On the Road Again

This weekend, I went with some Turkish friends to a Christmas Celebration. The whole weekend was talking about Christmas and why we celebrate. It was a really really great weekend. When I got back my mind was in overload. From the moment we got in the van, the Turkish started flowing...or pumping very loudly from the van speakers. About 16 of us went from my city to a bigger gathering in Alanya, which is a city on the coast known in the summer for it's great beaches. I have included a few pictures of the view from the horrible road we drove on and of the beach. It was beautiful, but too frigid to really enjoy the beach. The aforementioned horrible road (which I included a map which is equally as horrible as the terrible road we drove on and not to scale) caused many a good woman and man to pull over and give in to car-sickness. I've really never been on a more windy road. The view was incredible, but the driver kept telling me (because I of course was one of the people to make the van pull over and had to sit up with the driver for several hours of the worst part of the drive), 'Don't look at the view! I know it's beautiful, just look straight ahead, I am actually sick right now, too!' (Isn't that just what you want to hear when at every turn there are no side rails and we could just fall into the ocean below! So, I'm already feeling a bit green and then I go to the front seat for some relief and some fresh air and bless his heart, our driver needed some company. He kept talking to me and I'm not quite at the point where I can be car-sick and use my Turkish at the same time, so who knows what I said. He got alot of 'yes' and 'oh, okay' out of me. I'm not sure what I was answering to! Finally he gave up on me, I think, and I fell asleep! I relied on Dramamine, but the Turks kept offering me lemons under my nose to smell. Apparently, if you are ill on the road, if you smell something good, it helps. I stuck to the Dramamine.

(the view from the very very twisty road)

We stopped for lunch on the way at this place, They are very well 'protected'. All of the gourds have evil eyes painted on them, a Turkish superstitious symbol. Remember the 'scratch your bottom' story at the beginning of the year? That was evil eye superstition also! It's in April or March's blogs I believe, if I've made you curious now...

Once we got to the conference, it was fabulous. There was lots of worship and some good Words from the Book, all in Turkish of course. I was really proud of myself, but He keeps me humble. All weekend, I spoke nothing but Turkish, ate Turkish food, listened to Turkish music, prayed in Turkish, stayed in my hotel room with my Turkish friends--morning to night Turkish--and then I got to Burger King on Monday and the guy behind the counter couldn't understand me ask for salt. I know, I have a LONG LONG way to go. But, it was really encouraging to finally be at a point and look back and be like, 'Wow, I could not have done this a few months ago'. The girls are so patient with me and I of course took a million notes during the preaching. I'm constantly writing down every word I don't know (that's alot of words, I am pretty much constantly writing!). But, it was worth all the hard thinking to see my sweet friends really celebrating the reason for Christmas and enjoying fellowship with nationals who believe like they do. It touches my heart to hear them long for other friends to know what they know now. These are exciting days.

And speaking of exciting... my folks are coming in only THREE days! I am so excited that I just don't know what to do with myself! Actually that is not true. I have found about a million things to do with myself ranging from finishing my Christmas shopping to cleaning the fridge at 11:30 last night. My to do list keeps growing! I want everything to be so perfect for them! We're going to celebrate Christmas here with American and Turkish friends and then go to Istanbul for New Year's! I hope that wherever you are this week, whether you have had the chance to have a weekend getaway to remember why we're celebrating or not, that you'll take time to remember and reflect, praise out of a grateful heart, and share with those around you the best gift that we have to offer any time of year.

Through the Looking Glass...

Sometimes life over here just doesn't go as you'd expect. You learn to deal. Sometimes you're pleasantly surprised and sometimes, well sometimes you are not. I will include examples of both.

The other day I was in our local neighborhood grocery store and ran into the post man stopping for something and I didn't know him and he didn't know me, but he eyed the pile of mail in his bag, fished it out, dug through it, and pulled out a card for my roommate and a package for me from my mom. He points to the name on the envelope --which is obviously not a Turkish name--'Do these belong to you', he asks me. Yeah, actually they do, thanks!

