We’re Negative

I mean that in a good way. In the way we need it to be so that we can re-enter the USA tomorrow. Here’s how our testing story unfolded.

We started our day with breakfast at the Zeynel Gevrek Fırını in Alsancak. Deniz, and Aylin & Murat also braved the steady rain and joined us. By 9:30a, Mui and I were on our way to BioLab for a PCR test.

The CDC says the test is to be taken 1 day prior to beginning travel. They do this specifically so travelers don’t have to worry about calculating the exact 24 hours from departure time. But Turkey, and most other countries, are focused on the 24-hour thing. With that it mind, we timed our arrival for around 10:00a … just under our 9:38a departure from İzmir tomorrow. Hah!

The administrative assistant we spoke with said that we really should be within 24 hours of our 2:30p departure from İstanbul to the US … to be on the safe side. Thus, we ended up delaying the testing until later in the afternoon. I suppose, I could have pulled out the CDC order explaining the 1-day vs 24-hour difference, but it just wasn’t worth it … especially since we would be flying a Turkish carrier back to the US. Better to heed their advice.

We returned to BioLab around 2:30p with the forms they’d given us earlier in the day completed and ready to hand in. Once the info was entered into the system, we followed the yellow arrows on the sidewalk to a small shack for the actual testing. The swabbing — throat and nose — took under a minute for each of us. The time of the sampling was noted as being 2:30p … with the sample received by the lab for testing at 2:39p.

We still had to wait for our results, of course, but just having the testing behind us was a relief. To celebrate, we went to Beige for tea and a sweet treat … mom and Aylin joined us.

It was 5:38p when I noticed an email from BioLab in my inbox. I’ll admit to a bit of trepidation as I clicked open the message, scanning for that all important word … “NEGATIVE.” Yes!!! I was good to go. But what about Mui? I called him to tell him to check his email. Which he did promptly. Another NEGATIVE! Yay!!! Time to celebrate!

One last meal with the family. A Prosecco toast to wish everyone a happy new year.

Thus we wrapped up our four months in Turkey. Now to get home to Colorado!Read more