My Life...

Really is not all that exciting.  But for some reason, I just can't remember to update this blog!  There are days where I just go,go,go...but not very often.  But whatever it is I'm doing it sure is making my time here pass quickly, and for that I have no complaints. 
Last week seemed to be a pretty busy week, but was full of exciting things.  I'll give you a general idea of what my days consist of.
I go to the gym every morning (well...mostly every morning..I am now getting to that point where I hate when I DON'T go to the gym!) If I don't go it's because I have a morning commitment or my gym partners can't make it. (Which really doesn't give me an excuse, but I make it one!) Anyhow, so after the gym this is usually what happens:
Mondays: Trip to the market. I love going to the market...nothing like getting fresh fruits and vegetables to use for the week for eh, about 5-10 TL (depending on how much I buy that week) which equates to about $3-6. I'm talking bier (one) kilo (about 2.2 pounds) each of tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, bananas, oranges, lettuce, apples, anything and everything! It's amazing! I love it!

Tuesdays: Every other Tuesdays I volunteer with the Brownies for Girl Scouts. One of my friends, L, has a daughter in the troop so I go and help out with her.  It's so much fun and brings back lots of memories of my childhood days as a Girl Scout. Just the other day at our meeting they were singing the "Make New Friends" song and it brought a smile to my face as I remember us reciting the song often.

Make new friends but keep the old,
One is silver and the other gold.

A circle's round, but has no end
That's how long I want to be your friend.

Last Tuesday night, I went to a Bunco night with a bunch of other spouses.  Before moving here to Turkey, I had never heard of Bunco.  So one day, I decided to try it out and now I play all the time.  I think I like it so much because it requires no thought process or skill, you just roll the dice!! haha (how pitiful) It's a lot of fun and a good way to meet other spouses.

Wednesdays: I don't typically do a whole lot.  But last week was a different story.  One of (actually, a lot of them) the Bunco ladies LOVES to go shopping in downtown Adana, and has made her deals with a bunch of the stores.  Well, this last time she went shopping she invited us girls along. Holy cow, were we in Heaven!! She has this particular store that she buys Pashminas (or scarves as we call them) from and gets a really great price...like 5TL/piece! Here in the Alley (right outside the gates) we pay AT LEAST 8 DOLLARS a piece! It was chaos in that store when the 15 of us American ladies went to town! haha Not only did this store have a HUGE selection of pashminas, but also minx blankets, copper tea sets, towels, all kinds of goodies.  All in all, I think we estimated the group of us spent at least 1000TL just in that store.  This is what it looked like when we were done:

 It was great. I can't wait to go back and buy more! :) The crazy thing about these is in The States, they can go for $100 and more..and we can get them for $3 here. I will admit that you get used to how cheap things are around here real quick!
After we spent at least 40 minutes in that store, we headed for lunch. I have seen these things called "Doner"s all over the place, but have never tried one myself.  Well, now I can say I have and that I actually enjoyed it! They put shaved meat (usually chicken or lamb, this was chicken) on a piece of bread big enough to roll into a wrap and add lettuce, tomato, and pickle to it and tah-dah! you have a "Doner". It was rather tasty!



this is how they make it

 So, anyhow, after we all had lunch (for less than 5TL) we headed to a different store that had hand-carved, wooden, Pashmina boxes.  I had all intentions of buying one (as if I have all the pashminas to hold in this box, haha) but once I got to the store and all the boxes were picked over, I decided to wait until next time. You had the option of light wood, dark wood, lined, un-lined, square, octagon, windows or no windows.  I just couldn't decide which one I wanted so I decided to wait.  But don't worry, before I left there was something that caught my eye. J-Twice has been asking for a magazine rack/holder (whatever you choose to call them) and I just haven't seen any that had caught my eye, but this one did! And since we (or should I say, someone else so kindly) haggeled down the price (because that is how they do business around here) to 30TL (again, 20-ish dollars) I just couldn't pass it up.  Yet another Turkish treasure for us to take along in our adventures! After this, we all ventured back to the base and called it a day. It was a blast, and I can not wait to go again!

