Yesterday was supposed to be the first day back to school for the New Year. Well Mother Nature had another plan. When we came upstairs for breakfast around 7:30am, Jocy yelled, "Mom, it's really snowing!" I look out to see big beautiful snow flakes. And the ground is already covered with snow. I get a tight feeling in my chest of panic and call Joel. I have a feel I should keep the kids home. Of course, he says its up to me because it's not snowing in Golcuk. At first I say, they will go. They NEED to go. Mommy needs a break! LOL. So I hang up with Joel. 15 minutes later, the panic is back and I call Joel back and say screw it, they are staying home! I call our driver to have him call the bus driver to inform him not to make the stop. I calmly settle in for a fun day with the kids.
Now, I'm sure you are wondering why these crazy panic attacks over snow. The first snow of Istanbul is CRAZY. The weather never predicts it correctly, so the city is never prepared. Not that they have snowplows or salt trucks anyways. This is the Med. It doesn't snow often here. Well, since we arrived, it has a LOT!
Last year during the first snow, Elly went to school alone. And it started snowing around noon. By the time school let out, the Forest road was closed. UGH. Unfortunately, BISI is located in a town at a high elevation, so they get more snow and fast. She finally made it home around 6pm. It was a miserable 3 hours. I thought that was horrible!!
Until this year.
It was the Thursday morning before Christmas break. The kids were so excited because it was free dress day and the Winter Bazaar. They all had their spending money for games and to do a little Christmas shopping. I was planning on going to take Nate around and make sure all three got a picture with Santa. None of them did last year. :( While we were waiting for the bus, it started spitting a very light snow. The kids were running around trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues.
The weather wasn't calling for snow that day. Just rain. But by 10am, it was definitely not a small snow shower. At quarter til 11am, I got a text from school saying because of the weather, they were moving the Winter Bazaar to 11am (was at 1pm) and releasing school at 2pm. There was already a bit of snow on the ground then.
And it just keep coming down. I had decided against going because it would pretty much be over by the time I made it. By noon, I was getting a bit worried. I started seeing pics on FB about how much snow was in Zek the morning and how many had stayed home from school.
Finally 2pm came. They were on their way home! At 3pm, got a text from school saying they were stuck in traffic. At that point, I had our driver call the bus driver. Turns out they hadn't even left Zek. They were stuck behind 6 car pile up. But once that was cleared, 20 minutes. But 5pm, I was a freaking wreck! I hated that Jocy didn't have her phone. Totally my fault for not getting it fixed yet. Finally, before 6 our driver heard from the bus driver that they couldn't get out of Zek because all roads out where closed and they were going back to school. WHAT? My 3 year old is on the bus!! Jocy and Elly I wasn't really worried about. They would be cool about it. But I had no idea how Nate would react. I was hoping his buddy Nacho was on the bus so he would be distracted.
Then I have to find out via Facebook they were dropped at school and a possible plan of Amanda (head of Primary) working out something. So I called a friend that lives in Zek. Her two kids are in Elly and Jocy's classes. They were in the process of trying to get their car unstuck. She said it was really bad. If it was bad on my street, I'm sure it was really bad there. As I was talking to her, they got unstuck. She was going to make some calls and find out where they were. And head up to school to see what was going on. They offered to get the kids.
About 15 minutes later, I get a call from Leslie. My kids are gone from the school, just older ones left. They were taken to Amanda's house for the night. But she offered to go get them. She gave me Amanda's number and I called right away. Her house sounded like chaos but my kiddos were there. I talked to Jocy and offered to have Leslie come get them. But she was having a ton of fun. And Nate was doing fine and Nacho was there. Amanda said that a bus would bring them home the next morning if the roads were clear. So free babysitting from the head of primary!
But the thing that PISSED me off the most…. Joel got a phone call at 8pm to tell him that Nate was at Amanda's. And when he asked if his other two were there, she had no idea. I had to track my kids down and wasn't notified until 6 hours after they left school that they wouldn't be coming home tonight? Total BS. Did I mention we pay them almost $60,000 a year for tuition??? I expect better than a text saying they are stuck in traffic.
Amanda did step up and take care of it. From what Jocy told me when they got home the next day, that after a few kids got picked up, there were about 22 kids. They got dinner and some sleep. Then had breakfast and were home by 11am. But what the bus driver didn't tell us, was that while waiting on the accident, he got stuck himself. For 4 hours! They sat on the bus until a bunch of guys, a back hoe and a tow hook finally got them out. That is when they headed back to school. The only people there were the security guards. But our head bus guy, Amanda, and some other parents stepped up and got the kids from the school to Amanda's. The buses couldn't get around, so parents with 4x4 where shuttling the kids. Jocy said they had to walk up and down the hill because cars couldn't get in and out of Amanda's complex.
So now you understand my freak out. Yesterday, school closed at 11:30am (I was right! And my hubby admitted it!) . And is closed again today. Which is good because it is really coming down now. It's just that first snow of the year gets Istanbul every time.
