Visitors and breakfasts

Hi guys! I hope you aren't tired of seeing pictures of a table covered with the same things again and again. It really has become a tradition on Sundays for us to all eat together. Today was nice and we ate out on the balcony!







This week a girl I know from my college came to Istanbul with her grandmother and her grandmother's friends. As nice as the women were, she wanted to see a bit more of the real Istanbul with someone her own age, especially since she had been on a boat with them for 7 days, sailing around the southern coast. I tagged along with them for a delicious lunch at the Yesil Ev and a tour of the Hagia Sophia which never ceases to amaze me; as some other friends said, it exemplifies the true meaning of 'awesome'.



The weather became rainy and overcast so it wasn't a great day to go exploring the places I wanted to go, so I mentioned going to a hamam, which she had been wanting to do. We didn't have our swimsuits or extra underwear so I made her get naked. At first it can be a little awkward but once you sit in the hot room and start pouring hot water over yourself, you forget about it. You really forget about it when a women starts scrubbing you and exfoliating you and you feel and see the bits of dirty old skin coming off of you. If you come to Istanbul, go to the Cagaloglu in Sultanahmet. It's a little overpriced but beautiful and historical. Her 50 something year old male friend came with us (well to the men's quarters). He felt so good afterwards he could hardly make complete sentences - so good...moved my leg like this...released tension...massaged knots...ohhhhhh. I took them to Istiklal Caddesi in Taksim, still slightly touristy but not like Sultanahmet. It's a long pedestrian street filled with shops, people, and restaurants, and if you aren't too busy people watching you can look at the lovely architecture.



Another night we met in Taksim to drink some beer "with the locals" on Nevizade street. It's filled with people drinking and eating mezes and fish and musicians wandering around - it's fun if you are in the mood. There was a man at the table next to us who had a group of 5 musicians surrounding him, and he was singing along with them. It was a funny sight, I tried to sneakily snap a picture.





Andrea and the tour guide, James from Art Tours located in England. He was quite knowledgeable and good at presenting information.

Another activity for me this week was with one of the Turkish teachers from my school, who lives about 2 minutes from me because she is a student in the area I live in, the same school Sinan is a student. She's from the Black Sea and for a month she's been telling me how she'll have me over for fried pickles, something traditional to eat for breakfast on the Black Sea. There was a bit of a mistranslation - I pictured us rolling actual pickles in batter and frying them, but what she was really saying was pickled fasulye (like big green beans). It was really good! Unfortunately it's not easy to make or buy the pickled fasulye but I'll keep my eyes open.



It's good to soak them in boiling water for a while to get rid of some of the salty, pickled flavor, then mix with corn meal and an egg.



Heat some olive oil, smoosh the beans into a pan, fry, and at some point flip it over.



Voila!



Zumra, the teacher, her fiance Faruk, and her "little" brother Furkan.




It really was a fun and delicious brunch, I hope we can do it again!

Ok one more activity then I'm finished! Last Sunday night there was a festival and concert on Bogazici's campus. It was nice - lots of people walking around and all of Sinan's roommates and his "other girlfriend's" family came (Ayse, Ashley, and Gokhan) - he and Ayse really get along, and she is absolutely darling. I've never seen so many strangers come up to a baby, grabbing her, pinching her etc.





From left to right, Ashley, Sinan with Ayse, Burcu (Baris's girlfriend), and Sinan's roommates - Baris, Umut, and Hamza.



She even has her arm around him! I'm so jealous.



Close your mouth Ayse!



Ayse with her daddy, Gokhan, a good friend of Sinan and I (grammar?)

Ok I'm sorry there's so much to read and look at! I know it might not all be very interesting for you but I really just like to document everything I do so in a few years I can remember all of this. No worries if you skim it or are not interested! Have a wonderful week!

Turkish music

I thought maybe occasionally I'd post some music videos of popular Turkish songs. I don't listen to too much Turkish music but I do enjoy the more upbeat, pop songs. Here's a good one if you need to get pumped up to exercise or beat people up. The girl has a great voice I think. It's called "Kal" by Teoman and Atiye:



My youtube just stopped working so I hope the link above still works for you, I can't check it. Here's another song that I really like, it's by the same band whose song was submitted to Eurovision a couple of weeks ago. It's a good cleaning-up-the-kitchen song. You need to copy and paste the link - sorry you can't watch it here! It's called Dunyanin Sonuna Dogmusum by Manga

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=9116572632348716375#docid=-7608966982090432045

My favorite Turkish artist is Tarkan, and here is one of his new songs. It's a little song but it does grow on you. If I ever need to teach a person what it means to be a "ham", this is what I would show. He really is a great performer though, I've seen him live twice.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xdcri7_tarkan-2010-sevdanin-son-vuruu-orgn_music

Again, so sorry it's not right here to watch but it's worth the copy and paste to check it out.

