Pazartesi ve Sali (Monday and Tuesday)

Monday:
I had a five-day weekend! Monday was Turkey’s Independence Day, which meant no school! Ayse’s youngest sister, Hava, was visiting the family. On Monday we had a pretty lazy morning; we watched parts of the holiday parades on TV, watched some Turkish soap operas, played with the children, and relaxed. Around 3PM we packed up Hava’s car and went to a buyuk (big) park. My host family does not have a car so this was a treat. I do not know if having barbeques on Turkeys Independence Day is a tradition like the one we have on July Fourth but the day was very reminiscent of an American Independence day celebration.

At the park we picked out a covered picnic table and set up. The family hung a hammock up so that the baby could rest in it during dinner. Then Erden (my 7-year-old host brother) and Nisa (my 4-year-old host cousin) went off to play in the park with Hava’s husband. The park had a mini Great Wall of China for them to play on. I stayed with Ayse, Hava, the grandmother, and the baby to prepare dinner and play volleyball. We cooked green peppers, eggplant, and chicken in an outdoor oven. Then we waited for sundown and to hear the evening prayer projected from the mosques so that we could eat (the children and I had already started). We also had salads, breads, water, coca-cola, etc. (Quick Tangent: I explained in a pervious post that although I don’t like soda I drink it when they give it to me. Well, I see tons of commercials on the TV here for Coca-Cola. Most of them say something about Coke being a great treat on Ramadan… Advertising’s best? The park was filled with tons of families and they all had Coke and they all waited for sundown to eat.)

After dinner we walked along the lake at the park until we reached a small amusement park. Hava, her husband, Erden, Nisa, and I went in a paddleboat around the lake. I sat in the back with Erden and Nisa. At the beginning Erden would not stop crying! He clenched my hand and was very scared. I don’t know how to say “don't worry” or “its safe” in Turkish so I just kept rubbing his back and saying “tamam,” which means okay. Eventually he brought his head out from his lifejacket to look around, but the entire time he kept holding my hand. Hava and her husband directed us under a waterfall again and again, which didn’t help with calming Erden down, but they were having fun. I tried to explain what the Big Dipper was to my family and they thought I was crazy for pointing at the sky until I finally found the word for constellation in my dictionary.

After that we left the park and went home. We got lost, but eventually found it. Everyone showered. The children had coco puffs for dessert and passed out. All the adults stayed up drinking tea, eating sunflower seeds and tea crackers, talking, and watching the recaps of the World Cup Basketball games (the games are in Ankara and Istanbul and USA won their first game). Around 12:30 AM I was exhausted and went to bed.

Tuesday:
I woke up to the sound of children running around the house and the sun shining into my room. Around 11 AM Cydney’s host family came over for brunch, making our little apartment packed! Cydney and I did our homework while the family caught up (remember that Cydney’s host mother is Ayse’s sister). Then I went in the car with Hava and Cydney’s family back to Kizilay. I explored and bought snacks. It was a pretty low-key weekend.

When I got home for dinner the cousin (third visitor) was back working on the computers. We talked a little about Israel. The 13-year-old cousin and the visitor said that they thought Israel was a threat and aggressive. They also told me that Israel killed babies. I am not joking! I even pulled out my computer and used Google to translate sentences to make sure I heard them correctly. This negativity was very interesting to me. Amhet thought it was fascinating that I knew Hebrew and had not said anything negative. I knew going into this trip that I would hear anti-Israel sentiment. Although I have not heard anything negative about Jews, I guess for the first time in my life I feel like I have to conceal a little piece of me. It is a bit unsettling. However, I feel as though the prospective of the Turkish people is very important for me to learn. As a political studies major, it is an integral part of the reason I chose to come to Turkey. I have been to Israel and it is clearly a place of great importance to me, however choosing to go back to Israel for a semester abroad would not necessarily give me a new prospective or outlook on the way the world works. Being in Turkey allows me to be a better-informed student and citizen of our world. Originally I was looking into going to Egypt to study abroad for a crucial alternative view on the middle east… it is a good thing I am not there because they are having a major blackout! In Turkey I happen to be going to the “Harvard of the Middle East” (over one million people apply to the Middle East Technical University a year and only 1% are admitted). Anyway, there are a lot of interesting politics going on here right now, which I will go more in detail in a later post. I am glad I am here and you should be too! This is allowing me to grow and learn in ways that I could not from a classroom at home. Plus, there are some awesome people here and beautiful places to go! I can’t wait for what I will hear, see, smell, taste, and learn next! Tonight I head to Istanbul!

P.S. The photo at the top from (left to right): Hava's husband, Hava, Nisa, Ayse, Grandmother, and Erden. The photo in the middle (left to right): Grandmother, Hava, Baby Adren, and Ayse.