Hi Kim

I sent an email to maybe your address! There should be a link on my profile to my homepage but maybe it doesn't show yet as I am new on here, if you search google for Kirazli Village it normally finds my site, its just a site about the village with stories about life here under the Being Koy section.

I'm glad to hear you say that living somewhere is different to loads of holidays somewhere familiar. So many people don't realise this. They think it will be constant days of sunshine and never a care in the world - until they try and get a phone connected (though to be fair mine and my ADSL was done in an hour), try to run a car, try to paint their house etc etc. Here a lot of the estate agents take care of everything in the initial stages and this means people never learn how to do the things they really need to learn. They get babysat for a time - furniture arranged, tax number arranged, satellite arranged. When they move here permanently then it becomes harder and they wish they had been more independent in their initial home owning phase.

You need a certain set of coping mechanisms to be an ex-pat successfully because where ever you go there will be the attempt made to fleece you and you learn to manage that although sometimes it gets wearing. You develop a strategy, you get a little cynical, you have the occassional (ok, once a week) rant at your sympathetic friends and partner but you still, every day, thank god you got the opportunity to live this slightly less ordinary life. My husband and I often wish we had done it decades ago, and we are excited to see our children moving out into the world and considering doing what we do. Despite the crap its still fun or we wouldnt do it.

Feel free to email me if you get my email!

Karyn