Thursdays: The second and fourth Thursdays I volunteer for the MOPS on base.  Only, I volunteer in the "MOPPETS room"...AKA....free babysitting for two hours while the moms enjoy a class.  It can be hectic some weeks, but for the most part, it can be a fun time. Nothing like coloring, playing with play doh, reading books, playing cars for a few hours, and socializing with the other volunteers.
Every Thursday afternoon, some other ladies and I volunteer for the coupon program. We aren't exactly sure how we got suckered into this, but we haven't quit just yet. LOL  Overseas bases can use expired coupons for 6 months past the expiration date; so a lot of VFW groups, nursing homes, school groups cut and send in coupons for us to use in our commissaries.  So we as volunteers get to open every package we receive, fill up ziplock bags, and disperse them around the base for the families to use. My mother now refers to me as "the coupon lady". HAHA Either way, I saved $33 off my grocery bill the other day by using the coupons! :)

Fridays: Friday is another day that I don't typically have a lot going on. Like, last Friday, I spent the rainy day at home cleaning and doing laundry..bleh, boring!! But this Friday night, I'll be playing Bunco again! woo hoo, here's to hoping to win an AWESOME prize!! (maybe that pashmina box!haha)

So, like I said...my days aren't always filled with much of anything exciting but I make the most of it.  And, my friends and I like to fill in with lunch dates, movie afternoons, craft afternoons, shopping, and soon...pool days!! Yay!! (And yes, mother, I know I need to be filling my days with school work!! Soon. I think. haha) While there are some days I wish I had a job, most days I enjoy having the freedom to do whatever it is I please!

Thanks for sticking with me through this long post!

Until next time...




Snow Tubing in Turkey

Ever since December, I have wanted to go snow tubing. The Outdoor Rec. Center here offers a day trip just about every weekend. In December, a whole group of us had planned to go, but plans fell through.  FINALLY, I got to go yesterday.  It was just going to be my friend,K, and I because no one else would go....J-Twice and his buddies were going to play paintball. Then, one of them heard I was going tubing and he decided he'd rather do that instead. In the end, it was K, J-Twice, his friend, and I.  This place was only 1.5 hours away, so it wasn't a bad trip. We got there....and were totally disappointed. For this is what the ground looked like:

Can you believe this!?!?! How were we supposed to snow tube in THIS amount of snow? Apparently the area did not get a whole lot of snow the past week! So, we grabbed a tube, we "hiked" our way up the hill, we looked around...and we sat there. Well, we didn't really sit there...we made snow balls and threw them at each other.  I was trying to be like Buddy The Elf, and stocking up on my snowballs. HA.HA. 

There were rocks everywhere...so we weren't too sure where exactly we were supposed to tube down. We all wondered how exactly we were going to do this and not hurt ourselves...and most importantly..did we really want to walk ALL the way back up the hill after we got down?!!

Finally, J-Twice's friend was a punk and pushed me down the hill. Which meant I pushed the lady and her tube that were in front of me. We went forward, we went backwards, we twisted and we turned, we dodged rocks and shrubs. We laughed the whole way down...and then the rest of the group followed. Except for K, her tube was deflating.

My toes were ice cold because my rain boots weren't doing too good of a job keeping them warm, my gloves were soaking wet from making snow balls, and we were getting hungry! I added another pair of socks to my cold toes, I switched gloves, and K and I decided to make it lunch time.

The Outdoor Rec. Center provided hot dogs and Coke, which the boys ate(I had one too), and K and I packed our PB&J, and other goodies.  After lunch was over and we were heated up by the sunshine, the boys were ready to go. Here, you can see them talking to the bus driver asking him if it were possible for us to leave sooner than scheduled. LOL. PUNKS!!! Unfortunately for them, the rest of the group was not ready to leave.  They still wanted to go down the hill a few more times. 

