the photo it is very, very high up. I was dying for some water by the time we reached to the top. The view from the cafe is unbelievable! That is the "golden horn" behind us, known in Turkey as "Halic"
On the way down we did take the cable car!
After spending about a week in Istanbul we went to Ankara. The hubby has family living there. He was actually raised in Ankara!
We had fun going around Ankara's hot spots. ACA showed me all the places he once lived around. We even visited his elemantary school friend! This is us having "kumpir" in a restaurant. Kumpir is basically a baked potato loaded with stuff like pickles and cheese and hot dogs and mushrooms and mayo and well whatever else you like! On our last day of our stay in Ankara we went to the Australian Embassy for our visa interview.
Then came the honeymoon. That was fun!
ACA left on July 19th. And as you've read on my blog I stayed behind in Turkey until my visa arrived. That was not fun. Well I did manage to have some fun in between my bouts of misery and depression. I got to hang out with my friend from elementary school, Pinar. That was loads and loads of fun!
Me at Taksim Square. I went there quiete a lot to meet with friends etc.
And then came the happy day I traveled to Australia. I've already wrote about that in my last post. Since I came here we've been doing a lot of shopping. Most of our weekends are spent getting stuff we need for the house. Having way too much fun at IKEA.
As a Turk I was scandalized by the size of these "Dolma"
We went to the Eid Festival, Bayram Senligi.
And attended our first wedding as a couple.
Here are some photos around my house. Entrance to my kitchen. Do notice the "Yemekhane" sign. "Yemekhane" meaning the mess hall! I found the sign in Turkey and it just cracked me up so much I had to get it for our kitchen.
And a wider view of my kitchen. You can see exactly where I am sitting as I type this.
I have declared our house to be an official Turk's house once we put the tea kettle on top of the stove. However my friend Jess was quick to point out since I don't have these
covering every surface of my house my house does not yet qualify.. The sample photo is from my lovely mother-in-law's kitchen.
Our couch which I've named "chaisey" Do note the lack of doilies around the living room as well. Our TV, which ACA named "black beauty" And behind that you can see ACA's computer, Blitzy.
And my wall'o'stuff. We have a huge collection of Simpsons DVD's. ACA is starting to get me into family guy as well. I am happy to report that my father-in-law has arrived and destroyed the scary spider. He's currently on the roof fixing some stuff there. I need to get going if I want to have a dinner to eat before the hubby gets home! kelebek }{
Posted at 4:30 PM
