Sunday, August 31, 2008

I already miss them!

It's dark outside. Jonathan is tapping away in the kitchen making macaroni and cheese. I'm here on the computer. The kids are all in bed. We did the big church trek today as we do every Sunday. 4 hours of travel there and back. Thinking about it that way makes it sound horrible but it's not all horrible. The kids excitement about choosing their seats on the bus never seems to fade. When we see the bus come from around the corner we all yell at eachother quickly "It's coming! It's coming! It's here! It's here!" and sort of run around in circles for a few seconds. Then Atticus and Shermie trip over eachother as they move towards the door of the bus and Jonathan and I try not to trip over them. They lumber into the doorway and whirlwind down the isle yelling "Let's sit here! No, let's sit here! I want a window seat! I want a window seat!" Atticus climbs into one seat but then climbs out again because Shermie has just chosen the seat he really wanted. Once Jonathan pays and I get to the two wild ones, we sort things out and find seats where we can sit together. It's not too hard since we board very close to the beginning of the bus line. We try to entertain the two older ones enough so that they won't fight. Lately our entertainment consists of talking about things that interest them such as:


1. cars


2. airplanes



3. sharks and fish



4. cats



5. unusual sorts of punishment



The bus bounces down the road west towards the Bosphorus. We go through the main roads for the first 20 to 30 minutes. Then we get on the freeway which speeds things up a bit. Then we hit the relief point which is the Bosphorus. We get to cross the bridge and observe one of the most gorgeous sights ever to behold.






The kids love looking at the water. Cinci points and says "Wawa! Wawa!" Atticus says, "Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom, it's a Bosphorus taxi!" and Shermie says after that "Mom, it's a Bosphorus taxi!" I respond to all three comments with a long three toned "Oh" that expresses great interest. We finally hit the road in Europe and it's another 15 minutes till we hit our stop. Then we get on and off the metro, walk for another 15 minutes and we're there!

My children are officially starting preschool tomorrow. I've prepped them and I hope they'll be okay. Preschool is a whole different sort of thing in this country and I'm not sure I like it. We'll see how it goes, but just thinking about how I'm going to be apart from them longer than I ever have been in my life makes me ache. It's not meant to be this way yet. However, to make me ten times happier and more comfortable in this country I must have them do this. They will learn Turkish and while they are doing that, I will be doing the exact same thing across town. Let the language learning begin!

4 comments:

Unknown said...

What an adventure! And to think you get to do it every week. Good luck with school. I hope it works out for all of you and you are able to learn turkish. Is Cinnci going to preschool too?

Lisa said...

I could have (and still might) write a very similar post tonight about our schooling starting tomorrow. My feelings echo yours almost completely about them being gone, but it all being necessary, etc. I am also starting language classes tomorrow...good luck with yours - I can't wait to hear the updates on how it all goes!

Cameron said...

My gosh Christine you must be settling in there and know Turkey pretty well to send your kids to school in a foreign country I couldn't do it. I could barely do it here let alone Turkey. Good luck anyway talk to you later. Your Sundays are way more awesome than mine I just get to walk across some lawn and then I am there at church. I am going to donate a kidney by the way well sell a kidney anyway. Got to go.

Aimee said...

Good luck sending your kids to school tomorrow. At first you'll feel strange being away from them, but in time you'll learn to appreciate the skills they are learning at school, and the skills you're developing at home while they're occupied. I'm confident you'll be pleased with the decision...after the shock of it all goes away.