LOST IN SIVAS

Changes

2006-02-09T07:48:00.000-08:00

And old family friend of my grandmother's named Edgar used to always say, "Plans Change". And Edgar certainly was right, because sometimes plans can change very drastically overnight.

Yesterday, we heard some very disturbing news: our school was suffering from serious financial sufferation, and was drowning in debt. Some mysterious dude in Norway is apparently buying the whole shebang and taking over ownership.

Now, that is not the real problem -- the real problem is that he believes he cannot afford to keep, house and pay three foreign teachers, and only wants one of us to stay. Another problem is that we all have to be out of our apartment by the end of the month and figure out what the ass we are going to do.

Considering that Zeynep is technically Turkish (even though she teaches in English with a Canadian accent), that means they want either myself or Dr Dre to stay, by ourselves, in Sivas. And as I may have mentioned before, Sivas is kind of a small, conservative town, with one bar and no other foreigners. And considering the language barrier, the prospect of staying and living here alone is not too appealing.

Our boss was practically begging one of us to decide to stay, saying that he would find us a new roommate and still take care of us, but to hell with that.

I GOIN HOME FOR CARNIVAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am now officially heading home on February 23rd to do three very important things:
1. PLAY MAS
2. get my working holiday visa so that I can make loud koin in London
3. get a TAN (we are both grossly pale, like those geckos that live behind the paintings)

It has all been so sudden... when our director told us that we had to go, we all tossed and turned all night wondering exactly what to do. Go to Istanbul to work for a few months? Perhaps go to another country to teach? Japan? Korea? Dre and Zeynep are still not entirely sure what they will do, but either way, all of us are leaving Sivas within 2 weeks.

Ohhhh Sivas. So this is the end! Two weeks and no more Sivas! At least I can say I had a good experience, and enjoyed teaching, and saw many many beautiful places. I think it may be an extreme shock to go from the winter of Sivas to the madness and mayhem of Carnival. Two weeks is a very short amount of time, but better than nothing I suppose!

I wonder though... what shall I do with this blog?

Brrrrrrrrrrrrr!

2006-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

Things have been all around NICE in Sivas. Even the weather has been pretty damn sweet. The sun shined its damndest, and melted all that slippery snow on the sidewalks, and it was actually warm enough to lime in the teacher's lounge with the windows wide open for a change. It was nice to feel the sun again.

Above: A sunny day on Ataturk Caddesi, right in front of our school.

The other day I was strolling down the avenue and saw a huge, loud mob of people clamoring like crazy. It was right on the corner of Bank Street, so I figured it was FREENESS. And you KNOW how no matter where you go, people love free stuff!

What did I see?

THE BIGGEST FREAKIN DONER I'VE EVER SEEN.

What the heck is doner, you may be asking? Well boys and girls, it's only the tastiest Turkish treat around! They stack thin, seasoned slices of meat (either beef, lamb, or chicken) on top of each other on this gigantic skewer, until it is about three feet high and over 100 pounds. Then they spit roast it on an open flame, slowly turning it and carefully slicing off the cooked outer layers. It is positively delicious.

Above: the doner-freeness extravaganza. They were giving away 'doner durum', which is slices of meat wrapped in pide bread, kinda like a gyro. People were going NUTS. I think the whole promotion is because of the bird-flu scare, and the fact that chicken sales have dropped drastically as a result.

*******************

Today we did something a little........ strange. Some students of ours, who speak quite quite well, invited us to a ski place in the mountains to ski and bar-b-que. However, we were not aware that it was going to be a SNOW-B-QUE!

Below: Cem and Oral try to get the fire started...

... and Durgu roasts some sucuk (sausage), sweet long peppers, and tomatoes.

It was good food... and the mountains are really beautiful...but geez... standing in -20'C weather in the mountains of Central Anatolia with snow up to my ankles is not what I thought I would be doing on my day off! But say what... when in Rome, right!

TOMORROW!

2006-01-06T07:06:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is the big day -- Chad arrives!

This picture below was taken the day that I was leaving Trinidad. It can only be described as "A Perfect Day". I went in the morning with my darling sister and brother-in-law to get one last trip to the beach before heading to the airport that night. We ended up discovering a beautiful little place to take a dip, which we dubbed The Emerald Cove, because of how perfectly green the sea was.

The sun was shining, the sky was a brilliant blue, it was very, very hot, and the water was very cold and crisp. We played in the waves for about half an hour, and waved at fishing boats going by. After that we lounged on another nearby beach, Las Cuevas, for a few hours, just enjoying my last swim and the tropical weather. It was a strange feeling, knowing I was leaving my home when I don't exactly have a plan for the future. I can only hope I will find a teaching job and be on my way soon.

That afternoon as we drove back, all drowsy and happy in the back seat, watching the dense forest and bamboo whizz by the car window, I thought about how beautiful Trinidad is. But instead of feeling sad or depressed about leaving paradise, my family, my cats and dogs and friends, I felt strangely peaceful. Like this was how it was supposed to be.

Some people HATE Trinidad and are just dying to get out and move to Miami or Toronto or London or wherever, and never look back. I guess that last day just gave me a good feeling to know that even though I was leaving home, and did not know where I would end up, or when I would be back, there were many, many good things to go back for, and that I would be back to enjoy those things, when the time was right.

Separation Anxiety

2006-02-18T03:36:00.000-08:00

You would think that after years and years of practice, saying goodbye would get easier. You finish school and people go their separate ways. Friends move away to go to university or to live in far away countries. Family members migrate or pass away, never to be seen again. That is life I guess - hellos and goodbyes. People come, people go. Fact of life. But saying goodbye never seems to get easier.

These are my last few days in Sivas. In three days, I will be back home in paradise for two weeks, with my family, loved ones, and friends, seeing familiar faces and eating our favorite foods, swimming at the beach, and enjoying ourselves in the biggest, wildest, drunkest Carnival in the world, the sun beating on our faces, calypso pumping, people dancing through the streets until the sun rises.

Sounds pretty good, no?

So why do I feel so incredibly sad?

I am definitely suffering from some separation anxiety in preparation for my departure from Sivas. I've only been here for six months, but this funny little mountain town has become a part of me and I've become strangely attached to it. Things that were bizarre six months ago are now perfectly normal. And the two ladies, Z and D, who were complete strangers have become good roommates and friends. I've learnt some Turkish, and taught some English. I've been beautiful places and strange new landscapes. I've walked in 1,000 year old caves and stood in awe in fantastic mosques. And I've looked, listened, pondered, and absorbed the Turkish culture like a sponge.

