It's Going to be a Hot One

Today was the hottest day we've had thus far in our six weeks in Istanbul. Today it reached 35° C, or 95° F. From the looks of things, there's not much chance of this week getting any cooler:

Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
34° C | 25° C	35° C | 24° C	33° C | 25° C	34° C | 25° C	34° C | 21° C
Clear	Clear	Clear	Clear	Scattered Clouds
Hourly	Hourly	Hourly	Hourly	Hourly

As most of you know, we are living in someone else's apartment while they're in the States for a few months. This means that we are using their furniture, towels, dishes, and so on. It also means that we are not using their air conditioner--because they don't have one. We have 4 ceiling fans and 3 free-standing fans. And we're roasting. In honor of fellow friends in Europe, Asia, and Africa, I present to you:

10 Ways You Can Tell It's Hot Outside (and Inside too!):

10. Your laundry dries in less than an hour.
9. When writing language flash cards your arms stick to the table. You can't just slide your arm across as you write: you have to pick it up and move it (or stick a piece of paper to your arm so it will slide across the table).
8. The last words spoken in your house each evening are: "Goodnight, honey, I love you." "I love you too. Scooch over and don't touch me."
7. You have determined that showers are pointless and have resigned yourself to looking like poo for the next month until the weather cools off.
6. You try to leave the toilet seat, but it won't leave you.
5. You must wear waterproof mascara, because regular mascara won't stick to your eyelashes long enough to make it out of the bathroom before it's all over your eyelids.
4. You have taken to sitting on towels on the couches so as not to soak them with your sweat, leaving an unpleasant surprise that will lie dormant all winter and then kill you next spring.
3. Cold foods have become the staple of your diet and if cooking is necessary it is done in large quantities so as to reduce the number of hours spent in the kitchen overall.
2. Upon returning home, the first thing you do is to take off all of your clothes and walk around in your underwear.
1. You avoid putting them back on at all costs.

There you have it, straight from Istanbul. Maybe by the end of the week I'll have 10 suggestions as to how to keep cool in the heat!


Baby girl has a bad heat rash. [Update: this was actually Roseola...not heat rash.] She's got two of our three fans in her room and her window stays open. Hopefully she doesn't keep this rash for the next month!

For now we're just all terlemek-ing (the verb for "to be hot" or "to sweat": we're doing both). Poor Lane is constantly sticky and has heat rash everywhere except her calves and feet. Yesterday she even had it on her head under her hair, but it got a little better overnight. She wears nothing except a diaper with bloomers nearly every day. I feel bad for her, but there's not really anything you can do for heat rash, so...join us in praying for rain! Maybe I should go wash the windows...it always rains after I do that...