To Manisa

This week I had 5 day weekend. It all started on Wendesday, when My host family and I went up to Izmir to visit some relatives. My host fathers grandfather has recently fallen and Okan wanted to go up and see him for a few days. I got to meet Okan's (my host father) grandfather, mother, and sister, as well as his sister's family. His family cooks really good food, and they had a piano. I tried playing it, but it has been about 6 months since I have laid my hands on a keyboard and while my fingers remembered the first half of Pacabel's cannon, I forgot every other song I knew. Thursday I spent wondering the city on my own I found the bazaar and as typically happens, my blonde hair shouts "tourist! come talk to me and I will shop at your store!" and after walking for about half an hour and being bothered by every shop owner I passed, one finally sucked me in. I talked to him for a while in my broken Turkish and told him I wouldn't buy anything but I might take a tour of some of his shops. and this is how I got a free guided tour of the bazaar and met a some of the shop owners. Some of them were really interesting and spoke 3 or 4 languages, while others had great stories about stupid tourists. Later I traveled across Izmir to meet up with my exchange friends and caught up on the latest news, and discussed future plans.
Friday was a lot of fun. I stopped off at my favorite doner (meat and a few other ingredients in a tortilla shell or bread loaf) place and went to meet my friends at a cafe. We all had to run to catch the bus to the Manisa fun weekend. The ride was really fun, and somehow I ended up with people writing messages to me on my shins in pen. But after arriving in Manisa, we were separated into host families, me and my friend Alejandro from Pensalvania were paired up and taken by a really friendly family. Even though only one person in the family actually spoke english we still managed to talk about lots of things at diner. I think I spoke more turkish at that dinner than I have in the last month combined. We left the appartment after diner with our host family and went to their friends house. I completely reminded me of my uncles. A few guys hanging out in living rooms with a really expensive home theator system, a few beers, watching the game. Only here they were watching rugby instead of baseball or football. Despite the familiar setting, we still had to go to our real host house for the night. Once we got there, my temporary host father showed us his impressive sound system and we stayed up until 1 am watching led zepelin and placebo music videos.
It was saturday that was the best day of all. Alejandro and I woke up and went to the local college and learned how to dance. All of us exchange students actually learned how to perform a traditional turkish wedding ceremony. Alejandro ended up getting married to Alexis, while the rest of us were busy screwing up the dance. We were truely terrible at this dance, but we were laughing and having fun all day anyway. We finally broke off at 2 and loaded up onto the bus again. The bus origionally had barely enough seats on it for s exchange students, but we managed to gather 4 more kids from our host families. The bus was packed as we began climbing the mountains to the north of town. Turkey has a weird landscape as it is either completely flat or covered by large hills and mountains. Manisa is on one of the plains and the mountains actually form the northern border of the town. We drove for almost an hour and a half to the top, and the views were amazing. The top of the mountain was so high, there were little pockets where the snow from the last winter had not melted yet. As soon as the bus stopped about 5 of us, mostly northern States and Canadians fought to get out of the crammed bus to be the first to throw a snowball. As a gentleman should, I allowed my friend Madison to throw the first snowball, completely missing her intended target. Thus began the best snowball fight Ive had in years. There were no teams, no lasting alliances, just complete chaos as 15 teenagers thousands of miles from home threw snow at each other. We wrestled eachother into the snow, stuffed eachothers backs full of it, and tried baseball, all the wile just laughing at the relief of finally finding snow after over a year without it.
