the yacht life - bodrum, turkey

Here goes!

And we're off! All our transportation stuff went smoothly; the flight was only 50 minutes. This little guy had no problem getting comfortable :)

This is the yacht my host grandparents own which I am staying on. My host mother and the two kids are staying in a hotel, so I come to the yacht for dinner and to sleep, but I spend my day at the hotel's private beach with the mom and kids (usually the grandparents join us too). Anyway, the yacht is named Acacia. It is SO nice, like a little summer home. They have staff here on the boat too, different people - a captain and like an assistant captain who are on the yacht year-round, then a cook and a woman who does the cleaning, laundry, etc. who are just on it for the summer.

This is my room. It's the least spacious of the bedrooms (my host grandmother showed me all the rooms of the boat), but definitely still tolerable. Also in the yacht are the following rooms: the grandparents' bedroom and bathroom, the kitchen, a living room/dining room, two outdoor sitting areas (in the front and on top), another guest bed and bath where my host mom's sister-in-law has been staying, the room with the captain's stuff including the boat steering wheel just like in movies, another 2 guest bedrooms, the captain's living quarters, and the laundry room. WOW. How does the boat fit all these rooms? It is quite impressive. The boat is apparently from the 70s, and my host grandfather bought it and then renovated it many years ago.

Yes, this window is in my bedroom. Just like the movies.

Turkish food has become perhaps my favorite type of cuisine. The cook on the yacht is incredible. I love trying new things so much, and I love everything I've had so far. Many meals I eat on the front of the boat like this.

The upper deck (we took the boat out to the beach we were meeting my host mom and the kids at and then they put a small boat in the water to take us in to the shore. It made me think of a pirate ship and we were taking out the emergency exit boat, whatever it's called)

See the wheel?

There are lots and lots and lots of yachts (I'm a horrible estimator, but maybe a couple hundred?) docked on this marina, called Palmarina.

My first night I walked the marina, which is basically just a bunch of restaurants and really nice stores along the coast. It was Saturday night, so it was buzzing with people. I loved the atmosphere. If I'd had someone with me I'd have definitely sat at one of the cafes or something, but I just walked instead and went into some stores. I walked out of the stores quickly though, as most clothing items were priced in the hundreds of lira (1 lira = 0.5 dollars, roughly). I saw this beautiful sunset...

I was overwhelmed. It was like a dream. I may have teared a bit.

My typical day: Wake up at 9AM, get ready and have Turkish breakfast (assortment of cheeses, olives, some fruits, tomatoes and cucumbers, yogurt, etc.) on the front of the boat. 10 or 10:30 take taxi to the hotel. Ride golf cart with all our gear and the kids to the hotel private beach. Swim, play in the sand, and lay out and read while Ella is otherwise occupied. Have lunch around 1 at the hotel's beach restaurant and feed Ella hers. Around 3 go to the hotel pool (you would think Ella would be tired at this point and not care about the pool... Nope, she is very adamant that she does both beach and pool each day!) and to the "Kid's Club" which is like a playground and toy room packed full of entertainment for kids. Take taxi back to yacht at 6. Shower. Dinner around 8 on yacht. At 9 take taxi back to hotel to stay with sleeping kids while host mom goes out. Taxi back to yacht around 12:30AM. Sleep and repeat. :)

Bodrum is gorgeous. It reminds me of pictures I've seen of Greece, with the super blue water (it's the Aegean Sea if you were wondering; Bodrum is in the south of Turkey) and blue boxy houses that are all alike. Bodrum is mostly a vacation area. People come and stay a week in a hotel, or many have summer houses here. This hotel has an interesting background to it, because it was begun by a man from Azerbaijan who brings this wonderful sand to the beach from Egypt or something every few weeks. Otherwise the sand would be pebbles. It's also been interesting because the system is all about bribery for getting the number of beach seats you want and in the best places... the service is also largely good or bad depending on your status or bribery. I'm told this is "very Turkish". It is frustrating to my host family but somewhat amusing to me :) Also, all the workers here (at the beach it's basically all guys in their 20s) apparently work all day here then work at a nightclub under the same ownership and sleep only 3 hours a night. WHAT?

