Two Months and Getting Busier...

I need to write more about these subjects, but it's already late. Last time I ended up staying up until something like 2 a.m. furiously writing my every observation, so this time, I am just making a quick list of activities which I will (hopefully) have time to expound upon later.

On last Wednesday, we hosted a woman's engagement party at our house! These are a big deal, and are basically just a big fun ladies' night. There are lots of foods and photos and dancing to wild Turkish music and getting a little saucy on the dance floor for the other ladies. It was great fun. I will write more about the surrounding traditions, music, etc. later!

On Friday, my friend Simden (who was a Rotary exchange student to Minnesota a few years ago, so her English is pretty much perfect) took me to the Efes Pilsen Blues Festival. It was hosted in a great big hotel and we got in for freeee because one of Simden's friends' father worked there. There were a ton of people, more than 2,000, I heard. It was a much more down-to-earth, hip crowd than my club scene experience, which was filled with people with very dyed hair and clothing that was much more risque, to say the least. The bands were all American, mostly all from the south, I believe. It was too funny hearing these guys with thick southern accents revving the crowd up in an English that I could barely understand, let along these Turks. But the crowd was really, really loving it. Everyone was freaking out and singing along with what they could and dancing and shouting and the lead singer of the band said this was the best crowd he had had yet! I met a few of Simden's friends, which was also really cool. It was a wild, blues-filled night!

Then on Saturday, I went to that first woman's wedding. Quick turnover, I know. It was a big beautiful affair and I danced a lot and came away with the most precious picture of my host mom and I, which I will try and find a way to scan into the computer. The interesting difference was that instead of getting up and having a priest do everything and then going and doing the paperwork after or before the wedding, the main ceremony itself WAS the paperwork. Really. They had a person from the ministry who officiates weddings all dressed up and a few witnesses present and a huge, white, feather plume pen that they both signed with while sitting down on these tall white chairs in front of a screen of white christmas lights and feathers. They said their "evet"s and signed the paper and were married, just like that! And in lieu of a big romantic kiss, they went for the old kiss on either cheek. Their first kiss as a married couple was one that could have happened between a little kid and a dad! But I guess this is the very traditional first wedding kiss, and only more modern couples are doing the big, Western smooch. All of these matrimonial aspects are quite the norm, in Turkey, it seems.

After school today I decided to try and lose a little of the major weight I've been gaining on all this Turkish food, so I went for a run. Well mostly, it was a beautiful day and I just wanted some fresh air. So I went and ran out of my little development and down through a few more little streets of mansions and developments and then all of a sudden, I was on a dirt tractor track and looking out over these huge rolling hills and fields. It was such an amazing switch. It all reminded me of my step-grandma Betty's farm from when I was a kid, actually. I ended up just walking all over and exploring, especially this one low, old stucco and corrugated-iron and brick-roofed house, the same kind as are dotted all over where they haven't been torn down for development. There were rusty cans everywhere and the house was full of junk and you could tell no one had lived there for years. There were new padlocks on the old hand-wrought latches and I think it is still a working farm, of sorts, as one of the buildings father down the field had chickens locked up in it. It was built up on one of the hills overlooking all of these fields, so that whichever way you looked from the porch you had an magnificent view, mostly of mountains and fields. I am going to ask to borrow my mom's digital camera and walk out there again to take some pictures of the place.

One of the most amazing parts was that, as I was walking around this amazing old farm and looking out at this rolling Turkish landscape, I was really there. It seems like every time I've had a similar experience, like being in Barrea, Italy or going around the old whaling yards in Mystic Seaport, I've been on a tour, or I've been a tourist, or it's been a recreation or is now just a museum. Most of my other encounters with places so beautiful and historic have been very intentionally presented to me, for a profit, or for education, or for some outside purpose. One of the reasons I really don't like theme-parks is the intensity and high price of what is really just fabricated quaintness and lots of artificially-provincial bad restaurants. My run was the total opposite of Six Flags, in other words. It was quiet, and sort of ugly, but at once stunningly and spaciously beautiful, and just sitting there, fifty yards down the road from my big modern mansion. I just walked up to it and looked around. I think a lot of Turkish people, possessing the preoccupation with modern residences and newness that I've witnessed so much here, would think it was a nothing special, maybe something that is a good part of history but should still be replaced with some nice paved residential site. But I loved it. I found a piece of an old door frame lying and rotting in the ground and took the little key-hole hardware off both sides. They can't be more than fifty years old, but I still really like them and have them up in my room.

