Hairy Cat Bum...

Turkey is fast paced.. in certain areas. Istanbul- WAY fast paced. Think of taxi's everywhere. Buses everywhere. Cars everywhere. People everywhere. Honestly it's amazing how many people live in Istanbul. Google said that there is 13.5 million people in Istanbul. Whoa. That's more than I thought. But seriously, the city is old and has so much rich history to it. Even taking a taxi is entertaining. Never a dull moment. Also, very very rich area. I would say 45% have NICE vehicles. BMW, Lamborghini, Maserati, Range Rover, Porshe, Mercedes... you name it, they are everywhere.

Then you get to the outskirts of Istanbul- the in between areas from the big cities like Istanbul and Ankara.. and its serene and quiet. Very green, very peaceful almost puts you to sleep. haha Most of the time it is really poor too. Very humble on the outskirts, houses and apartments falling apart... literally foundations disintegrating. Dirty. I enjoy being able to see both aspects of Turkey. It gives me a great perspective of how nice the nice is and how low the low is. I wouldn't have this perspective if it weren't for a MIL (mother in law) who is Turkish. It has been such a blessing to have her be able to give me the non-touristy tour. I have really been enjoying it.

It hasn't been easy. In fact, I have been really ill at one point. Luckily, not sick enough to go to the hospital, but close. Guess that comes with the territory of traveling where no tourists usually travel. Also very Luck, John was able to give me a blessing and his mom could get me turkish medicine to help me out. Boy did it work wonders! I was healed. Just. like. that. Amen.

A few things to note: I actually miss food that I am familiar with. Don't get me wrong, the food here is AMAZING. It's that- today we were at the airport to fly down to Marmaris from Istanbul, and we were hungry so the only options for food was McDonald's or Arby's (go figure). We decided on McDonald's because it was more familiar to us being in foreign countries and we were a little nervous Arby's would be too disgusting. Anyway, I'm not a cheerleader for Mickey D's but BOY! Was it ever the most delicious burger. Oh a BURGER! I decided, today, I LOVE burgers. Here they eat lamb, goat, and other weird meats. They are good, but a taste to be acquired too. Also, its like the options for food literally at every restaurant are all the same. One plate will contain Lamb meat (called Doner), an ice cream scoop of rice, 4 french fries (only 4), 1 tomato cut in half, shredded lettuce, and a hot pepper.  Also, they eat a ton of fresh fruits and veggies all the time, all day long. It's delish!

CLICK to watch the video, its the Turkish Version of a Roller Coaster haha :)

Another note: The taxi driver's are all different here. Some will be calm, taking there time, others will be insanely wild in their driving- I've gotten fairly used to feeling like I might die at any moment while in a taxi here. But none beats this one from yesterday. I felt like I was on a ride at Six Flags Magic Mountain. I was bracing myself the entire time. Bracing like one arm up on the ceiling of the car, one arm grabbing something else, feet pressing the imaginary break pedal like it was my full time job. It was crazy... The greatest part- John caught on film... see for yourself.


Please note that the song playing in the video was the same song playing in the taxi. haha

Well, we are off tomorrow to go sailing the Aegean Coast for 7 whole days! Which means, no internet. Wah, wah. But really, I'm am thrilled for this. This is a once in a life time, great opportunity. We are lucky to know someone willing to take us out on his boat for that long. I'll post about that when we get back!

P.s. I didn't know what to title this post so I asked John to give me a random name (he not knowing what for) and Hairy Cat Bum is what I got...

A few cool things, a few funny things..

Cool Things:

So they have these markets here in Turkey that they call Bazaars. Basically, it is a flea market that is on a road that has been closed off. Here at these Bazaars they sell anything from trinkets, stuff they found in their garage, to new clothing, shoes, to fresh grain, fresh tea, to fresh vegetables... etc. You can imagine all that you can find there. I was just in awe of how awesome this place was. I can just imagine how awesome it would be to walk down the street to go get freshly grown vegetables and grains. The crazy part was their cost. 7lbs of Cucumber for 2 lira- or like $.75. It is grown right near that town so it is incredibly cheap!

In order to create this bazaar, they just set up shop and put a tarp or fabric over top of them... Every one is built physically smaller than John or I (if you have met his mom, you would understand this) so the tarps were set really low. haha

Fresh lemons, tomatoes, and hot peppers...

Fresh peaches! SO rich and yummy!

John's cousin Yunis was working the peaches and fresh cherries! Here he is with Benyamin and Nebahat..

More veggies! Tomatoes, cucumber, green beans... Just Fresh veggies everywhere!

Don't these Cherries look Bomb?? And thats fresh Garlic next to it on the right.

