Ankara-Sunday, April 5

I finished reading "Porcelain Moon and Pomegranates" by Ustun Bilgen-Reinart today. It has really resonated with me and I'm still thinking through the different parts of the book. It is written by a Turkish woman who was born in Ankara, lived in Canada from teens to middle age, and then returned to Ankara and it chronicles some of the non-touristy issues in Turkey...like the gold mine, the PKK fighting in the southeast, prostitution, dams, all that happy stuff. I'm glad I found it hidden away on a bookshelf in an English section at D&R. The author is currently teaching at the University literally 5 minutes away from our apartment...maybe I'll think up some excuse to try and meet with her before we leave.

We kept ourselves busy today with a trip up to the tennis courts behind our building, some painting and potato stamping on the kitchen floor (Aeden stamps with gusto!), and even made some finger jello and used cookie cutters to cut Easter bunnies, flowers, and other shapes before chomping it down. The strawberry flavored "Jel" worked fine, but the apple-kiwi Jel precipitated and never solidified in the pan. How disappointing!