Friday, October 10 "Water Delivery"
Big adventure for today so far has been having water delivered. I was going to call yesterday but realized I didn't even know what to tell them for my address, let alone to communicate that I wanted 3 jugs instead of 2. So Brian brought our magnet with the phone number to school and has someone call for us. At 8:30 the buzzer rang and I let the water delivery guy in. He brought 3!

The people are nearly insane about having clean shoes and not wearing their shoes inside homes. The water delivery guy puts on little blue shower cap baggies over his shoes before coming into the apartment. Everyone's shoes are sparkling and shiny, and appear to be brand new. Except the foreigners of course. Look at the shoes and you can tell if they're from here or Europe/America. We're so sloppy in comparison.

The other thing about the shoes is that they are super pointy. Even the men's shoes narrow themselves into tiny points, so much so that they extend in front of the foot and don't even touch the ground in many cases. Brian just laughed and said, "never me."

We brought a big drip water filter with a spigot, but it turns out that we shouldn't even use that to cook with because of the heavy metals in the water that the filter does not remove. So we have it in the bathroom as our "faucet" for brushing teeth and washing fruits and vegetables, and then use bottled water for everything else. Aeden has already discovered what good drums the empty jugs make and to bring a cup from the cupboard over to the water ug when he's thirsty, with a little 17-month-old "point and grunt" request for some water. What a smarty pants!

Maren had Egg Day at school today and she had to bring a hard-boiled egg to class. They did some relays and activities, and then colored them. Here she is showing off her egg, outside and inside, too!




Last night I got the TV bug and tried to hook up our TV (Kim--another Fulbright exchange teacher--had loaned us a Turkish DVD of Season 1 of The Office, in English with Turkish subtitles). Aeden found the remotes in no time flat, and had the TV on all afternoon today on the single channel we receive. It was some kind of talk show with cued laughter and applause...somewhat Northwest Afternoon-like. Once our residence permits are approved we can apply for phone service, internet, and cable. One step at a time still.