There's a new player in town - the Consul General's (CG's) new OMS, Judy, arrived Thursday evening. Her arrival means we are now up to a full strength OMS team and we are very happy about that.
Judy's arrival also prompted an invitation to have a welcome lunch with the CG and her husband at their house Saturday. It was a delightful lunch and when the CG invited us on an after-lunch outing to the Asian side, none could refuse. And what an outing it turned out to be! We started at a decorator's strip mall of sorts looking for upholstery fabric then made our way over to Ikea (yes, Ikea. Istanbul boasts not one, but two! I thought Karen was going to pee her pants with excitement - the good Scandinavian that she is - and I will admit to a flutter of excitement at the prospect of following those black floor arrows through the maze of pre-fab). Now, this may seem like a typical errand-running afternoon, but let me add a couple things to the mix - 1) We were in Asia! We went from Europe to Asia to run errands. Asia is right there! Right across the Bosphorus. I can see it out my window! That continues to amaze me. And 2) the CG runs errands, in fact lives her life here, with a 2-Suburban motorcade and a 2-bodyguard security detail (before some of you raise an eyebrow at that, it is all standard operating procedure for anyone her level or higher). So there I was, part of the CG's entourage, making our way through the chaos that is Ikea, putting tealights, suction-cupped kitchen brushes, and dish towels in our yellow bags, flanked by her bodyguards with the motorcade waiting for us at the curb. I am confident it was the safest trip to Ikea ever!