Funny Things:

So while we were out and about, we stepped into this store that had furniture, dishware, glasses to drink out of, chairs, beds, showers.. everything very turkish, and then this decoration or a scarecrow! It was soo out of place and I suddenly felt for a moment we were in the States... It's not like they celebrate halloween here, or christmas... but a scarecrow seems soooo random. Right?? haha I definitely got a kick out of this.

In that same little market area was this place to get food. The thing is, please just look at the name. "Fast Food"... haha like it isn't obvious that is is a fast food place... then on top of that, they serve hamburgers and Pizza!!! A novelty here! So cool! haha... I just loved that it was clearly an american style place to eat and then they just called it fast food. Genius!

After I laughed at this, Ayse and I went to the restroom and as we were walking in there was a separate room with the lights out and I barely caught a glimpse of this amazing beauty! Please Look at how small this is! hahaha Its like a mini of a mini...if that makes sense. We for some reason thought this was soo funny, we almost peed our pants on our way to the restroom! haha

In case you didn't quite get the perspective of is smallness... Everything in the bathroom is of normal size, except that little toilet. haha

Daily Moments.

This is Anine or as we call her in English- Grandma Fatma. She is 70 Years old. She has survived Ovarian Cancer and is a very quiet lady. She has had no education. She has given birth to 7 children. She worked as a Janitor and is now retired. Her one dream is to have a nice home with nice furniture before she dies. She has never had that before.

This is Dede- or More commonly known as Grandpa Mustafa. He is 81 years old. Incredibly flexible from getting on the floor to eat (See previous post), and from kneeling in prayer 5 times a day. He has a very belly deriving laugh. It is very contagious. He was a road worker his whole life. He is now retired.  The hat on his head is to remind him that he is not higher than God. He was born with a birth defect on his right hand/ arm. It looks very much larger than his left hand which is normal looking. It is also purple. I don't believe he has any pain from it. He bought me an ice cream cone last night. Just he and I and $.35. He was very happy to do this for me.

Ayse being "Wild"... haha She looked at herself in the mirror an hour later with this scarf on her head and exclaimed, "Why didn't anyone tell me!?" and we all laughed because we ALL told her but she would say, "Whatever!" haha

Benyamin and Nebahat. Brother and Sister Orphans. They are being raised by Ayse's sister Hatice (ha-tig-a) who is their grandmother. Their father shot their mom- she is dead and he is in prison for life. They are simply adorable. She is my favorite. Very sweet. They LOVE when Ayse-teze (Aunt Ayse) comes to town. They get Ice cream!!

Dede and Benyamin cooking dinner in their BBQ. We had Kebab's for dinner. Sheep meat with Veggies. Not bad.

Right outside Anine and Dede's house. Look closely...

The front of their House. They share half of it with another family. Notice the Ivy looking plant on top?

The Ivy Looking plant is on most of the entry ways to the houses. I thought it was really beautiful looking.....

Then I looked closer and realized it was a Grape vine! Are you kidding me??!?! a Grape VINE??? It was awesome!

The sun was setting and there was a moment where it seemed that all stopped... it was very surreal. This is what you see when you walk through the gate to their house. It looks really nice in this photo but sadly it is fairly poor in this area.

While we were waiting for dinner, Ayse (On the left), her sister Hatice (Middle) came back from getting groceries. Check this out though, see the guy walking with a grocery cart on the right? Yeah, he was personally bringing the groceries home with them. We don't know him, he was just asked by his elders to bring the groceries home and since he respects his elders he did it. He literally dropped the groceries off at the door. It was awesome! Could you imagine that kind of service??

Oh by the way, would you like some freshly dried apricots?...

Sometimes I want to live here for a long time and learn all their cool secrets and tricks. It all seems so simple. Like last night, Ayse was telling me all these natural herb remedies that they use. Not store bought stuff, like actual bushes and herb stuff. Pretty cool.

Dede, Anine, and CAKE!

I have been trying to think of how to start blog posts and I always feel really awkward in starting one. Like, suddenly I'm having a conversation with no one. I was never one to talk to myself. Even in my personal journals, I find it hard to start writing something. I feel like it needs to be a well written introduction, like as though I am writing a school paper and I need a riveting intro with a glorious thesis in order to get anyone to read beyond the first paragraph.

Some days, I am over it and I just begin. I think today I feel awkward.