I was driving, these are actually pictures from my first standard car driving lesson. We're driving around the modern mall in our city and what do you know I should encounter, but a herd of sheep crossing the road that goes around the mall. Not something you'd expect, but there they are out the back window!
Last week, no not last week, actually 2 weeks ago, our landlady came up to tell us that the water depot was coming the next day to do something to the water and our water would be turned off for 3 days. Okay, we can deal with that. The water never went off, but for three days, every day we filled the bathtub up and any buckets and pots that we had to conserve water for dish washing, toilet flushing, etc. Then we arranged to take showers at various friends' houses. We would let the water out of the tub every night, shower, and then wait in anticipation for it to go off the next morning. But, yes, the water never went off. Today (approximately 2 weeks later), I woke up and there was no water. I feel bad for the workman who came by while I was making the water discovery, because I have just enough Turkish now to get a little sassy and need to watch myself. He wanted to know if he could turn the hot water thing off because he was doing some work around it. Well, why should I care, it doesn't matter to me. We don't even have water so really I can't do anything. Go ahead, yes please, turn the hot water thingy off...I tell him. Yes, I know. I have since adjusted my attitude. So, I pack my bag and then go to Jayme and Jared's for a shower. Then I go to the mall where I am going to do a bit of Christmas shopping. The power in the mall goes out, the whole mall--no rain, no thunder, no lightning, no wind--and stays off the entire time I'm there.
Then tonight, I'm baking and apparently I can't use the oven, the Vonage phone, and the heater in the next room all at the same time because I blew the breaker three times and had to continually flip the switch, reset the Internet, and redial Tracy because I kept hanging up on her! All a day in the life. Take a deep breath, be happy, and flip that breaker joyfully.

Did Somebody Order Room Service?

So, have I mentioned that we have the best neighbors, ever? The other day Melissa was a bit ill (probably didn't wear enough clothes to bed the neighbors would say--see previous blogs if you are confused because this makes perfect sense to me), and our neighbor came by to invite us over for dinner. Melissa was a bit too ill to come over for dinner so instead our neighbor brought us this great tray full of Turkish food! How great are they. Just love 'em. And the soup was yummy.

Last night was our second Global Cafe ever and it went really fabulous. I was so pumped. And, it deserves to be noted that (Welcome to Turkey) the power went out towards the end and people still stayed to play games by candlelight! It went that great. We branched out a bit and played some conversation games and they loved them! We made a few friends, but I am definitely not allowed to work at Starbucks whenever I come home. I traded with Melissa and acted as stand in barista and then later had to turn the coffee pot back over to her when a couple of my Turkish friends hinted (basically just told me without any tact) that my skills were not quite up to par. I'm more of a social girl anyways, so I turned coffee duty back over to her... begrudgingly.

Funniest moments of the English conversation games we played: (note that not all of the people who came to the English cafe spoke the best of English, I can sympathize and empathize.)

3.I sneezed and at one point one of the Turks looked at me and instead of saying, 'God bless you', he makes eye contact with me and says, 'I bless you the God'. Good try.

2. We were playing a game where you had to go around and say what you were going to bring to Thanksgiving dinner and you had to repeat what everybody else before you had said they were going to bring. We went around the room from A to Z. You come up with a new thing depending on what letter you are, but before you share, tell what everyone before you said. So we get around to one guy who really doesn't speak alot of English and the Americans are not helping by saying they're going to bring random things like a 'Bulgarian' to Thanksgiving dinner...I had trouble remembering that in English 15 letters down the line much less in a second language. So we get to the one confused guy of the night and instead of saying, I'm going to bring hot chocolate...He can't quite get it out and just ends up saying, 'I am hot chocolate', very proudly. Much funnier if you were there and if you, too were learning a second language. So everyone called him hot chocolate for the rest of the night. I know I've probably said I'm worse than hot chocolate at times in Turkish. Actually, I know that I have. The neighbors like to quiz me on all of the crazy and sometimes inappropriate things I have said while trying to remember a new language with the correct words and pronunciation at the same time.

1.Last, but certainly not least, we played a mixer game and it's not scandalous, but definitely spiced things up that we played co-ed since for the first hour of the cafe we sat girls on one side and guys on one side. So we have pairs, for example: hot & cold, salt & pepper, etc. Mine was camera and my match was film. Everyone has a word taped to their back that they do not know and you have to figure out what you are and then find your match without anyone using the actual words that are taped on our backs. So, I'm walking around talking to everyone, making motions very animatedly, being a good sport because it's my game, looking for film and finally one of the guys figures out that I'm asking him if he is film and he says, 'No. But I would like very much to be the film in your camera'...

