Christmas and New Years (New Year's or just singular??)

Hi all,

I lost my camera cable thing to upload pictures so sorry I haven't updated earlier. I can't imagine where it is because I had it after I moved, but anyway, I'm just sticking the camera card into the computer. Christmas came and went without much happening, which is fine. The day before I experimented with Sinan's oven, which they just had fixed, and the first oven I've had in months. I made some banana bread and chicken, and I had hopes to do sugar cookies, and other such goodies but then it broke again! So Sinan saved Christmas by buying cookies and we just decorated those.









Another teacher, a couple of students and I went to the new aquarium that opened in Istanbul (farrrr away though) on Christmas. It was expensive and a little small but this really awesome long tunnel you walk through where sharks and fish swim all around and above you.



Not a great picture but gives you an idea of the tunnel.





Ok I have some more pictures of the Christmas/New Year's Party at work and some food stuff but I need to get going. A few teachers are gathering for New Years and I have a feeling traffic is going to be pretty bad. Anyway, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have a safe and fun new years!

Apartment and students

Here are some pictures of my new room which is overflowing with STUFF. So much stuff has accumulated, it's a little embarrassing.



At first I was excited because the room had a queen sized bed, but it's actually weird to sleep in (not as cozy) and it's taking up valuable space in my room. It's not bad, and I don't think trading beds with the other room is very feasible so I'll just enjoy my roomy bed!



Cute little Christmas tree. I should have turned the lights on.



If you look at the other pictures carefully, you can see I have an extra little room. It's not too big but I keep my wardrobe out there, shoes, laundry, a fan, plants, and things like boxes, bags, and magazines that I don't need everyday. It's a little cold and wet out there now but it's nice to have that little space to store extra things. I can open windows out there in the summer and get a breeze too.

A couple of weekends ago one of our students had a birthday party-



Obviously that's me on the left, then Semra and Semra (both speak pretty well, Semra #2 lived in England for a while), Gavin (teacher from England), and Umit, our beloved student who finished his course but he still comes to hang out with us.



That's Serkan on the left and Aylin, the girl whose birthday it is, on the right. Aylin is the one who made me a necklace and she makes beautiful scarves and puzzles etc. Serkan is going to Australia in a couple of months - I think you can tell just by looking at him it will be a good fit for him!

More pictures from home

Another one of my favorite Christmas time activities is cutting out and decorating cookies.









Some of the final products.

Since I've returned from the US, I've been surprised to see how much Christmas stuff there is in stores. Not too junky (actually I did see a dancing Santa toy), but trees, ornaments, wrapping paper, bags, candles, napkins, plates and so forth. But apparently the Turks celebrate Christmas on New Years Eve; they don't realize/decide to celebrate it on December 25. Fine with me - it's nice to spread the Christmas spirit out. I bought a 3 foot tree (first fake tree of my life) for only 8 dollars, I got some little ornaments and lights. It's not as good as the real thing but it will do!

Back!

Hi all-

Sorry I didn't update while I was on vacation in the states but I was too busy eating, sitting by the fire and talking to family and friends. I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. We had a gathering of 63 people - it's so special to get so many people together, even if only for a few hours one day out of the year. Because I'm not able to go home for Christmas, my family was kind enough to let us cram Christmas activities into the few days after Thanksgiving - chopping down the Christmas tree, decorating it, making gum drop cookies, and decorating sugar cookies. While the visit was too brief, it was a wonderful time and I'm so happy we all got to be together! Here are some pictures I took while I was at home, but they haven't all been loaded up yet. I'll add the rest later.




Not the typical Thanksgiving food but at our gatherings, it's tradition. A Mexican layer dip.




Another classic at Thanksgiving - goldfish.



And another popular appetizer - crab claws. Oysters (or clams?? - both gross to me) are also popular. Can you tell we're from the seaside?



I guess something a little more normal - veggies and dip.



Thanksgiving food. A similar shade but not bad, considering enough is made to feed 63 people (and lots of leftovers).



A photo of all of us.



Family photo plus Veronica



Not a site you see very much - Turkish tea and bacon being cooked on the same stove.



Going for a walk in the woods, looking for a tree.



Dad about to chop the tree down. It gets a lot bigger when you put it in the house. A lot bigger. We ended up finding the tree just a few yards from the house, but it was still nice to go for a walk in the woods. As always, our cat Fuzzy came with us, even though he's going on 15 years old.



Decorating the tree



Yes, this is a gorilla on my porch. It's a long story but a long long time ago my parents won this family portrait photo thing, and the guys called them up to take care of it. Those that know us know that we aren't exactly the family portrait type of family, so we were thinking of ways to make it less painful for us. Heath came up with the brilliant idea of having his girlfriend dress up in a gorilla suit and to have her in the background reading a paper (and later fishing). We don't have the actual portraits yet but here's a picture of "her".

