Arrival in Turkey

Our three flights to Turkey were all on time and relatively easy. For the long flight from New York to Istanbul the plane was quite uncrowded, so both of us had a three-seat place to stretch out. The only problem was that our body clocks weren’t quite ready for night, so we didn’t sleep very much. Then we arrived and it was morning and our body clocks weren’t ready for that, either. We got separated from our luggage twice, but we had plenty of time to retrace our steps and retrieve our luggage, and all in all it was pleasant and easy.

Our apartment is on the third floor. There are no elevators. The outside door is locked, and after the entry, the marble staircase turns pretty tightly as it winds up. Marble sounds pretty toney, but actually the stairs are narrow and dark. The lights are motion sensitive, so they don’t really turn on until you’re practically under them and then turn off seconds later. Our building is a mix of small business (like lawyers and import businesses) and residences; so it’s very quiet, especially after working hours.

In our apartment there is a wide entry hall with many cupboards with mirrored doors and then a large living-dining room. We have a small kitchen with a table for two, two bedrooms and an office. There are also two bathrooms. I thought the larger bathroom was the most hideous room I had ever seen until I realized that it was the “western” bathroom and the second one was the Turkish bathroom. This is just a very small tiled room with a small sink and a hole in the floor. IT is the most hideous room I've ever seen. The previous couple used it as a cleaning closet, and I’m sure I will, too. I’m attaching a picture of the larger bathroom/laundry room because you must see the tile to believe it. Someday I’ll take everything out of the Turkish bathroom and take a picture of that, too.
The kitchen is quite nice, though different. We have a convection oven which we still haven’t mastered. We haven’t yet figured out what the Turkish words on the dials mean, and the pictures aren’t very helpful. There is no disposal, no dishwasher and no microwave. There is a great little shop across the street that sells pide, which is like a long, narrow boat-shaped pizza. Really scrumptious, but we miss the microwave every time we want to reheat a piece. We’re careful not to use tap water for cooking, but we do use it for washing dishes—after we add a few drops of Clorox to both the washing the rinsing water. It seems to work for everyone here. We drink and cook with bottled water.

We met our Branch President today when he stopped by our apartment. He is a very friendly man. He was the first Turk to join the Church a few years ago when he was working in Denmark. He also worked in Germany, Sweden and Holland and speaks a bit of German. We had a very funny conversation—part in English, part in Turkish, and part in German. I was very proud of Ron for remembering so much German. I think we’re going to do fine!