There are lots of things I am going to miss -- cheap and delicious Turkish food, drinking tea with shopkeepers, and sharing laughs with my students in class. I'm gonna miss hearing the call to prayer echoing through the streets five times a day, eating fresh bread twice a day, women who take pride in being ladies, and cold Efes in a warm bar with Drunken Dentists.

Coming to Turkey has certainly been a life-changing and eye-opening experience for a little girl from a small island. Traveling to this new and different culture has been difficult, exciting, fun, frustrating, and wonderful all at the same time. I am quite sad to leave, but who knows, maybe in the near future I will live in Turkey again. I will definitely return to visit and hear the sound of the call to prayer echo over the Bosphorus in Istanbul. I can't say when, but rest assured, I will return to Turkey one day and look back on my 6 months in Sivas and remember all the good times.

Long time no see!

2006-01-30T06:02:00.000-08:00

SNOW IN YUH PWEFM!!!!!!

Winter has officially come to mash us up. It is about -20'C every day, although sometimes it is nice and sunny and all the snow melts. However, there is a big downside to the sunny weather -- the sidewalks have become a MAJOR health hazard! For some god forsaken reason everything is covered in a slick sheet of bumpy ice, and I have now buss my ass and fallen right down FIVE TIMES. Haven't these people ever heard of SALT???????????

This was the view from our living room the other day. It was madness.

It's been a heck of a long time since I've written. Chad left on the 17th and since then I've pretty much been swamped in work. Plenty new classes started, and now we're all working 6 days a week. Today is our day off, thank god. Zeynep and I went to the gym this morning, but the aerobics instructor was sick so two other ladies ended up leading the class, which was just fine. I even got an inpromptu belly dancing lesson! And tonight, we are going to the university to enjoy some fish. They bring it to the table whole, head, tail, everything. And it is freakin AMAZING.

My real concern these days is what to do come July. My contract is supposed to be up in July, and I have to decide what it is I am going to do and where I am going to go. Should I go back to Trinidad, find an apartment and a job, and so forth? Should I go home for the summer, get a visa for the UK and then buss it again? I'm really not too sure what will happen!

Anyways. Sorry for the lame post. Really not too much to report on this side!

What A Wonderful Week!!!!!

2006-01-16T00:57:00.000-08:00

It has been an absolutely wonderful week having Chad here. Surprisingly, he settled into the Sivas flow of life quite well and not suffered any real culture shock (except for one toilet episode, which I shall tell you about later). In fact, Chad seems to like Sivas so much, he says he would not mind staying!

We did pretty much nothing for the first day, as Chad recovered from a lack of sleep, due to him working the night shift in England for two weeks straight. He was also very skinny from living like a true bachelor in London, so I set on the task of fattening him up for the kill, with lots of yummy Turkish food.

Chad was not the only one who was being fattened up for the kill, because the Bayram holiday is called The Festival of the Sacrifice, where everyone slaughters an animal to give thanks for the year's prosperity, and shares the meat with neighbors and those less fortunate. So on the first day that we went wondering around, we saw our fair share of bulls, cows, sheep and goats in the various stages of sacrifice.

Someone's eating lamb tonight!!!!

Beef, anyone?

When it was all done, there were truck loads upon truck loads of skins. And lots of blood in the streets. Yech!

But enough of the blood and gore, and on with our story!!!

So off we went, to see Sivas, and I was more than happy to play tour guide.

Above: Chad strikes a striking pose by the Cifte Minarets.

We also took a walk up to the Sivas Citadel, which was an old fort overlooking the city, and it was just beautiful, with a fantastic panoramic view of everything.

Chad thought that he would just breeze out in Sivas for ten days. But little did he know that I had orchestrated an evil evil plan, to whisk him away on a surprise adventure to a magical far away kingdom known as Cappadocia, The Land of the Fairy Chimneys.

Cappadocia is famous for its 10,000 year old civilizations, cultural importance and unique cave dwellings. The area was once highly volcanic, and the rich volcanic peat that spilled over the land for millions of years was blown to and fro by the winds, to form bizarre stone structures which came to be known as "Fairy Chimneys".

Above: Us in front of fairy chimneys.

But Chad knew nothing about all this! Poor ignorant fool!

I awoke his sleeping ass at the butt crack of dawn and told him gently that we had to get up, bathe, pack our bags and get to the bus station. He was more than a little bewildered, and in the bus station experienced the mildly difficult and slightly upleasant task of using the squatting toilets, but once on the bus we were fine, and heading to Goreme for three days.

Above: the town of Goreme.

Goreme has a fascinating and bizarre landscape. The first settlers in this area were nomads, who decided to carve their homes into the soft but stable earth. But it was not just a bunch of people sitting in a cave poking a stick in the dirt -- they carved elaborate underground cities, farmed the land, and had rooms for every purpose, from camel stables to wine fermentation, to long tables and benches, all carved into the caves.

We arrived at our hostel, The Traveller's Cave, and settled in to our cave room. It was very comfortable, though it smelt a little dank. The most interesting feature was the fact that the shower was IN the toilet, so that if you in fact wanted to, you could pee, brush your teeth, and bathe all at the same time.

Our hotel

Our three-in-one bathroom.

Goreme has become a big tourist area over the past twenty years, with endless hotels and hostels created from the ancient caves in the area, and so the town has become a bustling little area, with lots of bars, restaurants and stores selling souveniers.

The Traveller's Cave was chock full of about 30 Korean tourists, and one very large New Zealander called Steve who meant to visit Turkey for a few days and accidentally ended up staying for over four weeks. Apparently so many Koreans go to Cappadocia that the hostels and restaurants will have their information in English, Turkish and Korean! In fact, our hostel even had stir-fry on their menu!

Above: Steve and his Korean "darlings", the dude from the hostel we called "Fabio" on account of his mega mop of hair, and me and Chaddos.

After settling in to our place, we walked about 1 km to the Goreme Open Air Museum, where we spent the afternoon. The Museum is an old cave community with lots of churches, and is now a protected World Heritage Site, and a very, very big tourist trap.

Cappadocia was also highly influenced by Christianity, when the disciples passed through Turkey spreading the word. The area is full to the brim of endless rock churches, cave churches and monasteries. The caves are all painted in the red ochre with paintings of Jesus Christ, Mary, endless saints and important scenes from the Bible.

The next day, after sleeping for about ten hours, we found a dude to take us around on a mini-tour and show us a few selected sites.

