The View from my Window

I don't really have any interesting stories from this week, but life here is never boring. All I have to do is look out the window! A few weeks ago I got to see a rug-washing. All the homes here are tile or wood floors, so they have area rugs. At the start of every summer, everyone cleans their rugs and puts them up for the summer to enjoy the cool tile. For the large rugs, this can be quite a process. Here's my neighbors washing their rug (it's there under all the soap):
Then they hang their rugs out to dry on the laundry line on their balcony. It makes the apartment buildings look quite colorful.
Of course, balconies aren't just for laundry. Some people will sit out on their balconies in the cool evening air.
Oh, and do you remember the man I told you about selling produce on the street out of his truck? Well, now that it's summer time we have guys in horse carts that ride around shouting "Watermelon!"I hope you enjoy spying on the neighbors with me!

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.