Antalya Continued...

I suppose you all should see who Sinan is - he is an important role in my being here. This is when the power was out and we were taking photos in black and white (??).



Yesterday we went to his relatives who live in the city of Antalya (Sinan's family live about 25 minutes outside of the city). This is a view from their balcony - I absolutely love the mountains picture here, it is so different from where I come from. The sea is right below them which is also so beautiful.
It was a difficult day yesterday because I was around so many people (sort of a Saturday get together...all day) just sitting around and talking. I am so happy his family does that, because my family does that to and it is important to me, but being in an unfamiliar home with unfamiliar people speaking in an unfamiliar language can be so isolating and frustrating, but also a time for me to practice. Everyone is so nice though - making sure I am being entertained, having something to drink, a place to sit etc. I couldn't have asked for anything different. We played a lot of cards and the way I shuffle (nothing exciting, but I do the bridge thing at the end) was really neat to them, so every time I was handed the cards. It was pretty funny.


Dinner tonight was AWESOME! Kofte (meatballs) with french fries (homemade) and some rice that was so buttery and delicious, along with some soup and the BEST salad. They cut the vegetables up so finely and peel the tomatoes and they do not even put lettuce in it - ah, so good. I need to figure out the liquid they put on it - oil and something pomegranate I think. Then there was this white bean like thing with, again, some sort of dressing and eggs, AND the neighbor brought up something I think I have eaten once before here, like wheat nuggets maybe? Ah, doydum (I'm full!)!



This is Sinan's mom making a sort of a pastry with walnuts in it. I think we will be eating it soon. The little boy next to her is another cousin who was a lot of fun. He knows some English so between that and my little bit of Turkish we can communicate. We did origami and played cards and did Tangoes. The weather is truly terrible right now with wind and rain so we are all just handing around the house playing...and eating. It's rough.