K had not been down the hill yet, so we had to do that at least once so she got her money's worth.  K and I headed up the hill after the rest of the group that wanted to continue on.  They had come up with the idea of making a train of tubes...it was hilarious. We had such a blast! I thought it was much better than going down on our own.  In this case, you were less likely to go tubing right into the rocks. Only, we hit a bump and you had to be sure to hold on to the person's feet behind you (which I almost let go! Not my fault his legs were short!!ha ha)  We did this about four times...and would have continued to do it many more times...except the hike back up the small hill was breath taking!! And not to mention, leave it to me, walking on ice is NOT  a good idea...because you are likely to fall and bruise your toosh and knee! :)

Anyhow, by this time in the day, lots of Turkish people were arriving.  They didn't have gloves, barely had heavy coats on, and were in their regular, everyday clothes. One guy went down the hill and was stopping himself with his bare hands..umm...COLD!!! They were using our tubes also, and quickly figured out that tube trains were lots of fun too.  The hill was nice and slick by the time all of us were done.

So, while there may not have been much snow and the hill wasn't as great as we wanted it to be, we still made the most of it and had a great time.  There was no hot cocoa or roasting marshmellows, but we had our lukewarm Coke and bags of fruit and chips! ha ha We can now say we went tubing in the mountains of Turkey.  (I even heard the ski slopes weren't that great around here, but it's all in what you make of it in my opinion.)

I certainly have not missed all the snow and ice all of you friends and family are receiving in the States, but it was nice to have one day to play in it, and not have to deal with it daily! It's pretty to look at, for a day! :)

Until next time!

6 Months

J-Twice and I were just talking the other day about how we can't believe that Friday, 4 February will be our 6 month mark of arriving here in Turkey. MAN, is time flying by for us!! It honestly seems like it was just yesterday that he told me we would be moving and I started freaking out.  How could this possibly be happening, how in the world am I going to live THAT far away from my family and friends!? What was he thinking by putting such a place on his "dream sheet"!?  And for the first month, I thought this assignment was going to last for forever!

Then came the day that I attended a new spouses orientation and met two great friends. And then came the day that we volunteered for MOPS and met another great friend. And after that came the day that one of those friends and I attended a Combined Spouses Club event and met another great friend. We've all pretty much been inseparable since then! God knew what He was doing when he placed these girls in my life. We have ventured out into the Turkish world and made the most out of the life we were dealt by coming here. Two of these friends, K and L, have become my gym partners and I am so very thankful for that! It has become part of our daily routine and I love it! We make a weekly trip to the market to get all of our fresh fruits and vegetables, we volunteer at different things together, we take trips together, we spent the holidays together. These are definitely people I will never,ever forget about. 

Now, I'm not the only one who has been blessed with some great friends. J-Twice has also made some good buddies.  He usually doesn't make friends as quickly as I do, but that's boys for ya! :) Because of these boys, I have baked my heart out, cooked them yummy meals, learned to play Dominoes, and watched/listened to endless hours of Call of Duty. (and oh yeah, kicked some booty in Guitar Hero!) We both have truly been blessed by friendships here.

While we have grown to like the life we have been given, we also still miss things back home!  That list of things hasn't exactly changed since this post but the desire for them has either grown more or disappeared. I, personally, have enjoyed all of the traveling opportunities we have been able to take part in.  We have been to: downtown Adana (which is an adventure in and of itself!), Kizkalesi (which means the Mediterranean Sea!), Gaziantep,Izmir, Ephesus, Virgin Mary’s House, Priene, Miletos, Didyma’s Temple of Apollo, Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Kusadasi,Uzuncaburc, Snake Castle, and I think that's about it...for now! We have plans to travel to a lot of other places too, and I can not wait!

Along with traveling, I have learned a very minimal amount of the Turkish language.  Turkish is a very complicated language to learn, so I basically pick up what I most often hear. I can count to 5, and know 10. I can say hello/goodbye. Ask how are you/I'm good. How much? Water, milk, wine (ha ha-It's "shut up". No, really. It is.) Thank You (but haven't mastered 'your welcome'). That's all I can think of right now. 

