An Unexpected Week

It was a strange and beautiful week.  The weather shone bright and sunny, and although it felt a little boring, it was different.  As usual I went to see Buglem on Monday and it is amazing me how big she is getting!  Having never really spent this much consecutive time with a small child before it is fascinating to watch her maturity level and her interests evolve into a real little person.  She is getting so interested in books and wanting me to read to her, and she has gotten much quieter, almost as though she is just absorbing everything I say.  As an added bonus, she played with my hair for half an hour last week- and I love having my hair played with, and all I had to do was read her children’s stories- bonus number two. 

Then Tuesday surprises happened.  I was all showered and dressed and Joe and I were playing backgammon until I had to go to work, when the phone rang, and it was Isilay.  Something was going on with ‘fixing the classes’ (didn’t fully understand what she meant) but my class that night was cancelled.  We double checked, and she confirmed and okay. So we cracked open our bottle of wine we had been saying since Cappadocia, moved the backgammon game to the balcony and continued there.  When the wine was finished, we grabbed a towel, our books, some music, and went to pick up some lahmajun and beer for our picnic.  We wandered along out through the small field behind our house and down onto the rocks below, where we set out our towel and relaxed in the sun.  It was slightly hindered by two small boys who kept coming down to  watch us, but their older brother kept coming to collect them, and they were kinda cute so it wasn’t that bad. 

First picnic of the year

We both got a little burnt, and then relaxed for the rest of the night.  I awoke Wednesday morning to an email from Isilay saying that both of our Wednesday classes, and Joe’s Thursday class were cancelled, and Friday was up in the air as well.  It’s a good thing that we don’t get paid by the hour, but the best part about a salary is that an extra week holiday is totally ok with us.  We headed into town anyways to buy our bus tickets back from Fethiye, exchange some money and talk to Isilay face-to-face to confirm what was going on.  The school appeared open, and everyone was there, no sounds of any sort of construction, but again we had confirmation that the classes were cancelled.  We asked why they hadn’t moved the classes to the other campus (a five minute walk away) but were given the scoff of all scoffs, and so we laughed and moved on.  We wandered down the street to the mall ( I stopped in a couple of shops looking for a bathing suit, but while Joe is a patient person, bathing suit shopping is not his forte, so I decided to go back another time) and picked up some odds and ends we needed, stocking up on some wine for when our next set of visitors arrived, and having lunch before heading home.  We relaxed for an hour, played some more backgammon and then went for a walk.  We ran into Onder at the playground watching his kids play, and chatted with him before buying our first ice creams of the season

Our little picnic friend.

By Thursday it was getting a little weird.  Not working and staying in town is not a phenomena I am used to.  Joe headed into town to meet Malik, and I spent the day relaxing before heading off to see Buglem and then home.  However by the time I went to bed that night- virtually as I got into bed, I started feeling strange, I had the chills and body aches and then shortly after whatever stomach bug (be it food poisoning or another cause I am not entirely sure), so when I found out that Friday was a holiday and my class was cancelled, I was okay with that.  Joe bustled about, buying me sprite and bananas and making soup, which was quite sweet of him considering I didn’t get around to eating much, but the thought was appreciated.

The weekend passed in a blur of misery- teaching with stomach irregularities is never joyous, coming home to eat very little, and then repeating it.  Each day got a little better (although I will spare you the details of my symptoms) and  I even managed to eat real food on Sunday!  Which shouldn’t be that exciting, but I was getting really hungry.  Time continues and with the re-opening of the pharmacies today, (stupid weekends) I hope to speed up the process as Jan and Terry arrive tonight, and a healthy digestive system makes for a considerably more enjoyable holiday!