Anyday in Turkey

I've left out some everyday things about life in Ankara:
1. It is considered taboo to throw out bread, so if there's extra, you use it somehow else or put it out for the wild cats and dogs, not in the trash. We don't follow this, but in the vacant lots you can see it, on our street it is hung on the fences along the sidewalk in shopping bags. Who knows what happens to it from there.

2. Five times a day there is a call to prayer broadcast from all the mosques. Depending on where you are it is very faint, very loud, or even repeating itself when you're hearing multiple broadcasts. The first time I heard it I was haunted and wondered how I'd ever get used to it, now I can go for days and not even remember hearing it.

3. Babies are bundled up to the point that it looks like they can't breathe. Even before it got very cold outside. Older Turkish ladies are not shy to chastise me if Aeden is not sufficiently bundled. I'm glad it is getting colder so I don't feel quite so ridiculous adding some layers to his outfit.

4. On one block there will be a modern street sweeping machine driving down the road, and on another there will be a person sweeping with a twig broom and giant plastic jug trimmed to be a dustpan and tied to a stick. And then in our apartment building's front parking lot there are small lawns, rosebushes, and not a single bit of trash or fallen leaf, as they're swept daily with a commercial push broom and kept meticulous. And then there's the roads and roadsides that don't appear to have been cleaned ever, still only another block away...

5. There are women covered from head to toe, with coats that dust the ground as they walk so as not to show an ankle, and scarves tightly closed around their faces so as to not show any hair. And they're talking on the most modern of cell phones. It is strange how I so closely associate a head scarf with being old-fashioned and out of date. And yet I see younger women dressed very well in business attire wearing a scarf also. I can see how it can be such a touchy and emotional subject in current politics.

6. Blue eye shadow is popular somewhere in the world, as are patterned nylons on grown women. And slouch ankle boots like I always wanted in elementary school.

7. between 9 and 10 at night a simit seller wanders our neighborhood yelling, "simit!" but in a long drawn out way. I had to ask Nancy what he was saying. It sounds kind of neat.

8. There is no such thing as "respectful distance" at the ATM. There might be 6 or more ATMs in the same 1/2 block, but there may be a line 20 people at one of the machines, all jammed up as close to each other as you can imagine.

9. You bag your own groceries and purchases, and the checkout clerks are all seated. They pull out the tiniest stacks of plastic bags at a time (literally 12 or fewer, sometimes only 2) so that people don't take more than they need. There is no such thing as a paper grocery bag.

10. Everyone loves to honk their car horns. A lot.

11. McDonald's delivers. With red scooters.

12. The air sucks and alternately stinks or is visible. Not always, but more often than I'm used to.