Turkish Cultural Experiences

Now that we have been here for a while, we are beginning to feel what we really wanted to feel from this experience. We wanted to experience different cultures and build relationships with different people. In the past few months I have been able to participate in a few events that really gave me a flavor for the culture.

First of all I got a haircut. I know what you're think "whoopty doo Alan." I didn't expect it to be that different either, but it was. Because unlike my normal trips to Supercuts in America this is full service care for less than a simple cut at Supercuts. Full service includes a wash, dry (usually with a blow dryer which makes my hair look similar to a 70's Disco star), and a fire show. Check it out...

Then after that they did this:

That wasn't it, because then the guy massaged my arms and shoulders, not knowing this was coming did make me a little uncomfortable. All I could think was "Dude is rubbin' me, Dude is rubbin' me!!! Did I go to the wrong place? Was something lost in the translation? Do I have to pay more for this service?" Luckily after the shoulder rub he was done and I had to need to worry. When it was all done it totaled up to about $10 American!!! One of the many reason I love Turkey.

The second event was Culture Day (Kültür günü). Like most schools the schools here love to put their children on display and show what they can do. This show was a Cultural show so the children had worked for months with the folklore teacher ( How cool is it that they have a teacher who only teaches the children the traditional dances, songs and stories of their culture) on several different types of shows ranging from groups of children clapping while another takes a solo to an entire play depicting the traditional Turkish wedding party. As always the day was filled with great moments of seeing your kids perform and have a great time. Dance is a very important part of the Turkish culture. From belly dancing to something that looks similar to the River dance, everyone knows about the dances and where they originated. You can see at an early age that children have incorporated the styles of dance into their child like moves. So many of my young girls shake their hips and move their bellies like the girls I have seen at the Turkish night shows, moves that Erin has difficulty doing because she hasn't been doing them from birth.

When approached by the Turkish teacher at the kindergarten with the idea of dancing on the stage I was dead set on avoiding that by any means possible. The means of avoidance turned out to be a compromise in the form of singing in a chorus of teachers, which I figured provided a little more anonymity for the only male on the staff (boy was I wrong). As we started our practices they were all giddily excited about how quickly I was learning some of the songs and they decided Wouldn't it be great if he had a solo!?! It has happened several times in my time here that I am not being told anything in English but am somehow agreeing to things, like having a Turkish solo in front of every single Kindergarten parent at Culture Day. So we practiced for months and I was very comfortable with the songs and ready for the show. During one of our rehearsals just before the show it was decided that the music in the auditorium was too loud to hear us so a microphone was needed. Guess who got to hold that microphone. So now not only was I singing a solo in Turkish, but I was now singing into a microphone...so much for hiding in the crowd. To top it all, not only did we do this show, we did it in costume, I had a traditional Alanya villager costume on including a hat borrowed from the school owner's father. Somewhat unfortunately there were no pictures of me taken in my outfit that show it all, but when Erin came to watch the show she did happen to take this video, Enjoy:

All in all it was a great experience and I have enjoyed wowing some of our Turkish friends with the songs I know. And I did slightly regret not learning the dance moves, but I'm sure there will be another opportunity for that. Many of the parents commented on how they expect even more from me next time... Next time Shakespeare in Turkish.

Time is running out!!!

Thank you to all of you who participated in the contest so far. With only 3 contestants so far it is a close battle. For those of you who can't post on this page for some reason we will also accept email submissions. So you still have one day left because honestly I don't know what time is 11:59 GMT in Turkey and I don't want to google it. Hope to see a late rush of contestants.

A little game we like to call "What does that rock look like?"

Alan, Sonya and I went to an area of Turkey called Kapadokya this past week.  Kapadokya is similar to the Grand Canyon in many ways (old rocks cut by rivers a bajillion years ago to make interesting shapes, hundreds of turists taking pictures of every single thing, etc) except WAY cooler. Cooler than the Grand Canyon? Can it be? I know.  I'm SO unpatriotic.  But here's why it's better: nearly 2000 years ago people dug super elaborate cave dwellings into these rocks, and some people still live there.  In fact, I could live there, cus some of them are for SALE! If I can convince Alan you'll be getting mail from a cave from now on.

Satılık means "For Sale"

But on to the part where you can win prizes. Cus that's why you're here. For the give-aways.  I'm no idiot.


So here's how the contest works: Alan and I took lots-o-pictures of rocks.  Pictures that no one would be interested in looking at if it weren't for cut throat competition. Take a good look at the pictures and tell us what each one looks like.  Some of them are already named by the Turks for their particular shape, but we aren't telling.  Get creative, cus points will be awarded based on accuracy, but also on imagination. We know a lot of these shapes are... let's say r-rated, but get REALLY creative about naming those, because a) reading the same guess over and over is boring, and b) our grandma's read this blog.