As fun as it was, it had to end. The driver had parked in a huge mud pit, and we teamed together to push it out, with the wheels spitting mud out on us the whole time. The way down was pretty uneventful, just lots of punches to the shoulder for perceived "wrong doings" during the snowball war. But we did start singing the most random songs. From trying to do the barbie girl song in rounds, to rap songs that we only know half the words to, working down the adrenalin rush and mountain air took a while. At the bottom we came to a cabin like restaurant where delicious food was served. Actually it was a free-for-us Rotary sponsored trip so they brought in fast cooked meatballs with rice in. But that's besides the point and the backgammon games were good, some Turkish teenagers came and we met them, befriended and temporarily adopted them into our exchange group. After dinner was the Turkish marriage ceremony. We didn't really remember much of it, but Rotary really wanted to see it. I had no real important part in it, but it was Alejandro and Alexis who got married, and Andrew and Luana played the part of the brides parents. They were perfect for this as they are always near each other and bickering like and old couple anyway. We were apparently surprisingly good, though I think that it has more to do with pity than pride that we were told that.
That dance concluded our trip for the most part. We all separated into our host families, Alejandro went back to our host family's house where we almost went directly to sleep. We were both invited back to Manisa any weekend we wanted by our host mother as left and after getting back to Izmir, I left the next day to come back home to Bodrum.

My new family

I have officially become a member of another family. They are the Özsoy's, and I already feel like I belong here. But I should probably start with the story of how I moved families...
It all started one dark and not really stormy Thursday night when Vedat (my first host father) came home and I was watching the Discovery Channel. Or maybe national geographic; I’m addicted to both. He sat down and just said "how would you like to go to another host family on Saturday. I was a little shocked about this because Saturday was only 2 days away. I told him sure, but I was a little concerned about why such short notice and he told me that there were personal issues and he had brought up this situation at the last rotary club meeting. The Rotarians here were very supportive and from what I heard about 4 families immediately volunteered that night. By some weird stroke of unfortunate luck I was auctioned off to the family that lives the farthest away. It’s a half hour trip into Bodrum and twice as far as Torba. But despite my doubts, I was surprised when I got here. Vedat drove me here in his car and took the scenic route to my house. The road winds around the gentle curves of the huge hills, staying just a few feet from the sea. There is a dolphin marina between Bodrum and my new town of Güvercenlık (pronounced goo-verge-in-lik) and I can see fishing boats, sailing boats, and rowing boats as we cruise along the Aegean. I’ll take a video of it one of these days and you can see what my daily commute is like. I live on the first road of our town, but Vedat took me to the other side, turned left and went down to the seaside. Riding along I could see the little shops, a few restaurants, and a barber or two on the left and the sea going out to blue mountains in the distance. The seaside winds around for a good half mile before we stopped at my house. My new host father Okan was there waiting for us. I grabbed my bags; I am unfortunately required to use 4 bags to transport my stuff, I’m becoming such a girl, and shook hands with him and exchanged the usual Turkish greetings. He is an average looking man in his 40's, but with a distinct pride that comes from growing up with a soldier father and a past that's full of self reliance and independence. Plus he speaks both English and Turkish perfectly. He guided me through a garden which he told me belongs to the neighbor, but we are fine to walk through it any time we need to. So the answer is no, I don't live next to the sea, but I live within 50 feet of it, and that's good enough for me. The house that we live in together is a 2 story house, but the odd thing is, everybody live upstairs. There are 2 bedrooms, one bathroom, and a kitchen, dining room, living room that just blend into each other. The downstairs is deserted. I met my new host mother that day, her name is Elvan and we have gotten to know each other very well, because the second day I was here Okan was called to Istanbul because his grandfather had a broken hip, and he took my host brother Kemal with him. This gave me time to get to know Elvan very well, and she is a really cool host mother. She insisted that I watch the "Kill Bill" movies back to back, she cooks excellent meat and while making it clear that I am going to pull my weight around the house, she is still willing to help me with anything I need. At this point Kemal, who is about 13, was very quiet, mostly just watching and listening. This is because my Turkish is so bad that we had to all speak in English and while Kemal is learning English at school and at home, his level is still rudimentary. Vedat stayed with me for a while as we got to know my new host family. He has been an excellent host father, and continues to help me even though I have moved out. Any Rotary problems, any school problems, any transportation problems, all I have to do is send him an email, and he is completely willing to help me.
