Confessions of an Expat's Wife

from one country to another,thousands of miles earned, different languages to get by with, cultures and expectations to live with plus millons of photos taken to tell the adventures of my life

Football

Confederation Cup Champions---> BRAZIL!

Brazil won the cup without Roberto Carlos and Ronaldo. 4-1 against Argentina. Not bad at all. Watching the game, I think they played very good defense against Argentina. Not their usual cup of tea ( defense... hihihi). Quite a solid game for Brazil. Adriano scored 2 out of the 4 goals for Brazil. This man is blazing hot this season! Looking forward to watching games like this in the future.
P.S. Coming in third is the host country.... Deutschland. 4-3 against Mexico on extra time. This was a good watch after a red card was given to the German Striker, Hanke in the second half.

Tennis

Wimbledon Semis today.

Men's

Federer vs Hewitt

Roddick vs Johansson

Women's

Davenport vs Mauresmo

Sharapova vs V. Williams

My bet is in Federer and Sharapova but anything goes at this point. Davenport seems relaxed and can win easy as well. Hubby is for the French gal , Mauresmo. How exciting this semis will be! Who do you think will play in the finals?

My non-expert opinion,the final match will be...

Federer vs. Johansson ( I have a weak spot for Swedish men... hihihihi)
Davenport vs Sharapova

Formula One

The FIA found the seven teams who did not compete in the Indianapolis F1 guilty of "acts prejudicial to an event and to the sport after failing to start the June 19 event". Are the teams really the one to be blamed for this fiasco? How about Michelin? Aren't they supposed to share in this "ride"?

I have mixed feelings on this event. Who should really take the blame for this one? My imagination runs wild at this point. Can this be a big conspiracy of sort that will benefit NASCAR in the end and never let Formula One dominate the US world of Motorsports? hmmmnnn... far fetched idea but can be a plausible one :)

Tour De France

Will Lance Armstrong win his 7th Tour De France title this year? T-Mobile's Jan Ulrich may be the one to be declared for 2005. I go for the German this year.

Paris 2012

On July 6. the official country for the 2012 Olympics will be announced. The Raffles Hotel in Singapore will be the venue for this good news announcement. The frontrunner of the bid is Paris. This is France's third bid in 20 years! The other competing cities are London, Madrid, Moscow and New York. Who do you think will it be? As for me, I think Paris est prête!

another football news...

Manchester United has a new owner in the name of America's Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner Mr. Malcolm Glazer. Man U fans are not eaxctly happy with this development since it is rumoured that Mr. Glazer plans to increase ticket prices to Man U matches to a whopping 45 per cent in the next four years. Man U fans are feeling that the new American owners are treating their club as a business. Naturally, they were not very receptive with the owners three sons' unannounced visit to the club's stadium in Old Trafford last night.

Well, isn't that ironic? Man U, the team with gazillions of football merchandise sold all over the world is still not a business? hmmmnnn... I am not really very warm over Man U... I still prefer the Gunners :)

Last night, my husband and I attended a party of one of his local staff, Hassan. You see, Hassan's son just got circumcised and they are throwing a big party for him. This is like the equivalent of an 18th birthday for a girl but here in Istanbul, it is normally for boys aged 7-9 years old. The guests of the party has to give the boy a gold coin which was worth around 50USD as a gift(This was a minimum gift .. take note!). I still do not know the reason behind this but I will research and see the whole story about this tradition....

It was my first party here and I as excited. It was held in a hotel which was situated in a 300 year old fortress and there were around 200 guests for the said party.When we arrived, most of the guests have arrived and we were the only foreigners in the party! We did not feel out of place since the people were very accommodating and helpful. The party was just like a normal birthday party but this time, they were celebrating the circumcision of their son.The boy's already in a happy mode. Probably his "patutuy" was cut a couple of weeks back! There was a live band and music was playing all throughout dinner. Dinner was of course Turkish cuisine which comprised of stuffed eggplant and bell peppers , some cheese, tomatoes, beef and fruits for dessert. After dinner there were lots of dancing ( and I mean dancing!!!!). Everyone just started to dance. It was more of a family thing to dance and the beat was just so lively that you will feel the joy they have while dancing! Around 11pm my husband and I decided to leave the party while everyone was still dancing the night away. It was definitely a good circumcision party!

How come we never had that in Pinas? No one threw a party for my brother when he had his circumcision! It was just our friendly neighborhood manong who did it and my dad was with him. After the incident, my bro waited for it to heal and we all went on with our normal lives... Here, they do parties for it! :)

at the egyptian bazaar
Originally uploaded by suncatcherph.

A friend of ours will be having the best gift ever on Father's Day. With fingers crossed, his wife might be giving birth today to a baby boy! My husband and I are so happy for them. He is just such a proud daddy to his 2 year old girl and now will have an addition to the family.. son petit garçon!

Happy Father's Day to all the proud and hardworking daddies in the world!

This will be the first time I will be spending two summers in one year. Summer here in Istanbul will just start this end of June and I just finished one hot summer in Manila a couple of months ago. So again. I am packing my summer outfits and refillikng my suntan lotion anticipating summer like I have not experienced the scorching heat of the sun in Manila last March til first week of June.