Prizes: If you get the most points we will mail you an awesome  Kapadokya souvenir! We aren't telling what it is, but it might be one of the following:

hahahahah

Most hilarious post card EVER

Kapadokya magnet (spelled the English way)

Here it goes:

Number 1

Number 2

Number 3: The part we're looking at is the highest, skinniest, darkest rock.  

Number 4

Number 5: I'm a clue in this one. 

Number 7: Creativity or euphemism please

Number 6

Number 8: Come on.  We ALL see those.  Think harder.

Number 9

Number 10: This one's a celebrity sighting

Ok. There you go. It's your turn. Just make sure to read the fine print first.

Not-so-fine-fine-print (cus this is a contest for all ages yo): 1.  All guesses must be posted as comments to this blog, so we can all read and enjoy your ideas.  2.  All comments must be posted by 11:59 pm February 18th GMT ( I don't know what that means for you, google it). That gives you only a week.  Get on it. 3. Points will be given on the whim of the blogger (me) and fiancee. No arguing. I don't like sore losers.  4.  It is entirely possible you are the only person reading this and can win simply by making a few guesses, so come on, play!

Prague, where beer flows like water.

Is there anyone still out there? I realize that of our 38 followers it is possible that we allowed so much time between posts that we lost some of you. I hope you have stayed around. If you did, thanks we love you too.

Now to update you on recent events will take several different posts and quite a bit of time so lets discuss the most recent trip to Prague first and then we can back track in time a little to catch you up.

Prague is a beautiful city. Around every corner is another centuries-old building with a tall spire and a well kept facade hinting at the beauty of what was destroyed so many times and then rebuilt. We had a fantastic time.

Here are the highlights:

On our first day out, after bundling in all of the layers we owned we ventured out to find some sights. Within 20 we got lost trying to find a change shop from our hotel. At -6 C we were both a little bit frozen by the time we did so we immediately ducked into Starbuck in Wenceslas Square to thaw a little bit. We realized that, similar to Alanya in August it was important to know when it was time to get inside. We continued our walking tour and I had my first run in with Goulash and Czech beer: yum. A great lunch and 2 beers all for about $10. Literally the beer was often either the same price or cheaper than water. The best way to counter the next few days of below freezing temps. Oh yeah and pork products too, including bacon!

We went to the Ballet at the National theater ( I know, pretty classy right). That was cool.

We went on a 6 hour tour that included a boat ride on the river and a tram ride up to the castle, but the best part was when the snow started to fall. Having rarely, if ever, seen snow falling this heavily I was so excited. The British girls and our tour guide couldn't understand why we stopped listening to the information and were making snowballs and stuff. I moved from California's Central coast to the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, snow is a novelty in my life.

With the snow came warmer weather. It seemed counter intuitive but there is a logical scientific explanation that I will withhold in fear of boring you all. Regardless it was no longer below freezing and we no longer needed to add so many layers that getting in the elevator felt like a squeeze.

Prague was a lovely city. Funny enough though the nicest person we met in Prague was a Turkish jeweler. We were in this neighbor's shop and she was playing Turkish pop music, we commented on it and she called him over to talk to us about Turkey. If he had ordered tea for us we would have felt like we were home in the Bazaar.

Of course Prague will always hold a special place in our heart as it is where we were engaged. I had it planned. We would go to a nice dinner then to the ballet and afterword we would walk out on an island that looked toward the Charles bridge all lit up at night and I would do it there, perfect...Unless after you go to dinner you go to the theater and realize that the Ballet was actually the next day...Ok no big deal tomorrow will still work... Ballet at the National theater then stroll to the spot...unless Erin is dressed in heals and nylons rather than 5 pars of pants and boots, and it is - 8 C outside. I know what it is like when she is cold and I don't want to put her through that, not the right moment. So I carried that ring around with me for another day waiting for the moment which came at a lovely little restaurant in lesser town. Everyone had cleared out of the section we were in and we were all alone. Erin, having sensed the proposal was going to happen on the trip but saw the days disappearing, was growing impatient and asked "So what's next for us?"

Hint Hint...Wink Wink...basically a message to say Hey Jackass get it together!!!

I got the ring out of my jacket got on one knee and said "I am loving the adventures we have been on and I want to share all of life's adventures with you." She started crying so I gave her a hug and sat down...then I realized I didn't actually pop any questions. Me: "I didn't actually ask you did I?..Will you marry me?"  Her:"That's ok because I didn't say yes either." Feisty. One of the many reasons I love her.