After getting to know my new host family, they showed me my new room. This consists of the entire downstairs. I have my own bedroom, guest bedroom with 2 beds, bathroom, kitchen, dining room, and living room. It’s exactly like upstairs, only the ceiling is higher and I don't have much of a view. It gives me a total sense of independence, and I have my own space. Despite all this freedom, I still of course spend as much of my time upstairs with the family as I can.
The first night I was with my new host family, they took me out to a restaurant near the house. It was fish, and back in the states, I didn't like fish. But the difference between FISH and fishSTICKS is total and absolute. It’s like the difference between McDonalds and The Pier, or the Salvation Army and Macy's. We had some new appetizers which I enjoyed a little, but for the main course was a large foot and a half sea fish, freshly caught. I never really believed people when they told me there was a difference between the body of a fish and the cheek. Okan told me that I had to try the difference and when I did I was totally blown away. The cheek is actually sweet meat, almost sugary tasting to me, and surprisingly juicy, but he could not persuade me to try the fish's eye. I'll work my way up to that. We went through the list of family questions and rules, and while I have to do things like keep my room clean, make my bed every day, take out the trash if it’s full, it’s ok with me. I have more responsibilities, but I feel more like a member of the family, instead of just a person living in the house this way. Besides, it’s probably not good for me to live too long without any responsibilities.
I was afraid that first night that Kemal would get angry or jealous because we were only talking in English, and nobody was paying much attention to him, but he took advantage of the situation and went to talk to the chefs that work there. He has turned out to be a great host brother. Even though I speak very little Turkish and he speaks very little English, we still try to communicate and we both learn a little each time.
Since moving in, I've encountered almost no real problems, besides rain every day, and Okan, Elvan, and Kemal have been really welcoming. Kemal and I continue to try to communicate and we both like video games. Elvan has excellent taste in movies and is really understanding; even when I forget to call, or leave the door open. She also cooks amazing and is trying to hook me up with her niece in Izmir. Okan and his brother in law co-own a 21 foot sailing boat, and has promised to take me out sailing soon. He even wants to go out for a 2 or 3 day trip sometime soon to see some of the islands around Bodrum. I honestly can't wait to experience some of this sea life I've been told exists around here.

Forrest's week in Turkey

Forrest came to Turkey this week. We went to Bodrum, Izmir, and Efes, and had not one boring day the whole time he was here.
Let me start out with the first day, or really the first night. Forrest got into Izmir, the big city 3 hours north of me, at 8 pm, meaning after getting to the bus station and finding the right bus, he got into Bodrum at 1 am. A pretty ridiculous time for anybody to get into a foreign country where only on in about 5 people speak good enough English. To make matters more difficult, to save about 20 dollars on a taxi Forrest had to get off the bus almost 20 minutes walking before Bodrum and walk along a 2 kilometer side street with no houses, buildings or even streetlights with all of his baggage and some Christmas presents for me. But at 1:30 in the morning I was outside waiting for either a desperate cry from far off in English, or the police to show up and tell Vedat about a tourist they found wandering the hills, and here he came walking up the road, laughing with some Turkish guy, even though he spoke no English. That night he met Vedat, my host father, and told us how there were something like 5 people who speak very little English trying to translate to the bus driver where Forrest wanted off, but luckily, one of them were also coming to Torba, the suburb I live in. I had my own little Christmas that night. Thank you all who sent me money to help in my travels, and thank you Alice for the wooden puzzles. I couldn't put them down for 2 days straight. The next day was New Year's Eve, and we explored Bodrum during the day. Forrest saw the bazaar, marina, harbor and the castle, and that night we met up with some of my friends to celebrate the new years. The next day was spent getting to know my host family. The second of January, we headed up to Izmir, the big city for about 6 days. These days all blur together for me because almost all of them follow the same basic plan. Wake up, decide which neighborhood we wanted to hang out in for the day, send out invitations to all the exchange students, meet them, go smoke nargule for a few hours, then wander around Izmir downtown for once it got dark until we all had to go home. I should probably tell you what nargule is, as mom is probably freaking out to hear about me smoking. Nargule is a traditional Turkish form of smoking tobacco. But there is no addictive nicotine in it, and everything is filtered through water or milk and can be ordered in any flavor imaginable. Chocolate, peach, mint, apple, or more. Ive seen entire pages in a menu devoted to nargule flavors. I splurged a little on my self created nargule allowance because Forrest was here.
