Arriving and First Week

Blog Post About June 2021

When we arrived in Istanbul, we were all SO tired. It had been a big week and we had such a late flight.

This is Karis and Keira after a small breakfast.

June 20, 2021

When we landed, we were finally in the same time zone as Kylie, but it would be another two weeks before I would see her. 

First, I had to get my cell phone hooked up, and then we had some shopping to do before we started traveling everywhere.

The dance studio that we have been a part of in the past told me Keira could come to their dance camp, so that helped tremendously!

After Karis and I went to Old Navy, Kohls, TJ Maxx, and two Targets, we were worn out and we hadn't found much. Selections were scarce. We decided to just go sit somewhere and order things online.

We also had a few advisor visits at Texas A&M.

After four days, it was time to travel to see my parents. This is how the six of us communicated while we were apart. Three of us in South Texas, one in Tennessee, and two in the Middle East.

June 25, 2021

We stayed three nights with my parents and we also went to church, and then we went to see Doug's parents.

June 29, 2021

We had high hopes of finding better shopping options in their town. 

We went to Target, Old Navy, Kohls, Claire's Boutique, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Ollies, Sam's, and Walmart in a two day span, and I think we found enough to get by :) The tough item to find was good, reasonably priced luggage (I was going to take some things back for a friend, and I needed some extra luggage space)

After three nights with them, we headed back to our base.

Dancing in America

Grandparents take full advantage of birthdays when they see us, so when the girls were home this summer, my mom celebrated both of them simultaneously in a month that neither was born in.  

One advantage to living overseas.

When the girls go to ballet camp, they can't have any outside contact the first four days; however, I saw these pictures on facebook, and I spied Karis in them.

These were tryouts from their first full day there.

*Karis is in glasses on the left

*Karis is to the left of the instructor, looking right.

 When we did facetime, Karis was dressed up for a Saturday conditioning class.
(The theme was "musicals," and her group dressed up as lions from "The Lion King.")

Kylie and her friends posed outside during some off time, and she sent me some of their pictures.

On a side note, their summer dance intensive is put on by Ballet Magnificat in Jackson, Mississippi.  It is a faith-based camp where the girls not only learn skills and techniques of different styles of dance, but they also spend time studying the Word and learning to worship through dance.

I highly recommend it if you have a dancer in your family.

Some friends of mine in Mississippi went to see the girls and took pictures for me.

*Kylie

*Karis

*Kylie - front and center

 These are the girls and boys who attended the first two weeks of camp.

After camp, they had an opportunity to see friends.

Karis is so used to be the tallest girl among all of her classmates in our country, so it was nice for her to have a friend taller than she...but not by much. 

 I was also surprised to see that Texas is now selling 113 pound burgers! 😂

First Day of Summer

For Father's Day, back in June, we took Doug out for lunch.  We had to wait until 2pm for the restaurant to open, because...Ramazan.

He ordered a Mongolian steak but was given the Mongolian hamburger by mistake.

No mistake here.

That thing was at least 6 inches high between the buns!!!  It had what looked like three chicken-fried steaks stacked up with fried mozzarella cheese between them, and some kind of sauce oozing out the sides.

In case you were wondering, he did NOT pick it up and eat it.

A knife and fork were involved.

I split a Hawaiian burger with Kylie, and it was just the right thing to lead into a nap.

I hardly ever take naps, but on this day, it was glorious!

At 5pm, my friend and I took our maxi material to a tailor to have her alter the bought ones and make the un-made ones, but she told us we needed to soak our material first.

So, I went back home, and we had a mini-TV marathon.  We were all exhausted and hot.  We didn't want to move too much.  Again, I understand why the locals are sleeping during the day.

The next day was officially the "First Day of Summer."

Although, I feel like we've been experiencing "summer" for a while now.


When the sun was high in the sky, and the temperature was 104 degrees, Doug, the girls and I walked to Stationary Street.  I've mentioned this place before.

Again, it was quiet, and the streets were empty.  I guess the reason the office supply stores remain open during the day is because offices still have to work and need supplies during this crazy time.

And again, I was so excited about being in my favorite kind of store that I forgot to take pictures!!  I did however, buy three new journals for different language uses (lesson plans, language practice, and new language journal).

And I did take one picture on the way there.

This pitiful looking wedding dress just sits outside of its shop 24 hours a day, covered in dust, as an advertisement to come inside and shop.

Does this dirty gown beckon you at all?


Things you don't think about unless you're here, but all the notebooks open from the back (remember, they read back to front, right to left).

I really do need a notebook to practice language.

I sent a text the other day that took me 30 minutes to write.  I wanted to show you a picture of it, but just in case some people could read it, I would be very embarrassed.  I couldn't find the "sh" key, so I just used "s" (my friend showed me later that if I hit the shift key, I get a whole new group of letters), and I'm sure I spelled all the words wrong.


But here's an example of my yahoo page that pulls up on my computer.

And here's our six names that I wrote in my language notebook.

Betcha can't tell which letter makes the "K" sound...

(remember to read right to left)

Serious investigation for Summer

Don't' cry for me, America.  We have found a place of respite for when the summer heat comes. 

It was like finding a hidden treasure in the city.

This is what you see when you walk in.

(Those are ROSES in the pink ice cream!)

Looking to the right wall...

 Looking to the left case...all the cakes

(Does this mean I never have to make a birthday cake again?)

Looking to the right of the ice cream...

I don't even know what all of these flavors are, but I have a few summer months to figure them out.

What??

This is right above the ice cream.  Wowzah!

Dessert with S.T.Y.L.E.

Goodie baskets in the back...

Baklava and more baklava along the far left wall...

So, you understand, this was a SERIOUS investigation.

No joy in it for any of us.

Work, work, work.