The greeting people thing is really stressful for me and I wanted to hide in my room whenever I heard the doorbell ring (doorbells "chirp chirp" in Turkey, they don't go "ding dong"). Here's what I do:
If it's a man, I shake their hand and say welcome, good bayram. A couple of the men I am closer with, so I'll kiss their cheeks after we shake hands, but it's hard to know who to do that with. I follow their lead.
With women, they usually kiss cheeks but because I hardly knew anyone, I wasn't sure if I was supposed to or not. With many of the women I did, but too many times one of us had the awkward lean-in to go for the cheek kiss and the other one not expecting it (sounds like a first date??) so there were some awkward head bobs. It's also difficult to know which side to go for - I thought there was a normal side to go for but yesterday completely threw that theory. My co worker Gavin has a really funny story about how he was trying to kiss the cheeks with a really old women and they just could NOT do it, both of them kept trying to go to the same side etc., and then she started shaking and that was the end of that. You have to see his impression.
Now, the complicated thing about greeting people in Turkey is that all of the younger people show their respect for the older people by taking the older person's hand and touching it to their chin and then their forehead, then USUALLY kissing the cheeks and sometimes not. This is where I feel rude because I only do this with the really elderly like Sinan's grandparents, and Sinan's parents, but not with aunts, uncles etc. I don't think they mind because I am foreign and we're not too too close, and Sinan says it's okay if I don't, as long as I do it with his grandparents and parents.
Anyway, so this is what goes through my head when someone walks into the door. Again, because I'm foreign I can get away with a lot but I like to try to do things right but it's difficult to know how polite to be or if I'm being too close by kissing cheeks etc. Oh well.
Sinan's mother made a dessert to serve to the people who came by. It's too sweet for me but I took pictures of the process because it's pretty neat, I've never seen any of the Turkish desserts being made. It's called kadayif.
First you separate this stuff that's like dried spaghetti but thinner and flexible. It's hard to describe!
Once it's separated, you pour melted butter all over it and use your hands to coat it.
Then you put it in buttered pans.
After the first layer you sprinkle crushed walnuts, then add another layer and smush it down.
After it's baked, you put the syrup over it, which is something like sugar and water boiled together. Sinan's mother put a lot, and this syrup-y stuff it what really characterizes Turkish desserts I think, and to me it's a little too sweet.
Here you are!
And of course, some baklava. This was bought from a store, but Sinan's mother used to make it.
Breakfast this morning was chunks of meat with onion, peppers, and tomato. Awesome. There were also cookies but I knew I couldn't handle those as well.
Ok that's it for now! I'll hopefully update again in the next couple of days!
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