Anyway, We are still here in Karaman where Ayse was Born. I don't know if most of you have read her book "The Worth of a Soul: From Muslim to Mormon", but in her book it discusses her whole life. Where she came from, how she grew up, the trials that she faced. One thing I learned was about her family. She was born to Mustafa and Fatma Kizil. Fatma and Mustafa married when Fatma was 15 and Mustafa was 26. You see, this is a very patriarchal society. Women have some say, but not much. By the time Fatma was 19, she had had 3 children. Ayse was the 2nd child of 7; 5 children are currently living. One thing as well about this society is not only are they patriarchal, but they also respect there elders. No matter who they are. For example, we have to take mini buses every where we go (They are like a small version of a large bus but they look like those vans from the 70's.. you know what I'm talking about?) and while we are on the buses, I have witnessed so many older people tell a younger person to pay for them while handing them money. The younger people respond quickly without questioning. This isn't frustrating to anyone, it is a simple form of respect in this culture. Anyway, the whole reason I am telling this because when Ayse was a little girl, her father Mustafa's older sister Turkan could not have any children so she asked him for Ayse and he just gave her to Turkan. Ayse was young enough that she did not know that she was "adopted"(not legally) and believed that Turkan and her husband Necmi were her real blood parents while she was being raised in Istanbul (13 hours away).

When she was informed at a particular time in her life that she was "adopted", it really tore her to pieces. She struggled to forgive any of her parents. I can't imagine the difficulty she must have felt. Maybe a litte betrayal, loneliness. She was angry at Fatma and Mustafa for just giving her up like she was an object, and for Turkan and Necmi not telling her the truth. She was angry for a long time. Now in her life she has forgiven all of them. Turkan and Necmi have passed on, though Fatma and Mustafa are still here. It is really cool to see how she has forgiven them and how much they love and respect her and how much she loves are respects them.

Over the years the family has bonded well and when Ayse, Ross, and John come into town, the family takes the entire time off to just be with them to express their love. Sure there isn't perfection in their relationships but they are growing and time is healing everyone. I am so grateful I get to witness such forgiveness. Ayse is incredibly kind to her lowly and poor parents and family. They just adore her!

While we have been here, there isn't any site seeing to do so we have just been spending time together by walking around the town, getting ice cream (A very rich treat to them), eating out (another treat that only happens when Ayse comes), and just spending time at Dede's (Grandpa Mustafa) and Anine's (Grandma Fatma) home. 

On one of our walks to get a dessert we passed a Mosque (they are EVERYWHERE) and saw a Gigantic Birds nest. Seriously, look at it in comparison to the size of the Mosque. Do you see it? The dark thing in the middle? (not the best description but it will have to do)

Here is it up close. It's a STORK'S Nest!!! Crazy right??? Look how HUGE that bird is! I couldn't believe it! It was very normal to them. They often laugh at what amazes me. haha I guess I am easily entertained.

We got to the restaurant where one of John's cousins work (Fatma, the younger one) and ate a delish dessert that I don't know the name of, John just calls it his balls dessert. definitely can offer a good laugh when not expecting it.

This is Mustafa on the right, the brother to Ayse, and his son Yusuf. Yusuf is 18 years old and he is awesome with trying to teach me Turkish. Still our conversations are very "Me Tarzan, You Jane" but it gets the job done. This Mustafa LOVES John. Always wants to be near him, and always tries to put his arm around John. Now that John has a mustache, Mustafa just goes wild over it and laughs and laughs cause they are the same now. haha

Starting from the left: Nebahat (The little orphan girl), Miriam (Mustafa's wife, John's Aunt), Ayse (My MIL- duh), Yusuf, and Fatma (The younger one).

After dessert, we walked back to Dede and Anine's house and played marbles. It is very cool the games that they have come up with. They're challenging too!

After some games and just hanging out, we ate dinner. Dinner served here is not like any dinner I have been too. Food is placed on a short low to the ground table with silverware and some cups and everyone, no matter how many of you there are, will sit at the table on the ground. There is a table cloth underneath the table and that is what you use as like a place to catch the dropped food or crumbs. Usually in every, and I mean EVERY turkish meal there is a salad of greens, onion, cucumber, tomato, oil and lemon. It is DELISH and also there is always fresh loaves of bread. That white stuff is not an every meal type thing, but it is common. It is a sour yogurt of sorts to cleanse the palette. Honestly, it's absolutely disgusting. haha  Anyway, so what surprised me was that no one got their "own" bowl of food. Everyone just ate out of all the bowls. It was crazy! Kind of fun to be totally immersed into the culture. I love it! And the food was really good. Healthy, for sure.

I guess while we were playing with marbles, Yusuf had made a little surprise for John and I. They can't say my name very well. At first, they wouldn't say it at all. Then once we taught them it became "SteFONie". An emphasis was placed on the FON part of my name. Well, Yusuf didn't know how I spelt my name and he made this of mine and John's name and I thought it was so sweet how he attempted to spell it! Missing a few letters in there... just a few...

Also, they loved that I had a camera and kept asking me to pull it out. So this is one of the photos taken with Mustafa, John, Me, and Miriam at Dede's and Anine's home.