Speaking of which, I put up a ton of the pictures I took over the summer! I have a whole wall next to my bed covered in drawings and pictures of my family members and Lake Milton and Buffalo Bay. I also have the Antenucci family calendar up by my door. It's starting to feel more like home...

Then just tonight, we went to see a Chopin chamber music concert at Bilkent University, where my host brother goes. It was sponsored by the Polish Embassy in Ankara, so all three of the musicians, a cellist, a pianist, and a soprano, were Polish. At the end, there were two rather modern compositions performed by the trio that had been composed by a graduate student at Bilkent. I don't know if those last two were up to Chopin's standards, but as a whole, the concert was very beautiful.

There is no school friday, when I'll be off to Istanbul!!!!! and there is really no school Thursday, as it's a half-day and I guess nobody goes. I am sure I am leaving out things from this post and will probably edit it as I have time later this week.

OH, today is my two month mark! WHOA! Maybe more on this mile-stone later.

I have to go to sleep!

I will let you know all about how amazing Istanbul is!

xoxoxoxox

Love,

Natalie

Photos from Elmadag!

Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the scenery, as my film camera is out of batteries! I will try and get new batteries soon, definitely before Istanbul!

These are ones my mother took at the school. Enjoy!

The picture above is my host mom, Aylin, with one of the kids!

I hope you liked them! I will have more of my actual house/school soon!

Goodnight!

xoxox

Natalie

Ne Mutlu Türküm Diyene!

I offer either condolences or congratulations, Dear Reader, on the length of the following post that you are about to tackle. Please accept whichever you require.

On Saturday, my anne took me and my little sister to a really nice art opening. It was held in the upper floors of a really nice rug-dealership, the owner of which had made his fortune selling very expensive, very beautiful hand-made carpets. They prices of the good ones ranged from over $1000 for the smallest, 3x5 ft. ones to one huge, 30x25 ft. one that was going for $35,000! It takes many weeks and many people to make such large intricate rugs, I guess. Anyways, this guy and his sons had taken an interest in the arts and open a very beautiful modern gallery above their shop. The artist in question was an old Turkish man, over 80, who had spent his life studying and showing all over the world and had many beautiful paintings to display. He worked mostly in oil, I believe, and his subjects were basically women, women with violins, women with other instruments, and women passionately embracing men. All of these were done in a very beautiful modern, skewed style, and his use of color was wonderful. There was a live flautist and a violinist playing music, and there were appetizers of walnuts, grapes and yellow-cheese, and crackers, as well as plates of fruit juice and wine being brought around. It was a really beautiful show, and straight afterwards, anne was so kind as to take me over to the mall. There, in my inspiration, I got about ten different colors of nice gouache paint, a few nice pads of sketch and watercolor paper, some brushes, and a pallet! I've been have a great time supplementing my drawing habit with a little color, and, like I said, it's nice having more to do with my afternoons.

Today, I got up early. Instead of going to school, I accompanied my anne to a Rotary Club (but mainly just the wives went) trip out to Elmadağ (EL-mah-dah), which is a small village just outside of Ankara-proper. It took about forty minutes to get there. We had to wind through the most beautiful hills and mountains. It was rainy today, so all of the colors took on a muted, but somehow intensified hue, everything glistening in grays and foggy blue-greens and browns. The road we traveled to get down to the village was recently paved, but without a guard-rail or stripes. It looks like someone has slicked a thin trail of tar over a raised ridge in the valley of a huge, undulating sea of gulfs and gullies of rocks and smoothed down cliffs, all scattered with scrub brush and twisted olive trees. Up close, the soil and plants are sandy-brown and green, but as you look into the distance, the bluffs fade off in layered tiers of colors, the farthest peaks blending into the misty clouds in a wash of soft blue-gray. And way out here, the view is not sullied by the endless prick of balconied cement apartments. Instead, there are only tiny stucco houses, roofed in red brick tiles and tucked into the alcoves of the slopes or clinging to their sides. Even these were few, were far between. Instead the windows of our minibus were filled full with the rolling, rolling hillocks and valleys, rises and dips of the brilliant, saturated, Anatolian plateau. This ride out into maze of topography in which Ankara is nestled is the second time in my exchange where I have felt this much love and awe of the land in my new and beautiful Türkiye.

