Bus shock...

So- interesting story. Just another day here trying to live in Turkey : )

I had a wonderful day. Teaching today was great- the kids were on the ball, we got through everything we needed to, and any confusion was to a minimum- which was a breath of fresh air. I finished with the second group by 2:30pm and had the rest of the afternoon off. I was moving into the Albers today to stay with them so all my stuff was in bags still and I was pretty tired from the week so far so I thought- oh it might be nice to just go home- unpack and take a nap... do you think that's what I did? No, no it's not... because that would not make for an interesting story.

So I am still trying to find my way around and figure out the bus system... any lists of bus info. that anyone has here is really just from guess and check so people tell me their best guess and then I adventure from there. Well, the bus I was waiting for to take me back to the Albers didn't come for 45 mintues and the afternoon was still young so I thought- I might as well just catch a bus into the city and get some coffee and get a chance to dive into the new book I'm starting called "Many Waters" by Madeline L'Engle. Well, there are buses that go that way at least every 15 minutes and most of them go to this place that I am very familiar with called Dogu Garaji... from there I can walk to the waterfront and find most anything I need. Well, I just so happened to get on the 1 bus that does not go there. I had no idea in fact where it would end up. So I called a friend who knows almost all the buses and she told me some questions to ask the driver in Turkish, after we figured out where I was headed she was able to tell me how to get back. So I was a little on edge as I was on an unknown bus going into an unknown area. After I figured out what to do I went up front and asked the driver to signal when we reach Ollo- my stop. As I was waiting this turkish lady looks over to me and starts speaking to me and I just smiled and nodded as I've become accustomed to doing when people start talking to me here and I have no idea what they are saying. Then she hands me her baby and proceeds to rush towards to the rear exit of the bus and gets off. I panic because a turkish lady just gave me her baby and left. I am holding the child and staring in amazement toward the back of the bus and start to put him down on the ground to stand just as she comes in the front entrance and says thank you and takes off. I realized that she asked me to hold him while she set up the stroller outside! Haha! oh man- so today I rode the bus un-necessarily for an hour and I thought for a split second that I had adopted a turkish child : ) haha! Just another manic monday....only on a wednesday : )