Weekend the 3rd

Weekend the Thirr'd

This city is slowly expanding in my mind. I used to live in a tiny one kilometer radius, but every day, every time I go out, it grows and becomes more than what it was the day previous. Every interaction with someone, whether it's those that are completely enjoyable or one of those that seems to deflate me for the next few hours, give new life to and make this city more alive and complete in its personality. I thought I would happy staring out the window at the passing ships, but that's just eye candy. It's smiling at someone talking to the boy, pinching his cheeks and giving him a "Mashalla". It's a thank you after a simple act like buying a loaf of bread or a few pieces of Baklava.

Today started like most weekends. No rush to be anywhere or do anything. Two cups of Cafe JoJo (what I call the instant 3-in-1 coffee! cream! sugar! together!) coffee we've been drinking, my new all-time favorite breakfast of granola, sliced bananas and peaches, yogurt and a bit of milk all together, a hot shower in my new favorite shower of all time.

We made plans to go to the mall and get our internet taken care of. I can't explain the difficult process because I don't wholly understand it. Apparently we get a special code, travel to a Turkcell store in one of the malls nearby and give them the code and receive a modem. Then, several weeks later they turn on our internet and we're good. Going to this mall also required finding the Metro station closest to us and navigating our way down (easy enough, it's all on the same line).

We also had plans to go to the outdoor market nearby and pick up fruits and olives and whatever else looked delicious. They sell quite a few disparate items and only once a week on Saturdays. Our neighbors took us last week and it's a fun experience. Everyone is eager to unload their wares and is friendly and helpful.

We also wanted to find a sun hat for the boy that would fit his sweet noggin.

So we skipped the first two and went to Istinye Park Mall to look for hats and check it out. It is big. It is fancy. Security guards check your car before letting you in the garage. Just like the Carrefour down the hill, you pass through metal detectors before entering. You know, just in case. They do have terrorist groups around here.

The mall is…a mall. It has fancy stores and average stores. It's okay, I guess. It was air conditioned and not too crowded for a Saturday. That's what Americans look for in a shopping experience, right? Even still, I found plenty of lovely suits and shoes I wouldn't mind wearing. And the coolest Turkey soccer…I mean, football kit with the ubiquitous evil eye on the inside collar. All the children's stores were next to one another. I made the mistake of waiting in line forever to buy the boy two cute shirts and found nicer ones at the non-busy store next door.

The good news is they have several cafes that might serve up a delicious americano, which I haven't had since leaving the States. The bad news is, I wanted to be able to order food using my twelve words of Turkish (that include table, house, bathroom, dog and red - not what I wanted for lunch), so we went to (sorry world. sorry body) McDonalds. And they still couldn't understand me. Or I couldn't order a number 7 value meal without the server pulling out the "point it out on the shiny menu here". It was food. It was calories. There was no ice in the soda and no salt on the fries.

The other good news is that the mall might be a good alternate option, besides our living room, to hang out in during the rainy months. The other bad news is there are no crosswalks on the walk there and you have to run to cross the street on more than one occasion dodging cars, buses, cabs, dolmuses and scooters. No fun.