These pictures of the land around Ankara are close to what it looked like, but today, it was more colorful and even more grand.

http://goodandlost.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/Canyon-to-Vardzia-2.jpg

http://peacelikeariverblog.com/images/2010/274843.bmp

The reason we went out to this school is to bring them supplies. Elmadağ, like most villages in Turkey, is very poor and very rural. It was a complete change from the huge, modern city which I have become accustomed to. It was comprised of the same hand-built, stucco and brick houses planted all over the hillsides. There were chickens and old women and children wandering everywhere in the school yard. The school itself was a three-story affair with a fence and gate around it, and it was clearly the center of the town. The old women who were helping run the school were both wearing flower-patterned şalvar (SHAL-var), traditional Turkish peasant pants. I asked Binnur about them last week when I saw a man at a taxi station wearing a black pair. She told me that they are very traditional in certain regions of Turkey, especially in the villages, as they are very practical. The big, loose billows of material mean you can climb up steep places and move around very easily. I am going to try and get a pair, as they are also very comfortable, and, incidentally, rather vogue these days, as a similar look has now been popularized as "harem pants." The link below shows younger girls in a Turkish village wearing şalvarlar (the -lar suffix makes it plural!):

http://www.turkishjournal.com/images/turkish_village_soccer_salvar.jpg

This picture shows women similar to the sort you see all over Turkey:

http://www.danheller.com/images/Europe/Turkey/Kalkan/turkish-women-1.jpg. They are all very sweet and withered and maternal, all of them wear bulky sweaters and big socks and headscarfs, and all of them are five feet tall or less. Today, actually, when we got back to Ankara, I saw a woman on the street who could not have been over three feet tall, if that. It was amazing. There was a similar woman in Elmadağ. I think the weathered look had something to do with generational differences. Women, especially ones living in villages like many, many Turks still do, had to work very hard to grow their own food, make clothes, take care of the family, etc. So much physical labor over a lifetime! These women all really remind me of my step-grandma Betty, actually. She died when she was 100 and was a doctor and a farmer and loved the outdoors, and her hands and face clothes were just the same way when I knew her. It's interesting what's the same to me around here, what makes me think of people I miss.

Anyways, it was a very poor area, so we were bringing them new sturdy table cloths and plastic glasses and shoes and cardigans and salt and pepper shakers and water bottles and lot of other things. We had brought along a whole separate flat-bed truck to carry all of the boxes, and the kids at the school helped us unload them. The school itself, especially the certain way the kitchen smelled and the houses looked, reminded me a lot of the Dominican Republic when I went to build houses there with my church two summers ago. Both were vibrant and thinly-furnished and surrounded by refuse and children and tiled-roofs. We went into one of the classes, kindergarten, I think, and took lots of pictures and went around to each of the cute little kids and fitted them out with new shoes and passed out the cardigans. In the teachers' lounge, which was really just a very sparse "kitchen" and a room with a table and chairs and a few old couches, we were served cookies and tea and cheese crescents. The people were very welcoming and nice and very receptive and happy to have the new things.

After this, we headed home. On the way, we stopped at a road-side restaurant where we apparently had reservations, as everything was already laid out. There was delicious summer salad, fresh pide bread, kaymak and honey, and fresh white cheese. They served beef-sprinkled herb pide and also big iron, shallow, wok-like pans of nice sauteed beef strips, some of which I tried. There was also fresh yogurt, of course. For dessert, we all had cones of ice cream, lemon with vanilla. Here the ice cream is thicker and creamier and sort of sticky, and instead of round scoops they kind of just wipe flat slabs of it on top of the cone or cup. The lemon and vanilla were delicious together. OH, the strangest thing about the restaurant was its very traditional toilets. I went with both of my annes (Fatoş and Aylin were both on the trip. So nice to see my first anne again!) to the bathroom next door. It was normal and modern and had the normal white porcelain sinks and tiles and everything else. But I went and opened the stall. This is what I saw: http://lh6.ggpht.com/_s3raaZ8KWNg/RldSrYTlMDI/AAAAAAAAA0I/jGEzdPFrKI0/DSC01318.JPG

