Archive for January 2006
We made it!
So, after 7 months of training, planning a wedding in 2 months, commuting to Northern Virginia for a while, and attending more farewell parties than a couple should, we made it to Ankara in one piece!
We’ve been here for a week now, and it’s snowed for 5 of those days. The embassy has shut down early the last 2 days, and it just keeps coming. It’s been good, because I can spend time with Mer, making our place seem more like home. We got our air freight shipment today, and we had a ball unpacking it and getting everything set up. It was like Christmas!
One of the most disconcerting things about moving to a completely alien place is not knowing where you are in relation to home. I walk out our apartment building’s front door, and I don’t really know which way the embassy is. That’s how it was for the first few days. I needed help getting to work and back home at night. Today was the first day that I actually felt confident in knowing where I was and how to get home from work. I get very stressed if I don’t know where I am. Then you throw in not being able to speak to anyone, and you really feel lost. Google Earth really helped. We found our apartment and street, then the embassy, and I could picture where we had walked or driven. It made it a little easier.
Another thing that, as an American, really seems different is the driving. We heard before we got here how crazy it was, but you’re never really prepared for actually being in the middle of it. We’ve been told several times that the traffic laws here aren’t really laws, they’re suggestions. And that really seems to be the case. People park where ever they want; on sidewalks, grass, whatever. A one lane road can be as many lanes wide as cars will fit. I was in a taxi going to work one morning, in the snow, and my driver was passing people going down this very steep hill, on a very slippery road, and he was crossing the center line, going into oncoming traffic. And this is normal. I just chuckled. Pedestrians are insane as well. They just step out into traffic, expecting you to stop for them. You might say that people do that in big American cities as well. And you’d be right, but Americans do it at a place called a crosswalk. Turks cross where ever they want. So you’ll be driving down the street, dodging people, not cars. I don’t think the word crosswalk exists in the Turkish language.
I wish that I had more pictures other than of our apartment and the view off the balcony, but all in due time.
If you want to see the pictures, go here: http://flickr.com/photos/farrington
I am so tired of training.
I’m almost done with my post-specific training; today I took my Security+ test, and promptly failed by only 2 questions. 2 questions?!? I admit that I didn’t take the class as seriously as I should have. I caught myself daydreaming a few times during class. I’ll tell ya what though, it’s not exactly easy to juggle classes and tests with preparing to move overseas.
I’ve been in training since July 11th of last year, and it’s wearing on me. I just can’t focus that well in class now. I’m getting fat, too, just sitting there, every day, listening to someone talk for 7 hours, then not really feeling like doing anything once I get home. Ugh, I can’t wait to get to Turkey so that Mer and I can maybe get some semblance of a normal life. Living out of a suitcase is not fun, even though I did it for my entire school career, save college. I guess I thought that that experience in my life would make it easier to detach and move overseas, but I sometimes find myself getting emotional when I see my family these past few days. Either way, I’m getting pretty excited about going to Ankara.
Texas just beat USC to win the National Championship. Vince Young isn’t a bad football player. I’ll end on that.
Bringing in the New Year in the ‘Burg
Mer and I at J Brian’s downtown. We had no plans until about 8pm, but it turned out to be a great night. Check out some pictures.
