Friends and Family

On this Sunday morning I am the only one awake, Dilsad has already gone to her lessons, and my host mom and our guests are still asleep. This is usually the case on weekends, I get up at around 9:00 or so, make myself a cup of coffee, and read or write my blog. It is nice to be awake in the quiet. Today though there is one big difference, last night there was a wedding last night and we have some relatives staying with us, and I have a guest as well. My friend Ebba is here visiting from Sweden. Ebba was on the same exchange as me to Spain in 2007-08 and she was one of my best friends there. Though I lived in Barcelona and she lived in a city called Mataro about 45 minutes north we were able to meet up all the time. We explored all over Barcelona and had a bizillion adventures. Many of which we giggled about last night. Her being here reminds me that thought there are inevitable similarities between my exchange to Spain and my exchange here, my life was so different. As is the Spanish way we had a lot of freedom, and we took advantage of that. That is not to say my life was better there, but just starkly different.


She arrived last night at about 10:30 and hurled into the Turkish lifestyle. A bunch of family was over after the wedding so like always we sat around drinking tea and chatting, well not so much chatting as yelling to be heard over one another. They were all curious about Ebba and for the first time I was doing full on translating in Turkish. The tricky part is that Ebba and I used to speak Spanish together, and it is a real challenge translating from Turkish to Spanish. I get it all confused and end up speaking Turkish to Ebba and Spanish to my host family, so eventually we reverted back to English. It was pretty funny, my host family kind of just yelled at Ebba, thinking if they spoke loudly enough she would understand and told her how much they loved me and how I was part of their family, it was really sweet and Ebba took it all in stride. It did make me feel good about my Turkish though, nothing makes you realize how far you have come than seeing somebody who can't understand anything.


We stayed up till about 3:00am or so chatting and reminiscing about our friends and families in Spain, and catching up on the two years we have missed. I can't believe that I left Spain almost two years ago, and talking to Ebba it doesn't feel like it. I am so excited to show her around Adana, well mainly just show her the food I have been eating for the past eight months. I guess we will start this morning as we have another family meal to attend. Then on Wednesday we will go to Istanbul for five days! I can't wait to explore that city!

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.

Rolling up our şalvar and getting our hands flowery

Throughout the past eight months (eight months!!) we have had a lot of opportunities to eat, and I mean a lot, but not nearly as many to learn how to prepare the food we were devouring. A hospitable Turkish person will cook you as much food as you could possibly fit into your stomach, and do it happily, but when it comes to sharing the secrets of the deliciousness it proves to be a bit more tricky. I think it's less out of wanting to safeguard their secretes and more out of a 'they know they can do it better, so why produce anything less than perfect' attitude. They pride themselves on their food. So it was a nice change to try our own hands at one of my favorite meals, sıkma. I have talked about this meal in a past blog, so this may become repetitive, but bear with me.

Sıkma, as one of my friends wrote so eloquently is like the Turkish equivalent of fast food. Don't get me wrong, Burger King and McDonald's are all over the place, but this very old practice of making sıkma has been around for ages and you can still find the stands, and watch the process done mostly the same way all over the place. So that (I will get to exactly what that is in a second) is what we set out to learn one sunny afternoon. We got out of school early and were taken to a part of town that I have spent almost no time in this year. The part of town that you think of when you picture Turkey; colorful two story apartments covered in ivy, children playing in flip-flops in the street, garage doors opened exposing a wealth of colorful items for sale, men drinking tea on low stools, women in headscarves and flowery pants, and a liveliness and color that I don't feel as much in my neighborhood or lack there of. As we entered the courtyard greeted by a jolly looking woman with red, round cheeks we marveled at our surroundings, it was so pleasant. A compact courtyard with a big tree providing shade was bordered by a small, quaint house. The women there kissed our cheeks and showed us into their home. There was a flurry of commotion as they pulled out şalvar (these sort of loose, cloth pants where the crotch hangs about down to your knees) and colorful headscarves for us to wear in the process. We spread  table clothes and carpets  out on the ground in the courtyard and began our first tutorial on sıkma 101.

