Little provisions...

In my new place, we've got only a mini-bar size fridge. Fine for one person, doable for two, frustrating with three, especially now that it's getting hotter and veggies and such should really live in the fridge. Before my roommates got back from the music tour, I decided to look into it.
A new big fridge would be expensive, really expensive; a used one from the market would be a bit sketchy, the best option was hopefully to get one from one of the tons of foreigners constantly leaving Istanbul to go to other parts or to go home.

I let my desire for a fridge be known and then a couple in my small group called to say they'd been to the home of this girl who was planning to go home to Korea soon. They said she had an older, medium-sized fridge (with freezer) and was asking only 20 American. That's a phenomenal price here, so I called right away. We chatted for a bit and as we did, we sooon discovered that not only did she use to live in the same neighbourhood as me, she actually lived in the very same apartment! She knows one of my roommates well. As soon as she heard that, she said we could just take the fridge for free! I love it, a fridge with a freezer, right when we need it and for the best possible price:) God is definitely in the details.

So now we just need to find a way to transport it...that's for another blog...

Below I threw in some photos, just because people always seem to want to see photos.
This is the view from my new living room. If you look carefully between the buildings you can see the ocean! Yep, ocean view.

And this is the view from my bedroom. Apartments for miles and miles all around except for this little field right next to ours. They grow hormone free veggies here. I am awoken by a rooster at around 5 or 6ish, often before the call to prayer.

The Language of Suffixes and Infixes...

So this is one of the longest words in Turkish. I've run into a few in the 25-30 letter range in the book I'm reading right now, but this one definitely beats them all! I've included an explanation (as far as I understand anyways) of each infix and suffix for the linguists out there (Tanya) or for anyone else who's curious...

Avrupalılaştıramadıklarımızdanmışsınız.

Apparently you are one of those we have not been able to Europeanize.

Avrupa—Europe

lı—suffix meaning 'with', 'connected to', 'containing' (with Europe>European)

laş—infix used in verbs to indicate that something is progressively becoming

tır—the infix used to show that something or someone is making someone or something to do something.

a—infix meaning ‘able’ but used only with negative, ('not able')

ma—infix used to indicate the negative form of a verb

dık—suffix used to make a verb into an adjective which describes its object (eg. 'myreading book' > 'the book that I read’)

lar—plural ending

ımız—person ending for ‘we’

dan—suffix meaning 'from' or 'of'

mış—suffix added to verbs to indicate that you did not see personally the verb taking place (in this word it means 'apparently')

sınız—person ending for ‘you’ plural or the formal/polite form of ‘you'

Good times with Turkish!

Joy in simple things...

So this morning I had a fabulous ride on the train...

Frequently, my morning train ride is not the most pleasant experience...cars crammed full of people, the windows may or may not be open (people have a general theory here that most illnesses are due to 'drafts') and generally I'm surrounded by what I can only describe as that 'morning smell'...the smell of someone before they've brushed their teeth or the way a tent might smell after a bunch of young guys who'd been hiking all day have slept in it...I have come to rather loathe that smell.
But today, today it was glorious!...The window was open near me and as it had rained last night, that wonderful fresh after the rain smell was blowing across my face, one of the guys near me smelled of Old Spice, the woman standing directly in front of me had the just showered smell, no one had overdone their cologne or perfume, and-most importantly-there was no hint whatsoever of the 'morning smell'.

Empty house

So I've had the apartment to myself for the past 2 weeks. It's the first time I've been living alone in about 5 years. It's definitely been nice to have that peace and freedom that comes with living by yourself but I have to admit, I'm really looking forward to having my roommates come back! I guess I have changed some over these past years. I'm far more extroverted than I ever was, I actually really enjoy life in community now, prefer it actually. Fitting considering how central community is here; in Turkey it's odd to want to be alone, offensive even in certain situations. I'm so grateful that God's been shaping me--shaping my desires and preferences even--so that I can fit well where He's got me.