Turkısh Relaxıng

Friday, August 3, 2007
4:08 pm

It's been a full past couple of days (and I finally figured out how to switch the keyboard to English characters intstead of Turkish ones...yay!). I'm starting to feel much more settled in with the family and more comfortable taking care of Erin and realizing that I don't have to give her my attention every second of the day...I have to keep reminding myself of that and it's tough sometimes because in my head, I'm here to take care of her, and taking care of others is kinda second nature for me. yesterday was a really awesome day, though. We went swimming in the pool in the morning, then Karen told me I could have an hour or 2 to myself, so I went down to the beach and just layed on a lounge chair there and journaled and read and had some quiet time. It was so rejuvenating and I was ready to get back at it after that. I took Erin to the bathroom all by myself for the first time, which may not sound like a big deal to y'all, but it is, i promise! It was super windy yesterday, so we didn't do much water activity, and around 4 we all went back to our room to take a "little rest"...it turned into a 3 hour nap for all of us! karen and morgan and i woke up and they went to meet Surreya down at the dock to water ski...i showered and got ready while they were gone, and Erin slept away, "like a rock and a log," in her words. it was so great to have some more time to myself, just doing my routine of getting ready, and i got to wear my new sundress, which was fun Ü. They got back from water skiing and Karen told me I could go down to the beach for 20 minutes or so until they were ready for dinner...I took off my sandals and stuck my toes in the sand and just walked in the water and enjoyed the warm evening air and wind on my face, basically i just reveled in life at that moment. it was amazing! (and then i came back to the spot i'd left my shoes and purse to find them gone! but no worries...the pool staff had them, haha) We had dinner outside by the pool, buffet style with great spicy meats, i had a glass of white wine with dinner (it's legal here, mom! Ü), then the family all made me sing for them after dinner was over, then we went up to mini-Bodrum, which is just a little area of shops and a stage/amphitheater where they do a show every night, and sat and caught the very end of the show and sat around talking and listening to the band playing afterwards, drinking chai (that's 'tea' in Turkish).All the cousins are teaching me some Turkish words, and I can now say thank you, hello, count to 5 (plus say a couple other random numbers haha), and faster (the 6 year old cousin Leyla taught me that one today when we were tubing and she kept yelling it to the boat driver). I got some emails from some of you saying you had no clue what i was doing here, so i'll fill you all in just in case you don't know! About a month and a half ago I got an email from a family friend, asking if i'd be interested in nannying for this family from Bellevue for a month, traveling with them in Turkey. The father, Surreya, is Turkish and just got a job here a few months ago as CEO of a large cellular company. (it'd be like if he was ceo of verizon or cingular or us cellular or something...he's a pretty big deal). It's an awesome opportunity, as it's all-expenses-paid and I'm being paid on top of that. There are 2 kids, Morgan (age 11) and Erin (10). Erin has cerebral palsy but can do quite a lot of things, like today we went tubing twice.Tomorrow is our last full day here in Bodrum, and then on Sunday we fly back to Istanbul. I'm not sure how long we'll be there, but I'm excited because the home we're staying at there is Surreya's brother Sureyman's home, and his wife Selma is the family member i enjoy the most. she's a joy to be around and I'm so glad she's the one we'll be living with there. I think after we spend some time in Istanbul we're actually coming back to the beach for a week or so and they've rented a huge wooden old fashioned looking yacht sailboat type boat and we'll be sailing around on that for a week up and down the coast, going to all sorts of cool places, and possibly to Antalya where a friend of theirs owns a hotel and we'll get to swim with dolphins.The kids are both doing great and i'm starting to figure out when everyone's high and low points of the day are. Morgan is so funny and is the most health-conscious 11 year old i've EVER met. he always orders the healthiest thing possible at meals, and doesn't drink any pop, and i don't know if i've even seen him eat any dessert yet! Erin is super funny too, and it's so great to watch Surreya and her interact...he loves her SO very much, and vice versa.okay, i think that's all for now...sorry this is so long! thanks for the emails, it's really great to hear from home. lots of love and hugs,Aly