 

There it is, the story of our trip to Prague, without a doubt a trip that will never be forgotten.

The 12 Ways of Christmas... (Sneaking back into our Christmas-less country)

We knew when we moved here that living in a Muslim country would mean missing out on many traditions and customs that we count on as Americans.  Where would we be without Santa at the mall, fake snow on every window sill, twinkling icicle lights, animatronic and blow-up reindeer, the freaking Chipmunks singing "All I want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth"?  I mean... would we make it?!?! Being a common Grinch, all I could think about was how lucky I was to be escaping the magic madness. But as the holidays approached and all of our friends and families started to email, and Facebook about winter break, and Christmas cookies, wrapping presents, and midnight mass, I found my little heart growing.  (Or something from that Grinch movie that I refuse to watch because I am not a child anymore, and I don't like movies that depict me and my kind in an unfavorable light.) I was even missing Christmas music... I had the urge to go CHRISTMAS CAROLING! This might be normal for Alan, and for most of you reading this, but I've been out of the Christmas spirit for so long that I don't remember what "jolly" feels like any more. (It feels kinda good. Weird. But good.) I missed the smell of Christmas I guess.  I missed people wishing each other "Happy Holidays," or even being aware that is was the holidays.  Turkish people don't celebrate Christmas, so we worked a regular day on Friday, and will again on Monday.  Alan had to put his foot down when they asked him to work on Saturday ("But that's Christmas," almost didn't work). Most of all we are both missing the family, friends, hugs, and general shared love that come with the season. 
So we worked together with a few fellow ex-pats to bring Christmas back to Who-ville. (Sorry if I'm totally butchering the Grinch story.) I present to you "The 12 Ways of Christmas" in no particular order.

1. Christmas Pageants: The city of Alanya held it's first annual International Christmas Bazaar. All of the schools in the area were invited to come preform Christmas songs.  We got to hear all the classics: Jingle Bell Rock, Jingle Bells, We Will Rock You, and The Lion Sleeps Tonight, sung by Turkish children who may have memorized what the words sound like, but have NO CLUE what they are really singing.  So sweet.  I saw many an older Eastern European crying. Either the children REALLY butchered the German songs, or they were genuinely touched to hear some traditional Christmas songs here.  I'm leaning towards the second one.

2. Christmas Candy: Alan's family tradition made it all the way here! He slaved away on some DElish Peanut-butter balls dipped in chocolate. So good he has been challenged to a Tatlı-off. Or a dessert making competition. What the challenger doesn't know is that his family has been grooming him for the "big dance" since he was old enough to roll a ball out of dough-like substances. He's sure to win.

3.  Spending time with Family: OK so they weren't our family members.  But they were someone's family.  And while we are in Turkey Jan and Adnan are our stand in parents; Sonya, Zeynep our stand in sisters, Kamil and Burak our stand in brothers, and Suzanne, Nicole, and Kenan our stand in cousins. We even got to celebrate with pretend distant relatives: some awesome Dutch people who had us over for international cocktail hour.

4. Christmas music: Alan brought his Uke and Nicole played her guitar so we could have a good-old Christmas sing-along.  Rudolf and Frosty were in attendance, along with Silent Night and many other classics.

5. Christmas Crafting:  Being that I LOVE crafting, I couldn't let being in Turkey take away my tradition of making some sort of ridiculous Christmas gift.  With no sewing machine, no yarn or needles, no craft stores in Alanya, and no time for anything elaborate, I settled on baked clay ornaments.  They turned out just as silly as expected. Perfect.

6. Trimming the Tree: with said ornaments.  "The Tree" was a house plant, and the ornaments only stayed long enough to snap the picture, but it was trimmed, and it was beautiful.  So there.

7.  Christmas Movie #1: ELF.  God bless Buddy the Elf and his syrup loving, long burping, hilariousness.

8. Christmas Movie #2: Love Actually.  Never fails to make me cry.  It even works on Alan. Sap.

9. Dressing Festively: I'm not sure I've owned a Christmas sweater since I was 5, so of course none made the cut when deciding what we could fit into our Turkish lives. So a bright read sweater and a bright green scarf would have to do.



10. More Christmas Music: N'Sync Christmas.  NEVER GETS OLD.

11. Our REAL families: We are oh-so-lucky to have skype and facebook to provide the gift of seeing our families faces even when they are thousands of miles away.  We miss you guys like crazy.  Can't wait for Google or Apple to invent the hug app.

12. Snuggling in PJs and slippers all day.  Nothing makes me feel more jolly than warm jammies, and a cozy nap.  Especially when I get to share those things with the guy I love. 