Last event of the evening was a cake- which oddly enough they call "Pasta".. both make you gain weight so... I get it... haha The great part of this is that no matter what day it is, if you bring a cake to Dede's (grandpa's) house, it is ALWAYS his birthday! So we sang grandpa Happy Birthday that night with candles and the whole shebang to end the evening! It was Perfect!

Istanbul to Ankara to Karaman

This morning we woke up at 4:45 am and left the house by 5:10 am to catch a bus to Ankara. And then 4 hours after we made it to Ankara, we caught another bus to Karaman for 4 hours where we are staying for the next 7 days. 

Before we left Istanbul, I said goodbye to the view from our bed room, because I was going to miss it greatly every morning...

Ankara is the capitol of Turkey and is also the place where Ayse went to College. It was there in Ankara that she and Ross met at a real estate office while he was trying to find a place to live because he was working there for his company at that time. It was a treat to visit this city that had so many memories for Ayse. She was so happy to be able to show it to us.


On our way to Ankara, we passed the sea... and it looked like this...

And like this... Yes, that is a mosque down there...

In Ankara, we had 4 hours to kill so we took the subway to the main hub of the city and walked out to streets looking like the picture below. It was beautiful, all the colors that were around us. This area is a cross roads of sorts where a lot of people come and a lot of students visit. There are shops and places to eat and it is very busy but yet very quaint.

We ate lunch there up in an open air restaurant (basically a second floor restaurant with not walls- simply just a railing to keep you from falling off). We ate a typical Turkish dish, Doner (pronounced Dunar) which consists of Lamb, tomatoes, pita bread, and a small salad. It was delish. A little too much bread, but other than that delish!

We did some people watching while we were up there.

Hello.

Then Ayse wanted to take us to a park where her and Ross would go when they lived there. But I couldn't help myself when I saw these chandeliers of sorts hanging in the middle of the roads. They turn them on at night and I can just imagine how incredible it must look! I wish we had stayed for it, but we couldn't! But aren't they rad!??

We arrived at the park and there were these mass amounts of pigeons everywhere. It is always a little hard to know what to expect when Ayse says she is taking us some where because she usually just says something like "Lets go to the park" and then you show up and it isn't what you thought at all. Like this park for example, it was a bird park. Awesome, right???

These pigeons were sooo comfortable with humans that I was just walking right next to them and they wouldn't even move! See how close I am to them!

Also, there was a pond full of swan and geese.  I haven't ever seen real swan in person, so I was particularly excited to see them so up close and personal. They were huge! Like as big as a medium sized dog. And they were just beautiful.

And then there were these really cute little gooslings? geeslings?? haha But seriously, cuteness.

Then She took us to her favorite dessert place and I got this Chocolate ice cream that had an almost gummie like texture. It was sooo tastey and sooo, different? but in a good way. Sometimes I wish the states had cooler places to eat.

Once we squeezed in a little bit of Ankara, we got back on the bus and drove for 4 more hours to Karaman where Ayse's parents and family live. This was a bit of a big deal to come here and meet them. This is one of the main reasons for this entire trip.  It was so that I could meet the only extended family John really has. The pressure was a little daunting especially because I knew they didn't speak english. haha anyway, I knew it would be okay, but I was still nervous nonetheless. When we arrived everyone was sooo incredibly excited to see John after 6 years and to meet me. Everyone in the family had gathered for this. It was very sweet to meet them all, especially his grandparents. His grandpa is 81 years old and his grandma is 70. His grandpa was so sweet to me, he motioned for me to come and sit by him and he would try to hard to talk with me. I couldn't understand him but he would just hug me and I knew it was alright. It was like there was a bond formed so quickly. He is a sweet sweet man. Also, it was a hoot to see the two orphan children that Ayse brought stuff for. They were just adorable and such a joy to watch as they opened up there gifts.

This is one of the orphan kids Benjamin. He is almost 5.

And his sister ( I can't remember her name right now). She is almost 7. Their mom was Ayse's niece. She died a few years ago and so Ayse has felt the need to help take care of them so that they don't end up in an orphanage. It is very touching to see the love she has for these two kids. They also just adore her.

Ayse's sister does fantastic needle work. She took these two towels and added the lace to them for john and I. On the hand towel she has added to the top an evil eye in her needle work. Evil eyes are everywhere here. An evil eye represents protection against evil thoughts or evil deeds. It is believed to ward off those things in an effort to protect you.

Remember, this is all hand done.

I am so grateful to have been able to meet John and Ayse's family tonight. I am looking forward to getting to spend more time with them. I am not sure how well I will get to know them, since we can't speak, but I still feel a part of their wonderful family. It's so great to be here!