Wow!

I didn't realize it had been so long since I last posted! Sorry! Unfortunately there hasn't been much to report. I had bronchitis last week so I've just been taking it easy because of that. I'm feeling better but the antibiotics are making me feel pretty nauseous. Tonight is the last night thankfully!

Next week I'm going to America! There is another bayram here, this time it is called the Kurban bayram which is characterized by animals being slaughtered...Most of the meat is given to poor people, and the families keep a little for themselves. I've heard you can see animals being killed on the streets and you'll see blood everywhere so I'm a little relieved to be leaving the country during this time! I understand it is a religious and cultural thing but it's just a little too much for me.

Anyway I'm going to go lie down and sip some ginger tea. I hope this nausea goes away soon! Sorry again for the lack of updates but hopefully there will be some more in the future. Take care!

Back to school

I've had four days off in a row, and now it's time to get back into the swing of things. I had my normal two days off on Tuesday and Wednesday, then Thursday was closed because it was a national holiday, then I learned on Tuesday all schools in Istanbul were going to be closed in order to sterilize them for the swine flu! It's a little rough thinking I have to go back - I've enjoyed these days off shopping, cooking, going to the Spice Bazaar, reading and so forth, but it's good to get back into a routine. Let me show you some things I've cooked and seen:



Chicken with onions, tomatoes, and chickpeas. A little boring but it ended up feeding 5 hungry guys and me.



I thought this was a good although the guys weren't as excited about it - there certainly wasn't much flavor. I made bulgur kofte, pretty much just some fine bulgur with tomato and red pepper paste and an egg. You make the shape by squeezing some of the "dough" into your hand and then you boil them. The best part is putting garlicy, salty yogurt and then butter with paprika on it. Next time I'll make them smaller and use more salt.



The weather has been soup weather so I tried to make some. This is red lentil and bulgur soup. I don't think I'll ever crave it but it was okay, not bad for a first time.



I've hardly done anything cultural the last couple months which is quite a shame - I live in Istanbul! So although the weather was windy, rainy, and cold I decided to go out to the Spice/Egyptian Bazaar to pick up some things to bring home when I go home in a couple of weeks. I like it there more than the Grand Bazaar because it is easier to navigate and the sellers don't harass you as much. The selection isn't as good and I think another day I'll go get lost around the Grand Bazaar. Anyway, just near the bazaar is the Yeni (New) Mosque, a pretty impressive mosque. I popped in for a few seconds to snap a few pictures.



A man performing his ablutions (I don't know how to use that word) in front of the mosque. I don't know why people go there to pray, it's so touristy. It is quite magnificent though, I suppose I might go there if I was religious!









There are some great colors in the Spice Bazaar. It's hard to capture it but you might get the idea.

Turkish food part 2

Dinner on the balcony



Stuffed eggplant - the guys were really excited about it but unfortunately they couldn't eat it because I didn't cook it long enough! Umut was like wow were did you learn this, you should write a book blah blah then they only ate the meat part. I don't know if you have made stuffed eggplant but it's hard to scrape out the inside, especially at the ends. I'll have to work on it.



I wasn't sure what to do with the eggplant that I scraped out, so Sinan suggested I cook it with some oil, onions and garlic. Then we added some tomato sauce I made using tomatoes, olive oil, and garlic. Yum! Good with bread.



I had leftover meat from stuffing the eggplants so I fried some potatoes then put it on those. Awesome.



Breakfast on the balcony



I wandered around Kadikoy, a part of Istanbul on the Asian side, with a former student/friend and we got waffles. It's kind of a "thing" in Istanbul - they cook the waffles right when you order them, then you have a choice from a lot of different toppings. I'm so boring and I always just get milk chocolate with sprinkles of some sort. The sellers think I'm crazy.

Turkish food

Some Turkish food I've been attempting to cook:



I used meat in the sarma but they ended up tasting like meatballs. Next time, vegetarian. And, it looks like a 5 year old rolled them up, but I just need practice.



I also tried to make red lentil and bulgur kofte but again, not so great. Next time, no lentils I think.



Now this turned out well. Green beans in onions, tomatoes, and garlic. It can be served warm or cold. A little little bit of sugar makes a difference too.



Fried spinach in garlicy yogurt. I didn't like it much but the others (Sinan and his roommates) did.



I've attempted this before. I just can't get the proportions right in the sauce - oil, some sort of sesame sauce I think, lemon juice, vinegar, salt and garlic. You pour it over cooked white beans and add hardboiled egg and tomato and parsley.

I'll add more later, I'm going for a run now. I'm thinking I want to run a 1/2 marathon in March, but we'll see how the first 3 weeks of training goes. I've only accomplished 1.5 miles! Take care!