First the Sword Valley...

Then to see an area full of rock structures that look like animals; this one is known as Camel Rock...

Then to see more rock formations and Fairy Chimneys,

By the way... has anyone noticed that these Fairy Chimneys strongly resemble giant circumsized totees? Because I do!

Then Chad almost got bit on the head by a camel, ha ha! Good stuff.

Mmm! Doesn't Chad's head looks like a tasty treat? Nam nam nam!

That night we had a big dinner, and smoked some nargile and drank some delicious ice cold Efes.

The next day was our last day in Goreme, so after breakfast Chad and I ended up wandering around in the bush for a few hours. It was really stunning, and we felt as though we were a million miles away from everything, with nothing but miles and miles and miles of red and pink stone, fairy chimneys, and ancient caves.

Here Chad reclines in what looks like the eye socket of a dinosaur head

Goodness gracious! Doesn't Chad have a very large... um.... heh... smile!

Above - a pretty cat, a very blue door, and old-school burglar proofing.

Unfortunately, all things must come to an end, so we checked out of our cave and got our asses back on the bus, and headed back home to Sivas to enjoy Chad's last two days.

And now he is gone. I reluctantly took him to the airport this morning and bid him a very very fond farewell. I don't know when Chad will be back or when we will see each other again. So if you all will excuse me, I am going to go and drown my sorrows in chocolate and love songs.

Peace out!

Language barriers

2006-01-05T06:57:00.000-08:00

I think I have been going about this whole language barrier thing all wrong. Since we came I have been trying to pick up a little Turkish here and there, so that at least I could get by on my own... for example I can go to the market and ask for a half kilo of this and a kilo of that and ask how much... I can order in a restaurant... I can convey basic information and even have a semi-conversation with a stranger and we can understand each other. My Turkish sucks but once they can get a few words they can figure out what I have to say, and sometimes I seem to trick a few people into believing I amTurkish!

But today I have decided that trying to pass for a native is all wrong, so I have decided to start talking to strangers in English. And you'd be amazed at the difference! SO MANY PEOPLE know English! Here all this time I assumed most of them didn't know English, so I spoke to them in Turkish, but the second they hear me talk English, the English comes out! Sometimes they don't speak very much, sometimes they can only say 'where are you from?' but hey man, I done with this Turkish business. I thought that the more Turkish I could talk the better, but hell, it seems that the more English that I speak, the more English I get back! So from now on, I done with this trying to fit in crap, and going for the all out tourist vibes!!

HOS GELDINIZ, 2006!

2006-01-02T12:19:00.000-08:00

As I said in the last post, because Sivas is so quiet, the girls and I headed over to Istanbul for the weekend to ring in the new year in the biggest, loudest, craziest fete that we could possibly find. I am glad to say, mission complete. And now we are all EXHAUSTED!!

We began our 4-day-fete-fest by going to our favorite spot, The Only Bar In Sivas, with a few friends after work to have some drinks.

"I can make your mouth feel good.... because... I am a dentist!" This was the first time we've seen Ozer LOADED! And it was hilarious.

Here Saim tries his hand again at this whole drinking thing. I don't think he really likes it though! Ah the things we do for love.

Cakmak varma??? Don't ask. It is a dirty Turkish joke we have going.

The next day we packed up our shit and headed to the airport.

This picture brings back memories of when we first arrived in Sivas, back in September. We were in the plane and flying over what appeared to be nothing but land, when suddenly the pilot announces that we are beginning our descent into Sivas. "Where the hell is the airport?" I wondered. "Where the hell is the RUNWAY?" I worried. "WHERE THE F*** IS SIVAS?" I hyperventilated. Sivas Domestic Airport is literally in the middle of nowhere up in the mountains and you can't even see the city from there. Boy did I panic as we got off the plane! Ha!

Here a lone gunman stands guard on the runway, protecting Sivas from invasion.

The plane ride was really quite beautiful, and we watched the landscape change from the snow covered mountains of Sivas to the red earth of Central Anatolia. Every few minutes we'd fly over a tiny little village in the middle of nowhere, and I'd wonder, why on earth are they there? Why did they decide to set up camp there in such a random spot? And what in the hell do they DO??

Once we arrived in Istanbul, we then had the task of finding out hostel. It was rush hour, and we barely got onto the street car heading to Sultanahmet, which is the hostel district and the heart of the touristic area with all of the famous sights a stone's throw away.

Above - the beautiful Blue Mosque.

Once we arrived in Sultanahmet, we tried to catch a cab, and believe it or not, they refused to take us! "But it is so close?" they almost asked. "Why don't you just walk?" Now what kind of a frickin taxi driver says he doesn't want to drive three tourists? So we walked, and made the mistake of asking for directions. Of course, everyone we asked told us something different and had us walking in circles. Either the people who live in this area (a) hate tourists, (b) are extremely bored and amuse themselves by getting tourists lost, or (c) all of the above.

Finally we found our place, the Bahaus Guesthouse. Run by the round bellied curly haired Nigel and his motley crew of workers, Bahaus was full for the new years weekend with travellers and backpackers from all over the world.

Across from our hostel, a modest Turkish lady gazes wistfully off of her balcony.

Marry Christmas! Hah. Nice spelling.

We dumped off our stuff and headed to Taksim Square, sort of the equivalent of Times Square in New York but without all the flashing ads. In Taksim there are apparently over 2,000 bars, and you can find any and everything, from clothes to piercings and tattoo parlours, but then right next to the piercing place there's a dude selling fresh fish.

Our first stop -- MC DONALDS!

Now I know this may sound silly, but trust me, eating one type of food day in and day out can get a bit repetitive!

After that, we set about the very serious business of DRINKING. We went bar hopping for a few hours, heard a band sing some REM songs in English, and ended up in a nightclub dancing our asses off, and running up a $170 bar bill in the process.

Outside of Cafe Turka.

Inside of Baraci. Oh yeah!!!!!! Shake it!

The next day, mildly hungover but feeling good, we went to the Grand Bazaar, the biggest shopping area you could imagine, an endless maze of shops and stores and people trying to bargain and rip you off. Everyone there speaks English, and usually a few other languages too. "Hello where are you from?" is the most common greeting, although there is one guy whose line is "Hello can I rip you off?" These people have learnt the fine art of sweet talking tourists. I even was serenaded by a guy who did a pretty good impression of Elvis's "Heartbreak Hotel". These people will do ANYTHING to get your sale, but the key is to bargain and knock down the price.

