Freewriting

A friend has challenged me to write. Not necessarily blog writing, but to think about writing a book. It has been a thought of mine, but I can't wrap my mind around a topic yet. I decided I would start with an exercise called freewriting. Freewriting is basically choosing a topic and writing about it for a set length of time without stopping. In freewriting you aren't supposed to worry about grammar rules or spelling mistakes. I decided to write about moving overseas. Here is what I wrote in my fifteen minute time limit. (I fixed my spelling mistakes before I put them on here just so it wouldn't be a distraction. I'm not sure about the grammar!)

Moving Overseas

When we first decided to move overseas I was really excited. It was something completely new for me. I had never even been out of the states except for two times to border Mexico. I didn’t think that counted. We planned and prepared and packed for over a year before we finally got on the plane and headed out. We arrived in Ankara, Turkey exactly 15 months from when we first applied to go overseas. It was amazing.

My first thoughts as we got off the plane were how much of our luggage actually made all 3 flight changes with us. Would it all actually show up? It did, and then I wondered what kind of car would we be taking from the airport? Was there a vehicle that could fit all 19 pieces of checked luggage plus about 10 carry-ons plus all of us as well? I didn’t think so. We ended up putting people in one van and luggage in another and headed to the place we would stay for the first week or so in country. After seeing the traffic and the way that people drove in our new city I didn’t think we would ever even make it to our new home. I was so used to the kids wearing seatbelts and being in car seats that I wasn’t sure what to do with a van with no seatbelts. The kids however thought it was great!

After a crazy ride we finally arrived at our new home to drop off some of our luggage. We couldn’t move in just yet because the house had no furniture in it, but there was too much luggage to bring to home of the famliy we were staying with. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice our apartment was. I had looked online at our city and saw apartment buildings but never expected them to be so nice on the inside. Brian commented that it wasn’t the dirt floor hut he was expecting. I was praising God it wasn’t that dirt floor hut! We had wood laminate flooring in the bedrooms and living area, and tile throughout the rest of the house. It was great. The rooms were quite a bit smaller than what we were used to, but I was so thankful that the house was nice I don’t think I even noticed at first.

After dropping off some luggage we went to our host family’s home. We stayed with this family for about a week while we shopped for furniture for our new home. I have never shopped so much in my life. A teammate took us to quite a few furniture stores so we could pick out couches, beds, tables, chairs, and everything we would need to make our house a home. Everything looked so different from the furniture I was used to in the states. The couches were much harder and more modern looking. The dining room sets had a table, chairs, a sideboard, two china cabinets with glass doors, and a TV stand. I thought it was strange that the TV stand came with the dining room furniture, but apparently this was normal. The dining room and living room were one big room called a salon so I guess the furniture needed to match. Another thing I found interesting was that the living room furniture sets came with a couch, a loveseat, and two chairs all made from the same fabric. This went against my antique living I was used to in America. I had lots of different furniture in the states, and none of it came together in a set. It all went together in my mind, but I think the Turks might not agree.