Skip to main content

The Istanbul Chronicles: Hello Istanbul!

I met my ex-husband on August 25, 1999.  It was my Grandmother's birthday and it was the day that Istanbul had an earthquake of 8.9 magnitude.  Our first date happen because we had been talking on the phone a few times when I mention that I worked for a Jordian name Mr. M Swiess.  My ex knew him because he was the best friend of my ex's child hood friend. And I had know them a few years prior to meeting my ex.

My world wind marriage happened so fast that not even my family could believe that I had gotten married.  First they had to get over the shock of me being in a relationship then the shock of me getting married. They was like "what the hell happen?"  "Not Victoria!" "Did the world just froze over?"  Yes that was their reactions. I think that it took a minute to come out of their shock.

My ex husband sent me to Istanbul as a wedding gift to meet his family.  I met the grandmother, the mother, the brother-in-law and his wife, and the uncle, his wife and daughter.  I was there for two weeks and let me tell you. . .I was telling my ex to pack our things and moved back home for him.

While I was there I was breathless.  The beauty of Istanbul was overwhelming that I just melted with everything that I saw.  Even the aroma of the city was filling.  You smelted the sea, the spices, and the culture everywhere you walk.  There was so many thing to see that I really could not focus on just one thing.

I was so in all with Istanbul that when I did go home I did not realizes that I had left my heart there.  My ex-husband got so upset with me that we moved there 6 months later.  See my ex-husband was a Turkish man however I believe that he did had his heart on continuing to live in Chicago.  But at the same time when we meet he was already picking to move back to Turkey.   So us moving there turn out to be the best experience of my life and one that I can not shake off like I can with heartbreaks and disappointments.

On the day we left Chicago, it was -18 degrees and when we got to Istanbul, some 10 1/2 hours later, it 80 degree in March.  Yes we were over dressed and I was looking for some lighter clothes to wear.

When we arrived at his mother's place, I think we were in the house for about an hour when the ex and his mother was talking about the earthquake.  I am like "what earthquake?"  It has happen that fast that I did not feel it.  However they knew that it had happen because the light fixture handing from the ceiling was swing.  I come to find out that the average Turkish home does not have table lamps and will have multiple hanging lamps because of untimely earthquakes.

Moving to Istanbul I was excited and nervous to embark on a new life with my first marriage.  We had a lot of things to prepare for like getting Nick in school and finding a place of our own.  We did not have to worry about furnishing the our place. My ex-husband's family had furniture waiting for us to go into our new home so we found one cross the street from his grandmother's place and across the hall from his brother.  I later learned that it is the groom's family responsibility to a) find a new place for them to live and b) furnish the apartment.  And when I say furnish I do mean furnish from the living room to the dinner room to both bedrooms (our bedroom and my son bedroom) that included the bedding for the beds.  My kitchen with all cooking pots and pans, dishes and a few others things for the kitchen.

Now how many of you past and future brides wish that you can a wedding gifts like that?

At that time I did not expect anything for my new life however I got more that I could have ever image while living there. The things that I learned and the things that I go to do that I would never otherwise get a chance to do back in Chicago.

Moving forward I am going to share some of my experience along with Glenna and she got a few stories that I think some of you will find funny.

So I do hope that you will enjoy my stories.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Breaking the Cycle!

As a parent we always want the best for our child(ren)., and we start with educating them on things that we think that would be best for them to know as they grow up.  I was still a teenager when I became pregnant with my only child, Nicolas.  Did I wanted a child at that time?  No I didn't and it was my mother who said to keep him and that she would help me raise him.  My mother was also a teenage parent starting with me and a year later came my one of two brothers.  Now you are probably thinking that my mother why didn't she teach me not to become a teenage parent?   I am assuming that and I was right, that she did not know how.  She wanted to do my best with my life but she did not know to explain to me how to go about living life.  Growing up with 3 younger siblings I saw the struggles that my mother went through, and in my head I knew that I was not willing to do some of things that she.  I knew in my head that if I was ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coming this Month in September!

Lord have mercy, we are in another month for the year 2015.  If some of y'all like me and you saying this year is flying by . . .for some of us this a good while for others it may not. For a lot of parents this is a good thing because it is the start of another school for their children who are going back to school or have already started school.  Who is doing the dance of joy on this one?  If you don't have little ones still at home, this means peace and quiet for you at home until 3 p.m. For other parents it means fewer less children. ( Geçmiş olsun!)  But it also brings all the after school programs, those parent-teacher conferences that many parents dread, and those Fridays' night games. For all you new college students, for the first month you will be stupid to things but after that you will be okay.  For all you second year students who did not learn anything in your first year, then consider yourself still stupid!  For you third ye...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Istanbul Chronicles: Moving Stuff

Here is another one of Glenna and I adventures. When Glenna and I were getting to know each other, I knew that she lived in an area call Maltepe. To be actual she lived on Methap Sok., Mercan #7  Apt. 4, Adatepe.   It was quite some ways from me being 45 minutes by a mini-bus (I live those things).  I had often visited her at her at her apartment as she had often visited our apartment, especially for coffee. In Glenna's apartment, she had a lot of nice big real wood furniture that I would have loved to own and I am still mad to this day that we were not able to remove majority them away from Edward. While she was there in their apartment, Glenna by herself was trying to move those pieces around because of how big furniture was they were not moving for her. (Glenna is a tiny woman, I tell you.) She said she had been asking Edward to get some help in moving some of the furniture down stair into the storage assigned storage unit.  But talking to Edward was like ta...
Post a Comment
Read more