Nanny Diaries and my "Ah ha!" Moment

 "There's a popular belief amongst anthropologists that you must immerse yourself in an unfamiliar world...in order to truly understand your own" --The Nanny Diaries



 I watched the 2007 movie starring Scarlett Johansson called "The Nanny Diaries" late one night last week. It was interesting to watch from my perspective as a current nanny. Johansson's character 'Annie' has just about as nightmarish an experience as I can imagine. Contrasting Annie's situation with my own, I realize yet again that I really hit the AuPair Lottery Jackpot in many ways. I thoroughly enjoy both the children I work with and the parents I work for. (And unlike Johansson's character my family actually calls me by my preffered name and not "Nanny")

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I was napping when the girls got home from school one day last week (something I am doing far too much of these days) so Selin came up stairs to find me for her customary afterschool hug. Before climbing into my (huge) bed where I was oh so cozily ensconced she expressed slight anxiety about her clothes being "dirty" from being at school (I confess, if there was any dirt I  couldn't see it) I have long been puzzled by the near germ-a-phobic cleansing rituals and habits here in the home. Selin explained: "Well...to muslims it is very important to always be clean"


Ah ha!

I literally exclaimed "Ah ha!" as so many little pieces fell into place for me. Suddenly I am remembering the Pillars of Islam and the ritualistic cleansing of hands feet and head outside mosques and it all makes sense. Despite the fact that this family and most modern Turks from what I can divine are more cold Muslims then I had expected there are some aspects of the religion that are now deeply ingrained in the culture.

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A not-so-clever-or-happy-Ah ha!-moment....

Cumartesi, 20 Mart, 10:45am
     "Brittany? Its me Vada. I'm in Sishane but I dont know where to go next"
     "Sishane?! You were supposed to go to Sisli. Its in the other direction. You need to get back on the Metro  and go towards Levent!"
     Doh!

11:15am
     I am pretty sure we are about the only 2 people in Istanbul listening to our ipods. He is wearing paint splattered blue jeans and...whats this? A black leather vest with rhinestone buttons over a low v-neck black button-up? Dana Dwyer Bradshaw...where is your international cell phone when I need to text you? I am often surprised the the metros in Istanbul are so clean and so quiet. Few people even talk. Its at this point that the fact that this is the third person to sit down across from me and then get off at the very next stop while I seem to be getting no closer to my destination strikes me as odd. I glance up to the stop indicator to make the horrible discovery that I am on my way BACK to Sishane! This train only goes back and forth between two stops. At Taksim I am supposed to get off the M2, walk twenty feet down the line and get on the M1 to continue toward my stop Sisli/Mecedekoy.
     F my life!

11:45am
     Sitting on the 121A, waiting for it to leave the station I pull out my cell phone. "Ayse, ben Vada. I am on otobus. I will be late. yok cimnastik. Uzgunum".

 12:30
     I pay the cab driver 10 lira and climb out of the taxi. Of course the door is locked, and after 2 minutes of polite then not so polite bell ringing I am forced to conclude that no one is home. I sit down on the Holland cover draped patio furnature and drift...

2:45
     "Where were you Vada?"
     "Here?" I mumble, still out of sorts from my nap and my struggle to stay warm while I waited for the family to return. "I'm sorry I was late...I got turned around"