Inside, instead of the normal raised bowl, flusher, seat, etc., there was a hole in the ground, covered by a treaded porcelain cover. There was no way to flush, that I could find, and I didn't see toilet paper either. There was a spigot and a pitcher available, but I did not venture to utilize either. It was crazy. When I first saw them, I said with not a little surprise "BU NE?!," meaning, rightly, "WHAT'S THIS?!" and both of my mothers collapsed into laughter at my dismay. Apparently, this is a very normal toilet in all but the largest, newest cities. They used to build apartments that had both the squatting kind and the sitting kind, to fit your preference. Amazing! According to Aylin, and corroborated by Wikipedia, these squatting toilets are actually healthier and more sanitary. Something about body position and what part of you on which type is touching where on the apparatus. Well regardless, it worked just fine for me.

We finally got back to town and anne (Aylin) and I went over to Korhan's office where we had left her car (which is, by the way, a very yellow, very sporty, '90s Peugot convertible, one of only two of its kind in Ankara). We visited for a while and then anne took the car home and left me at Korhan's office, as we were both to go out to the weekly Rotary dinner later in the evening. Oh, speaking of which, today marks my SEVENTH week in Turkey! My goodness, how time is flying.

Anyways, it was only about 2:30 or 3 p.m. and the dinner wasn't until 7:30, so i had time to kill. I read some of the really nice coffee table books about Ankara that he had. I napped for a while, and had a very, very vivid dream in which my mother (Peggy), and later my grandma (her mom, Betty), came to visit me in Turkey. It was so real that in the dream, I thought I had been woken up from my office nap already and found my mom and gram were sitting by me, chatting. I dreamt I took them all over the city, showed them where I live, where I go to school, Elmadağ, and everywhere. It was sort of awful when I actually woke up and realized how far away they still were.

After, I went around and saw more of the office, which takes up almost the whole top floor of the building (and a few floors below, which I didn't explore). I got to meet Korhan's staff, also. They were all really nice, and none of them really spoke English, so I had a good time making small-talk about my life and theirs while practicing my Turkish. I am really getting to be pretty capable of conversation, I am pleased to report. Also, Turkish doesn't sound nearly so foreign any more; even when I don't understand what's being said, I recognize common words, can tell verbs apart from nouns and adjectives, and can almost always get a basic grasp of the subject. This is coming at the expense of my already very meager Spanish. While I was in the Dominican Republic, as I mentioned, my Spanish really improved and I was getting a basic hold on the language. Now, any time I try and think of any word in other any language (even my English is going downhill!), I immediately come up with its Turkish. This is really a good thing, but it's worrisome if I plan on ever trying for a third real language.

After hanging around the office, I asked Korhan if I could go for a walk outside. He said sure, so I put on my jacket and grabbed my purse. It wasn't raining just then and the weather was nice and it was already evening. The city was breezy and loud and bustling, and it felt like I was striding around New York on an October night, instead of Ankara. I stopped at the bank (thanks, Mom!), as I've been out of cash recently. After, I just picked a direction and walked down the street. I bought some freshly roasted chestnuts for 5TL from a man selling them on the sidewalk by the large intersection. They were small and delicious, and I ate them while I walked. I stopped into a little cosmetic/toiletries shop and bought some light-tan nail polish for 1.50TL. I curbed my spending there and had a really nice stroll down the big, crazy streets. I am getting really good at crossing the traffic. I stopped into a pretty little park and called my Japanese friend, Nozomi, another exchange student living in Ankara. We decided to go out to dinner and hangout on Saturday. It should be very fun, as she is just the sweetest.

I got back to the office with time to spare and hung out outside talking to one of the drivers in Turkish for a little bit. He was the one who took me to get my residency permit, so we're old pals. After, I went up and waited around some more for Korhan to get ready. We went together to the dinner at about eight, and it was good as usual but was smaller and just served to us, without the buffet. They had a slide show going of the pictures from the trip out to the school that day! Quick turnaround, it seems. They were also showing pictures that the club had taken out to a vineyard at some point this year.

