Tomorrow will mark my first week living here.  The flight over was fine, save the grouchy Delta flight attendants and the little kid sitting behind me.  But upon my arrival at IST, me, my 4 suitcases, 1 box and 70lb “carry-on” was greeted by my hubby who was bearing my most favorite flowers.  I can’t tell you how excited I was to be in his arms!

I was also so excited to see the new apartment, which I had only seen pictures of so far.  Wow is all I have to say.  I am beyond happy with our new place!  Onur did such a great job finding it.  It’s nearly 1700sqft with 2 balconies… a HUGE difference from our 1br apt in NY.  It feels like a real home, imagine that.  But more importantly what felt real was the feeling of being a newlywed.  After 2 months of being married but not really together, and three months of being apart before that, we now officially feel what it’s like to be newlyweds.  And yeah, it is a grrreat feeling!  The whole being newlyweds thing… totally underrated.

The first couple of days here were spent furniture shopping.  Our place currently echos, so we’re eager to fill it with furniture and make it a home.  So we spent two full days at these furniture “cities”.  Hundreds of stores, but we only went to maybe 40?  It’s like an outlet mall on crack, minus the discount prices.  Looks like we’re going with customized furniture for the living and dining rooms (common in Turkey, from what I’m beginning to understand), and the plan is to go modern-comfy.

We also hung out with a lot of friends so far this week, which was a nice welcome to Istanbul.  And I also met a new friend – the gym – oh but it’s so much more than a gym.  It’s a 5 minute walk that takes about 15 because of the convoluted way you have to get there.  Hello huge hills and random Istanbul streets.  And this gym is like no other gym.  I’ve decided this gym is more like a beach club… well minus the actual beach. The sheer size of this place – 14,000sqm (and the size of the membership costs too!), the 3 amazing pools (1 of them being a full-on beach club pool), and the on-site spa facilities make it more of a beach club to me.  I mean you could spend all day here no problem.

While I adjusted to the time difference very quickly, I’m adjusting to the sounds here at quite a different pace.  We’re in a very central part of Istanbul, but because we live in a private community, we’re away from the horn honking, bus screeching, and general big city traffic noise.  This is a welcome break from apt living in nyc, for sure.  But on the flip-side, I hear a lot of things like wind and birds chirping and well, nature… and let me tell you it does take some getting used to – especially falling asleep in the quietness. It is relaxing though, don’t get me wrong.  Sometimes so relaxing I feel like I’m on vacation.  I can get used to it – well, except for when those things, those birds or lambs or goats or seagulls or whatever the hell they are, make that funky noise… at 5am every morning.  I gotta find my earplugs.  

Some general observations from my first week living in Istanbul: 

* roosters – they don’t just crow at dawn, it’s more of a throughout-the-day thing (yes we really do live in a very comsmopolitan area, so I don’t know why I hear roosters either)

* kitties – there are a lot of them here and they are so cute… but you don’t touch them

* screens in your windows – nobody has them.  We’ll be “those” Americans stapling screens into our windows.

* no one is on time here, I mean no one.  I’m a role model for all Turks!

* Turkey needs Bed Bath & Beyond… big time