It works like this:

1. You ask how much the price is.
2. They suggest a price.
3. You screw up your face, and suggest a lower price.
4. They laugh and say it is worth so much more, and that they are in fact giving you a discount already.
5. You say thank you and begin to walk away.
6. He calls you back and gives it to you for your suggested price.

Rarr! Belly dancing makes mannequins hungry!

Because even stray kitties need love too.

That night, New Years Eve, the owners of Bahaus held a pre-party lime in the common room, where all the travellers sat and drank and chatted and got to know each other. We met lots of great people --

Rich from California, who is teaching and volunteering at an orphanage in Romania and has travelled to 36 countries and seen everything from a hot air baloon safari in Africa to most of Europe;

Some extremely jolly Germans, who were backpacking with no money....

Dan from Brighton, about to pass out, who also volunteers at the same orphanage as Rich, with Jenny from Zimbabwe and Emily from London, in lovely gold masks....

Willy, who works in the hostel but does not enjoy it because he is bored and tired of sleeping with dotish tourist girls who fall for his sexy nature and charm...

Those war-loving Germans get into a party-favor fight....

At far left, Rebecca tries her hand at the Efes drinking competition with the boys. Rebecca and a friend of hers were supposed to travel Turkey for a week, but her friend apparently got homesick and missed her boyfriend too much, and ditched Rebecca after two days to go back to the USA. What a dumbass!!!!

"Doofy" does a goofy dance.

We then all headed over to a nightclub in Taksim, where a live band was playing a bunch of American rock 'n' roll, we rang in the new year, and everyone boogied down. Everyone also, of course, hooked up with each other, which is probably what happens in hostels all the time. One of the Germans was trying to talk to a Turkish girl, so I whispered in his ear, "Tell her she is cok guzel" which means "very beautiful". He did, and apparently he did not get back to the hostel until 8 am! Way to go!

The next day we got up around midday, and Rich joined us for a cruise of the Bosphorus Strait, which runs between the Asian and European sides of Istanbul. It was a beautiful, warm, clear day, and the cruise was a great way to relax.

My favorite part of the cruise was when it was time for the call to prayer, and one by one, thousands upon thousands of imams began to sing out from the mosques, calling out from the mosque steeple loudspeaker, a chorus of voices, a symphony of prayers, echoing throughout the massive city, sort of like when a dog starts to sing in the night and all of the other dogs join in the song... (I hope that is not offensive to compare the call to prayer to dogs howling in the night!).

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. We awoke early the next morning and reluctantly headed to the airport and returned to Sivas. Thankfully it was not as cold as we were expecting it to be, but it is strange to be back in a small town after getting used to Istanbul. But thankfully, Istanbul is only one hour away, so I hope that perhaps in the summer, we will go again.

Istanbul bound

2005-12-29T09:27:00.000-08:00

So this is it -- our last day in Sivas for 2005! Tomorrow we are heading out of this funny little mountain town into the strangest, most wonderful, big, crazy, noisy, bacchanalic, hustling, bustling modern-yet-ancient city -- the glory that is Istanbul. We figured that since we only live once, we should take the opportunity to ring in 2006 in Istanbul and get the heck out of Sivas for a few days. We'll be staying right in the heart of the action in the old part of the city called Sultanamet in a hostel. Our only plans for the next four days are to eat some American food (Burger King!) to get some variety in our diet, to buy some beautiful stuff in the mad maze that is The Grand Bazaar, and fete, fete, FETE. Other plans -- find a gay bar on the first night, and find the biggest, loudest, sweatiest club we can and dance the night away for the new year.

The only thing that is missing is my Chad. *sad* I would loved to spend the new year with him, but I think him visiting for 10 days is better! And he comes to Sivas in NINE DAYS!!!! Woweeeee!!!!!

Well, HAPPY NEW YEAR in advance everyone, hope you all have a wonderful time whereever you may be, have many many drinks, and ENJOY!!!!!!!!

Santa in Sivas

2005-12-26T05:52:00.000-08:00

I was saying to my friend Ozer last night that things that are known the world over all seem to have some sort of origin in Turkey, or more precisely, in the Central Anatolian region (before Turkey was known as Turkey, eons ago).

For example, did you know that the original St. Nicholas, aka the one and only Santa Claus, is (supposedly) actually from Turkey, and not from the North Pole, as some claim? Apparently the true story of the person who is now known as Santa Claus begins in the town of Patara, on the south coast of Turkey, around 300 AD.

A wealthy Christian man, he gave all of his inheritance and worldly possessions to help the poor, and he was soon made the Bishop of Myra. He became known as a gift-giver, and faithful followers of this generous man followed his example. He was made a saint by the church 100 years after his death. His popularity and reputation spread through Europe and Asia Minor during the Middle Ages.

But how did this image of a saint turn into the Santa Claus that we know and love today?

To cut a long story short, here is the summary:

During the 16th century, there was a Protestant Reformation, and they did not take kindly to all of the Christian saints, bishops and other men of the cloth. They tried to stamp out the customs of St. Nick and destroy the traditional celebrations of the saint. By the 1800s the original story and image of St. Nick had been altered drastically, and endless writers and artists created the image of a jolly, chubby cheeked white-haired old geezer, and this is the image that stuck to this day.

Well obviously the original St. Nick did not forget his Turkish roots, because we were very happy yesterday when we saw that Santa found his way to Sivas. Even though we did not have a tree, we did have stockings and gifts!

(Thanks Momma Carm!!!!!!)

We spent our Christmas day the same way we would have at our respective homes -- we woke up in the morning, opened gifts in our pajamas, had breakfast, and then later that day we got together with some friends, ate some food, and of course had some drinks.

Here Ozer tries a sweet cigar, Eren shows off his smoking skills, and Dre watches on, in absolute amazement. After showing Ozer some pictures from Trinidad, he has decided that he is going to become a Trini and move there to be a very rich dentist, and get lots of beautiful tropical women in bikinis 24/7. I even sang the national anthem for him so that he can get used to his new nationality!

This is Saim, who was actually a student of Zeynep's, but now that he finished the course and she is no longer his teacher, there is no more conflict of interest! Ha! The other night he came out with us to the Efes Bar, and had his FIRST DRINK. Apparently he grew up as a very very good boy, so don't ask me what made him decide it was time to start drinking. I think he did not like the beer which is understandable. Last night he tried raki for the first time. Poor guy! We are a bad influence, damn wild wanton western women!

Below is the view from our living room window, which I am showing you because I think the snow capped mountains are just stunning.

