This and that: life after college is so "hard"

Halcyon

[hal-see-uhn]

1. calm; peaceful; restful

2. rich; wealthy; prosperous

Well it's been a week since I've departed the US and almost a week since I've been here! I get my first day off on Sunday and Brandon and I are going to go into town, which I'm really looking forward to.

Things here are still really calm and wonderful. The kids are so busy that it looks like I'll have quite a bit of time to myself. Which as a writer, is absolutely perfect for me!

So on Wednesday I had until about 3 pm or so to myself. I was feeling inspired (and after looking at grad schools, a little panicked about my writing sample) so I thought I would do some writing. And I found the most beautiful writing spot.

Part of the backyard: a wood deck with water below it. Plus there was a gentle breeze and birds chirping. Perfect!

After I spent a few hours chopping and re-writing the beginning of a story, then trashing the re-written beginning completely, I decided it was time to take a nice little walk around the neighborhood. There's a great field area with an (artificial) lake and river in the center of it, but it's teeming with wildlife.

I made a friend with this adorable and very friendly cat.

Soo many ducks! These are young--you can see that they're still getting their real feathers.

And itty bitty baby turtles!

Then I walked around the street area of the neighborhood some more. It really is beautiful.

How beautiful are the colors of the houses?

A 600 year old Ottoman waterway (or so the parents say--I think it's an aqueduct).

Then I relaxed, watch some tv and read. I had dinner with the family, talked and played with Barkan a little, talked to Dilara and then it was time to sleep!

Thursday was much the same--I walked, relaxed, talked to the kids a bit. Then Brandon and I went with our families to the kids end of the year party. It was almost in the center of the town, so we drove through the poorer areas (which I thought was very interesting because they were teeming with colors and people) and I saw the Bosphorous, the asian continent and Europe's tallest building. Aylin keeps apologizing to me for not showing me around more because they've been so busy with Barkan's tournament. She's so sweet! Really I've enjoyed having some time and getting over the jet lag.

The graduation party was very fun. Everyone was dressed up nicely and the food was delicious (no idea what it was but yum! There was this delicious rice with roasted almonds). They played several slide shows of pictures of the kids, and there was wine and dancing. Brandon and I caught up, which was also great. No pictures though; I thought it might be rude if I went around snapping photos of random things.

Today has been very chill too. Ate breakfast with Barkan, then he went off to tennis and I took a walk into the mini town area with Brandon. Then we lounged around by his pool and then I had lunch with him. Dilara's last day of school is today, but she's not home yet. Barkan won his tennis match today, so I think he was at least one more game to play tomorrow.

I think tomorrow I'm going to Ankra (sp?) with Dilara, which is where she swims. It's also where Europe's largest (second largest?) mall is. So that should be fun.