Yesterday, I went out alone to discover the shopping in Istanbul. From where we were staying, the shopping area which is in the Nisantasi district is a couple of blocks away. I went ahead walking and discovering the shops. The shops were on SALE everywhere. Shops are emptying their spring items to make way for summer. I did not expect to see so many women in the streets going with the rush. It turns out, the Istanbul women love shopping! Think people on Midnite Sales in Makati and you will see the picture how they do their shopping over here at two o'clock in the afternoon.They know their stuff really well! From designer to bargains and what have you's, the place is a shopping mecca!

My next stop was the pool. Little by little, the flow of people in the flow is becoming heavy. Everyone wants to bathe in the sun but NOT swim! Just sunbathe! So, if you want some space in the pool area, just dive into the water since everyone is reading a book or a magazine lying lazily under the heat of the sun. Ahhh.. what a new way to spend summer all over again...

Hay.. everywhere you go, there will always be a juicy chismis around the corner. I guess regardless of nationality, people love rumors or "chismis" as we Pinoys fondly call it. While I was having lunch today, my husband passed by and told me that a friend of a friend of mine from my old work who is now working in a different hotel in a different country (whew.. talk about loooong connections) emailed his boss and told him that I was very scared to live in Istanbul. This caused a tinge of panic from my husband asking me if I do not like Istanbul and my stay here. This was a surprise for me since I was feeling quite comfortable living in Istanbul a the moment. In fact, I am beginning to love the place, the people,food, and everything about it. I have never encountered such warm people who really make you feel welcome and are sincerely nice. I assured my husband that I was adapting quite well to the environment and not to worry about that email his boss received.

I then wondered how news really travel and can be distorted after passing from one person to another. I was quite annoyed with the fact that I do not even know this person who sent an email to my husband's boss.Why would he/she care about my life and feelings anyway?Some people just have fun taking interests in other people's lives.I would understand if they take interest in the lives of celebrities or famous people but not mine! I am just a normal wife who tries to make the most of my life in the country where I get to live in. Just like other people, my feelings go from one end to the other and I find solace in blogging and sharing thoughts that matter to me. Of course I felt scared moving into a different country but I think that is quite normal for anyone who will live in a place for the first time. I do not think it is "chismis" worthy to people whom I do not even know first hand. Some people still need to discover how to get a life instead of talking about someone else!

Finally I am here in Istanbul! I arrived last Saturday evening just in time for my first year wedding anniversary :) My husband picked me up at the airport and we had dinner at this really nice restaurant called SUNSET which was overlooking the whole of Istanbul. To all my blog friends who posted comments on my last blog.. THANK YOU! I eventually looked forward to going to Istanbul instead of feeling "Senti" and true enough I was much happier coming over to this beautiful country.

I still have tons of stories to tell. From my 10-hour stopover in Dubai to the discovery of all these palaces and mosques here in Istanbul (not to mention the yummy food!) but unfortunately I still do not have a pc over here. All our stuff is in transit still ( sigh!). So for now, I will be frequenting my trips to the business center in our flat and blog as much as I can with this little time.

I still haven't Ruffa in my 2 days stay here ( hihi...). I still am trying to find my way around the place.So far, I discovered that this country indeed has a lot to offer especially in terms of culture and traditions. Even if it is a Muslim country, the people are quite open to other religions and nationals staying here. That's all for now, folks. I am still in a break in period. More to come...

I will be leaving Manila in two days time. I suddenly feel nostalgic and sentimental. Amidst the last minute shopping and errands to do, I realized that I won’t be seeing my parents indefinitely. Unlike our last post in Hong Kong which was in the same time zone as Manila and only a one-hour plane ride, Turkey is a 13-hour plane ride with a 5-hour difference in time zone. I remember what my dad told me when I arrived here in the Philippines a couple of months ago. He said he is so happy to see me and he thought the last time he brought me to NAIA was the last time we will see each other. I said it is such a silly thought because I still go back to Manila to visit them every now and then but deep inside I felt scared. I dread that thought. I am scared to lose my parents. Maybe I am just becoming paranoid but I do not want this to be the last time I see them when I leave Manila. I still am looking forward to seeing them when I go back in time.

I am also a little anxious and nervous to go to Istanbul. Aside from my husband, I literally do not know anyone over there. As always, I need to start from scratch again. I will try to find my way first, as a tourist and then as a resident. This can be exciting as well since it is a process of learning, discovering and meeting new culture, places, and people. So, I will be leaving the jeepney, bus, and tricycle congested roads of Manila and my dear family and friends over here once again and feel my way to Turkey.

I have not left the Philippines yet but I am already missing so many things just thinking about it! From all the food and rice galore, to the videoke gimmicks, the out of town trips, the endless SMBs with friends to my mom’s great cooking, my bed in my room and all the books scattered around it. These are some of the things I will definitely miss but most of all, I will miss the feeling of being a daughter to my parents as I go and join my husband again.

Here is to a new adventure for my loving husband and me. Wish us luck!!