Sıkma is made quite simply, first the dough mixture (flour, water and a tiny bit of salt) is kneaded for ages, then pulled off into round more or less 2 by 2in balls that are then rolled out into large, flat, thin, circles. Sounds easy enough but getting the ball to roll out into the flat circle proved to be far more challenging than the experts made it look. They roll it out on a low wooden table that they fold their legs under and use a long, thin, wooden stick as a rolling pin. Mine started off ok, but quickly took a shape of their own, one resembled the batman sign, though apparently perfection will come with practice. After they are rolled out thin they are put on sort dome shaped flat grill, that has an open fire underneath. I can't imagine the people that do it all day because just to flip a few, it was unbearably hot, not even my şalvar was protecting me.  Using the flat stick to flip, you watch it crisp. The women whose job it was to flip did not part easily with that stick, but gradually she became accustomed to it, or maybe she just suffered thought it knowing we would give up eventually. Apparently I was alright at it because the the matriarch said that I would make a good wife, which I took as a compliment. After getting it nice and crispy the butter butter is spread, and the various toppings of cheese, spinach, potatoes, or sugar are added. All that is left to do it enjoy!


We stuffed ourselves to the brim and then spread out like cats in the shade of the courtyard until it was time for dancing, because really it wouldn't be a Turkish afternoon without some traditional dancing and me making a fool of myself. The older women seemed to enjoy watching us and teaching us a few moves. At one point one of their sons came home and it's possible that they were trying to marry me off, such is life. All in all though it was a pretty wonderful afternoon and it was good practice as a I get more and more into the idea of starting a sıkma stand for this summer every day. Watch out for that!

The Things They Sent

As a continuation to the post I wrote about my experiences at the post office I thought I would explain why I (and my family) go through so much trouble to get these packages. Getting real, tangible mail while in the states is fun, getting packages  is a billion times more exciting, and getting packages while abroad is exponentially  more exciting than that. Packages from home include little bits of the place you come from, and it is nice to be reminded of that and to be treated to the things I miss. Over the nearly two years I have spent in foreign countries I have gotten a large variety of things through the mail, and spent a lot of time at post offices picking them up. Some of the things are necessities and boring, some are exciting, some make me nostalgic, and some are just weird, thanks mainly to my mother. Here is a list of some of the more memorable things I have gotten in my time abroad.

• I love getting books! This year I have gotten a lot and though it pains me, I will probably have to leave some behind.
  

• Both my parents sent me Annie's Mac and Cheese in recent packages and I have been working hard to ration it. I made it for my host family, and they didn't seem to really understand why five boxes of it had shown up. My host sister said it was plain, and that I could make something similar to it here. Needless to say I will not be wasting it on them anymore! 
• While in Spain my dad sent a beautiful, hand made cribbage board, and tucked into the little place for the pegs he slipped in $100. 
• My friend Mollie recently sent these beautiful postcard sized pastel drawings she made, on the back of each one she wrote a different note. They are right above my bed here and I love looking at them as I fall asleep. 
• While in Spain, Howard and my grandma sent a paperweight from a town in Germany(I think) and I can't think of anything I needed less, but became attached to throughout the year, and couldn't bring myself to leave it when I left. 
• Shelle sent me the most beautiful paisley PJ pants that she made herself, I wore them all winter! Among other things she also sent Starbursts and M&Ms which I grudgingly shared with my American friends and host family. 
• The silliest thing I ever had sent was probably my snowboarding jacket which I convinced my  mom was necessary even though snow very very rarely hits the ground in Barcelona. The real reason was that I just couldn't stand to see Lizzy wearing it in pictures. I never wore it once and had to have it sent back at the end of the year because I didn't have room for it.
  
•  I had my dad send me makeup me because I lost mine on the plane ride over here, he drew the line at sports bras though.
• He also forwarded me a twin survey the University of Washington sent which included a pamphlet telling me that being a twin is special, 5$ included! 

  My mom has sent by far the most packages and every single one comes with the most bazaar things, though I love getting them. Some of the best include;

• A Michel Jackson video saying that she wanted Dilsad to learn the moves, she was ecstatic.
• Throughout the year in Spain my mom sent various cards from this deck of daily saying cards for life. They are these thick, square, illustrated cards that say things like, take a deep breath, feel the nature outside and try to replicate that calmness inside of yourself..or something along those lines. They were nice to decorate my wall with, but I had no idea what to do with them at the end of the year.
•  Mini-lip glosses
• Trader Joe's bags, which have actually come in really handy, Dilsad uses hers for the gym
• LOTS AND LOTS of family pictures, the ones of Lizzy riding her horse where cherished
• A pink cheetah print Betsy Johnson makeup bag (she actually brought that one to Rome, along with M&Ms and peanut butter)
• Bright orange and blue nail polish 
• Black leggings with jewel decals all over one side:)
• Many copies of the Journal (has the barefoot burglar been caught yet?)

