Our First Week

This is the sidewalk from the street leading to the door and entrance to our apartment building. The pile of black stuff is our luggage.

Du just got the door open and is looking at the luggage as if to say, "Do I really get to carry this all to the third floor. Yippee!!!"

This is looking from our front door down the entry hall. It is beautiful. You can see shoes off to the side. The Turkish custom is to take your shoes off when entering a home. I love it!! It is also Turkish to great new people in the building and welcome. We have had several come to our door. One awesome lady, in complete Turkish regalia came to welcome and of course we couldn't understand a word. She gave me a big hug and kiss on each cheek. I miss fired and got her right on the mouth. I have since learned you kiss left and then right. Or is it right and then left?

This is looking towards the entry and the big double doors leading from this frontroom to the entry. We are so lucky to have this nice open area.

This is looking from those double doors to the table. We left the door open so you could see we have a nice patio out this door.

Our Kitchen.

Our Office

Our bath and washroom. We have an on demand water heater in the kitchen that lights up whenever the hot water is turned on. So we always have a great supply of hot water.

These are our two interpreters and drivers. I think these girls are totally awesome. We will be great friends. I can't wait to tell you about them.

We have decks on both sides of the apartment. Very awesome. We hang our wash on one of them. This is the view from each of them. No dryers or dishwashers. They also have a thing against air-conditioning and with 104* weather I have lost about 10
pounds. I love that part!

This is our cute little apartment guard. I wish we could have caught his smile on this shot, but we will try again later. He talks and talks and talks and never can I understand a word he is saying. He really is adorable. He brought us bread.

In the evenings everyone comes out to the streets and walks around. Old, young, stylish, traditional- everyone. I love this tradition. Everyone greets each other and it is lots of fun.

I have been amazed with the great styles here. I tried to get a picture of the gowns in the window but it doesn't show very well. We went into a mall and I just love the clothes here. The styles for the most part are sylish, modest, reasonably priced and the designs of the clothes are awesome. Love em.

Our next post will have pics of some of the sightseeing we have done and some of the very important meetings we had.