I just finished reading The Family by Mario Puzo. It was a very revealing and entertaining story about the life of the Borgia family in Italy and the famous Pope Alexander during Renaissance. With my fascination for the mob and their amazing stories by Mr.Puzo( think The Godfather --> Vito Corleone), I was hooked on every page of this novel. I was still surprised with how mean people can be when they want to and how love can be used to attain power and glory. A particular paragraph caught my attention and brought shivers down my spine. And I quote…

“ Even in the most treacherous of times, some men prove to be more evil than any other men. Cruelty pulses through their hearts and veins, bringing them to life and awakening their senses. And so they suffer the same exhilaration when torturing their fellow man that most men feel when making love. They hold a punishing and powerful God, one of their own invention, and with warped religious fervor create themselves in the vision of this illusion. King Ferrante of Naples was one of those men. And in an unfortunate circumstance for his enemies, he found even more rapture in mental torture than in physical.”

-taken from The Family by Mario Puzo

Wow! Ferrante is one mean and bad king.

I never met anyone in my entire life who fits this description but I have a good feeling that in reality, there are people who are mean and may compete with the above. They either take pleasure in bringing pain or suffering or just being their mean old self. Did they ever have a father or a mother who loved them? What happened? Sabi nga ng Blackeyedpeas ... Where is the Love?

I am still a believer and an optimist by heart. I believe that there is good in every person no matter how bad he is. Sometimes, we just need to discover it for them or find out by ourselves. No one just grows to become a monster. You are either forced or influenced to become one. But then again, the choice in the end is always yours. Ahh choices... We are always faced with them in our everyday lives. You can be good or bad, black or white, left or right, naughty or nice and the list goes on. There are moments when I choose to be biatch especially during those not so good days but I do not permanently choose to be one. I hope there will be less people who choose to become a King Ferrante in this small world of ours. *sigh*

Do you believe that everyone has a skeleton in their closet?

I was always fascinated and interested in how people keep their secrets or their friend's. From the time I was asked to pinkie swear over a secret crush by a girl friend I realized that secrets are important and deadly. It can make a person powerful and powerless depending on who holds the right secret at the right time. There are also some secrets that are meant to be locked up unless one wants to open a Pandora's Box. I guess that is why "I Know what You Did last Summer." is a scary a line. A secret can also make or break a relationship. Friendships are broken because of revealed secrets . Marriages crumbling because of a secret in the past that surfaced in the present.

I have experienced being fooled by someone, learning his secret at the wrong place and wrong time from a different person. My feelings during those times were a mixture of anger, frustration and despair plus a little bit of stupidity for not knowing how a secret so obvious could pass under my nose( --> kaya nga secret eh!). I felt weak and betrayed but in the end, I realized I had all the power and control over my friend since now I know his secret. Being a friend to him, I decided to keep my mouth shut and just bury his secret with in me. I then realized how bad he probably felt for trusting the friend who told me his secret. It was like a stab in the back.

Secrets have been a part of our lives whether you we like it or not. The question is how trusting will you be to share your deepest darkest secret to someone or even the world. I have come across this Postsecret blog and it gave me mixed feelings reading somebody else's secret. Will I be able to do what they did?

For some people , trusting someone with their secret is already a leap of faith. For me, I can probably share a bone from my closet but not the whole skeleton (with an evil laugh.. bwahahahaha).

For my flight to Istanbul, I will have a 10-hour stop over in Dubai. I will take this opportunity to meet and have lunch with Filipino friends over there. Dubai is one of the top destinations of Filipino Overseas workers and true enough I know a number of people from my past work who are now working in this Open City. I was even tempted by an offer to work over there but family was my priority so I opted to stay with hubby in HK.

Last April, a good friend and ex colleague of mine who is now part of the OFW statistics in Dubai went back to Manila. She was on a one-month vacation from work. Over lunch, we exchanged stories about her life in Dubai and my life in France. She found a love life in Dubai after long years of having a so-so love life in the Philippines. She is now going out with a Moroccan who is also working at the same hotel where she is. She was also raving about the different kinds of food she has encountered which are not readily available in Manila. My friend, unlike me, is always game to try new things especially when it comes to food and Dubai was a feast for her. Where else in Manila can you eat Camel meat anyway? Her work was good. She has a normal 8 hour job, does not need to pay rent for her flat, free food c/o the hotel and even a free shuttle ride going to and from work and to the beach during her off days. Sounds like a dream job for a lot of us.

In spite of all these, we both missed working in the Philippines. It is still different to go to work and ride the MRT try to outrun everyone to get inside the train first. Even rendering OT which was always Oh Thank you and not Over Time work. Who can match the endless Midnite Sales in Makati every payday which creates a traffic monster all over the area to our dismay. These are some of the weird things we miss in working in Manila. There’s a certain “umph” when you work in the Philippines. It is difficult to explain what it is but it makes us Filipinos either stay and endure working in Manila or opting to go to an Open City like Dubai.

Well, as for my friend and I, the Philippines will not be our immediate home for now but it is still where our heart is.

About Me

Name: duke

Location: Istanbul, Türkiye

A first time mom to baby A living as an expat in Istanbul, Turkey.

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