Seeing Our World Part I: Bus and Ulus

We enjoyed taking our company to the oldest part of town, Ulus. I am quite certain the bus ride for them was different than hometown Singapore! I distinctly remember riding a bus just before we moved. We simply hopped on the clean, efficient, and smooth bus, pressed our wallet to the electronic reader, then pressed it on there again as we exited. It read and deducted the fare from our card. Here? You sit on the bumpy ride and pass your money to the person in front of you, who passes it on down to the driver. He makes change as he drives, then begins the hand-back process through the other passengers.

Ulus is the part of town where the old meets the new. It is breathtaking.

All Dressed Up

The biggest surprise for the girls were the beautiful dresses brought by our Singapore friends! Firstborn got the official "Singapore dress." If you ever ride on Singapore Airlines, you'll see someone dressed like her. The middle girls got Malay dresses...beautiful, long, two-piece dresses. Perma Baby got a silk Chinese dress. She is also sporting her brother's gift...a Chinese hat with a long black braid. Perfect!

Auntie also brought them red envelopes. These include money and are given at Chinese New Year.

Bet you can guess what we wore Easter Sunday!

From the Far East

Many of you know that before living here, we lived several years in Singapore. It holds a very special place in my heart. It's where I went as a newlywed. It's where I became a mother.

This week we had our first-ever visit from the Far East. Our dear Singaporean friends came to see Turkey and us. They spent time in Istanbul and Izmir, and are now ending their trip with us. We all went to the airport to pick them up. My girls were 4, 3, and 1.5 when we left Singapore. They have some memories of it, but kept asking me, "What do they look like? How will we know it is them?" We said, "They're Chinese, you'll know them!"
We spotted them!

Auntie Lai Chan and Uncle Kia Hwa brought with them many things...good memories for us, a taste of a culture we miss, the "Singlish" we used to hear so much, AND FOOD! Firstborn got a bag of something she has missed so much. They are little round biscuits (I just have to call them that, but don't think Hungry Jack biscuits...they are little round cookies) with a dot of icing on top.

And when we got home, they just kept unloading more stuff!!! Sesame oil, food packets to make Asian dishes, pork floss (more on that later), fish crackers, coconut spread, Thai coffee, Chinese tea. I don't think I'll be cooking American food again until October! More tomorrow!

Tortilla Day

Our school gets crazy the day before any holiday. The day before Christmas Break. The day before Easter Break. Thursday was no exception. The kids were wild! So, what to do...offer to teach them to make homemade tortillas and get them even wilder!

Big Ben worked in the office while I taught. (He likes the two ladies in the office best. They spoil him.)

Here's my Spanish class rolling out their dough to fry it.

I brought my tabletop grill to fry them.

Mmmm. One student brought seasoned meat, one brought cheese. We also had Easter robin eggs. They seemed to go well with tortillas!

Easter At Our School

We are up to 46 nationalities at our school. Many of the kids at our school have never even heard of Easter. We use this opportunity to do some of the fun stuff kids do on Easter, like dying eggs. Also, we give each student the opportunity to hear what really happened on the first Easter morning. It's a very special time in the year for us. I was asked by Perma-Baby's teacher to come help the Pre Kindergarten class dye Easter eggs. What fun to watch these little noses smell the vinegar, little eyes choose the color they wanted, then little hands lower the egg into the solution. All I can say is that it's a good thing CC doesn't have me teaching them, I think I'd squeeze them all to death!

Big Ben got to go with me. His priorities were clear. He first sat and ate his breakfast. You know, it's amazing what you discover with a 5th kid. They really can wait until 9am to eat, and they really can eat breakfast in a school classroom. He didn't starve.

It was "Dress Down Day" which means the kids can wear non-dress code clothes. We always specify that the clothes must be "modest" and "in good taste." When I saw PB come down with her antennae on, I felt the "good taste" memo must not have reached her.
This little guy is from Africa. He loves PB. He tells her every day that he loves her. I think I love him.

It was a good day. Beyond that hour, I needed to get home and clean the house, run laundry, and make the dough for homemade tortillas.

But this was a nice way to begin.

Picnic at the Park

Oh the weekend was beautiful! In the Spring, after the little uns' have their naps on Sunday after church, we like to load up and find a park to have a picnic. I made some hot dogs, sliced some strawberries, and packed some lemonade.

I suppose in order of importance, Big Ben pulled his hot dog out of the bun, threw it on the table cloth under him, then ate his chips. When those were gone, he worked on the bun. Then the hot dog. (You see why her cheeks get squeezed daily, don't you?)

Birthday Party!

Saturday we had a bunch o' girls at our house. But first we started the day like we do every Saturday, with Turkish breakfast at our local spot. It was so warm and sunny, he invited us to eat outside. I think 5 well-behaved children, including one little guy who inhales his food, with a beautiful breakfast spread for all the neighborhood to see is quite a good advertisement, don't you?

The birthday girl was feeling like a hot shot.

The girls went on a scavenger hunt to find the following letters C-A-M-E-R-A, which they then had to unscramble. I wish you could have seen me talking to the guy at the motorcycle shop around the corner from us. In Turkish, "There will be many little girls coming here. It's a birthday party. They will find this paper, then take it. That's all. Ok?" Ever gracious, the guy with the tall riding boots and leather jacket said, "You are having a birthday party here, in my shop?" ha ha.

They found them all, unscrambled them, then ran home so my 11 year old could receiver her camera, a gift I've hid for 9 months now!

All her sweet little friends gave her gifts. Then she opened gifts from family back in the USA. Big Ben watched for awhile, then began unloading his toy box on her. One by one, he gave her a pile of toys.

She choose Singapore Chicken Rice as her meal, then we had cake and ice cream. We ended with a girlie movie. Happy birthday, big girl!