Food!

Today I wanted to post some food pictures from my last few cooking attempts. I just finished Sunday brunch with the boys, unfortunately no dads - Happy Father's Day Dad! You're the best!

Last week and this week I made borek - a pastry filled with whatever you want, I usually do either meat or potato, but some people also use a feta like cheese, and there's also a spinach one. The dough I buy ready made but it smells like it's pretty fresh and it's paper thin. I don't have the time, space, patience or materials to make it myself, it's easier and cheaper to buy from the supermarket behind the meat counter.



Here's the meat one - pretty much just ground meat, onions, parsley and salt and pepper. I think Sinan's mom uses another spice - maybe cumin or thyme?



After baking.



Best with tea of course!



This is breakfast from this morning.



I fried some green peppers and put them into some garlicy, salty yogurt. I also made potato borek (boil some potatoes, cook some finely choppped onions, smash the potatoes around in them and add parsley, salt and red pepper).



I found this on a Turkish food website, and it's good for old stale bread. I chopped up some tomatoes, green pepper, and olives and added some feta cheese and an egg, along with some salt, pepper, and paprika. Then I baked it. The egg didn't bake very well, next time I might not use the whole egg, but the boys were fighting over it!

These are some silly pictures from a class at school yesterday. The students had to write a body part on a post-it note and put it on a person. As you can imagine the result was very funny.







Last night the temperature was perfect so I went on a walk down to Bebek (ok I got some ice cream...and it was from McDonalds - sorry! Sometimes I just need a McFlurry)

Busy busy!

I know I know I didn't update last Sunday, I'm so sorry! It's really been a busy week and a half, working, going to the gym, going to the police station like place to get my residence permit (twice, and it is NOT close), and..wait for it...being a little social! I had an "American night" - there was supposed to be a group of Americans getting together but it ended up just being my friend and I, which was good fun, and then a work get-together, and then there was also a birthday party for me! It was really fun, my birthday has always been at an awkward time so I can't remember the last time I'd gotten together with friends to do something. There was also a party for me at work! Phew. That's about all that's happening here. It's starting to get pretty hot now, I really need to find out if I can use the outdoor pool - it's for Bogazici students but I was one 2 years ago...Anyway, here are a bunch of pictures!



These are my roommates, Pam and Emine. Emine made turlu, sort of a stew with a bunch of vegetables - it was really good. This is on our little glassed in sun porch. Sadly Pam has gone back to the states now, but Emine is still in the apartment.



The place we went for our work get-together is a famous street in Istanbul - Nevizade Caddesi, in Taksim. It's filled with meyhanes, where, at least in my limited experience, you pay a set price, get unlimited alcohol, lots of delicious mezes (or appetizers), a main dish, and some sort of dessert. There are usually musicians wandering around and people dancing. It can be fun, but if you are tired or not in the mood it can be boring, because you can't be in a rush for your food. You are usually there for several hours, drinking, eating, talking, dancing, and drinking more. Anyway, it was fun and the food was good!









Often, when bellydancers start dancing, people stick money into her clothes. The girl on the left is our receptionist, and as a joke her fiance stuck credit cards into her dress. And you aren't crazy, the other girls are identical twins. One of them works as a saleswomen/educational consultant, the other just comes around to confuse us.



Yeah! Native Teachers!



This is my birthday party! It was nice and kind of a funny mix of people - Sinan and his roommates, my roommate, an English teacher friend, Sinan's best friend and wife and pretty cute little baby. It was nice to get with so many people, and I really appreciated people coming, because the weather was so bad that day.



Thanks to Sinan for organizing this! It was really nice of him and all his idea.



Ayse, the baby, really adores Sinan and the same goes for him (he's started calling her 'his girlfriend'). Here she was feeding him some of her french fries.





Sinan's friends and roommates, really really nice, funny, and good guys.



A perfect shirt...so perfect that...



I got two of them! How funny is that?



Turkish cookbook from my roommate



Stroopwafels - a Dutch cookie that I discovered when I let a Dutch girl stay in my room last year - THEY ARE SO GOOD! When I befriended Arnout, another English teacher in Istanbul, who is from Holland, I got him to hook me up with the cookies whenever he went home.



Books about Turkey from Sinan!



Sinan's attempt to make me a die hard Galatasaray fan (his favorite football team) - by giving me soft fuzzy things with the logo on it.



Hamza gave me a large frame with different spots for pictures - it's perfect and I've already started to fill it up with pictures from my trip!



So...much...birthday...cheer



I think someone else is a little worn out...



More cake! At work now.



If you made it this far, thanks so much for reading and looking at the pictures! I'm sorry this one was so long, like I said, it's been a busy week and a half. I hope you all are doing well - take care!