2005-12-23T14:03:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, I woke up one morning and peeked out of the living room window at the mountains in the distance, and saw the cold slowly coming towards Sivas. The other day I saw the first signs of snow, slowly creeping through Central Anatolia and start crawling over the mountain tops down into our valley, like varicose veins slowly making their way down an old woman's thigh.

Last night it hit -- snow every frickin where. I haven't seen snow in over three years, so I am going through the whole 'ooooh it's so pretty' phase, but when it all turns into gross, dirty, muddy, disgusting brown slush, and I slip on the ice and buss my tail in the middle of the street, I know I will be cursing the snow left right and center.

On the bright side, my darling Chad is coming to Sivas to visit me for ten whole days, and I am extremely ecstatic about this.

However, we have encountered great difficulty with travel arrangements. One problem is the location of Sivas, in the middle of nowhere, with no international airport. The second problem is that Chad is coming during a major public holiday, and EVERY bus ticket and EVERY flight is completely and utterly booked.

See, Ramadan is celebrated in two parts -- first the Seker Bayram (seker is sugar), which happens after the 30 days of feasting is over, where there is a 5-day holiday. This is when I went to see Chad in November. The second part is the Kurban Bayram, or the Festival of the Sacrifice, which is coming up in January, and the whole country will enjoy 8 days of vacation.

The Kurban Bayram, as you can tell by the name, involves animal sacrifice. My roommate Andrea is extremely worried about this, because she says that if we are walking down the road and see an animal get its throat slit she will die. I am not too keen on seeing it myself and hope that we don't.

The sacrifice is meant to give thanks for your prosperity, and to share with those less fortunate than you. In accordance with Muslim traditions, 1/3 of the meat should immediately be cooked at home by the owner of the animal, 1/3 of the meat should be distributed among the poor and the last 1/3 should distributed among neighbors and relatives.

Apparently in recent days, as the world becomes more modernized and Westernized, the festival of the sacrifice has become less of a festival and more of a holiday. People all over Turkey use this as an opportunity to go back to their home town and see their family and loved ones.

As a direct result, I was not even able to get Chad a direct flight from Istanbul to Sivas, so the poor guy has to go from Istanbul to Kayseri, which is about three hours away, the plan being that Chad would arrive in Kayseri and then hop on a bus to Sivas. The next problem was that every bus ticket to every city is booked, so I was forced to ask my student, a businessman that I tutor two hours a day, to drive me to Kayseri to get Chad. He was more than happy to help his hocam (teacher) out, and I am very grateful for his help. Dre and Zeynep have agreed to come with me on the road trip to Kayseri to collect Chad, so he will be greeted by an entourage when he arrives.

2005-12-21T09:12:00.000-08:00

Just another exciting day in Sivas!

Today's helpful hint for life in Turkey: When you buy fresh ekmek (bread), make sure to turn the bread over and look for the sticker. Remove the sticker. Do not eat the sticker!

Here are some pictures from the other night when we went to the Sultan's Roof with our friend Ozer and the other military doctor dudes who I hitch hiked to Kayseri with en route to London.

And yes, that is a frickin cigarette in my hand! Is that a problem???

If you look closely in the pictures, you will see on the tables a brass contraption with a milky sort of drink in it. That is Raki (rack-uh) which, when mixed with water, turns a milky white. At nice restaurants and bars, they serve you your raki in this:

A brass raki-cooler. The outer basin is filled with water and then frozen, so that your drink always stays beastly cold.

It was a very funny evening. The guys we were liming with spoke a good bit of English, and after a few drinks, we were teaching them English and they were teaching us Turkish. By midnight a bit too much Raki was drank, and let's just say by the end of the night, one of us ended up with a muddy bottom.

Want to take a wild guess who???

2005-12-19T05:15:00.000-08:00

Things continue to go well at the gym. My hocam (pronounced HO-JAM), which means 'teacher', is a great instructor, and has given me a wonderful melange of exercises, and after two weeks I swear I can feel my waist start to shrink. I will win the battle of the bulge! I will be triumphant!

Sometimes when I go to the gym I am the only woman there. In fact I have only seen another woman there ONCE. I don't really mind -- none of the guys give me a hard time, and we all recognize each other now and say hello. Maybe they are impressed at my weight-lifting abilities. But generally, women do not go and work out in the gym with the dudes.

Usually I head to the gym around 1 or 2 pm, but the other day I went in the morning instead, not realizing that there was a ladies' aerobics class about to start. Apparently the gym is closed to all other members (meaning NO MEN) between the hours of 12 and 2 for the ladies step class. The equipment in the main room is pushed to the side and a big orange curtain is pulled across the window to ensure complete and impenetrable privacy and modesty.

Even though I went there to do the circuit, I decided I'd give the step class a try, and it turned out to be a blast. Most of the women are middle aged housewives, who come to the gym with their headscarves on and their long coats and shed the modest clothes in exchange for tights and Nikes. They all seem to know each other and are very friendly and clearly enjoy themselves. During the 5-minute walk-around-the-gym-ten-times warm up exercise, sometimes one or two of them will spontaneously break into a belly dance routine if a song they like comes on.

Today one girl about my age shyly approached me and spoke to me in what English she knew, and I tried my best to talk to her in whatever Turkish I know, and the communication seemed to be successful! She is 18 years old and has a brother who lives in Washington, DC. Another older lady joined in the convo and told me that she went to Canada three times, and that she thinks Canada is "cok guzel" (choke-goozelle), which means "very good".

The instructor is a girl as skinny as a rail and as flexible as a piece of wet spaghetti and she has us jumping around the place like crazy people. It is funny to see these middle-aged ladies, and even two grannies, doing aerobics and trying to jump around, but they seem to have so much fun.

The women in the generation above me typically were raised to be housewives and mothers. Men and women also seem to live very seperate lives here. Men do their own thing and go to work and hang out with the dudes, and come home for food and time with the kids and loving from the wife.

Women, therefore, tend to form very strong and close friendships with other women, such as their cousins, sisters, neighbors and female friends. Our first week here in Sivas all of our female neighbours visited us, and brought us cake and invited themselves in for tea. Perhaps that is why they all hate us now -- we aren't home very often and don't exactly have tea parties on Friday afternoon!

I remember once, these two ladies came in to visit us and pulled some needlework out of their bags and began to knit! This is apparently very normal for ladies to do together. They take care of the kids, do the shopping, go to the market and the grocery, drink tea and keep each other company, since they don't work.