As listed I have received a variety of wonderful things through the international postal system, and sent a few good ones myself, (if you would like a postcard, I would love to send one, all I need is your address!) because there is nothing better than a package. I am sure that I have left out some good ones and I may add to and revise my list. I am looking forward to a birthday package from my mom and there are a few things I hope are included;

• Lizzy. Nothing like a birthday to remind me of my little Bizzy so far far away. You would think I would forget all about it without the countdowns till queen Lizzy can celebrate the day she was born. Thankfully facebook exists, and I am reminded almost daily.
• A cake made by our own Mary Elford
• Anything made my Jane Burton Bell or Shelle Cropper
• All of my other family and friends that I will miss being around this year

If none of those things make it in the package, mom, I will understand and I do look forward to all the other great things I am sure are in there! I will keep you all updated.

 As I side note I also added a few pictures to the past couple of blogs, take a look!

Additions:

• As my sister reminded me I forgot the camera charger! That made it's way back from Rome with Lizzy instead of me, then to Turkey, and due to some malfunction, back to the United States, and then resent to Turkey. I now use it all the time:)

Gündoğdu

Yedi ve bir yabancı ( seven and one foreigner) my classmates answer when asked how many kids are in our class, and for all intensive purposes I am a yabancı. I don't have to take tests, fill out the multiple choice exams that they do in all of our classes and I am certainly not preparing to take the big ÖSS exam that they will all be taking at the end of their senior year. That is not to say that I don't make use of my time, I am catching up on all my children's books by reading them in Turkish. I am proud to say that I am now working on a chapter book! I spend a lot of time at Gündoğdu, and I like to think that getting use out of so much free time is a good lesson in time management.

Our classroom, in the basement of the Gündoğdu building, is far too big for the eight of us but it leaves us room to pull our desks into different formations or push them to one corner or another. At the very top of one side of the class room there are a couple of large windows that look out at ground level outside. On the opposite side there is one big window that looks out onto the hallway, but for some reason unknown to me they have made tinted it so it is only possible to see into the class room and not out, hence the nickname aquarium.  On sunny days I stare out wistfully at the little children playing in the big open courtyard and wish to be out of out of my little yellow fish tank and enjoying the wonderful weather of Adana.

As I said there are eight of us which is very small classroom, in Dilşad's there are over 20, but I have really come to like my classmates. I have gone through several stages of comfortableness  with them, but I think we are at a pretty good level. I can talk to any one of them and not feel to awkward, and they in turn have become comfortable with me. One of the girls, Başak, tells me about her boy problems and Can my favorite kid in the class and I have very joking relationship. It has been a gradual process but I think there were two times that I realized that I have actually become friends with them.

Once was at a class dinner, we went with two teachers to a Kebop place and I wasn't really looking forward to it but it turned out to be really fun! My classmates were way more dressed up than me but I felt like part of it, and that was nice. We talked and took tons of pictures and I rarly felt out of the conversation. The only weird part of it was that they were all drinking Raki and insisted I do the same, my teacher actually ordered it for me. It was a little different coming from the States where that wouldn't ever happen since out of my class I am the only one legally old enough to drink here, but hey, this is Turkey.

The second time was a slightly less fun experience. It was a normal school day and we were just milling about moving our desks to another part of the room for like the third time that day. The desks are the kind where the desk part and the chair part are connected by a couple flimsy bars, to make a very un-sturdy desk. The back edges are rounded which makes them prone to tipping backwards, so usually I am careful, though apparently not careful enough. When I went to sit down the entire chair and desk flipped backwards and the next thing I knew I was on my back staring up at my converse. The stuff I had spread across my desk went everywhere, and unfortunately I had decided to wear the school uniform skirt that day. It took me a couple seconds for my class and I to get past the shock and then there is nothing to do but laugh. Nothing but my pride was damaged and the girls in my class immediately told me about the times that they had been victims of the flawed desks, and of course the boys just laughed. Though I was embarrassed it passed relatively quickly and by the next period I though it was hilarious. Because we are so few and I have been able to talk to each student separately I'm not embarrassed around them. My history teacher making me get up and talk in front of them every lesson has helped get me past that.