I think the sun affects my already troubled brain for the worse when it comes to my memory... here Ella and I had to take the golf cart back to the beach to get one of my host mom's bags I had forgotten on the bench. Ella thought it was really funny. In the same day I also had to run from the taxi back to the yacht to get my bag in the morning and forgot my phone on the yacht when I went to be with the sleeping kids in the evening. Agh. In this same week I also spilled my whole glass of piping hot tea on myself once and had my chair fall backwards off a platform on the beach while I was sitting on it. Oh, and when I was out with a friend on my day off we were both tripping all over as we explored the castle and I actually fell and scraped my knee at one point when we were running to catch the bus. My host family might be wondering about my stability... haha

As I just mentioned, with my day off I went with another au pair who I had met early on in my time here, Jenifer, to Bodrum city. We toured the Bodrum castle and walked around a lot, loving the busyness, great shops, and lively restaurants on the sea. The streets were packed by the time we were leaving, around 11pm, and would've just become more and more so! (people go out LATE here)

Yes, so this is a not-very-good picture of Bodrum Castle. If you look it up on Google images you will find it even more impressive. I love how it's out on a little peninsula and lit up at night... gorgeous.

The castle contained an underwater archaeology museum of shipwreck excavations. The castle itself was cool. But my favorite part about it was that it gave us spectacular views (though it required lots of climbing and too much sweating.)

Jenifer and me. We were hardly acquaintances agreeing to spend a day together, but we ended up having extremely easy and interesting conversation the whole day. I loved spending time with her and am so thankful it worked out!

Wow.

How blessed I am.

I leave Bodrum Sunday, then the Tafts leave Turkey altogether on Friday, and I leave the following Monday. My feelings are very mixed. It feels very surreal (as this whole summer has been surreal, and I'm pretty sure when it's all over I'll question myself as to whether it actually occurred.) I'm ready to retire from my nannying job, and I'm ready to be back in my own family with my friends who really know me and love me for me. Saying goodbyes to the family will be crazy weird and sad, and saying goodbye to this country has the potential to really hurt me as I think I've fallen more deeply in love with it than I even realize...

I have high expectations for this last week and a half as I still have a bit more "vacation" and still many opportunities for meeting people (I will meet a German au pair tomorrow night and another new American au pair next week) as well as the Turkish guy I mentioned who went to church with me. You can expect at least one more blog post as my time here finishes. For those of you I know about who are reading this, your support and encouragement have blessed me SO much; thanks a million.

Love,

Cassandra

dolmabahçe palace and some sweetness.

Maiden's Tower. This tower is on an island. According to legend, a sultan had a most beloved daughter he kept here because of a prophesy that on her 18th birthday a snake would bite her and she would die. Unfortunately, though she was locked away, someone gave her a basket of fruit for her 18th birthday and a snake hiding in it bit her and she died anyway. :(

This is no set up. Istanbul is famous for its cats. There are stray cats everywhere, truly. I have seen them in nearly every (if not every) historical site I've been to, often even inside buildings wandering where they don't belong, but the community generally likes them and many individuals take it upon themselves to put some food out for the strays now and then. There are also stray dogs, but not nearly as many.

Lovin' the kitty pool (or is it kiddie?) :)

On my day off this week I visited Dolmabahce Palace. This was the tower outside.

Me in front of the entrance gate.

Stunning gardens in the courtyard...

And this is the front of the palace.

Another side gate

Ah, just the gate to the seaside.

Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed to be taken inside. This palace was completely different than other places I've been here, because it is all in European style. The palace was inhabited by six sultans and the last caliph, from 1856-1924. Also, the famous Ataturk stayed here for 4 years after the foundation of the Republic (his bedroom and bathroom were included in the tour.) I saw a chandelier that weighed over 4 tons, which was pretty crazy. The extravagance and my thoughts about the expense of it all made me feel sick... it was really something though.

Ending with a picture of sweetness. This is Mutharam, Denis's Turkish nanny with whom I spend much of my days. She is incredible with these two, an excellent example to me of neverending patience and love. Both kids prefer her to me most of the time, but I don't feel badly because she has motherly experience and a motherly bond with them I cannot attempt to attain. :) I always wish we could talk so that I could get to know her better, but we can only communicate through Ella or through motioning to each other, which can be quite amusing for both of us. She is most kind to me regardless, and has also blessed me with a couple of motherly hugs and constant smiles and winks :)

Time is speeding by. I have but two full weeks left. How did this happen? Saturday I leave for Bodrum for vacation with the family, where I will play in the sand and the sea for a week. Then I have one more week with the kids here in Istanbul before they leave. I've made a Turkish friend who came to church with me on Sunday. What?! Yes. How cool is that? Please pray for more opportunities...

