Well, This is Interesting....

The view from our balcony

Today marks my two week Turkish anniversary so I figured it would be a good time to update you all on life over here. I'll start by saying Turkey is drastically different than anywhere else I've ever lived. Not for better, or for worse, just so much different. Our city, Bursa, is huge. There's a lot of great shopping, restaurants, things to do, etc. The biggest city I've lived in over here was around 700,000 people so Bursa's almost 3 million is a pretty drastic change. 

We got all moved into our new apartment and it's great. When joining a new team, finding an apartment is always a daunting task. Some teams let you pick, others assign you a place, and there's always a chance you end up in a 1970's style apartment filled with green carpet. Luckily, we've been fortunate enough to always get really great apartments but I have some friends who haven't been so lucky. I'm not sure who's usually more nervous on the apartment hunt.. me or Deividas, out of fear that he'll have to listen to me complain non-stop if the apartment isn't good. Anyways, our place is great and we're really happy about it. Crazy enough, theres actually another American couple living in our same building. The husband plays for Bursa's Second Division Team. There's also another American from this team that lives in the building behind us and the two Americans from D's team live just down the street. We have a nice little American community right in walking distance :)

Some pictures of our apartment 

Here's my initial thoughts about Turkey:

The people are really, really nice. There's definitely  lot more smiling going on here than in Eastern Europe and everyone has been really friendly so far, always eager to help and make sure you feel comfortable. But with that said....

Not a lot of English going on. I figured in a city of almost 3 million, English would be easy to come by. We've been shocked by how few people here actually speak English. I've actually never been anywhere and had more trouble finding English speakers. I definitely understand that I'm in Turkey and need to pick up a little Turkish, but I've been really surprised by the lack of English here.

Driving is a nightmare.  I've seen some crazy drivers before (my own mother being one of them), but driving in Turkey is absolutely horrifying. It is a constant game of chicken, who's going to get scared and slow down first. We've been honked/yelled at for stopping at stop signs here, seen people REVERSE on the highway when they missed their exit, and overall everyone has a complete disregard for turning signals of any kind. D has been here two weeks and already drives like a local. I'm wondering how he'll ever adapt to driving like a normal human being again once we go home this summer. Meanwhile, I keep my eyes closed in the front seat and prefer walking when at all possible.

Security is very tight. To be honest, it scared the shit out of me the first time I saw you had to go through metal detectors to enter the shopping malls here. Essentially every where you go, they have a metal detector at the entrance with a person there swiping your bag. Additionally, when you enter a parking garage, they make you pop your trunk so they can make sure you aren't bringing anything in. At first I was really freaked out but this, but after thinking about all the crazies we have in America shooting up malls and schools, I would actually be 100% content with implementing this policy in the US. 

In my next life, I want to be a Turkish schoolgirl. Our apartment is sandwiched between two schools (one being an American School) so I've had the pleasure of feeling like one of the students whenever I leave my windows open. The first day I heard all the music coming from the school, I figured it was a special holiday. Well, here I am two weeks later and they still play music all throughout the day. I'm not sure what goes on in those schools, but I do know I feel seriously cheated. In my next life, I want to go to school here.

The fiat city. D's team is sponsored by Fiat, and the car company has a huge factory here in Bursa. In fact, their plant is connected to D's practice gym and it's actually like it's own little city. Almost 10,000 people work at the factory so on the premise they have a restaurant, grocery store, and a bank, which are all closed to outsiders. Every Tuesday we've been going to dinner at the restaurant for Seafood Night. The restaurant is a huge ballroom with live Turkish music and the food is actually really good. I thought it was pretty cool they offer their employees all these different amenities. It's definitely not your average workplace cafeteria. 

The silk market is incredible. Our city is known for it's silk production and we have a market, the Koza Han, which has been selling silk since the Ottoman Empire. We explored the market last week and I was blown away. There were so many gorgeous handmade gowns and I obviously felt like I needed every single one of them. The city's main Mosque is right outside the market and it is absolutely breathtaking. Hoping I can make friends with one of the uberly talented Turkish dressmakers and have something made before I leave here. 

Ulu Cami Mosque

I had a serious moment here.

No Twitter?? The other morning, Deividas called for me from the other room to ask if my twitter was working. I'm not an active twitter user and typically only log on to see what the rest of the world is commenting on the super important things in life, such as: LBJ or KD for MVP, March Madness Predictions, and the rest of the world's thoughts on the latest episode of Scandal. However, I noticed that my twitter was also out of service. I figured this was just something with our internet and shook it off. A few minutes later, we were having coffee watching the European News Chanel and heard the headlines "Turkey Bands Twitter". The Turkish Prime Minister decided to ban the site but luckily people have already found ways around this. You can say whatever you want about America, but I promise you this type of thing couldn't and wouldn't happen there. I'm not particularly talking about Twitter, because frankly, I don't care too much. However, we take for granted how free of a country the US is, and I wish I could enlighten all of my Facebook Friends who are constantly discontent with the government, that we really don't have it all that bad. 

and on a lighter note:

Dear: The Rest of the World,

You're doing it wrong.

Sincerely,

Turkish Kebaps (kebabs).

Overall it's been a great two weeks here. Deividas had his first game on Saturday and did really well, scoring 16 points. It's been a challenge adjusting to a completely different culture but we've enjoyed it so far. I promise to be more diligent about updating on here :)