Making some progress with the apartment at the same time I’m
losing a little ground.
Happily, even though I have the wrong visa, my air delivery
got delivered. Now I have most of my clothes and little bit of decoration. Not
much in that department, since most of what meager possessions I own are in the
boat shipment, but I did get the cross I bought at Boot Barn and Uncle Gray
baby grandfather clock. Both of those are sitting in an otherwise empty china
cabinet. The look quite lonely, but they won’t get any company any time soon. I
do have to get the visa taken care of to get the other stuff.
That’s a three-step process, or maybe four, depending on how
you count it. Any way you cut it, step two is under way – I shipped the passport
off to DC to get the right visa. When it comes back, I have to exit the country
again to get it all straightened out. So I guess that is three steps to get the
visa, but after I get the visa, I then have to cough up the passport again in
order to get my residency card, which I need to get my boat shipment.
There’s nothing I can do to speed the process, so I’m trying
not to sweat it. I am pressured for time, though, if I want to anywhere for
Labor Day, or the big holiday that’s the week after. I can only pray and cross
my fingers that it all gets done in time.
One day, I’ll have all my stuff reunited in Istanbul.
Hopefully, I’ll have a place to put it.
Unlike Guangzhou, I have plenty of storage room. There’s an
entire room in the basement – larger than my spare bedrooms – that’s all mine.
Except it’s flooded. I came back through the garage the other day – the room is
off it – and noticed a huge pool of water right outside the door. Thinking that
couldn’t be good, I went up and got my key, then discovered that over 2/3 of
the floor was covered with standing water. Fortunately, the one corner that
wasn’t affected had two boxes sitting in it. Unfortunately, my luggage was
sitting right near the source of the leak.
I went up and got my dustpan-on-a-stick, which has a little
squeegee end, and pushed all the water out. In my air shipment, I had one of
those storage tubs and I put it under where water was still dripping pretty
fast.
Later that day, I checked it again and it’s still leaking
from other places, because there was more water on the floor as well as in the
tub. Sigh. I reported it on Friday, but nothing happened. Hopefully they can
fix it tomorrow.
And while they’re at it, they can fix the hot water heater –
again. I had no hot water when I got here, had to jerry-rig the thing for
awhile and then it got fixed. But I looked at it and saw an “E-04” flashing and
figured that can’t be good. Sure ‘nuff, the hot water ran out. So very
annoying. The worst thing is you’re not empowered to do anything yourself – you
have to put in the formal requests to have it done.
This weekend, I got back into the gym full-time and did
10k-12k both mornings, meaning I was nasty sweaty. I hit the showers in the gym
area because I don’t have hot water.
Did the same thing after wandering around my little area the
past two days. It’s about 85 degrees out, and sunny, so me walking 5-6 kilometers
outside made me a bit stinky, too. After that, I swam and then hit the showers.
It’s not a bad compromise for now, but I really want my hot water working.
Yesterday, my walkabout led me to this high-end mall. Not
super high end like they have in Guangzhou and Hong Kong, but they have Under
Armor and Crate and Barrel. Oh, and a Shake Shack and a Popeye’s, although my
Marine friends termed that Popeye’s as “nasty.” I’ll decide that on my own, but
later. I got there around 5 p.m., which was too early to eat dinner, so I had a
caramel shake.
Wandered around there a bit, found the movie theater but “Finding
Dory” wasn’t there, but according to the coming attractions I found online, “Fish
Dora Lost” will be here soon. That’ll do.
Decided I’d seen enough – I really don’t like shopping, just
wanted to look around – and headed back, sucking it up to repeat the 40-minute
walk again. But right outside, I ran into a few of the Marines and bummed a
ride with them.
Today, I set out in the opposite direction, covering about
six kilometers after doing the whole gym thing in the morning. I really do wipe
myself out on weekends. Didn’t really see anything super cool, but I just
soaked up views of the Bosporus. That’s worth it.
Next week, we have our Independence Day party, and it’s on a
weekday. Yuk. I am working for an hour, but it’s my understanding we have to be
there the whole time. I’m really unclear on it but I’m just thrilled I’m not
planning it. I do fear I’ll get tagged to do it next year, so I am going to
enjoy this almost-responsibility-free one this time around. From what I
understand, there’s Krispy Kreme!
No comments:
Post a Comment