So to wrap up, MERRY CHRISTMAS! From the birthplace of both Christianity and Santa, and from the bottom of our hearts.

I Never Could Get Out of the Scissor Hold

Today I will write a blog not to inform everyone about a new experience in Turkey but to honor a man who meant so much to me and my family. My Grandpa D was a loving, caring strong man who set a high standard to live up to when it comes to being a "family man." He lost his battle to cancer this week and our world is left without Grandpa's hugs and smiles.

Of course we will all miss those hugs and smiles but there are plenty of things Grandpa left us with to remember him by. First and foremost Grandpa taught us that game night, while occasionally leading to hurt feelings, was more than just killing time. Whether it was Monopoly or Farkle, black jack or canasta, scrabble or golf, we built our characters in those games and Grandpa was always there to help guide us, unless we were showing him our cards at which point he would look and choose accordingly.

I will also remember the bike rides we would take to the beach. To this day I love riding bikes and I often remember the feeling of riding through the narrow tunnel near Hueneme Beach, a little fear that someone might be there and the joy of getting to the spot where we could just watch the ducks, where cousins later would take bread for feeding. Then we would get to the pier where we would have a hot drink and rest before making the trip home. While I don't remember having great discussions about important topics in those times I do know that spending that time with Grandpa was important. I looked forward to those trips, and I still remember them fondly.

My last memory for today is of the wrestling matches that the cousins and I would have with Grandpa in his younger days. Of course it would always happen in the evenings while we were all in the living room watching Tv. Grandpa would get down on the floor with us amidst the constant reminders of "Watch out for the Coffee Table". None of us cousins were impervious to the infamous "Scissors Hold." A hold seemingly so simple to avoid yet it never failed to keep us trapped and calling for mercy. Perhaps as I have witnessed children do, we intentionally put ourselves in harms way because we liked the challenge and we liked the game. I know even to this day the scissor move lives on during wrestling matches and tickle fights. Grandpa's move was an effective one.

If you look at what a typical family structure is in America today the legacy of the "typical American family" has been replaced by divorce, distance and disputes. The Demuth family has remained a strong unit through all of these year, no doubt a testament to the loving leadership of Grandma and Grandpa D. I will miss Grandpa's hugs and strong competitive spirit, but I know "Gene-o" will continue to be a part of game nights, bike rides, tickle fights and most of all my family.

Turkish Thanksgiving

First of all, sorry we have neglected the blog for the past few weeks, it has been a little bit of a whirlwind lately between lost internet connections and extra hours at work. But we're back.

So we finally got to make it happen. Ever since we left America it was our plan to share our Thanksgiving traditions with our new friends. The challenge about doing this in a country that doesn’t celebrate it is that they tend to make plans without knowing it would conflict with the holiday. On Thanksgiving we had our weekly staff meeting that lasted until 6:30 so we planned to have dinner on Saturday. Turns out the school was having a dinner to celebrate Teacher’s Day on Saturday, so postponed, Sunday was a fund-raising brunch to buy a wheelchair for someone in the community. Moved to Monday, the school planned a Foreign Languages (our department) seminar although we didn’t have to attend many of our colleagues did. Finally we said Tuesday it is, not ideal since that meant cooking on Monday night and reheating on Tuesday, but it needed to happen before December rolled around.

We went for it, all the fixins. 2 Large Chickens (Turkey wasn’t possible here we only found one that was severely freezer burnt) Stuffing, Cranberry sauce from the can (Thanks D & B, it was a hit with the locals) Pumpkin pies from an actual pumpkin, Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Almost everything was delicious and the Turkish people were delighted to try things they had never tried. Turkish people have never been introduced to the delights of gravy! So they got to taste what Erin described as “Meat Pudding.” They continuously asked Erin how she made the Cranberry Jelly.

Cranberry Jelly, can rings and all

You may be wondering what wasn’t delicious. Well it turns out that when you are looking to buy chickens you don’t want to get the largest ones you can find. When you can’t read Turkish it is so easy to accidentally purchase the type of chicken (possibly a rooster) that people use for stewing and dumplings. So except for the breasts that were edible, most of the chickens were jerky. Some of it could be saved for soup for the next day, but mostly it was disappointing. Last night though redemption was had when I tried again and roasted a delightfully tasty chicken with crispy skin and juicy breasts. I couldn’t let that bad chicken be on my reputation for too long.

All in all it was a great opportunity to share a holiday of thankfulness with our new friends and a different culture. We definitely are thankful for having met such a great group of people here in Turkey. The transition to a new culture, language and job much easier.