Enough tales from the Global Cafe. Till next time...maybe we should keep it guys vs. girls...

So this is Christmas...

in Turkey and I am just in the spirit. I'm making a list and checking it twice... Started my Christmas shopping yesterday. No Christmas music, no decorations, absolutely no commercialism and don't you know, I'm still in the Spirit. I have this feeling that this is going to be a Christmas that I'll never forget and one that will hold special meaning to me forever. I'm seeing it through eyes that never have all around me...and then I'm getting to see it through a few special eyes that for the first time ever, really truly understand and will celebrate. A pretty incredible gift at this time of year, to say the least.
We've got the house all decorated and the Turks love our tree! The neighbors came over for dinner last week and--Melissa and I did do some abrupt Christmas caroling for them, they love a concert. I feel like I'm always putting on a show for friends, but I've finally learned some Turkish praise choruses and I'm always quite pleased to oblige-- so the neighbors were over for dinner and they could not stop taking pictures of the tree with their cell phones! Any who, so they're obsessed with the tree. I'm not sure what that says because sometimes their tastes are well....just not mine. But hey, we used what we had to work with here. They're probably texting all their friends to say that their weird foreigner neighbors have their New Year's decorations up already. If I've told one person we're not celebrating New Year's, CHRISTMAS (NOEL) is what we're celebrating...then well, I've probably told everyone I know. They think that we put our decorations up way too early. They'll decorate for New Years, but we'll take ours down the day after Christmas and I'm sure that will just give us a few more opportunities to share exactly what we're celebrating...
I think I'm going to get some friends together and carol at all the foreigners houses. Doesn't that sound like fun... And, we'll be doing our fare share of baking again. Oh, to be a Turkish woman...the expectations. The ladies in our building still love us and when we visit one more times than another, the food starts, which is amazing and always ever so welcome, but does not come without expectations. Those being a visit--which I also love--but I still have trouble bringing myself to ring their doors empty handed. I love the being invited in, lounging for hours being immersed in second hand smoke and 150 degree salons, and the silly and sometimes serious conversations that come from our unexpected visits to the neighbors that have come to see themselves as mothers in our lives. (Do not get jealous mom, you still speak my language like no one else does...literally compared to these ladies who only speak Turkish!) So, I'm rolling up my sleeves and putting on the apron and am ready to deliver some home baked Christmas goodness these next few weeks...which just makes the kitchen on these winter days without a heater a pleasanter place to be!
And then there comes the countdown to the parental visit...(2 weeks and 4 days) (a bit less than that last day if you count that I'm 8 hours ahead, practically a day ahead of y'all). I'm so excited. I need some familiar faces and hugs. It's just about time wouldn't you say? And, what better time than Christmas...
So Christmas in Turkey has begun.

Girls Will Be Girls

When is a girl too big to have a sleepover? Our girls group that meets on Saturdays to study our Book together had a sleepover this past Saturday. My cooking skills have obviously matured about as much as I have since I'm still attending sleepovers and managing to char your basic sugar cookie! No, that picture is not in black and white. Hate to tell you that, but its not. I totally forgot and just about burned our apartment building down, I'm sure. What am I going to do with myself? I'm embarrassed to tell you that those cookies were supposed to be snicker doodles! I did manage to make a delicious batch that preceded this particular batch (no evidence,I know because they are not pictured...but they did exist), but well... no one's perfect right? My roommate and I are watching Alias via d.v.d.'s because we don't have television. So, every now and then we'll get our fix of Jennifer Garner and I will convince myself again for that day that I could join the C.I.A., right? So, I managed to let myself get carried away into Sidney Bristow's world of high adventure and espionage and forgot about the cookies. Girl power. Any who, back to the girls' night. It was a really encouraging night. The girls are really sweet and it's very encouraging to see them grow in sisterly affection. But, they are also really sweet because they humor me by listening to me! Normally, I have to not only study for our meetings, but then on top of that, I have to study in Turkish for our meetings. But on an occasion like this, I was winging it, relying just on my every day Turkish which has finally gotten to the point that I can have normal every day conversations, and I can have serious conversations, and I can have funny conversations, and I can have midnight conversations. The later it gets, the more tired my brain gets! They really are such sweet friends. It's neat to be at a place where there are nationals here that I really connect with and can have friendships of a like minded heart. I love all my friends here, no doubt...but these girls are precious to me.