All over the place you will see men's hangout spots, where these old dudes go and play cards or dominos or whatever and drink tea. There are, of course, no ladies' hangout spots, which is perhaps why these ladies love the aerobics class so much. Even the women's hair salons are private -- there is a curtain drawn over the windows and the door so that people in the street can't see in. Even at our new favorite liming spot, the Efes Biralem a.k.a. The Only Bar In Sivas, the first two floors of the building are just for dudes, so ladies and couples have to go to the third floor.

I am still a bit undecided about how I feel about all this modesty. The past three months have suddenly made me very aware of my own level of modesty, which I must admit was a little bit low! It's also made me modify the way that I dress, I am suddenly very conscious of if my arms or chest are showing, and I always find myself wondering whether my outfit is too revealing, or too tight, or too booby! This is a far departure from the half-nakedness and ultra-sexiness of Trinidadian society.

Some people believe that women covering up with head scarves or whatever is a form of oppression. I'm not too sure I agree. It seems to me that the whole point of the modesty is so that women don't get themselves into bad situations where they are harassed or molested or troubled. Some people may think a woman is free if she can walk down the road half naked. But let's be realistic. Men are horny animals, and I am starting to think that the culture of modesty exists NOT to control or keep women down, but rather to FREE them from having to deal with horny dogs 24/7. It is so that women don't attract unwanted attention from men who will tell them inappropriate things. It is so that a woman will be a lady, and be treated with respect as a result.

Imagine this scenario: Some little chick dressed like a hooker goes somewhere with a bunch of guys, throws herself all over them like a big flirt, drinks a bottle of whisky with them in the back of a car, goes to lime with them in a hotel room or something, and then when one of the drunken guys tries to grope her, suddenly she's completely shocked. "Oh my god how could you think I'd do that? How dare they?" Well come on chick! Get yourself a reality check! If you dress and act like a whore, men will treat you like a whore. If you dress and act like a lady, you will be treated like a lady. Common sense, no?

I'm not about to start wearing a head scarf or anything, but I am starting to understand the reason behind it a little better. I don't think it is a form of repression, but rather a way that a woman can protect herself from the dirtiness of society.

But don't fool yourself! Who knows what evil lurks under the modest head scarf! These girls aren't stupid, and they sure aren't angels. They're just better at hiding it!

Anyways, in conclusion, I always thought that women in conservative Muslim countries were oppressed and suffering. But I now appreciate the kind of dignified life they live.

Kind of ironic no? That in the Western world a woman can do any damn thing she likes, but I had to come all the way to a Muslim country to learn how to be a real lady!

2005-12-18T02:52:00.000-08:00

I realised that today is December 18th, which means that Christmas is in exactly one week. I keep forgetting about Christmas because - obviously - Christmas is not a big deal here in Sivas. In fact, it is completely absent, non-existent even. I have yet to hear a single Christmas carol, there are no Christmas ads on TV, no lights up in people's windows, no lights on any trees, no sign of Christmas in the malls, no wreaths on people's doors, and of course, no mad Christmas spend-a-thon as people rush to buy gifts they don't want to buy to give to people they don't want to give to who won't even like the gift anyway.

I remember how chaotic Christmas is in Trinidad and must admit I am EXTREMELY happy to not have to deal with Christmas this year. Quite frankly I think Christmas sucks. Every year I try to get my family to skip the whole damn Christmas crap thing and go to the beach instead! But no, every year it's the same crap. Stressing about who is coming to the lunch, who is cooking what, do we have enough of this, do we have enough of that, this one is only getting two gifts that's not enough fuck now I have to go to the mall again god dammit, oh shit I forgot a gift for so-and-so! Etcetera etcetera etcetera! Christmas seems to be more stress than it is worth. And the traffic!! My god. Everyone gets so irate, there are no parking spaces anywhere, you are bombarded by insipid Christmas carols that make you want to jab a glittered Christmas ornament in your eyeball... it is exhausting!

Miranda and Jimbo, my dear sister and brother-in-law, are doing the right thing going to Tobago. If I were there, I'd go too!

Another thing I am very happy about is the weather. Today is such a beautiful day. The sun is shining, the sky is blue, the clouds are white and fluffy, and it is WARM. I am sitting in the living room with the window wide open, and it's open in my bedroom as well, and it isn't cold. And considering it is mid-December, this is a miracle! Apparently this is very unusual weather for Sivas, because usually at this time we'd be up to our asses in snow. But no snow! Instead it is warm enough to wear a light fall jacket outside. I guess global warming does have some benefits! Either that or this is the calm before the storm, and the next four months are going to be hell.

2005-12-13T23:44:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZEYNEP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This time in Turkish!

DOGUM GUNUN KUTLU OLSUN, ZEYNEP!!!

(It's a lot easier in English, no?)

We went out after work to the Efes Biralem, the newest, hottest bar in Sivas. We drank quite a few of those Efes Bongs (see picture one), which is a private tap you can get for your table, complete with cold pack! Our friends Ozer (the tall one!) and Eren came out to support the cause, and a good time was had by all.

Zeynep's future husband, hee hee!

At center, Andrea's future husband!!!!!

ESL is everywhere -- see on the blackboard above Dre's head the bartender wrote NO WORRIES!!!

More general drunkeness.

2005-12-10T04:01:00.000-08:00

Last night after a huge dinner courtesy master chef Zeynep, we all lay around rubbing our bellies like a snake that just swallowed a mongoose whole. What should we do on this Friday night, we wondered? We were clearly too lazy to go anywhere too far, so we decided to go to the Kangal Cafe, which is actually right opposite out apartment building.

We called up our absolutely gorgeous and very sweet friend, Eren, who was more than happy to accompany us to the Kangal.

The Kangal Cafe used to be a very large house, owned by these people.

It is a beautiful old building from 1881, with lots of huge rooms that have now been converted into liming spots. Each room is a little bit different, but most have beautiful kilims (hand woven carpets) on the floors and hanging on the walls. In some rooms you sit cross legged on the carpets around little brass tables. They have live music there on Friday nights, but the main attraction there is the nargile, or water pipe.

The nargile (pronounced NAR-GEE-LAY) is a wonderful Turkish tradition and you can choose differnt flavoured tobacco, such as cherry, strawberry, melon, apple and cappuchino.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, Zeynep, Andrea and I are going to demonstrate how to smoke a nargile.

Step one:
Take the nargile tip out of its hermetically sealed hygienic plastic wrapper.

Step two:
Put your tip into the neck of the nargile pipe.

