We're here!  And, we're exhausted.

The trip from Denver to DC to Munich to Ankara took  about 20 hours.  We left DIA on Friday morning and landed here the next afternoon.  We got to Ankara on Saturday afternoon and it was much easier to get through their immigration than either Mexico or the US.  A 30 second visit with our passport at immigration and two stamps later we were exiting the airport.  The school director, Chris, and Jan, our friend from Fairplay, were waiting for us.  

We got to our lojman-apartment and unloaded our 8 bags from the van.  We are on the 3rd floor, with 3 balconies:  one off the living room, and one from each bedroom.  The school had shopped for us so we had basics in the refrigerator and fruits and cereals to get us going without a trip the very first day to the store.  

But, we did make a trip down the hill to the Real' Store-much bigger than the Walmart in Salida, and it carries everything.  The Real is in a mall type setting with restaurants and shops also in the building.  So we only "looked" at Real, and had dinner with Jan and her friend and 4th grade teacher, Fran.  We had great food- I had beef kabobs while Peggy had a spicy chicken dish.  

We were very tired after dinner, having each slept only about 5 hours the previous night, but got a second wind and moved the queen sized bed into the bigger bedroom and switched the twin into the smaller one.  We then moved these huge bookshelves around and around and finally put two back where we started and left one in our bedroom.  We finally stopped about 10:30.  

We woke and went to Real on Sunday morning-this time to shop.  We bought a TV, microwave, and food.  The produce here is so fresh-all grown in Turkey- this time of year from their massive greenhouses, so it was a fun experience.  Jan, who owns a car with Fran, drove us to the Real, and then to a Home Depot type place and back to the lojam where we now unpacked the 8 bags and tried to make the place into our home.  Three of Peggy's fellow 1st grade teachers, Jan, and our neighbors in this building, Steve and Barbara, took the free bus from the campus to downtown late in the afternoon and then walked around for about an hour.  We crossed John F. Kennedy Blvd, and saw the US Embassy a block away.  After a while we ate dinner at a traditional Turkish cafe.  The food was good, but the smoking was tough-giant hooka contraptions everywhere-plus regular cigarette smoke.  We found out that sitting inside is smoke free, but outside with the plastic walls and heaters, is smoker friendly.  It was probably more fun there rather than inside with the non-smokers. In this Muslem country we drank beer with all the locals drinking too. 

The director said to meet him in his office at 8:00 this morning so we went ready to spend the day, and we did.  Peggy taught most of the day with the teacher she's replacing, Lara, and her Turkish co-teacher, Saadett.  She had a blast and the kids were real fun.  I acted as substitute for the economics teacher, who left, and whose replacement won't get here until the 20th or so.  The 11th and 12th grade (not juniors and seniors) are taking their IB semester tests in blocks later this week and early next week.  So, fortunately for the kids, the director was in and out of the classroom helping with questions.  During the supply and demand discussion I was able to marvel them with my accounts of my brother in law and how ethanol and a drought has helped push the price of corn way up, and how much money he made! 

We also had a driver today take us to the university health center, which is free for us to use as well, and get our pictures taken in another university building for our ID cards.  Then it was back to the Real center to a phone shop to get cell phones.  He was sent along to help us translate, but when I first got in the car and said, "Wow, you're a driver and translator too,"  and he got confused with my comment, Peggy said from that back seat, "maybe just a driver!"   He was a little helpful with the phone salesman as he definitely got after the salesperson who I think was trying to take advantage of us.  We actually had to have our passports to be able to get the phones, like its a state secret, the use of these Nokia phones that we had about 5 contracts ago in Salida.  So, we weathered the language barrier, not, I'm sure for the last time, and got back to school in time to teach the last 1 1/2 hours.  It started to snow when school let out at 4:15 and we've had about 3-4 inches of snowfall so far.  The high school kids were all talking about a snow day, just like they'd do in Cotopaxi at the first hint of snow.  

We've been able of Skype with the boys and Skype call both mom's so the important people know we're find.  

So, I've taken a few pictures and we really have laughed a lot about different things, but I'll have to save those for the weekend or another post later.  We just wanted to touch base, as some of you have emailed wondering if we made it.  We did.