Turkish Hospitality

April 30, 2009

After work, a Turkish girl that I work with invited me over to her house, what a great experience! After we walked the “close” distance from the bus stop to her house, we were greeted by her entire, rather large, family.  

I couldn't believe how much they were smoking!! Every five minutes another cigarette. I could feel my throat starting to hurt. Dinner was amazing: large portions of "pilaf", salad, mushrooms, yogurt, bread, and an orange desert. Despite their knowing very, very little English, there was a multitude of questions and discussion: I was the interesting foreign object which they had to know everything about in the course of the evening and late into the night. 

As the night progressed, more and more family poured in and enthusiastically, with large gestures, greeted me. I ended up sleeping over in a heavenly bed they prepared and in the morning my friend's mom woke me up (my friend had already gone to work) and made me a delicious breakfast with a Turkish grilled cheese sandwich, eggs and jam among other things, and she even brought me to the bus stop, through the rallies of protestors that began to create chaos and disruption in the city on account of May Day. 

What an amazing couple of days! It’s wonderful to connect with people with whom you can share very few spoken words. It’s exhilarating to be in a completely new environment where the smallest activities are new and exotic. 

Little did I know that this was just the beginning of what was to be a life-changing couple of months!