Sometimes I feel like more of a pet of theirs, I do tricks and play around. They show me off and take credit for my Turksh abilities. It doesn't really bother me though because I really do feel like one of the fish in the aquarium, granted a slightly different colored fish.

Alman Köprüsü

Last week my host mom arranged for us to have a little picnic. Now, I realized a while ago that a the Turkish "piknik" is not at all the same as the picnics I am used to . A"pikniks" usually includes a barbecue, sausage, a pot to make tea over the grill and Raki (the national alcoholic beverage of Turkey). There may also be a lot of driving and little to no walking. I wasn't really sure what to expect when my host mom told me we were going to the Alman Köprüsü (German Bridge) but the other Americans were coming and it was supposed to be pretty. I had no idea where we were going, I thought the bridge was in Adana which turned out not to be the case at all, it was over an hour drive. So goes the life of an exchange student, we almost never have any idea where we are going, which is kind of nice, a sort of surprise.

We pulled off the road at around midday, and the second we got out of the car we started sweating. It was so warm! I feel as if I looked away and summer showed up. As I write this it is about 8:30 and I am sitting on my balcony in only a t-shirt and jeans, something that on San Juan even in summer is  rare. We were all a little bit giddy getting out of the car because the surrounding sight was so beautiful! The drive out was nice too, lush green valleys and rolling hills, but the view of a small gorge with a clear blue river rushing down was so gorgeous. As we started walking in we were amazed that so close to Adana was such a beautiful sight and that we had not only never been there but had never heard of it. We only walked for 20 minutes or so along the water, but the trail kept going. We were eager to explore but our host mothers turned us back to the car. I think we were so excited because it had been so long since we had spent time in nature. It is fun to live in a city but coming from a place as visually and naturally beautiful as San Juan Island it can feel a bit desolate.

After the mini-hike we went the actual Alman Köprüsü that was built about a hundred years ago for trains to pass, and it still used today. It is a beautiful stone bridge and I've read that it was built over a century ago, but I was never able to get a clear answer.  We ate lunch in a nearby village where one my host moms friends showed us around and who's family made sıkma, a very yummy Turkish meal. Sıkma is dough that has been rolled out into a very thin flat circle and then cooked on a sort of dome shaped grill heated from beneath. They use a long stick to flip it over and over again. After being fried they add cheese and butter, potatoes, or a spinach mixture and heat if up again. Sometimes they are made with sugar or honey as a dessert and they are equally delicious. My American friend Sahalie and I are planning on making them this year at the fair if we can work out the logistics!

All in all it was a pretty wonderful day, and the cherry on top was getting a package from my mom without even having to go to the post office! Being outside and seeing some more of the beautiful and natural things Turkey has to offer was a nice change and  got me excited to see some more, hopefully that will be possible in the next few months.

Pazarlar!

"BEŞ YÜZ, BEŞ YÜZ, BEŞ YÜZ!!!"
It's sort a joke we have in our little American circle this year, and sometimes we pull it out to amuse the locals who find it pretty funny. The quote translates literally into "FİVE HUNDRED, FIVE HUNDRED, FIVE HUNDRED!!!," which actually means 50cents and vendors  yell it out to attract the attention of people walking by. This is extremely common at a pazar, known also as a bazaar they are large markets filled to the brim with cheep goods. They sell everything there from sheets, silverware, sport wear, food, hair clips, abercrombie knock-offs and so much more. It is not all that common for people my age to go, they prefer to shop at the stores downtown, but my fellow Americans and I love them.

My host mom took me to my first one way earlier on in the year and I was overwhelmed and in awe. There are just so many people all over the place that you have to push your way to get through. It was sensory overload as there are so many different smells, good and bad, and man, the COLORS! The different hues of the goods combined with the white tents and blue sky was amazing. Plus everything is so cheep. I bought one of my favorite dresses there for the equivalent of $5, and everything else is of similar prices. There are definitely things of pretty bad quality but there are a lot of gems if you have the time, patience and willpower to look.