Thanks thanks thanks for your prayers and your love. I love you all!

fun times with the kiddos.

Feeding the neighbor's chickens. (distraction technique as her parents leave, haha)

Ella's with Erol, one of the staff of the house with whom I have learned to exchange information without words since he only speaks Turkish :) He's a super super nice guy (He's one of those people you can tell is super nice just by his face, don't you think?)

Ella being a traffic police. She's wearing her favorite dress from her anneanne (Turkish word for grandmother). Also, she has a bad boo-boo on her arm... boo-boos are common for these two kids, real or imagined.

Yep.

We helped Erol unshell beans in the kitchen. I think he thought it funny to have me help with this... I wanted to tell him I'm a farmer's daughter but Ella didn't know how to say that in Turkish. haha

Sometimes, you just let the kids decorate the lawn with stones. Entertainment is entertainment, no matter the quality.

I think this is my first picture of Denis. He is 1, a chunk and an irresistible bundle of love. I mean, just look at him. He is so sweet, he loves to hug me and make silly faces at each other. A Turkish nanny is his primary caregiver, but we all play together often in the afternoons.

Denis and Ella love to dance. At the park often the Turkish nanny gives Denis her phone and plays the same song... I have no clue what it is but it's a bunch of men singing loudly in Turkish and sounds like it would be patriotic or from a war movie soundtrack or something. Anyway, Denis is dancing, waving his arm in the air.

The park is tiny and dirty and not very nice, but it doesn't matter one bit to these two! They spend hours there.

This week I actually worked Sunday through today, Friday. Individual days sometimes felt very long, but overall it went quickly. I definitely had my frustrated moments, and my joy-filled moments :) I am very much growing to love these kids more and more deeply, and the staff as well! I cannot believe how quickly my time is going. This coming week I will work Monday-Friday, then on Saturday we will be leaving for Bodrum, which is a really popular vacationing spot on the southern coast of Turkey. There I will be staying on a yacht with the grandparents while my host mom and the kids will be in a hotel. I'm guessing we'll be at the beach every day and going out to nice restaurants, etc... I'm pretty excited as you might guess :)

I have had very little interaction with my host mom and grandparents lately, because they have now begun Ramadan. This is an Islamic month during which some Muslims choose to fast (no food or water) from sunrise to sunset, then they have a meal at like 8:45PM and another at like 3AM. Ramadan moves forward by 10 days each year, so it is not always in the summer, but this year it is in the most difficult range of dates since the days are longest. My host mom and grandmother sleep very late, and then I do not eat the evening meal with them because it's so late, so I have hardly been seeing them. I am amazed though at Erol and especially the Turkish nanny, because they are also doing Ramadan and fasting all day, yet continue their work here in the house. I am constantly feeling badly when the Turkish nanny is picking up or chasing Denis around, etc. because I know she must be very tired and depleted! But my host grandmother has also told me that the first few days are very difficult, but then your body gets used to it and it is not bad. Along with fasting, individuals often try to read the whole Koran during Ramadan, and they take part in the 5 daily prayers. There may also be more to it, but this is as much as my host grandmother has explained to me.

Considering their discipline in this way reminds me to consider the value of fasting as Christians. I think it is a discipline most of us practice very little if at all, yet it is talked about SO much in scripture. We do not like to be uncomfortable; we do not like sacrifice. But how would the Lord move if we as Christians set aside a month for fasting and prayer?

Tomorrow I am taking a day off to go out and explore the city some more. :) Then Sunday I get to return to the Hope International Church I attended two weeks ago! (I couldn't attend last Sunday because the family had just returned from their vacation.) I am really, really excited for more fellowship and worship with other believers.

Please continue to pray for me to be completely filled and overflowing with Christ's love and all the fruits of the Spirit for each person I interact with to see. Today for the first time I taught Ella a song that had Christian themes... "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot". Of course I felt this was acceptable because it is a spiritual, a song slaves sang. Ella asked what a spiritual was, so I told her slaves sang them, but Ella did not know what slaves were so I explained. Then I told her they are singing about how they want a chariot to come and take them home to heaven, because their lives here on earth were so bad. She asked me what heaven was.

I am Christ's representative in a place where he otherwise is not known. I want so badly to represent him well and to share the hope that I have in him.

i love this place.

