Week Four: Let [Us] Eat Cake!

This week started out with a celebration. On Monday, our dear Laurel Ann and Maisy Dahl turned 16! What a gift these two are to us. They have brought so much love and laughter and wisdom and beauty and learning and deep joy and...I could go on all day. We are so thankful that God gave them to us. Here are a few highlights of the day:

We started out with a Turkish breakfast at our favorite Portuguese restaurant 😁. They ordered fancy hot chocolate, too.

When we sat down to plan the twins' birthday we came up with a few ideas of experiences like a painting class or a cooking class they could do together. After figuring out the cost, Maisy said, "You know what the best birthday gift would be? What if we used the money we would have spent on one of these experiences and just gave it away to people who really need it." Laurel quickly agreed, and they came up with a plan. People work HARD here and struggle (the inflation rate is so high that prices have gone up 65% in the last year). We've learned that most feel that begging is worse than starving, so the best way to help is to go up to the person you want to help and say, "You dropped this; it is yours." Then, hand them some money and walk away.

So all morning, that's what Laurel, Maisy, and I got to do. We chose the garbage collectors mostly because we see how hard they work all day long (they travel up and down the hills of Istanbul, walking up to 15 miles a day pulling heavy carts), picking up trash for recycling. We have learned that most are refugees who have no other prospects and make very little money. Here's a little article about them.

Most of the responses were confused looks, and Laurel almost got run over once, but we will never forget this day and how fun it was to surprise these men with just a little something extra.

We saw some really sad things, too, like the family digging in the garbage for food who broke our hearts with their very obvious needs. We gave them more than the rest, but we couldn't give them what they really needed. I wish we could wave a wand and make it all better. We will keep doing our best to be aware, share our smiles, and give when we can.

As we looked for people to give to, we also looked at some of the fun shops in our neighborhood. So many beautiful textiles and fun designs.

These two - how did we get so lucky?!

Sunglass shopping

We finished up the day by going to one of the big malls. Maisy needed face wash, so we hoped we could find something there. It was huge. Seven stories (maybe 8) of shopping, and it isn't even the biggest mall here. Crazy!

On the way home we stopped at the cake shop we always walk past on our way home from church on Sundays. Each of the girls picked out a cake.

And they were nice enough to share with us. YUM! Happy Birthday to our dear girls!

Wednesday, Jeff and I went on a grocery shopping date near where we go to church to check out the different shops there. We had fun taste-testing olives and cheeses and brought home some of our favorites.

Then we stopped for lunch, and I showed Jeff how yummy Borek tastes. It's basically layers of phyllo dough with feta-like cheese inside. The dough turns into a noodle-like consistency, and it is just delicious! Jeff loves the Fanta here - they don't use artificial flavoring/coloring, so it tastes really different - a lot more like fizzy orange juice. My favorite is the Cappy cherry juice!

On Friday, we joined our friends, the Krolls, for a four-hour Bosphorus Cruise to get another view of the city and actually go in the Golden Horn!

I loved this view of Istanbul. So many beautiful buildings and a perfect sunny day!

This is the palace we visit later on in the week - the Dolmabahçe Palace. It is quite a marvel!

You can see why there are so many hills! Building on top of building on top of building. It's pretty insane.

This is the famous Istanbul High School. It's one of the oldest and internationally renowned high schools in Turkey. The school is considered elite among Turkish public high schools. Admission to the school is very competitive since only 180 students out of 1,400,000 applicants can make it through every year. The school offers a tuition-free, high-level education, provides voluntary boarding possibilities, and draws a diverse group of students from all over Turkey, including students who cannot afford private education. The academic program enables students to pursue academic excellence and acquire fluency and literacy in both German and Turkish.

The kids had a good time connecting with the Kroll kids.

Steel Kroll and Ollie were best buds. It was so cute how Steel asked to hold Ollie's hand and just wanted to hang with him all day. He's a pretty good chess player too!

There was plenty of room inside the ship to draw and play games.

And even a parrot to keep it fun!

Maisy and Laurel (mostly Maisy) have been asking to go by themselves on the Metro, so Jeff thought it would be good if they were in charge of navigating our trip to Dolmabahçe Palace on Saturday, and they did great! We only had to get off at the wrong stop once.

Once we got off, we walked through narrow paths with cars driving right past us. It was pretty insane and something we will not soon forget! I had to go out a little once to get around a woman's umbrella and could feel a bus slide past my shoulder.

But we made it to the palace, and risking our lives was completely worth it! 😆

I mean, look at this entrance!

Horse hoofs on marble?

Just a bit about this palace. It was designed to echo the contemporary style of luxurious European palaces and was the idea of Sultan Abdulmecid I. The last six sultans of the Ottoman Empire and the first president of Turkey (officially the Republic of Türkiye), Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, all lived in the palace. Today, it’s preserved as an extravagant museum, with the gilded details of the early 20th century still visible.

Fun to see the Bosphurus from this side. We had just sailed past this point a few days before.

Pictures were discouraged inside, but I snuck in a few 🤫 . This is the crystal staircase that was under construction. I found a few photos on Google to show what is underneath.

Pretty incredible, right?!

Another sneaky photo of one of my favorite rooms. This was in the Harem section of the palace, where the Sultan and his family would meet with guests. You can see more pictures of the inside here.

We headed home in the pouring rain but found a wonderful cafe/bakery on the way that served us warm soup, pasta, and more CAKE! The prices were so reasonable we indulged.

Ollie and Norah shared a chocolate strawberry cake (and a quick game of UNO)

Laurel and Maisy shared a chocolate creme cake with pistachio.

And Jeff brought home this bad boy. Cream puffs on top of chocolate layers with dark chocolate drizzeled on top and a chocolate casing around it. It was insane! We're calling it the birthday cake he never got. 😁 We've had our sugar intake for the year.

This is a random picture of Ollie showing us his poor hand. He was making soup earlier in the week and spilled it on his hand. To add insult to injury, he woke up one morning with four mosquito bites on the same hand! This mosquito is ruthless, Jeff woke up with a perfect circle of mosiquito bites on his leg! Those of you in the midst of snowstorms, be thankful that at least you're not getting mosquito bites!

Blurry picture of Laurel and me trying to stay dry. We didn't succeed!

We learned that our coats aren't waterproof, but they did keep us warm, and they fit into a little bag to pack, so we'll count our blessings. 😅

Sunday, we headed to church and said hello to our pigeon friends...

And our favorite fluffy cat "Floof" that's always at the Metro entrance.

This is our Metro stop, so I made the kids take a picture. We love how this word sounds. It's pronounced SHI-SHAWN-NAY. The S's with the little squiggly line underneath make the SH sound.

There are no words for how much I loved church on Sunday. It was a "partaking of the fruit" kind of Sabbath. It felt like an absolute washing over of God's love. There's no way to communicate it except to say how deeply grateful I am for His dialog with me through the spirit. It was heaven for a couple of hours and I just never wanted it to end. I wanted to shout to the world, "THIS is what it feels like. This is what's worth every single struggle and sacrifice. To get to partake of the fruits of this amazing love."We are so lucky to feel His love and to have His spirit in our lives. There is nothing I want more than to keep that love in my heart.

Okay, I'll end with a goodbye picture of my newest friend, Annie. She is off to Nepal today but came to the branch for the first time the same week we did, and we've loved seeing her each week. She just graduated from BYUI with a degree in Fashion Design and Entrepreneurship and has been traveling all through the world to be inspired and to learn about how others live. I think she is so brave and such a cool gal.

Until next week!