How American am I?

It's a strange thing to live in a country that's not your own. Some things are easy to adapt to, others are more difficult. My American co-workers and I still maintain our American identity in many ways. Tonight my friends are hosting a bbq to grill burgers and eat banana splits. At our largest local movie theater, we have seen 3 American movies: Spiderman 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, and Ocean's 13. (Is it just me, or are there a lot of "thirds" coming out this year?) The only difference was that they had Turkish subtitles and a 10-min intermission. I haven't gotten a picture of the movie theater itself, but here's a shot taken inside the mall that houses the theater.

Even though we consider ourselves very American, it's been interesting that most of the people I've met don't think so. I frequently am asked "where are you from?" But I have never been asked "Are you American?" If people guess, they always guess countries other than America. I've been asked if I'm German, English, Irish, Moldovan, Ukrainian, and French. Never American. Even my roommate was asked just yesterday if she was from Moldova. When our Turkish teacher refers to us, she always calls us "the foreigners" even though she knows we're all American. When we see foreigners in America, we usually refer to them with some sort of ethnic or national identity (i.e. Hispanic, Middle Eastern, German, Indian, etc.) But for the most part here, we're just foreigners.

It's interesting the things they notice about you, as well, as a foreigner. We're frequently asked "do you dye your hair, or is that the natural color?" They always think our blue eyes are so beautiful. Last week, our neighbors commented that I had a very small nose. Now sometimes even I look in the mirror and find myself surprised by how light my hair is or how many freckles I have!

Yemek Yemek

"Yemek yemek" means "eating food" in Turkish. Surprisingly, I have not eaten a lot of Turkish food since I've been here. My roommate and I cook a lot because it's easy and cheap and sometimes fun. And we cook what we know, and what we know is American food. So I am by no means an expert on the local cuisine. But to satisfy my family and friends with culinary interests, I will write what I know so far.

Most of my experience thus far is with pastries. If you recall from "Life in the Village" (May 6), there's a lot of tea drinking and baked-goods-swapping that goes on with the neighbors. It hasn't ended with the initial meet and greet with some of our neighbors. Just last week the lady upstairs brought this colorful plate of pastries. The 2 slices in the front resembled what I would call a pistachio cream pie. The bottom part was cakey, full of chopped pistachios, with pistachios sprinkled on top. The middle was kinda like whipped cream. In the back was something like a mini yellow cake, though a little coarser, soaked in a simple syrup, with some chopped walnuts sprinkled on top. I gave it about a 2 out of 5. What we've had at our neighbors' homes has been much tastier.
These little cookie-biscuits were made by the mother of one of the girls across the hall. They served them to us when we stopped by for tea one evening. They tasted similar to scones. I'd give them a 4 out of 5. This week we happened to stop by our neighbor upstairs while she was having tea with her sisters. So we had more of a variety than usual. We each had a piece of simit, which is like a ring of dough covered in sesame seeds. Perhaps their version of the bagel. We also had a roll, also covered in sesame seeds, filled with spinach and feta cheese. Mmmm. My favorite was probably the cookie-biscuit filled w/ a sweet mixture of chopped walnuts. A couple of days ago I was invited to an afternoon tea one of my friends was having for her neighbors. She put on the full spread for afternoon tea. We started with Turkish coffee, which is similar to Cuban coffee. Very strong, and very sweet. They serve their coffee in something that looks more like our traditional tea cups. The Turkish "tea cup" looks like this:
Of course, the tea doesn't usually look like that. They serve a more traditional black tea. That was just a picture I had leftover from some unusual "herb tea" I had last year. After the coffee we had the food. My friend had a buffet set out that included sigara borek (something like a crepe rolled thinly with cheese inside), kisir (a bulgar dish w/ tomatoes and cucumbers), and a lemon pound cake. After this we drank tea, and more tea.

More kittens!

For the cat lovers who read my blog, here's the latest "baby pictures".

I tried to put her next to the slipper for a size comparison, but she didn't seem to like that idea. So later on I caught a picture of them next to each other around nap time.
Also, they finally have both been officially named. The one asleep with white front legs is Boncuk. The one in the front here with some orange in her legs is Pamuk. And we did finally get them a scratching post. I'm sure there will be some interesting scratching post pictures to come.
For now, here's a cute kitten picture from a couple weeks ago.

Life is beachy

Train ride to Mersin....................................$4
Minibus ride to the beach...........................$4
Locker room to keep our stuff...................$0.60
Paddleboat for 4..........................................$8
Standing on top of a castle in the Med......Priceless
There are some things money can't buy. For everything else, my paycheck will suffice! Our day trip to the beach yesterday was worth every penny and the 3-hour trip to get there. It was still cheaper than a 50-mile day trip at home. And at home we don't have castles! (Shameless plug to come visit me...) In the train ride picture I'm eating sikma. Our Turkish tutor came along for the trip to the beach and bought sikma for all of us to supplement our breakfast, since we had to leave the house at 6:45 in the morning to catch a bus to the train station! It was basically a tortilla rolled up with some filling. I think the filling was mostly green onions, parsley, and a cheese that's kinda like feta. The people watching on the beach was interesting. It's quite popular to bury yourself, or your friends, in sand. They say it's good for you. And yes, that picture is of a lady with a head covering covered in sand.
She was actually a very nice lady. She and her husband shared their pistachios and plums with us. Here, they eat their plums green, before their ripe, with a little bit of salt. At the end of a day of mostly lying around was when we took the paddleboat to the castle. The castle dates from the 12th century. I wasn't brave enough to take my camera with me, though my friend was. If you want proof we were standing on top of that castle, I can send pictures after my friend e-mails them to me. There's just something amazing about staring at the ocean, nothing but the horizon, from that high up. If you come visit me, I'll show you ;)