Rex
We moved to Europe so that we could experience life here and travel around easily. Our sons, Kaan and Evren, were born here, and these days, most of our pictures are of them! We only planned on staying in Germany for a few years, but it's rapidly becoming HOME.Kaanosaurus
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Travel Blog Posts
September 11th 2011
I hereby announce the publication of my novel, which takes place in Turkey. In it, a 17-year-old American girl spends a month with a Turkish family on the Aegean coast. She simultaneously learns about Turkish culture and learns to see her own culture differently. This novel is called Secrets of a Summer Village. It is available in both paper and electronic forms at the following locations. Paper: Amazon.com Lulu.com (best if you are outside of N. America) BN.com Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk (eventually...) Electronic: Amazon.com Apple iBookstore (coming very soon) BN.com (eventually) If you do read it, please let me know what you think! In addition, I have started an author blog. My entries there are mostly about writing and publishing. It can be found at http://saskiaeakyil.blogspot.com Enjoy :)... read more
Turkish Wedding (Part 3) - Nikah
Published: January 16th 2011Middle East » Turkey » Aegean » Pamukkale
January 16th 2011
Turkish Wedding (part 3) – Nikah - (pron: NEE-kya) We had to jump through a lot of hoops in order to get to our nikah (See Turkish Wedding parts 1 and 2), which perhaps made it feel somewhat like a prize we had earned. In spite of all the planning, however, it felt, and still feels, more like a dream or a movie I watched than a ceremony I participated in. Here's what I knew about the ceremony before I participated in it: precious little. I had been told, fortunately, that I didn't actually have to recite any vows. That was Mr. Bureaucrat's job. All I had to say was "evet" (yes) to whatever it was he had said. Yes, I do speak and understand Turkish, but I don't have the slightest idea what I ... read more
January 22nd 2010
Somehow, when you’re an expat, you become a representative for your home country. Willing or unwilling, you are seen by many as an unofficial representative of the Department of State. Any bad decisions your country makes, you are held responsible for. Whether you agree with those decisions, or not, no matter the stance on the issues. Unfortunately, when your country does good things, you don’t get any credit. Not that I want credit for all the wonderful things my government and my people do, but I don’t think I deserve the blame for the bad stuff, either. There have been many uncomfortable situations caused by this, but I’d like to highlight three here. When I was doing postgraduate language studies in Spain, our professor chose to focus our conversation topics on the news. This was ... read more
November 6th 2009
If you are a foreign service officer for the State Department, you're pretty much guaranteed to move every two to three years. I'm sure there are many reasons for this, but one of them is that the good 'ol DOS doesn't want you to go native on 'em. You know what I mean... to identify too much with the natives of the foreign country in which they're living. To become one of "them". Because how can you look after the best interests of the United States if you identify too closely with the foreigners? The reality of it is that lots of Foreign Service officers and their families don't really go native, but they lose their Americanness eventually and become a member of the Third Culture. An international culture of professional gypsies who have more in ... read more
Turkish Wedding - Part Two (The Artists)
Published: August 29th 2009Middle East » Turkey » Aegean » Pamukkale
August 29th 2009
Hair as Art The morning of our wedding, I woke up early with my mother, and we were driven by my sister-in-law’s friend from our hotel at Pamukkale to a hairdresser in the center of Denizli. My future mother-in-law had organized the appointment, and this was to be the first time I had seen the hairdresser or the salon. No test run, no discussion of how my hair would be. No trying out ten different hairstyles to see which one worked best. Brides may do this in Turkey, but our special situation of arriving from abroad and cramming months’ worth of preparations into two weeks meant that I just showed up on the day of my wedding, hoping that they would make my hair look nice. My laid-back attitude about everything probably helped me enjoy the ... read more
June 22nd 2009
Hoop 1 - Statement of Single Status Levent and I went to Turkey in August 2004 to get married. We arrived a few weeks early to organize everything. I’m not talking about flowers here. There were quite a few bureaucratic hoops to jump through. The first stop was at the US Consulate in Ankara. I really like Ankara, mostly because Levent’s sister and her family lives there and every time we stay there, I have a great time. It’s a very modern city without being too congested or crowded. There’s lots of open space, and there are plenty of trees. Ankara is located on a high plateau in central-western Turkey and the weather and topography are similar to Colorado in the US. I wasn’t thrilled about going to the US Consulate, though, because there had been ... read more
June 22nd 2009
I haven't posted anything for over a year because I've been spending most of my free time writing a book. It's about a seventeen-year-old American girl who travels to Turkey for a month. It has been a lot of fun to write, and now I'm editing it and getting it ready for any agent who requests to see it. Hopefully, they'll like it. We'll see! I miss my blog, though. The instant gratification of seeing it up there on my screen, the rapid feedback from my readers... So I'll be back with some new entries very soon, maybe as early as tonight. The next few entries will be about a Turkish wedding - mine. There are so many things to write, so it's not going to fit into one entry. Hang in there.. I'm writing it ... read more
February 25th 2008
For just 22,200 Euros (wonder where that extra 200 Euros comes in? If this were the US, it would be 21,999 Euros, for obvious marketing purposes...) you could have yourself a little wood cabin in a cul-de-sac of little wood cabins, in a field. Running water and electricity are available to you, and there is even a public restroom. There are seven cabin styles to choose from, each of which is 24 square meters (around 250 square feet) including the porch. And I'm pretty sure that includes the yard, too. Ok, so 22,200 Euros. At today's exchange rate, that is a mere $33,572 US Dollars, for a log cabin that's not big enough to live in, and doesn't have a bathroom anyway. Why would somebody buy one of these things? Because this is Germany, and things ... read more
January 24th 2008
I have now had two babies in Germany, which explains why I haven't posted in a while! Before you read this blog, I need to make two disclaimers: 1. Both of my children were born in the same hospital, in Munich. My experiences are entirely a reflection of that limited viewpoint. 2. I haven't given birth in the US, though I was pregnant with my first son while still in the US. I also used to work as a medical interpreter in the States, and I have many friends having children there so I do have some perspective with regards to what things are like there. When we arrived in Germany in 2005, I was 32 weeks pregnant. Fortunately, we had sorted out our health insurance beforehand, through a relocation agency. But that was as far ... read more
Pillow Size and other things you take for granted
Published: April 20th 2007Europe » Germany » Bavaria » Munich
April 20th 2007
No matter who you are or where you live, there are certain things you take for granted. Sure, you know that every country doesn't have Safeway open 24 hours a day, but there are also things that you take for granted that you likely have no idea that you take for granted. Here are some of the things we now realize that we took for granted while living in the United States... Pillow Size In Germany, they use huge square pillows instead of small rectangular ones, it's as simple as that. In Turkey, France, Spain, and probably other countries they have pillows the same "regulation size" as in the US, but in Germany the standard size is a US pillow times two. So if you have sheets you brought from the States and pillows you ... read more
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