Engagement with John

I was originally going to title this post "Cappadocia with John," but I know what you all really want to hear about! Our next stop was Cappadocia, which was where we got engaged, but let me tell you the story in order. I've been to Cappadocia several times, and it's one of my favorite places in Turkey. I really wanted to share it with John, and I thought it would be a good place to get away from all our friends and just vacation for a few days. When I went with my mom, we rented a car and spent a lot of time getting lost. I didn't want to do that with John, so I opted for taking the bus to Cappadocia. We found a hotel in Goreme, a town smack in the middle of some of the best rock formations and cave churches in Cappadocia. We picked one with character, while still having a good price (especially since we were paying for seperate rooms). It had a fabulous view as well! The downside of the bus was we had to travel on their schedule, so we really only had a day and a half there. We got in late Sunday night. On Monday morning we walked the one and a half miles to the "museum" in Goreme, a well-preserved collection of cave churches with an admission fee. John seemed to enjoy the history as much as I hoped he would. Then we got some lunch in town at a place where you sit on pillows and eat at a low table, traditional-style. After that, our goal was to get lost together in the valley near our hotel. The paths aren't always clear, but from any high point you could see the hotel, so we couldn't really get lost. I didn't really know the valley, so I let John lead the way, since I had been leading him everywhere all week. We clambered around some hills and fairy chimneys with assorted small ancient caves, until he led us to the highest point in the valley, a hilltop where you could see for miles. I dug in my bag for my water bottle, not noticing that John was trying to get behind me. When I found my water bottle, I turned around to say something to him, and there he was on one knee with a beautiful diamond-and-ruby band. "Will you marry me?" I knew it was coming this trip, but I was still in shock at that moment. I dropped the water bottle and gave him a hug (and a yes). Then he explained that the ring was a temporary ring (though I do get to keep it), and that the "real" ring was waiting for me in America (he brought pictures to show me). We did a little more exploring after that at another beautiful cave church we saw from our hilltop. Then we headed into town to try to buy a Turkish rug, one of my goals for his trip. When we came in the store, the man looked at how young we were and asked if we had a home. I said "no, but we will, we just got engaged today!" He said "well then I will give you the fiancees' price!" After much deliberation, we eventually picked out a smallish rug at a really good price, our first big purchase together :) Then we went back to the hotel to get dressed up for dinner to celebrate. It got really cold, so we talked the hotel into giving us a ride to the restaurant in their service van that they use to get people from the bus station. The driver was excited that I spoke Turkish, so he didn't seem to mind giving us a ride to and from dinner. The restaurant was the nicest restaurant in Goreme, and the only white-tablecloth restaurant I've been to in Turkey, I think! After dinner we came back, lit a fire in the fireplace in his room, and watched a movie on his laptop. It was the perfect end to a perfect engagement day.

"Home" with John

After our visit in Istanbul, I brought John back with me to my current "home." He pulled out all the Turkish he could muster as I dragged him around to meet all of my friends, neighbors, co-workers, and corner-store cashiers who had been waiting eagerly for his arrival. He definitely got a taste of my life here, including in the culinary sense! He liked almost everything I fed him, except for a few of the local beverages. He loved the tea, though, so he had no problem fitting in. I took him downtown to see the few touristy parts of my city. As a cultural bonus, one of my closest friends here, my old Turkish teacher, decided to get engaged last week! So John had the opportunity to come to the engagement party with me, which is quite an occasion here. He sat nicely while I joined some of the dancing, a necessity for any Turkish party. (Since the genders mostly separate when dancing anyways here, he wasn't abandoning me.) We watched the giving of the rings (both the guys and girls wear an engagement ring here), and the cutting of the ribbon that ties the two rings together. Even though John had never been outside of the US before, he took it all in like a pro. He waited patiently while I talked with my friends who couldn't slow down long enough for me to translate, he followed all the necessary cultural cues, and he learned how to buy some things for both of us using his limited Turkish. He even got the ultimate compliment: "John's like a Turk!"

Istanbul with John

Last Sunday my boyfriend John came to visit! We started our trip in Istanbul. It was a very short trip, and we didn't want to rush around during our first couple of days together, so we hit only a few of the highlights. We started out with a cruise up the Bosphorous Strait. Along the Bosphorous, you can see fishing villages, upscale neighborhoods, and Ottoman palaces. We even stopped at a quaint little neighborhood famous for its yogurt and tasted some. (I love good yogurt!) Our final stop was at a nice little neighborhood where we ate fish at a restaurant overlooking the water and people-watched the plaza below.

The next day we hit the highlights of the central tourist district of Istanbul. We hoped to visit the Topkapi Palace, but it turns out that it's closed on Tuesdays. We walked past the Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque. Then we went inside the Basilica Cistern, an enourmous underground reservoir built by the Romans utilizing old columns to hold up the ceiling, and upside-down Medusa heads to scare off intruders. We passed by one of the original Roman mile-markers before we reached the Grand Bazaar. In the picture below you can find John among the crowds at the entrance to the Bazaar (Kapalicarsi).

Check back soon! There's more stories to come!

Baklava!

My latest cooking adventure was in making baklava. If you can buy all the handy-dandy made-for-baklava ingredients, it's actually not that hard. I bought the special baklava filo dough, and the special crushed baklava pistachios. After that, you just layer the filo dough (carefully, they're fragile), and lots of melted butter, and stop halfway to spread crushed pistachios. Of course, we did use 50 sheets of filo dough, so that's the hard part. At the end, you bake until golden and pour sugar syrup over the top. Serve with crushed pistachios on top. Mmm, healthy. All in all, for our small pan, we used 4 sticks of butter and 5 cups of sugar. No wonder it's so good. Bring on the calories!