goodbye's, a new beginning

This is my first official posting from Turkiye (and the second posting, period) to my blog.  So much to write about, I will try to include as much as I can and add more as it comes to me.  

First, I had a fantastic last 2 weeks in the US, complete with bachelorette madness, visits with old friends, a last hurrah in Binghamton, and a wonderful weekend in Hoboken with the family.   I will post some pics in here when I get around to it, but for now I can just say it was great to pack everything up & have that time to spend with my nearest & dearest.  

Now let's re-visit the departure from US/flight to & arrival in Turkey.  I need to come to grips with the fact that if I'm going to travel (let alone MOVE) somewhere, it's going to be hectic.  No matter how much planning I do, I will freak out at the last minute & make those around me miserable.  Needless to say, in true Lansford fashion, the day of my departure started out very relaxed.  We lazily drank coffee & lounged around as I re-packed my last suitcase (a Ben habit that has rubbed off).  When 12pm rolled around I figured we should probably go to brunch, so I could leave by 1pm for the airport.  An hour and 45 minutes later as I left Sarah & Jeffrey in front of their apartment in the midst of a slight emotional breakdown, Mom, Dad & I rolled into the Lincoln tunnel & suddenly realized I was in danger of missing my flight.  

Now, most people, on the day they were moving to a foreign country, might have thought things through a bit more & actually counted back to ensure enough time for everything.  I don't know what happened, but my mind was clearly not functioning.  I drove through Manhattan as a cabbie might, dodging pedestrians and red lights with little room to spare.  Dad coached me,I swore at the other drivers, and Mom did her best not to scream.  We battled traffic on the LIE & Van Wyck, came to a screeching halt in front of Terminal 1, where Dad took off to park the car & Mom and I rammed our way through a pack of tourists with 3 very large & heavy suitcases in tow.

Inside the line went fairly quickly at check in, and I was very glad to have Mom & Dad there to wait in line to check my suitcases while I paid for the extra luggage & ducked into the line for security.  All in all, if you're ever moving to another country, or saying difficult good-bye's, I think this is the way to do it. By the time Mom & Dad caught up to me, we had to hug over the rope sectioning off the security line.  I had to run, with only 10 minutes until they closed the gate for my flight, and for this I was kind of grateful.  I didn't want to think too much about what I was doing.  The customs official who checked my passport was a complete asshole, yelling at me for cutting the line (the french passengers in front of me were very kind once they found out why I was so franticly asking if I could step ahead) arguing with me that I was NOT going to miss my flight, when it would have been much faster for him to just let do his job.  

In any case, I waved to Mom & Dad one last time & ran the stretch of Terminal 1 to Gate 7 where the Turkish Airlines Flight was announcing last call for passengers to board.  I sat in my seat & burst into tears, possibly from the stress of having nearly missed my flight, but more likely because the good bye's had finally settled in, the time had finally come for me to leave.

We arrived in Istanbul about an hour & a half late.  At JFK our plane had taxied for a full hour before swinging back to the gate where we had departed from & getting into a different line of 20 some planes waiting to take off .  This would have been fine except that it meant I only had 26 minutes to clear customs & catch my connection to Ankara.  The line for passport inspection was much longer than usual, I waited for 20 minutes, figuring I was going to have to miss my flight. It was just my luck that I had chosen to wait in the line where the SLOWEST customs official of ALL TIME was checking passports & didn't let 2 men through who went before me.  This was slightly intimidating as they were sent to some back room, but for some reason he barely even looked at my passport before stamping it.  I took off in a dead run toward domestic departures.  I arrived at the VIP lounge (thank god for all of those miles), and the lovely security guard helped me by putting me onto my own personal shuttle which drove me directly to the plane which had closed for boarding, but I was able to run up the stairs and jump on at the last minute.  Luck apparently was on my side!

An hour later, we landed in Ankara.  I made a new friend on the shuttle bus, a older woman who I gave up my seat for.  She had sat next to me on the plane & didn't utter a word, but as soon as I let her sit down she told me that she was Turkish but lives in New Jersey & was here visiting family.  I told her about my job & about Ben & she said that she liked me very much and was very happy that I'm 'becoming Turkish.'  Turks are funny like that, they aren't always friendly, but sometimes out of the blue they will surprise you.  After 15 hours of travel without speaking to anyone except the rather rude flight attendant on the way from NY to Istanbul, this was a welcome change.

Inside Ankara airport I waited patiently as the luggage came out without much hope that mine had made it with my quick turnaround in Istanbul... and sure enough, it hadn't.  Luckily the security guards were kind & let Ben pass by security to speak to them in Turkish about getting my luggage delivered to the apartment.  At this point I really didn't care that I was without luggage, as long as we were able to leave the airport & go home where I could take a shower and relax.

Ben and I exited the airport in disbelief... I was really, finally, in Ankara.  He took me straight to my favorite Donar place for some lunch, we sat outside and enjoyed the beautiful sunny day in downtown Ankara.  I was pretty out of it, but I remember thinking to myself: I live here now.  

We came home & I took a short nap, then showered & put on fresh, clean clothes (so glad I sent Ben back with a suitcase full of clothing when he left NYC!).  Ben and I decided if we stayed home I would just fall asleep, so instead we went to Bilkent mall, where we had dinner at my favorite Italian restaurant, Mezzaluna.  Despite it being Ramazan, we toasted to our new life together with some Chianti. 

By 9pm I was asleep, exhausted from the flight, the emotional good-bye's, and the happiness of being reunited with Ben.