I truly had a wonderful time this week! I had the whole week off, as it turned out because my family was gone, and I did not complain! With my second half of the week I went to the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, Istanbul Modern art museum,  Taksim Square and Gezi Park (site of the protests), and the part of Istanbul called  Beşiktaş. I love sight-seeing so much! I learn lots, meet such interesting people, and feel so adventurous... If I could do it for a living I totally would (:

Some funny stories:

I received free teas at three different restaurants by waiters who said it was "on them" in two days while sight-seeing alone. One was from a Canadian woman who moved to Istanbul somewhat on a whim with her brother and has been living there two years running a restaurant (she was an inspiration to me, we talked for quite some time!). Another free tea and some free Turkish delight were from a sweet older Turkish man in a little cafe that looked a bit sketchy but I found because it had good reviews on Trip Advisor. And finally, I was in this a neighborhood and saw on my map there was a nearby street with tons of restaurants that I decided to walk to. Well it turned out to not be near at all and all up a VERY steep hill! Ha! I was determined though and even though I only passed a few people going down I continued on up. By the time I reached the street I was parched, super sweaty, and tired. I saw this nice looking restaurant and thought it was a cafe. I went in and the servers seemed amused and intrigued by me, clearly a tourist, showing up in such a state. I sat and they were surprised all I wanted was tea... it turns out it was a fish restaurant! Ha! They ended up bringing me like 4 cups of tea and my waiter who didn't really speak any English brought me a wet cloth which I assumed was for my sweaty face... and he told me the tea was on him.

So here are some pictures from the Archaeology Museum. It's really famous, supposed to be really impressive, and it was, but just really not my thing I guess, though I wish I enjoyed it more. :)

Some Egyptian cat statues

 

Some sweet ancient mosaics

Cuneiform writing on a slab

Ridiculously gigantic rock relief from the late Hittite period, 8th century BC

The Alexander Sarcophagus, 4th century BC

Freaky eagle-headed man. I suppose he's probably a god or something.

Mini doll-like statues that can sit on shelves. Oh, cool. They were found in a shipwreck exhibition.

"Tiled kiosk" - used to be a building in the courtyard of the Topkapi Palace, a site I visited another day.

So the use of peacocks in decorations is not a new trend. (I remember from the Vatican that peacocks are a symbol of immortality because their bodies take a long time to decay)

The kiosk had some remarkable pottery inside.

I don't actually know what the function of this was. It said something like "wall inlet".

No pictures were allowed in the Istanbul Modern, but I just thought I should say that I LOVED it. I have tended to think ignorantly in the past that abstract modern art is somewhat ridiculous and with little meaning, but the art here totally refuted that belief. The art held all kinds of symbolism or historic significance; there were many pieces there I found to be quite incredible. It also included showings of various types of documentaries/short films, including one I really enjoyed about the injustices and oppressions faced by a Muslim woman. There was also a section that should've been rated X which I didn't enjoy, and a photography exhibit which I really liked.

Statue in the middle of Taksim Square

I walked by Gezi Park, where the protests took place, and it was taped off to the public with lots and lots of cops sitting inside on benches.

I was confused because some of the people sitting in there looked like everyday people, but when I asked Mrs. Bengu she said there are a lot of cops in Istanbul who do not wear uniforms in order to blend in with the general public, so you never know when a policeman is in your midst.

I met  and talked with a guy for awhile who was a protester in Taksim and Gezi Park. He was proud to have been part of truly making history in this way. He talked about how cops threw gas bombs at him (and everyone) and how he and they would throw them back. When their eyes were really burning they would go in apartments or something nearby and treat them with lemon and milk(?), then head back out and do it all again. He also told me that when they weren't being chased by cops the park became (I don't know what you'd call it) like a free communal market. People brought food, clothing, and really anything to the park and anyone who wanted to could take the items for free. It was so interesting to hear about it first-hand from someone who was there and is passionate about what these protests are all about, which is complex but basically because the Prime Minister is very conservative and is making laws according to his beliefs without doing so in a democratic way.

I walked to this palace, Cirragan Palace, when I was in Besiktas, but it's now a hotel not open to tourists. So I just took pictures of the outside, ha

Transitioning back into an actual routine and caring for Ella again will be an adjustment, but I am SO thankful for this week - it has enabled me to see a lot of Istanbul and hopefully come to a much fuller understanding of the culture and history here. I love this place.