In other, very exciting news, I'm going to be learning how to play the kanun!!!!!!! Pronounced KAH-noon, it is like a big, flat harp from your lap. It is a Turkish instrument, is very beautiful and is very, very difficult. But as I'm not distracted by sports, a job, or a social life, I have plenty of time to learn! No, but really, I'm extremely excited. I've been bugging Korhan to talk to Nozomi's host dad for weeks, as he is a very renowned and skilled kanun player. So this Thursay, along with Nozomi and maybe Emily, the other Rotary exchange girl in Ankara, I'm starting lessons!! This is a really good video of what it looks and sounds like, taken in Istanbul:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFY30X4C0Uw

I almost forgot, I'm going to Istanbul next weekend!

I'll talk about my upcoming trip later--it's really late!

Lots of love,

Natalie

P.S. The title of this post is a very famous quotation from a speech by Atatürk, and it means roughly,"Happy is the Man Who Can Call Himself A Turk!" Incidentally, it was stenciled in gold letters in the entryway of the school in Elmadağ...

My New Address!

Write me! Write me back!

Natalie Weaver
Abıdın Daver Sokak
No. 5/10 06550
Çankaya, Ankara
Türkiye

xoxoxo

The Best Weekend Ever

I had a really fantastic and full weekend.

On Thursday, it was my host dad's, Korhan's, 47th birthday. We went to a place called Butcha, a British-English spelling of the word "butcher," obviously. It was a really beautiful, mixed-Victorian and Modern restaurant, with lots of black stone and wooden accents. I had a very good smooth lentil soup (mercimek corbasi, MAR-jeh-mek CHOR-bah-suh, very common, even for school lunch) and a delicious baby shrimp and almond pasta dish with cream sauce of which the large strip of pasta had been hand-made. The rest of the family, of course, got meat dishes, and I know a few of the readers at home will be very pleased to hear that I tried a sizeable hunk of ribs and cannot claim that they were at all unpleasant, even if the psychological sensation was less than comfortable. My brother and I shared a pretty good cheesecake and a raspberry crème-brulee. We cranked up the Turkish pop music on the sleepy ride home, and overall, had a very, very nice Thursday-night birthday dinner.

On Friday, after school, my mom picked me up from the house after she had gotten my brother and sister from their schools and took us all to Panora, this large and very beautiful mall the is on our district's side of Ankara-proper. There, she had a small table set up where she was selling the children's book that she had published about a museum, which she had helped renovate! The reason we all went together was that my brother and sister were both performing in a recital being put on by their piano teacher in the middle of the mall. The recital was really nice! My brother sang and they both played piano. Afterwards, my family and I and some of the other Rotarians who had come to watch all got food from a nice Turkish restaurant in the food court. Also, that day, wandering around the mall, I had bought some pantyhose and a nice, inexpensive, black, button-down shirt-style dress, both of which I changed into at the mall, because straight from Panora, Cinar and I went clubbing! It was so fun. We went over the apartment of one of his friends from school where she and her two other gal pals were getting ready. They were all really nice people. Two of the girls are majoring in architecture and one is majoring in molecular biology. So from there we all to a cab to this really beautiful club, a place called D^BLYU (pronounced as the letter W). It was all gold and black and lit up with black lights and spotlights. There were balconies and tiered trays of food and free energy drinks and free CDs of the DJ from that night, Ozan Dogulu (OH-zahn DOH-loo), who is the most famous DJ in all of Turkey. It was a really big deal that he was playing at the club, so it was packed. But worry not, Sweet Reader, I had a good clean time! My host dad picked up Cinar and me at a reasonable hour and all went safely and smoothly. The music was really fun, a mixture of Turkish and English. This is one of his most famous songs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwGGM_3O38c

