Food and Phones

With the arrival of the heat, the arrival of some various oddities has arrived as well.  The ongoing election process and the music vans that accompany that, signify severe continued irritation.   The street beggars are out in fuller force as well, and perhaps the oddest ruse I have ever encountered, is that recently we have had young boys (between 8-12 I would say) who sit at various places on the sidewalks with a bathroom scale- presumably so that people will pay them to weigh themselves. In public.  In the middle of the sidewalk.  I don’t fully understand it, as surely people who want to weigh themselves would simply buy a scale and those who don’t want to weigh themselves most certainly don’t want to do it with dozens of people walking past to observe.  I have yet to see anyone actually weigh themselves, but occasionally a housewife will pat one of the boys on the head and leave them a small amount of change- so apparently this gimmick somewhat works.

It has also been a sad week at work, with the departure of a couple of my favourite classes.  I have seen them grow since they were Elementary students and now they are finishing their Intermediate level class, and stopping for the summer. On Thursday night they took me for a fabulous dinner at a restaurant I hadn't tried before- sending the leftovers home to Joe's delight.  It will be a little odd not having them around, and with the loss of these classes, and no addition of new ones, Joe and I are on nine/ten hour weeks.  Fortunately we don’t get paid by the hour, but I am an infinitely more productive person when I am busy, and it is hard to be motivated to find productive ways to fill all of my free time.  

My students

However, last week  Onder asked us if we wanted to go for breakfast on Monday morning.  I was surprised by the invitation, and not being a huge fan of the man (but seeing no way to politely decline) I graciously accepted.  Onder replied that he had promised and he is strict about keeping his promises.  I responded that that is a good way to be, to which he responded, “I suppose, sometimes.”  effectively taking away the graciousness of his invitation, and making us an obligation.  Nonetheless, Monday morning Joe and I readied and headed downstairs at 9am where Mehmet was waiting to take us.  We drove about twenty minutes to a village called Gokuzbey, a beautiful, green, peaceful spot for breakfast.  Onder and his friend weren’t there yet, so we explored a little and then made small talk with Mehmet (his English is so-so).  The food arrived twenty minutes after that, and we sat and stared at it for another half an hour when Onder graced us with his presence, a mere hour and fifteen minutes after the time he had arranged.  He opened with the line, “Why didn’t you start?”  to which I passive aggressively stated that it is rude to start until everyone has arrived.  He then proceeded to tell us that his wife’s car had broken down the day before and he had to deal with it that morning.  Fine.  

some of breakfast

Three different types of scrambled eggs, French fries and borek arrived along with tea to overload the already crowded table, and as Onder talked to his friends in Turkish for the whole time, (with an occasional comment in our direction) Joe and I quietly ate our food and then played 20 Questions.  The food was good though.  We headed home afterwards- Joe’s class was cancelled due to ‘school repairs’ (although we can’t see any visible changes) so we played backgammon until I went to see Buglem.  Having an intriguing conversation with Ali about Turkish politics as he drove me home.  Ali is a huge advocate of Erdogan (the current Turkish President) saying that he is bigger than Ataturk and his longevity in politics is equal only to the wonderous Putin.  I was glad I had my sunglasses on, and mostly answered with, “taman” (ok) to everything he said.

Mehmet, Resit, Onder, Joe and I

Joe patiently listened to me vent about the events of the day when I got home and then we went for a glorious walk in the evening sun.  Our last event occurred when my old phone (or rather Joe's old phone that I have been using crashed and burned.  It had been on the fritz for a while, but this meant that I either had to do without or buy a new phone.  With Joe's unyielding patience (I did buy him lunch for his troubles) we spent a good few hours at the mall over Wed and Thurs, until after careful deliberation, some cold feet, and a LOT of hemming and hawing, I purchased a phone.  Now to get through the weekend where Monday morning and a flight to Amsterdam await me.

My very first self-purchased cell phone