I cried in the Carrefour

Yes you read that right.  Last Friday, I became the dumb American crying in the Carrefour.  I picked up a stomach bug last week and Friday was the first day was I was feeling OK enough to get out.  I was almost out of diapers and completely out of dog food.  I had arranged with my helper that she was to come in four days next week since we have company coming.  So I had to take the little two with me to the store.

When we arrived, I thought I would just grab money from the ATM before going shopping. I needed to pay for gymnastics and some other things.  If there is no one at the machine, you GO!  Or you have no idea how long you will get stuck in line.  I go put my card in, enter the number, try to hide my balance displayed on the screen (that drives me nuts!), hit the withdraw cash button and black.  The machine dies.  I try to tallk to the Security Guard, thinking maybe a circuit blew.  That didn't help.  So I called the number on the machine.  The lady asked me three times what my card number was.  IT'S IN THE MACHINE!!  Nate is running around and Milly is yelling because she wants to run around with Nate.  Then the lady asks me for my Turkish ID number.  I am obviously not Turkish with my last name!  So I finally admitted defeat and hung up on her.  Called Joel to tell him to deal with it and I just lost it.  It was the straw that broke the camels back.  I pulled myself together and thankfully, with my newly activated US bank card, got what I had to get.  I was stressed the whole time because travel alerts don't always work.  Love living in a country that the US banks classify restricted.  I couldn't handle getting up there with a basket full of groceries and not have a working card.  But it did!  And then I cried myself home.

Yep it was an awesome day.  Then the bank told me that they changed their rules and I can't have a new card on Joel's account.  I have to get my own account.  Hello, JOINT ACCOUNT?  I refuse to have to worry about Joel moving money over and worrying about what is in my account.  I spend most of the money, I want access to it all.  I told Joel, its time to go.  I spent the first few months without a card, I guess I will spend my last.  The bank is going to try to retrieve the card and reactivate it, but I doubt that will happen.  Turkey just doesn't work that way.