Tea Time!

Here is a picture of me and my "Mississippi family" with our language teacher! She is so sweet and such a patient teacher! We are plugging along. We have four lessons with her a week, at least to start with this first month. On top of learning my new language, let me know if you know anything about the present perfect tense! I have my first pupil to start tutoring English! I'll teach my first lesson on January 20th. I think that the lady knows some English, so we'll see how it goes! I'm going to be doing Turkish and English homework these next few weeks! But I am really looking forward to meeting my pupil!
I don't officially have any neighbors of my own yet, so some of the family have been gracious enough to share theirs! Above on the right is a picture of me with 'Baba Anne', that means Grandmother! She let me call her grandmother! She is really the grandmother of Craig and Katie's neighbors! They came over and we made some treats and Katie ventured to make her first cay...tea! It was great and all the neighbors said so! She is going to be a great hostess! It was fun to get to talk some English and some of their language. We sat with dictionaries in hand the whole evening! Baba Anne only spoke Turkish, so when we ran out of things to say at one point, she looked at me and just started naming the months of the year and gesturing for me to repeat them! It was good practice. The only way that I recognized them was because we'd just learned them in class that day! She was eager to say that I was very beautiful and pinch mine and Katie's cheeks the whole time we were there! I am so glad that I have a Turkish grandmother now! I'm working on my hospitality. I'm going to whip up something to take over there next time for my in country grandmother. (smile.) Nothing like making some new friends and family! We're so excited for the relationships being made. Hopefully my neighbors will be this great! I'm still going to have to keep up with Craig & Katie's neighbors, though. Especially, to see Baba Anne.
p.s. I did go back to visit my friends in the scarf shop. Maybe I won't go every day, but they seemed to understand I wanted to practice speaking with them and not surprisingly, they remembered me! Remember, I am one of few Americans in this city, despite how much I look like a Turk...right. Anyways, here goes! I'll take a few new phrases each time I go!