Bayram

What a week! My Turkish course is still going (ahhh it's so difficult! I'm learning and I like it, but the grammar is just a little too difficult for me), I'm going to the gym (gotta get my money's worth) and work started! I'm really happy to be back at Wall Street, and it helps the students are happy to have me back. I'm only working part time until my Turkish course is finished, so it's only 4 hours at night, which is good to ease me back into this thing called work. Sigh. So the last month was Ramadhan, which is when people are supposed to be fasting. At the end of it, there is a bayram, or festival/holiday, that lasts for a few days. It's when family and friends visit each other, eat desserts, and give children money. People generally have 3 days off of work, and so a lot of people take this time to go on a holiday. Cengiz and I went together with a good friend of his and his friend's wife (Cagri and Seyide). I was a bit nervous because I didn't know the other couple and Cengiz and I are a bit new, but it was a lot of fun and we all got along so well. The friends hardly spoke any English and Cengiz's is limited but it all worked out. We went to Kusadasi, and then to Bodrum, two popular places on the Aegean Sea. The weather was perfect, and we only went to the beach and ate food and maybe went out at night, and it was perfect. I have a lot of photos, I hope I don't bore you (lot of couple-y pictures - sorry!)!



Beautiful water! And a stone beach which has it's advantages.



You could rent these funny paddle boats. This driver paddled out to his friends in the water and I heard him shouting, "Taxi! Taxi!". We also rented one...







This beach has wild boars on it, which are not afraid of people at all! I actually came to this same beach 2.5 years ago and one got really close to me and I had to toss a rock at it. This year we had some chips on a picnic table and it managed to get it's dirty snout into the bag! Grrrr it wasted my chips!





Now we're at a different beach, still in Kusadasi. This was the first day of the bayram, the most important one, and everyone's phone kept ringing was I was annoyed at at first, but then I understood it's a really important day to talk to those you are close to!





WWF smackdown. I totally won.



One of the rare pictures of us not in our swimsuits.



When we were in Kusadasi we stayed in a friend's villa which was nice because it had a kitchen, so we would prepare delicious breakfasts and dinners.



Now we're near Bodrum. A little less natural and calm...I like this picture though, with the mosque in the background yet tons of people in bikinis.



This is Seyide's sister (who just got married and lives 10 minutes from the beach) and their mom. Notice her swimming costume. She actually has her head uncovered, but at other times I saw women completely covered - almost like a scuba outfit made of raincoat material. Interesting, but I'm glad they are out enjoying the beach and water.



The sister lives in a beautiful house with a great garden and lots of beautiful flowers. The couple we went with have a kid, who (fortunately) didn't come with us but stayed with the sister. She seemed like an okay kid, for a kid.



Our other day in Bodrum, we met up with my housemates who were also there. The one hitting the ball is Emrah, and then the one in the green shirt is Engin. I couldn't ask for kinder, more helpful roommates.



I made a new friend on the beach. Normally this does not happen but it was alright for a dog. Yeah, I do a lot of ab work outs. No big deal.



While we were in Bodrum Turkey was playing in the semi finals of some big basketball tournament (I'm so out of touch with the world, I don't know what it was) against Serbia and it was super exciting. They won pretty much at the last second, and seconds later there was this huge Turkish flag on the street and people yelling and chanting and running around it. I got a video which I'll post later. It was really cool, and I'm sorry they lost to America in the finals.

Anyway, this "sums" up the trip, I'm sorry there was so much but I had a lot of fun and I wanted to record it somewhere! Have a great weekend everyone!