My first day is almost done...
I was suppose to sleep in this morning because of jet lag. Who wants to bet how that went? If you guessed, "not well," you would be right. I was wide awake and up by 7:30.
I went with Renata and got some TL, so the fun of trying to manage a budget with two currencies has begun! The exchange rate today was really good, at least that is what I was told. We went to the bank and the market. Renata pointed out landmarks and routes to help get around in our area.
The place I am at is very nice and safe. I can see the ocean and the mountains from the window as well as the balconies. Today was really clear and the view was breathtaking, it made me think of you know who!
I looked at and circled two different location on twenty maps for people coming in tonight from Denver Seminary for a tour. So if nothing else I know where the hotel and the St. Paul Cultural Center are on the map.
Renata and I then worked on some paper work related to the upcoming camps.
I am going to be helping with the barracudas elective, which means the swimming and hiking for the children. I am thrilled!
I then went on my first solo adventure to go put minutes on the phone I will be using. Renata gave me directions and instructions and then set me loose. Watch out Antalya, I'm free! I walked down to the mall which is an easy five minutes and found Turkey Cell and through hand gestures and some English on my part and Turkish on their part we managed to get 20TL worth of minutes on my phone. That done I looked around the rest of the mall, it was smaller so this was not hard to do. A few discoveries are that it is a lot easier to find a one piece in Turkey, I can get an adapter for my plug at the grocery store, they seem to like earth tones more for clothing, and you can buy converse at the grocery store. Yes the last one surprised me, I had noticed that a lot of people were wearing them so I guessed they were popular but finding them at the grocery store was odd. They say "All Star" on the heel in English and then the circle emblem is in Turkish.
I then had some more time so I walked the remaining few blocks to the ocean. I discovered where I could go swimming when with someone else, as well as many beautiful places to look at.
Oh something that I found interesting is the elevators. You pull a normal swinging door open step in, close it, and then push one of the highlighted buttons this button is then no longer highlighted and that is the floor you go to. But when the elevator moves there is no inner door so the wall with all the other outer doors goes by and you could drag your hand along it if you wanted. The last thing is the ground floor is zero not number one and they do have a thirteenth floor.
So yes throw in some food, conversations, and God time and that was my day.