Step three:
The nargile is lit by flaming hunks of coal.

Step four:
Suck on the nargile pipe, until you hear the water inside bubbling away. Exhale when satisfied and enjoy the delicious flavor.

Keep suckin Dre!!!

We then ran into two of our coworkers, Fidel and Cem (pronounced GEM), who joined us for some nargile enjoyment.

We then drank some Turkish coffee, which is very different to the typical coffee drank in the west. It is served in very small cups, and it is almost thick and sludgy. A lot of the grind will settle on the bottom, and under no circumstances are you to drank the grinds! The grinds serve a purpose -- fortune telling!

What you do is after you have drained the cup of the liquid, you then turn it upside down and put a piece of metal on it, either a ring, a cufflink, a coin or anything like that.

After the sludge at the bottom of the cup has cooled and set, the fortune reader (and it seems as though every Turk can do this) turns the cup back up and reads the grinds according to the shapes left in the cup, and by the amount of drippage. I've had mine read twice and both times the person saw a very large fish. Usually it also tells you that you have some major life decisions to make, and many choices that you can make that will either lead to you to happiness or misery. As if I needed coffee grinds to tell me that!

Anyways, the cafe closed around 12, so we moseyed back across the road to go home and called it a night.

2005-12-08T12:12:00.000-08:00

It seems as though every country in the world has its own traditional icons. For example, when my wonderful mother took me to Portugal, everywhere we went we saw The Cock of Barcelos.

The fable goes a little something like this -- a man was accused of stealing, and asked to make an appeal to the mayor of Barcelos to plead his case. Apparently he pointed to a roasted fowl sitting on a table nearby, and said, "If the cock crows, I shall be proven innocent." The cock crowed. Silly, yes I know.

But anyways, people are superstitious the world over!

Here in Turkey, no matter where you go, you will come across THE EVIL EYE, or Nazar Boncuk.

This traditional good luck charm was first made by Anatolian glass-blowers, who made these blue eyes by hand to protect the wearer from harm or evil intent. Parents pin little tiny evil eyes to their babies' and children's clothes. Apparntly, once an Evil Eye is found cracked, that means it has done its job and must be replaced immediately.

In more touristy areas, the Evil Eye can be found as earrings, t-shirts, rings, key chains, postcards, bracelets, amulets, wall hangings, towels, covers for your ironing board, notebooks and a melange of other paraphernalia.

We have yet to get an evil eye for our apartment! Tsk tsk tsk. Silly Canadian girls invite trouble into their homes!

2005-12-07T09:14:00.000-08:00

You know what, I have never believed in God, but after what I saw today, I just may have to change my mind...........

Do you see what I see? A shiny wooden counter top? A number of darts laying unused on the counter? Neon lights? Glasses hanging upside down, in a melange of sizes and colors? Napkins and coasters? Black ashtrays in a neat pile? A man in a blinding white, freshly pressed long sleeved shirt? Filling glass after glass after glass of beautiful, frothy, delicious, cold Efes fresh from the tap? Could it really be.......?

That's right people. The day finally came. I kept hoping and wishing, and I guess someone up there heard me.

A BAR HAS OPENED IN SIVAS.

Finally, A REAL BAR in Sivas. Not a HOTEL BAR, but an actual liming spot, where one can go after a hard day of teaching English to shoot the breeze, to sit a bit and talk some shit, to play some darts, to relax, to eat stale nuts and order more beers when you know you shouldn't, to let your mouth run and tell complete strangers all kinds of ridiculous private things... you know...

A BAR!

Now it may seem like I am making a big deal out of nothing, but all of yous in Trinidad, just TRY to imagine this...

NO PELICAN (well that is a bad example because Pelos done gone), NO SHAKERS, NO BOBBYS, NO SQUEEZE, NO CROBAR, NO BIGHT, NO FRIDAYS, NO 51, NO ROMAS, NO BROOKLYN BAR, NO JENNYS, NO MARTINS, even NO stinkin shitty RUBY TUESDAYS... NOT A SINGLE PLACE TO SIMPLY SIT AND HAVE A DRINK WITH YOUR FRIENDS.

Hard to imagine, right?

Thank you, managers at Efes Pilsen, and whatever wonderful force of the universe inspired you to open the very first real bar in Sivas.

THANK YOU!

2005-12-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

Today I got the shock of my life... We were strolling down Ataturk Boulevard and suddenly walked right past a BLACK MAN!!!!!!!!!

Now you must understand what kind of a shock this was because he is literally the first black person I have seen in Turkey and I've been here for more than two months now. Andrea and Zeynep nudged me -- "Did you see that? A BLACK GUY! Go talk to him!" We walked on for a bit looking over our shoulders, and then thought that maybe he was a foreigner or something, so we actually turned around and walked back and went up to the dude! Poor guy he was probably fuckin freaked out when three women march up to him and ask him a question!

Anyways turns out he is a footballer from Cameroon and was recruited to play on the local team, Sivasspor.

I thought it was hard being one of the handful of foreigners in Sivas, but at least I can *almost* pass for Turkish... I can't imagine what it is like being The Only Black Man In Sivas!

2005-12-05T05:13:00.000-08:00

So I finally did it -- I joined a gym. When we first arrived in Sivas we met a Turkish English teacher one night who also happened to be a kungfu instructor at the gym right around the corner from us. I would LOVE to take some sort of martial arts training, but alas, the class times are at the exact hours that I teach, so no luck.

However, I have begun a rigorous work out session with my new trainer, Mehmet, who himself is training to be a bodybuilder. And man, he is NOTHING like those jokey lame-assed instructors in Trinidad who are more interested in chatting up the girls than actually helping people!

He says that if I keep up a good diet (EKMEK YOK! he said, which roughly translated means, NO BREAD) and go to the gym five times a week, guaranteed I will lose 30 pounds in four months. And I believe him! I go right after my morning class, at 1 pm, which is ideal because I pretty much have the entire gym to myself. It is not a fantastic place -- it smells like old sweat and both treadmills are temporarily out of order, but it'll do.

Goodbye flab, hello muscles!!!

2005-12-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

Christmas may be non-existant here in Turkey, which is actually a very nice change because it is refreshing to not be bombarded with Christmas chaos spend-a-thon with endless Christmas songs that make you want to jab yourself in the eye with a blunt object!