On Saturday, I had a nice leisurely breakfast and was dropped off at a mall to meet the wonderful Binnur (BIH-nour), a woman whom I was introduced to through a Rotarian from Madison. They had worked together at Sikorsky for many years, alternately in Turkey and America. Binnur's English was nearly perfect and she was very sweet to me. She took me to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum, lunch, and a little shopping in the old city. The museum itself was full of incredible Roman, Hittite, and Phrygian artifacts, among many others, and was easily one of the most beautiful and well-endowed museums I have ever been to. It won the 1996 European Museum of the Year Award, in fact. The grounds were leafy and sprawling, with lots of brick, and a big part of its ceiling had been restored from the original, a six-domed affair commission by Mehmet II, the same man who set up the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul hundreds and hundreds of years ago. The weather was nice and brisk that day, and I felt like I was back in New England. I got a pretty little "gold" pendent that is a reproduction of the original Hittite sculpture we saw that for many years was the emblem of Ankara (it has since been replaced by a very controversial, mosque-involving emblem). Binnur also very sweetly bought me the museum's book, which has great pictures of everything we saw. I've been using it for drawing ideas, especially the Hittite sculpture and pottery, which I loved. After this, we went to the old citadel district (the same place I went with Ilke a few weeks ago). We got a very good meal at a restored 18^th century mansion overlooking the city that has been a restaurant since the 1930s. It was, strangely, called The Washington. After, I bought the GREATEST pair of leather Turkish slippers. They were the equivalent of about $20, and they were handmade by the same guy, apparently, who was commissioned to do the shoes for Harry Potter and Troy, the movie!? Sweet. Binnur dropped me off at Panora, as there was a second recital that night. It also went very well, although this time, Cinar didn't sing. I got a nice, oatmeal colored sweater from Zara while I was waiting for the show to begin. Afterwards, we all went home. Cinar and I cooked up a snack of mushrooms stuffed with cheese, and we watched a few episodes of the show It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia together, one of our favorite activities.

On Sunday, we all got up and had some nice omelets my mom had cooked for breakfast. After breakfast, we all got in the car. The rest of the family was going to help run the Rotary Club kids festival that they were putting on in a local park, and I was dropped off at Ece's (EH-jeh) house, another Rotarian woman from a different club. One of my really good friends here, Nozomi, a Japanese exchange student, had been staying at her house that weekend. So that morning, Nozomi and I hung around their beautiful house (which is also in the Incek district, just like ours, and is therefore about 2 minutes from where I'm living) and chatted and played a little with Ece's adorable twin boys, Can and Efe (JOHN and EH-feh), who are almost seven. It was really nice being around these crazy little guys, even though it made me miss my own seven-year-old brother, Cedar, even more. Ece then dropped Nozomi and I off at a beautiful, rustic little restaurant called Yonca (YON-juh, meaning clover). It was tucked up in a bunch of willow and pine trees and was made of brick and timber. There were little open fireplaces all over the inside eating area and the outside, where they had the incredible buffet spread. The buffet included a man at the bar who would made you omlets and an open grill for making your own kebaps, as well as crepes, sigara boregi, olives, lots of white cheeses, fresh fruit, and many, many other dishes. We were there for the annual multi-club Rotex meeting. Rotex is a branch of Rotary club specifically for people in their twenties. It's not quite as formal as the full Rotary Club, but it's not as informal as the high-school age branch, Rotaract. So, all of these friendly college kids were also at Yonca, and we talked to some of the girls for a while. One of them in particular had great English, as she had been a hospital intern for a few summers in Flagstaff, Arizona. After brunch, Ece picked us up again. She took us back to the house while her husband an the twins were getting ready to go, and together, we all went over to the children's festival. Unfortunately, it was really chilly that day, so not too many kids were there, a shame, as it's our club's biggest fundraiser. But it was still really a fun day, and I got to see my last parents, Fatma and Elcin!!! It was so, so nice seeing them again! They were my first family when I got here, and they feel so much like my grandparents. I could chat with them a little more about school, as my Turkish has improved since I was with them, but it was not a very complex conversation. At one of the booths that was set up in the park, another Rotary club woman was selling second hand clothing and shoes. So, obviously, I bought a sweater. It was 5 TL, or about $3, and is an old United Colors of Benetton deal from the eighties. It's wool, I believe, and is covered all over in this crazy black, brown, tan, red, orange, and yellow geometric pattern. It's great. But when I showed it to my host mom, she was totally shocked. At first, I thought it was her opinion of my taste. BUT, it turns out, that I had bought my host dad's old sweater that she had donated for the festival?! Ahahahah it was just too funny. Korhan was just tickled. It was a very weird coincidence. After the festival, Cinar and Mina and Ege (EH-geh (hard "g")) and I went to a Playstation lounge, the same one we had all gone to a week or so before after the last Rotary function. Mina and Ege are both Cinar's age, and are both children of two of the other Rotary families in our club. We usually all hang out at these types of events. Anyways, we all got in the car, and one of Korhan's drivers took us over to the lounge. It is really fun. We got our own little room and picked out a bunch of different versions of Guitar Hero or Rock Band that we wanted to play. For my older readers, these are games in which you have plastic approximations of various instruments, namely two guitars and a drum set, along with a real microphone. With these, you sort of play along to this video game, which is really just a bunch of virtual music videos of really famous songs. It's all in English, as it's an American game, so I had to be the singer for some of the trickier ballads. If you're not familiar with it, it sounds a little strange, but trust me, it's great. Very popular here and back home. We played for about two and a half hours, and it was only 10 TL a person, or about 7 bucks. Ege then caught a mini-bus home and Mina took a taxi with Cinar and I back to our place, where she was later picked up by her family.