Only 2 days really deviated from this routine. The first, was the first day. I went to Turkish lessons with all the exchange kids and Forrest came along 3 hours later. Alexis's birthday was just a few days before, so we went to her house for delicious cake and lots of weird Turkish finger food. The next part of our day was the coolest. We went wondering around the Izmir downtown for a hour before Ryan got fed up with the stupid people handing out brochures and randomly grabbed one and said We go here. That showed the stupid brochure people who's boss. But since nobody really new where to go, we did go searching and finally found it. When the first guy who worked there saw first 3 kids show up then 6 kids, then we totaled out at about 9, he lead us upstairs, which is not an uncommon place for people to sit and relax with their nargule. But the weird part was after going upstairs we snaked through a door into the building next to us, then turned down a hallway, went down some stairs and through another hallway into what apparently was the party room as there was another group of people in there celebrating a birthday party. all 9 of us sat down and ordered 3 nargules, and lots of tea and about half a hour later, Adriana from Mexico came and joined us followed by Carrie and a couple of her friends from America. With a group of 13, we were pretty loud, but that was probably why the party room was so far out from the main room. The party next to us was finishing and they actually gave us half of their cake and a bunch of cookies before leaving. It was banana chocolate and ridiculously delicious. We must have stayed in that one place for 4 hours straight, a wonder we didn't get kicked out. Forrest was busy talking Spanish to Adriana and the Brazilians (no, Brazilians don't speak Spanish, but from what Ive gathered its just a little harder for Portuguese speakers to understand Spanish than it is for Americans to understand heavy Jamaican) and I was talking and laugh with the rest of the exchange student. I personally find it a shame that all of us are having difficulty making good and lasting friends that we hang out with alot, but it doesn't stop us from having fun anyway. The rest of the night was spend wandering the town, ducking into shops to look at random scarves, toys, shirts, or things that we just don't have names for. It was a great day with more to follow.
The other day that broke the trend was the day that we went to Efes. Me, Geena, Nathalia and Luana had already been there once on an exchange trip, but Forrest thought it would be a great idea, and he was right. We thought waking up and meeting at 9 30 would be good enough, but somehow we still didn't actually get on the bus until 12. We went through a small town and we started to see a few ruins and then the bus stopped and the steward told us this was our stop. We made sure it was Efes, and got of only to look around and realize that we were in the middle of the country, about 3 miles away from town. We also proceeded to realize that we didn't have a way to the ancient part of Efes. Or a way back into town. or know when the buses left to Izmir, or what exactly where we were going. So we picked a road that seemed to lead towards some ruin and after walking and the 6 ft 4 Forrest exchanging coats with the 5 ft 2 Nathalia for some pictures, we found a taxi driver who told us he would be our shofure (somebody tell me how it is actually spelled) for the day for only 15 lira per person. We saw the Virgin Mary's last home and deathbed, and we also saw the ruins of Efes, all of which are described in another blog, so I wont bore you with the details. Its really hard to describe the fun we had because it all came in quick jokes, quick situations, and attempting to translate. And I do not yet have the writing talent to make them interesting yet. Safe to say we did find our way safely back into town where we met a really interesting waiter who spoke 3 languages and was skilled enough in 4 others to make small conversation. It really is amazing once you get out of the US how common being bilingual is, and I have met many people who know 4, 5, or even 6 different languages. We also easily found the right bus back to Izmir, and everybody was home and tired by 11, all in all a great and full day.
Then on Wendsday, Forrest left, on Thursday, I went home, and everything went back to normal. Well normal until my next trip.