Success with pancakes and recent Iftar meals

Ah, pancakes. Such wonderful morning food. I was so excited when they turned out yesterday morning that I took a picture of them.



They are rather lame pancakes, but delicious nonetheless. I was just missing maple syrup...

With my belly full of pancakes, I arrived at the office to find flowers on my desk!



I thought nothing of it, thinking Emma left them there on accident. (She's pregnant, so I thought they were for her from one of her relatives.) John said, "Don't think so lightly of them. I think they are for you." Indeed, they were, but not from a male student as he initially thought. They were from one of my weekend students who wanted to invite me over for dinner. She probably came while I was eating lame pancakes, and would come again a bit later.

Neslihan, who is always all smiles, showed up about an hour into my lesson planning. I told her I would be happy to come for dinner, but did she know that I had class at 6:30? Yes, yes, the boys of the office told her and she would come at a quarter past four, would that be all right? Wonderful, I told her.

Just the other night I was thinking, "wouldn't it be great if I could go to a family's house for dinner?" I have been cooking for myself this last week, which has started to get old. The Iftar meal (meal after sunset) is a hectic time in restaurants. A couple nights ago I went out for the first time alone during Iftar and boy, was it exciting! The place was packed, not an empty seat to be found. I wanted to ask the waiter where I should sit when he directed me to the table next to the large fish tank. One woman was already sitting there, and before I could take off my jacket she aksed me if I was an English teacher. "How did. . .?" I had been in there a week before asking about leaving a tip, and she remembered me. "I work at the cash register," she replied. (This was all in Turkish of course.) We had nice simple dinner conversation in which I learned she was a teacher at one point, but now works at the restaurant that her father owns. Noticing the waiters rushing around (and sneaking cigarettes when they could), I asked her when they eat. "After all the people leave." I must have made a face, thinking that they must be starving (I would be after fasting all day), she said, "they won't die."

Ah, but I digress. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised when Neslihan invited me over for dinner.

Wanting to be culturally responsible, I asked Tansel if I should bring a gift. He suggested that I bring a kilo or so of baklava. But then he thought better of it, because they will probably have dessert already made. How about flowers? I asked Emma, and she said that since I'm a foreigner, I could get away with not bringing anything. I didn't feel right doing that, so I quick ran out and bought a rectangle of chocolate with hazelnuts in it. When I got back to the school, an excited Neslihan was waiting for me.

I was a bit concerned that she would speak Turkish to me, only because she flip-flops between Turkish and English in class quite a bit (and the school has a strict rule of only english--hence the name The Only English School). As it turns out, I had nothing to worry about. All evening she spoke English to me, translating to her family what I said.

During the ten minute walk to her place, I learned she is a dentist and that her mother and her share an office. In fact, they live just above it. She showed it to me on the way upstairs. It's so tiny compared to American denstist offices! The two chairs are next to each other with a rather large desk sqeezed in behind one of the chairs. Off to the side is a small room where the sterilization is done. It is customary to take your shoes off before entering someone's house, and the same goes for some other places as well. So as we took off the little blue plastic booties from our shoes, she asked me if I had any problems with my teeth. No no, I said.

Then we went up one more floor to her apartment. She lives with her parents and brother, who were waiting for us along with her best friend and her mother. As Neslihan and her best friend, Serap (?) asked me questions about my home, family, friends, and why I came to Turkey, their mothers were preparing dinner. Eventually they came into the living room and joined the conversation. I showed them some pictures that I brought with me, and they wondered even more why I came to Trabzon. "Your city is so beautiful!" they said. "It is better than Trabzon!" No, that would be like comparing apples and bananas, I told them.

After looking at my photos, Neslihan showed me photos of her past. First was her wedding album. She was such a beautiful bride! Before I could ask when her husband was coming over, she told me that he had died two years prior in a car accident. They had only been married one year. Oh, a broken heart is something I don't know if I could live through. She spoke of her husband so easily, and she struck me as a strong woman.

Dinner time! Since there were so many of us women, we all ate in the kitchen while the three men ate in the living room. We were very comfortable in the kitchen; plenty of room. In fact so much that they had sofa in there! What a great idea. The kitchen is the heart of the house, so why not make it a comfy place to hang out? I think I'll have one in my kitchen one day.

Since I had less than 45 minutes to eat dinner, they served me before they even sat down. Soup, salad, meatballs with veggies, a huge serving of chicken and rice, green beans, borek (filo dough--the same stuff used to make baklava--baked with meat and spinach and other stuff), two kinds of cake, and four glasses of drink: ayran (yogurt, water, and salt--very yummy, although I didn't like it the first time I was in Turkey), something orange, water, and tea. And all of it garlic-free!

I was so stuffed. They piled my plate higher and deeper with food that I would never be able to eat in one sitting. Damn my small stomach! It was so delicious and fun hanging out with the women that I didn't really want to go class. They were laughing almost the whole time, making one joke after another (I didn't always get them, but who cares? I'll get them sooner or later). When I spoke Turkish, even little things like, "thanks" or "guten appetit", they would dissolve into giggles. I don't really know why, because when a foreigner speaks English nobody praises them. In any case, they were happy they could communicate with me even a little in their language, as was I.

As the time came closer for me to leave, their hopping around the kitchen to get various things for their guests became more excited. Neslihan's mother gave me tea to drink with my four pieces of homemade cakes, but I had to go, so I couldn't drink it (not only that but it was too hot for my lips). I was putting my coat on when she gave me my tea glass, but it was still too hot to touch. I began switching it between my hands and they came running over with saucer. Oh, they were so lovely! Then they frantically wrapped up eight pieces of cake for me to take home. Everyone hugged me, said they loved me and out the door we went! Then Neslihan and her father drove me to the front door of the school.

Ten minutes before my lesson started, I was walking into my classroom. Phew! Girl, I was so stuffed.

This morning I woke up and nearly jumped out of bed! The last couple of weeks have been like trying to unstick dry glue when it came to getting out of bed. I'm not sure if it was the fun I had, or the hugs I got, but I sure felt great this morning!