So even Christmas is going to be quiet here, Ole Years is gonna be madness...
WE GOING ISTANBUL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are only going for four days, from a Friday to the Monday, but the plan is to cram as MUCH wildness as humanly possible into the Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, to compensate for the fact that there are no bars or clubs in Sivas and we are DYING TO PARTAY!!! Ole Years night is the Saturday and from what we've heard there are LOTS of big assed clubs and even an area called Taksim Square, which, apparently, is the craziest place in Istanbul (and probably the whole of Turkey). According to Turkey Traveller.com:

"Taksim Square lives at night. In daytime, it is mostly a shopping center, but once the sun goes down, it wears a totally different suit. People from all around the area and sometimes across the Bosporus Bridge pour in, filling the clubs and streets. It is over-crowded on weekends, and that is when you can find all the tourists, who come for the food, outdoor entertainment and the pubs and clubs. "

SOUNDS PERFECT!!!!!!!!! ISTANBUL HERE WE COME!!!!!!!!!!

2005-12-04T03:35:00.000-08:00

When I first came to Turkey I did not really like the music at all. In fact I thought it was very DEPRESSING.

Especially since you know calypso and soca is just jam and wine and roll on a bam bam and nice it up and free up yuhself! Trini music is very happy music, but often it is intellectually retarded.

Turkish music on the other hand - or to clarify, traditional Turkish FOLK music - is very deep, very emotional, and very intense. Most of the songs are about love: love lost, love found, love abandoned, lovers that have died, lovers that have infected you like a virus, lovers that cause you so much pain you want to cut them off like a toe with gangrene but you can't bear to actually do it. That kind of thing!

But now I have gotten used to it, and quite like it actually! So last night we went to our favorite weekend music spot, Sultan's Roof, to enjoy the music and drink a lot of raki (pronounced rack-uh).

It turned out to be quite an interesting evening out with some of the other teachers at school, who actually got up and did a traditional Turkish dance! And after a few glasses of raki, the guys felt so inspired that they burst into song.

This is a traditional Turkish classical instrument called the baglama, but the G is silent, so it's pronounced BAUH-LAH-MAH. According to Turkish history, this instrument is the descendent of the "kopuz" instrument, the body of which was made from stretched leather, and the strings were made of horse hair. The baglama replaced the kopuz, and was made from wood and metal string. It has a WONDERFUL sound, and the guys play it with such speed you barely see their fingers move.

2005-12-01T03:35:00.000-08:00

Hmm.... what does this scene remind me of? Let me think... one man doing all the muscle work while eight people stand around watching idly and talking on cell phones... Hmm.. What could it be... Oh yes! It's Turkish CEPEP!!

Now, I've been meaning to take a picture of this Sivas graffitti ever since I came here!

I always wonder, who spray painted that there? Why is there an underscore between bird and fuck? And why did he put those two words together in the first place? Anyways every time I see it I chuckle with delight at its whimsical nonsense.

2005-11-29T08:28:00.000-08:00

I found this website that plays the Call to Prayer when you open it, so those of you who have speakers, turn em up!!!

http://www.balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm

Kind of soothing, no?

The words go something like this:

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.

Ash-hadu alla ilaha illa-llah.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah.

Ash-hadu alla ilaha illa-llah.
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship but Allah.

Ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah

Ash-hadu anna Muhammadar-Rasulullah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah

Hayya ‘ala-s-Salah, hayya ‘ala-s-Salah.
Hasten to the Prayer, hasten to the Prayer.

Hayya ‘ala-l-falah, hayya ‘ala-l-falah.
Hasten to real success, hasten to real success

Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar.
Allah is the Greatest, Allah is the Greatest.

La ilaha illa-llah
There is none worthy of worship but Allah.

Don't forget to cleanse before you pray!

Now anyone who knows me knows that I am not a big fan of religion but I must say... I am glad to be having an eye opening experience about Muslim culture. Ever since Bin Laden and dem gone and mash up New York Muslims have become the most hated scapegoats in the world. The word "Muslim" now brings up images of long bearded terrorists with guns in the frickin desert, suicide bombers burning flags, and oppressed women forced to wear black burkas and walk three steps behind the men. And it's even worse in Trinidad where the word "Muslim" will be FOREVER meshed with blasted ABU BAKR and the 1990 coup.

Quite sad, no, that a handful of fundamentalist terrorists could spoil it for the rest of them? Plus, religous fundamentalism is a LOT more alive and well in Trinidad than it is in Turkey, which is a SECULAR democracy. Not a single person has tried to convert me to Islam since I've been here which is more than I can say for frickin Trinidadians such as MANNING who think they have some kind of direct phone line to God. And don't get me started about George WMD Bush!!!!!

Anyways. Moral of the story -- don't believe everything you see in Western media.

2005-11-28T08:33:00.000-08:00

There is ONE thing I would like to formally complain about -- our stupid F***** hot water heater. It is SO GHETTO! Talk about old school.

Every day it is a challenge to get it to work and trust me when I say you do NOT want to take a quickie little cold water shower. You WILL freeze.

So this is how you turn it on:
1. Go to the tap in the kitchen and turn on the hot water full blast
2. Flip on the gas tank below the heater
3. Hold down the thingy thing that opens the gas flow
4. Take the lighter and hope that it fucking lights
5. Release the gas flow thing in hope that the back burners will light as well to hear the water
6. If it doesn't light, we are either out of gas or we don't have enough water pressure, or someone up there just doesn't want me to take a bath that day!

Anyways other than that no complaints. We have now been in Sivas for TWO MONTHS and a few days. How times flies!!

Everything is so familiar and stuff that seemed strange has become quite normal. Just walking to school every day you start to get into the flow of daily life. Now when I hear the call to prayer I know exactly what time it is, and can even tell which one is a morning prayer and which one is done in the evening. Every day I walk and I see people going to and fro their daily business... The scent of fresh bread baking twice a day... Butchers carrying huge slabs of meat to the stores... Cute little kids walking with scarves and mittens... People at the water fountains cleansing their hands and face before going into the mosque... Stray Kangals hanging around by the market hoping for a scrap of meat... The restaurant owners trying to get you to come inside... The smell of doner roasting through an open window... The guys shining shoes on the side of the road... The dude on the corner who sells socks... The smell of roasting chesnuts... Sweet shops selling Turkish delights... and all the other little details that make up the average day!

And sometimes I am caught off guard by my new reality, and I think, am I really here in Sivas? How the heck did this happen? It takes me by surprise that this really is my new home. It seems so very far away from where I was just a few months ago... chilling on Las Cuevas... throwing fours on Marisa's porch... and now I look around and yes Trinidad is home but here is now home too, my new alien home :)