Overall, I had a very full, very fun weekend.

Hopefully I will get back to more frequent blog posts soon!

Love,

Natalie

P.S. I'm sorry that none of the Turkish words are spelled with the real Turkish letters! I wrote this on Word/didn't have access to the website I usually used to fix them. Use your imagination!

Differences

Rotary's Youth Exchange motto is "It's not worse, it's not better, it's different." In that spirit, I will now give you all back home an overview of exactly what's different. Get ready.

Sighs and Sounds:

Instead of saying "ugghhh" or groaning, people say "ooooff" and rather than object with a, "hey!" when jostled, it's more of an indignant "yaaahh!" Frequently, they're combined to create "ooof yah!" which I've really picked up.

To say "no," you can just click your tongue and flick your chin up at the same time. This is very common.

When offered a food, people often refuse by hitting their upper chest with their hand, palm down. This is often accompanied by the aforementioned head flick, as well as "yok, sagol, afiyet olsun" which means "no, thanks, enjoy your food." It's very common at school, where kids are always sharing snacks from the cantin.

Instead of saying "pppssst" to get a person's attention, people use more of a "sshhhhhhtt" noise. Also common.

The inflection is a little different when you ask someone if they want something. That is, where we might say "do you WANT some?" going up on "want" and "some" towards the end, in Turkish, you say "isTAR misin?" going up on the "-tar" sound/more in the middle of the word.

In Turkish, U.S.A. is A.B.D., which is interesting for me to hear, as I'm so used to "yoo ess ayy" meaning my country. Now instead, I hear "ahh beh deh." Speaking of which, as you have just seen, the pronunciation of individual letter names is pretty different. So when people ask me to spell my name, instead of saying "ehn, ayy, tee, ayy, ell, eye, eee" I say "neh, ahh, teh, ahh, leh, eee, ehh," both of which would be written as "NATALIE" (in Turkish, dotted "I" is pronounced "eee").

Objects

The power outlets, rather than being two slits shear against the wall, are round wells, about an inch and a half across and recessed about an inch deep, at the bottom of which are two round holes of equal sizes into which the plugs go.

The toilets have a similarly recessed well of water at the bottom, instead of a smooth incline to the bottom, and are operated by two big plastic push-switches mounted on the wall above the toilet, one to flush and the other to stop the flushing (which stops on it's own whether or not you push it, never fear). They seem to be more water-efficient.

Light switches are always on the outside of the room by the door and are also push-switches, not little flick-able appendages like the American ones. I have closed myself in many a dark bathroom, groping around like a fool, before I remember that the switch is outside. This seems a little bit silly, as it also allows for people to accidently turn off the lights on you when you're inside, which has also definitely happened.

Kids in school hate using pens and rarely use regular pencils. Mechanical pencils are the word in old Turkiye. But these are not the screechy and poorly-made scribblers that cause so much consternation to me as an American student. These are utensils of the utmost capability and form. The one I borrowed from my friend today had a lovely, large, twist-up eraser on top and the finest of rubber grips over it fine maroon plastic. It didn't squeal once. Kids like to get really nice mechanical pencils and usually keep them ofr a few years of school. It seems much easier than dealing with noisy pencil sharpeners or leaky pens.

Converse shoes are everywhere. I think at least half, if not two-thirds, of the people under 30 whom I see on a daily basis are wearing Converses. The most popular color is creamy white canvas with one navy and one red stripe on the edge of the rubber sole. Red-white-and-blue shoes, especially in patent leather (if they're not Converses), are extremely common and popular.

There is more on this topic and an almost-finished post about my weekend—they will appear tomorrow! Sorry it's been so long.

Love,

Natalie