Election Day Antics

It was a lovely start to the week.  Sunday was Election Day in Turkey, which meant that Joe and I had our first Sunday off since we arrived.  My students invited us out for a late breakfast, so Joe and I meandered into town- stopping at the mall because Joe needed a new harddrive, and then to meet them at 1pm.  Only Habib was there, so we chatted a bit and he gave us some presents to remember him by (bracelets for Joe and anklets for me) and we waited almost a full hour before Merve, Onur and then Seda arrived.  We ate breakfast (a vast array that covered the table with 33 different options) and discussed the election (they had all voted for a different party).  

From left to right: Seda, Merve, Habib, me, Joe, Onur

By the time we finished eating, Murat showed up- we learned later that he had asked Merve to be his girlfriend, but she had needed time to think about it- and we all piled into his car and drove up to Gonduzbey where Merve’s father had a ‘garden’ although it turned out to be more of a farm/orchard than a garden.  He gave us a tour and then we had tea and more food (which we had to eat to be polite even though we were stuffed) and then we went cherry picking.  They were fresh and delicious, and we ate more than we put in the bags- but we all went home with crazy amounts.  If anyone knows any good cherry recipes, I would love to hear them because I don’t know what we will do with them otherwise- it is an insanely full bag. 

The gang cherry picking

Murat drove us home, sharing the good news that Merve had agreed to be his girlfriend (although her father doesn’t know because that is not the way that dating works in Turkey) and we arrived home later than anticipated after a fun filled day to watch an evening storm roll across the sky.

We awoke that night to very good electoral news- AK Party was still in power, but they would need to form a coalition government in order to rule.  Since it doesn’t look like any of the others want to work with them, they are now in the process of figuring out if it will be a minority government or a coalition.  Most people here seem very pleased with the results as well which is good- not a lot of tension- at least in Malatya there isn’t.  On Wednesday Joe and I had the day off as there was a teacher training at the Anemon hotel that evening.  Joe set to work making a cherry pie (curtosy of Martha Stewart) and I cleaned and helped him destone cherries (a tedious task).  Elif came over that evening before the event, and I have her some clothes and she beat Joe at backgammon before we walked over.

Elif, Joe and I am the seminar.

  As normal, it started about a half an hour late, and while we had expected  to be hopelessly bored, the woman they had doing it was very good: funny, informative and with some interesting classroom ideas.  It wrapped up with dinner, and all in all it was significantly more fun than the one we went to back in September when we had first arrived and didn’t know anyone.  It was a pleasant twist to a very hot week.