I miss ...

... American food. I had a great time at our holiday resort for the weekend, but Turkish breakfasts just don't cut it for me. They usually include some plain white bread, honey, corn flakes, cocoa puffs, hard boiled eggs, and then a variety of meats and cheeses that just don't "fit" with what we Americans want to eat for breakfast.

I just want to go to Ihop. I want to have pancakes and eggs and waffles. You know, an American buffet breakfast! Ohhh how I miss that! Oh what I would do for oodles of syrup and fattening buttermilk everything.

Our brand new MAC computer just arrived this past weekend. (Joan, you're going to love coming to visit now.) My other computer which was given to me during my tenure at RLSF has reached the end of its leg and is no longer usable. So we decided to splurge and buy a real computer. I'm a bit tired of typing and working on this tiny little laptop.

(It may seem like I have totally changed subjects, but I haven't.) We can watch HULU on it. We are trying this for the first time. The first show that JB picked? Bobby Flay's throwdown challenge. What are they throwing down? Blueberry pancakes! Oh my oh my oh my. Blueberry pancakes at a pancake house. Could there be anything more delightful.

Yes, of course, we can make pancakes at our house, but these little things are things that you really miss living across the world from home. If we were in Europe, we could still get tastes of home. But here, it is really no longer Europe. It's Asia. And it's so different.

I wrote about some of my frustrations with Turkey on a previous post here. And I promised to revisit these when the fog cleared. So, here I am, revisiting a bit.

Let me preface by saying this. I am happy here in Turkey. We belong here. This is where we are supposed to be. JB works good hours. He works short days. He is off on the weekends. He is not deploying. We are experiencing a brand new culture. Turkish people are incredibly kind. The opportunity to learn a new language and experience a different place in the world is something we can never exchange. We are not bitter. We are not sad.

But we do get frustrated.

The Base itself is frustrating. We had been told that most people love living on Base at first and then it turns into a pressure cooker. That has all become understandable to us recently. The Base itself is run by the Turkish military. They own it. We, as Americans, are guests on their Base. For example, if the Base in Eglin decided to allow a small section of Turkish military occupy a section of their Base, we would find it incredibly rude if they started telling us how to do things. If they started telling us we were doing things wrong, it would be offensive.

The same is true for us here. We are the guests. And as such, we have to remember that this is a different culture. They do things differently. For example. Does it make any sense to me that I have been here seven months and still do not have a permanent residency pass? Does it make any sense that every January they reissue passes to the entire Base, and therefore, if you are anywhere close to January, they won't reissue you a pass?

I rest my case.

It makes NO sense at all. I could help this run so much more efficiently myself. But alas, I am not a member of the Turkish military. I am a guest. I am subject to how they do things. And so I do.

These things carry on off-Base.

• I don't understand why drivers move back and forth between lanes randomly. It seems unsafe.
• In the malls there are carts with wheels that don't move forward. You have to slide sideways. I don't really understand why they don't fix this wheel issue.
• Why do they have lights in the middle of their round-a-bouts? I don't get it.
• Turkish breakfasts? There isn't necessarily anything wrong with them. They are just different.
• Sitting in the middle of medians during a warm day? Doesn't that seem a bit dangerous?
• There is a new thing on the highways now. You have to use a pre-paid card to go through toll booths. But if you get to your turn in line and your card is out of money, you are stuck there! Fifteen cars behind you will have to back up so you can get out and maybe cross six lanes of traffic to find the little house that allows you to replenish your money. This makes no sense to me!

I have learned that if I start any sentence with, "Why do they ..." or "I don't understand why ..." I am going to just get frustrated. JB and I have found that if we do this regularly, we will end up getting bitter or down on where we are. So we try to remind ourselves that things here are not wrong. Yes, we see a way to do it more efficiently. But we don't live here. We don't own things here. We are guests here.

And that is what hard. You really can't make a change. You have to go with the flow even if the flow doesn't seem to flow very smoothly at all. I would imagine that anyone experiencing a new culture struggles withe adjustments, even if things are being done better. But your prayers that I would continue to see the good and not get frustrated would be most appreciated.

P.S. Thank you to those of you have purchased a pashmina. I have sold 4 of the 6 already. You can click on the link on the top of the screen to see what I still have. I plan to replenish my supply regularly and keep selling them as long as they are selling. You can pay through paypal. Email me at flakymn@hotmail.com with any questions.