Looking Forward to May Flowers

Last week I reluctantly awoke at the ungodly hour of 6:00am to go for a run. I had no desire to pull myself out of the warmth of my bed especially since I had woken up to the sound of thunder, a sure sign of rain, but my friend Kenzie was waiting. It started drizzling as soon as we left the overhang to of my building but what choice did we have to go, we had already woken up. So we set off, barely a car on the road, trying to avoid the dogs that roam the streets in packs during the night. It felt good to be running outside instead of the basement where my gym was, but the thunder and lightning were foretelling and slightly intimidating. Sure enough it wasn't long before it was pouring rain and we were drenched almost immediately. I considered turning around but Kenzie wouldn't hear of it, and it wasn't terribly cold. We ran past the train tracks in the direction of the Toros mountains. We ran past a man with a little road side stand in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, he looked at us like we were completely crazy. We ran past the big fair building and up a hill just as the sky let loose a round of hail like little pebbles that bounced off our skin. As we got to the top of the hill we could see out see over the sprawling valleys that led to the base of the mountains. We stood still for a minute but soon felt the cold creeping into our bones and ran back the way we had come. The man on the side of the road yelled to us that we would get sick and offered to let us sit under his tent but we waved away the offer and ran home. By the time we made it back to my apartment I was completely drenched, and with each step my feet squished. I was as quiet as possible as I slipped through the door, all was silent and I thought I had gotten away with my crime-that of getting wet-which of course makes you very very ill.


I thought I had gotten away with it but my host mom found my sopping wet clothing from the run and forbid me to run until the weather gets nice. I honestly don't think my host mom has ever forbid me to do anything before, she just kind of suggest that I don't, so I don't. You wouldn't argue with my host mom either. But it wasn't long before I was caught in another Adana-style flash flood.


Kenzie, Sahalie and I had finished teaching our English classes and were killing a bit of time before we had our Turkish class, and what better way to kill time than to get a bite to eat. We went to one of our favorite haunts a Turkish bakery called Kardeşler (brothers), they are all over the place, on almost every block you can catch a smell of the pastries and bread wafting through the air. We bought these delicious fried dough balls that are then soaked in syrup call Lokma and just as we sat down the rain started thundering in. The noise of it was amazing bouncing off the tin roof, we could barely hear make out each others voices. Everyone in the cafe positioned their chairs facing the big glass doors as if were some enthralling movie, or a soccer match. People without umbrellas huddled together under any overhang they could find and even those with went as fast as they could. As the cafe filled up with people in various states of wetness it began to feel like we were all in this together, like we may never get out and like Lost we would all become friends. Apparently we weren't the only ones with that idea, these girls came over from a table of a big group of kids and just sat down at our table, as if they were people we knew that had just gotten up to go to the bathroom. It was funny and slightly awkward but mostly nice. They were around our age, still in high school, and had noticed we looked like foreigners so decided to talk to us for a while. We talked about school, what we were doing there, where we lived, etc. I love that in Turkey is is perfectly normal for people do sit with strangers without any explanation whatsoever. People are friendly here.


We had hoped that the rain would stop before we had to go to our Turkish class, but it seemed if anything to be coming down harder. The roads had turned to rivers and the cars threw up jets of water as if a parting the sea. I had my trusty U of Chicago umbrella but Kenzie and Sahalie were just in tee-shirts. It was only two blocks to our lessons but enough to attract the attention of everybody we went by. Crossing the road there was water up to my shins, and cars driving by splashed water up to our necks. The rain drenched Sahalie's hair until the ringlets stuck to her face as she squealed and danced through the rain. We giggled uncontrollably as ran by people standing under the awnings, and they yelled at us to take cover. By the time we made it to our Turkish class we were soaking, only to find out it had been canceled due rain induced road closure. We sat in a cafe close by and sipped hot Turkish Coffee as we willed our clothes to dry. Rebecca and Sophie were already there and laughed as we came dripping into the warmth or the cafe and Sahalie actually dumped water out of her flats. We sat there for a while and the rain died down only slightly before we decided to get home. One of the guys at the cafe graciously offered to pay for us because that too is pretty normal here.


The rain has been fun and exhilarating. I like how here it pours for only a few hours at the most unlike at home where is can be constant rain or drizzle for days or weeks. After these storms though, I am looking forward to may, the rise in temperature and the flowers that my host family and I planted to bloom on our balcony to bloom.