Sorry we are so late in getting the blog started.  Acclimating to life in a very small hotel room with two small kids on the other side of the world has been hectic and tiring.  Alan is largely with the students so I am mostly on my own with Brewer and Ruby and thus, have little down time.  The pictures here are with my I-phone.  We will try to do better about regular updates and better pictures once we get to our apartment in Alanya. A few tidbits from our initial days:

1.  Traveling across the globe sucks.  We arrived in Istanbul late Thursday night after about 19 hours of travel time.   It was as bad as it sounds, for me at least.  The kids did shockingly great.  Only in the last leg did they hit a wall, literally falling asleep in our arms.

2.  Turkish is hard.  We are staying in a largely Turkish part of the city and so fewer people speak English.  Considering that the Turkish language bears absolutely no resemblance to English (it is not a romance language) even words commonly understood by most in my other travels present problems.  It literally has taken me three days to master "Hello" - "merhabah."   As you can imagine, these barriers are amplified when I have two impatient kids in tow.  Saturday though, I discovered that in a neighboring area, near the blue mosque, English was more common, so the kids and I have been taking the 15 minute tram ride there to eat and visit parks etc. 

3.  I cannot overemphasize how friendly people here are.  We are constantly being stopped so that passersby (men, women, even kids) can pat the kids' heads or cheeks.  People routinely ask to take Ruby's picture -  Even people that you wouldn't expect to be in to babies.  For example, the 20-something year old male bartender at the restaurant we went to tonight wanted a picture with her.  Funny.  Ruby seems to be adjusting to this attention quite well.  She's turned into quite the ham.

4.  Istanbul is huge, but at least from what I have seen, quiet.  The people here are reserved, not loud or boisterous.  The tram ride is actually quite relaxing, everyone is so calm.  I am constantly sushing the kids thinking that everyone must think they are crazy.

5.  Our favorite place to hang out thus far has been Gulhane Park, the former garden of a palace.    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%BClhane_Park.   They have a playground and lots of space for the kids to run and play.  Plus on the edge they have a fantastic café that overlooks the Bosphorus Strait. Here are a few pictures from there:  (1) my first pot of Turkish tea, overlooking the Bosphorus Strait; (2) The kids, hanging at the café; and (3) Me, demonstrating how I manage the kids solo .

More to come soon.  I promise. -Kelly