Saturday, December 6
This morning as I was trying to figure out what shopping to do where and with whom, Paul called to see if Brian still wanted to go to the craft fair. I didn't know anything about it, but took the opportunity to leave Brian at home with the kids and go off to the fair with Paul, Becky, and Emma. After the usual Turkish logistics issues of traveling with more than one person, we made it to the Ataturk Kultur Merkezi. Just before major holidays there is a shopping fair with booths from all over Turkey and Europe/Asia, and next week starts the Kurban Bayram (Sacrifice Holiday), the second biggest holiday of the year after Ramazan. Since I didn't know I was going I didn't have very much cash with me, which was probably good! Here are some pictures of the food area, and of a Turkish candy served from screwdrivers (yep, that's what those are!). I found some great Christmas presents and souvenirs, and enjoyed the conversations with some of the vendors, ranging from absolutley zero English and just lots of smiles and nods, to this one:
Vendor: Where are you from?
Cortney: America
Vendor: Yes, I know. Which state?
I guess my American-ness was obvious to him. This particular vendor makes Ebru painting scarves and has been doing so for 3 years. He's a retired chemical engineer who graduated with an MS from the Univeristy of Beirut and whose son works in San Francisco as a computer game animator. OK, so he can ask me which state I'm from I suppose. It was nice to make it past the answer of "America" and the response of "Oh, very nice." and have the conversation end there, which is what usually happens. We've reached the limit of our common English words by that point.
This morning as I was trying to figure out what shopping to do where and with whom, Paul called to see if Brian still wanted to go to the craft fair. I didn't know anything about it, but took the opportunity to leave Brian at home with the kids and go off to the fair with Paul, Becky, and Emma. After the usual Turkish logistics issues of traveling with more than one person, we made it to the Ataturk Kultur Merkezi. Just before major holidays there is a shopping fair with booths from all over Turkey and Europe/Asia, and next week starts the Kurban Bayram (Sacrifice Holiday), the second biggest holiday of the year after Ramazan. Since I didn't know I was going I didn't have very much cash with me, which was probably good! Here are some pictures of the food area, and of a Turkish candy served from screwdrivers (yep, that's what those are!). I found some great Christmas presents and souvenirs, and enjoyed the conversations with some of the vendors, ranging from absolutley zero English and just lots of smiles and nods, to this one:
Vendor: Where are you from?
Cortney: America
Vendor: Yes, I know. Which state?
I guess my American-ness was obvious to him. This particular vendor makes Ebru painting scarves and has been doing so for 3 years. He's a retired chemical engineer who graduated with an MS from the Univeristy of Beirut and whose son works in San Francisco as a computer game animator. OK, so he can ask me which state I'm from I suppose. It was nice to make it past the answer of "America" and the response of "Oh, very nice." and have the conversation end there, which is what usually happens. We've reached the limit of our common English words by that point.
Lunch and seeing all the food preparations was wonderful. Here's a little peek:
The Kung Fu Panda DVD debuted at our house tonight. After some technical difficulties with the sound. But the show went on and we got a good laugh out of it. As Brian says, "I liked it more than I wanted to."
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