Needless to say, this duty station has taught me a lot and shown me more than what we Americans are typically used to. America is spoiled. That's for sure!! But there's no place like it, and we sure do miss it!

Here's to another 18 months of learning, adventures, and friendships!

Yilankale, aka Snake Castle

Wikipedia tells us this about Yilankale...

Yılankale, Yilan, Ilan-kale, or Castle of the Snakes is a large medieval crusader castle located east of Adana in modern Turkey, built on a rocky hill overlooking the east bank of the Ceyhan river. Its medieval name is unknown - the "Castle of the Snakes" name is due to a Turkish legend in which it belongs to the king of the snakes (Youngs 1965).

The castle and its impressive towers are visible from the highway E5 from Adana to Iskenderun. Yılankale is one of many castles in the Adana area. It was built in the 11th or the 12th century, and was used by the Crusaders of the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia.

Yesterday, our group of friends decided that we needed to get off base and go do SOMETHING...ANYTHING!! So, we ended up at Yilankale (also known as Snake Castle).  This castle is not very far from base, so it was a nice little late morning/ early afternoon trip.  We had a great time.  All of us packed a lunch, so after we hiked up to the highest part of the castle we settled and had our picnic lunch. Us girls work out on a daily basis, and we were greatful for that! I would hate to see how we would have done if we were all out of shape!! I'm also glad to report that there were no injuries throughout this adventure! At least, none that got any of us wearing boots (ah-hem, me!) Maybe a few scratches here and there, but nothing major.  We're already looking forward to our next adventure.  And now here are some pictures of our castle exploring. 

This herd of sheep pooped and peed all over the path to the castle haha

These goats were obviously hungry

Us girls, minus Amanda

It is very hazy out here, so you couldnt see the mountains in the distance, some even snow covered!


Until next time!! 

Why.....

Did I take down my Christmas decorations today and then this get drug in the house by my awesomly, amazing husband....

You see, I hate this chair. For one two, reasons. My main reason...IT DOESN'T MATCH ANYTHING ELSE IN THE ROOM!!! Second reason....it has been sitting outside, under the carport, through the rain. J-Twice bought this chair for $5 and thinks it is his gaming chair. I did not want this chair in my house....maybe it'd be different if he had a man-room, but he does not.

 At least he covered the hideous thing with this blanket.  Still doesn't match though.

I guess I lost that fight.

Our Christmas

This year, Christmas was just a bit different for us.  Being my first Christmas away from home, EVER, I wasn't sure how it would go.  Earlier last week, I got hit with being majorly homesick....thankfully that lasted for only a little bit and passed. 
Christmas Eve, J-Twice and I attended a candlelight service here on base and then Skyped with mom, dad, and Sarah while opening some gifts.  It wasn't the same as being in person, but it was nice to be able to do it together.  We saved some gifts to open on Christmas morning also.  J-Twice has been asking me all week (because he was off work for the week) if he could open his gifts, I felt like I had a child.  haha Needless to say, he was rather excited when the time finally arrived to open them!
Christmas Day, we spent the afternoon with some wonderful friends.  If it weren't for these great people we've become friends with along the way, I don't think being away from home for Christmas would have been as "easy". 

Cathy and Eric, were our fantastic hosts.  We all had a great time..playing games and enjoying each other's company, as we're all in the same boat. 



Myself and Cathy



Amanda made "Kurt" (a sock monkey) to travel around with us and enjoy all the fun we have. haha  Can't you see J-Twice looks so enthused!? :) I made some chocolate covered strawberries (because we FINALLY got some strawberries in the commissary--first time we have seen them since we've been here! It was Heaven!!) So, Kurt took a bite of those too!

While we had a great day, I can not wait until next Christmas when we get to be home with everyone! We definately did not have a white Christmas here in Turkey.  It was partly sunny and in the 60's.  I can not say that I missed the snow, but it definately didn't exactly feel like Christmas.

Now, we are on to New Year's!! I would really like to know where 2010 went, seems to me the year FLEW by!!

Merry Christmas!!

Love,

J-Twice and Becky