Phillip and Rebecca Mefford

Rebecca's language school notes from six years ago. Even the way time is told is different. With the school year in full-swing, our life is settling into a rhythm. We work, we eat, we play, we rest, and we try to connect with our Turkish friends and neighbors in and through this loose sort of routine. Sometimes we are amazed how our internal clock can seem somewhat foreign to the culture we live in. It’s a nuance, but one that we feel. Our ideas of when to eat and when to sleep, even, seem just slightly off-kilter compared with the ins and outs of our neighbor’s lives. Six and a half years living here, but we keep adjusting and adapting, and have this suspicion that our ideas of ‘when to do what’ are looking less and less American too. Thus begins a series of blogs on how this deeply ingrained American daily rhythm is slowly getting drummed away into a new more Turkish sort of beat.

Our çocuklar, a photo taken this past Spring. Our life is full. Teaching English, maintaining our house, fending off other English teaching job offers (there are too many to possibly say ‘yes’ to), keeping healthy through exercise, evenings of tea and conversations and sweets (thus the need to exercise),and evenings we just collapse on the couch after attempting to put our kids to bed. The most consuming aspect: our children. They are very small, dependent, and have active minds and bodies that keep us on our toes. And they are wonderful. Here’s an update on our three: Sofia Ezgi has recently turned the ripened age of 9 months old. As far as the baby-stage of life is concerned, she has been the most pleasant of our three. Joyful, peaceful, but no less wiggly to be sure. She always has a smile for everyone, but especially for her abiler, her loving big brothers. With two teeth, our little “Eggy” (Hudson’s nickname) can now eat almost any type of food providing i