We first have to explain the title of our post... On Monday evening we met some friends from America in Taksim, so we had to take a ferry across to the other side again. All was well, we were sitting on the back deck, enjoying the view, & listening to/viewing our language lessons (more on that to come) when ALL OF A SUDDEN we heard this screeching sound. You guessed it, there were birds flying right along behind us, very close might we add. We took a little video for you to get the feel for it...
We had a great time with our friends & showed them a great costume/thrift shop that some of our Turkish friends had showed us a week before. There's just about everything you can imagine in this place. We only put the hats on but it was still a great time!
We also walked by the Galata Tower on our way to meet our friends & thought we'd take a picture. We visited it when we were here last year... click
here for a link to that post & more pictures & explaination.
Now to a little bit more about our everyday life. We've been working on learning Turkish for about 30 hours a week. Up to this point we've been listening to the "Learnables" which are tapes & books with pictures that go together. So you listen to them say a word & look at the picture to understand what word they're saying. Then they get more & more complicated, combining the different words that you've learned. We've also just been meeting people & practicing our Turkish with them. For the last two weeks we've been meeting with a language helper. We bring pictures of things & he tells us what they are in Turkish & then he'll say them and we point to which one he's said. At the end we video it so we can review it without him. It's been great & we feel like we've learned a lot already, even though we have a long way to go! Here's the picture of a "keci" that's in our movies.
Today was the first day of another part of our language learning, a formal language class. It's in Kadikoy, about and hour total travel time from our house (but we can spend most of it reading or reviewing language on the train). A highlight of Kadikoy in general is the bull, located fairly centrally & a typical meeting place for people. Here's the picture Dan took of it with his cell phone & then transfered to his Palm and then to the computer! Technology is amazing!
Speaking of cell phones, that was another adventure of the week, getting cell phones. We got a great package deal on them so we have the same phone. Most of the phones here are on a "Pay-As-You-Go" Plan, as we'd call it in the States, although it's called "Hazir Kart" or "Ready Card" and you buy "kontors", which are like minutes but depending on who you call in what network or if you text (or short meessage) different amounts are used.
Our Cat... well, this really isn't our cat, but he likes to spend time in the chair on our porch. We haven't much more interaction than this picture but perhaps Dan will win him over here sometime. There are quite a few stray cats & dogs, but really not overly many, just enough that you feel like there are animals around. There's even a few REALLY cute little kittens at the end of our road.
That's all for now... until next week!
