Karen's:))

I absolutely despise winter in Turkey... It's not like summer at all.. LIVING here is not like summer, and I swear to God, I miss my apartment, my family and my bed in my family's home.. But I am happy here too.. It's just so stressful when everything is so expensive.. For example.. We had house rent costing 400 TL, and our electric bill was 170 TL (!) and that's MUCH.. So how much money do we have left... Well, we have 20 TL left, and almost no food.. It's 1 week until I get money and it is 1 week and 3 days until he gets money.. So what to do, I really don't know. Of course I knew it would be harder to LIVE than to be on holiday, but that I was gonna live with this little money, I had no idea.


We had a little more, but then my sweetheart managed to go out with a glass of jam, he slipped and fell, and the glass broke in his hand.. He refused to go to the hospital so I went to the pharmacy instead. Not cheap.. Well, he still has glass in his hand, and I told him that tomorrow I am cutting it out. I don't care if it hurts, it's already closed so it needs to be CUT out. I don't have a scalpel so razor blade will do.. I have watched my mom do it many times so I have learned a little.. + that cuts is not exactly a stranger of mine :)   It will hurt, I told him, but better to hurt in the moment than to have a big (!) piece of glass stuck in his hand. Cause it hurts him just by touching it. It could be a feather touching him and it would hurt.. So better with 5 minutes of pain than so much longer, and even risk of infection.  It's so easy to hurt yourself like that. I did that once, like in 2009, I think. I was walking with a beer bottle, fell, could not let go of the bottle, it broke in my hand and it ended up in 8 stitches, and a nice doctor that meant that since I had so many self-inflicted scars, I didn't need anesthetize.. If my mom was there and heard that, it would not have been pretty I think :)


And also I am sad that my one and only friend in this place have left for Norway. The only up side is that then I know my marriage papers is safely there.. Other than that it is so terrible, cause right now I am bored out of my mind, and when she is not here, I need to go to markets and everything by myself, AND I have no one to bitch about all the things our boyfriends are doing wrong with... So Johanne, get the hell back before I come to Norway and pack you in my bag!


Other than that there is not so much to tell.. I am still not doing much, today my lovely fiance asked me; When will you clean our home ... -_-  Well, I have said 1000 times; The quickest way to get something done is to do it yourself.. Well, let's just say that this quote does not work on the men in this country.. Not like home, so if I don't do it, it never gets done. SO I have been effective today and cleaned this whole place. And I swore to myself that if there was ONE complaint when he came home, I would drown him in the washing bucket, but I got a "thank you" and then he made food, so he is still alive.


We are going on a road trip with some other people tomorrow if everything goes as planned. Just around driving, since as I said, we are poor as poor can be. But it doesn't need to cost anything to just have a nice day. We can pack some food and have a picnic or something :)   It will be nice to see something other than the walls of our apartment. I have not been out in the dark alone since that incident with the "you wanna sex"- guy... 


I am also really dieting now.. I have gained so much weight since the summer, and I am getting MARRIED in 3 months, I would really like to look a LITTLE good for my wedding photos. I have not had ONE Efes in like 1 1/2 week or something, and now I am trying to eat as healthy as I can. One would think it would be soooo easy in this country since there is SO much fresh fruit and vegetables everywhere and any time, but it is harder than it seems, specially when one have a fiance who is expert in making great food!!  But my mind is made up. No unhealthy anything. Well, I don't know if pasta is so healthy but at the moment this is all we have to eat for the next week so maybe I won't be number one health freak of the year right now, but when I can afford it I will eat only good things.. My goal is 10 kg before my wedding, I just hope I can manage it.. We eat eggs for breakfast everyday, and that's good, right??   


One thing I am so happy about right now is the washing machine my parents gave us. It has saved us for SO much money, if it was not for that, we would not have clothes at all right now. We hardly have enough money for bread, so definitely NOT 44 TL for each round of clothes at the dry cleaners!!!    So it is good..  I am managing the washing machine though.. Even though he showed me how it works, he doesn't understand it.. He thinks he does but he dont... He asked why I had so little in the washing machine at the time... Well, maybe because if you will put white and blue, it will be blue, white and red= pink  etc.. 


Besides that, I am very exited about the fact that our marriage papers is actually signed and on the way to bingo! :)  I sent an e-mail to the woman I talked to about where to send the papers etc, and I asked how much it will cost for the Apostille stamp + get the birth certificate in English, and she said it was free, so THAT is good news :)  But then again, it will cost to translate the papers into Turkish... And my parents will have to send it to Turkey.. Does anyone have any experience about sending things here, like papers and stuff? I am really nervous about sending papers like this, it's like I wanna go to Norway just to get them myself, so I will be sure that I get them... We will see, maybe I'll do that. I don't want to, cause it is not exactly cheap but this is my LIFE.. You cannot put a price on happiness, right?


We also have plans to buy a car when we are in Norway (if he gets yes on the visa of course) and drive back to Turkey. It would be so genius, just imagine how much things we will see.. But of course, we will pay 50-50 and I have already said as my sister told me, that there was insurance and some other fees to pay, so it would not be cheap for him or for me.  


I wonder if my mom reads my blog anymore... DO YOU MOTHER?? Cause she used to comment and now she doesn't.. Maybe she forgot me .. :(    Haha :)  Saka saka joke joke;) 


I Love you mom <3
And I miss my whole family so much.. IF you are reading this, just know that I am thinking about all of you everyday, and I hope you are all OK, I miss you like crazy and I wish you were here too.


Love you <3