We have become friends with a woman named Ebru, who is absolutely wonderful. She speaks quite a bit of English, and would like to learn more, and we of course, want to learn Turkish. Because I know just about no Turkish. Since being here, we have picked up a lot of vocabulary, lots of nouns, but I don't know any verbs, so I speak like Tarzan - very ineffective. She is an opera singer, and a couple weeks ago we went to an outdoor concert to hear her friends sing. It was wonderful! In November she is in Fiddler on the Roof, and we get to go see it! I am so excited!
This week we went to her house, and she taught us how to make kisir, which was tons of fun! Its kind of like couscous, but with all sorts of tomatos and onions and other good stuff in it. It was so great to learn how to make a traditional Turkish dish, with a Turkish friend! We ate on her balcony, which overlooks a fairly busy street near the water. Such fun! I'm hoping that we will get to have many such meals with her, and that we will also be able to teach her some of the recipes that we know and love from home. It's hard though, because everything is so different here, food-wise, and things that I am used to buying in the grocery store are not available. Things I am missing: peanut butter, peanut sauce and saltine crackers. Interesting.
This week we went to Olympos, where we stayed in a treehouse (which shook everytime I rolled over), and saw the stuff of Greek legends. Literally. 
One night we took a tour of Chimaera, the natural gas fires that burn constantly out of little holes in the mountain. We went rafting one day, and spent another day being lazy on the beach. It was a great vacation! (Schools were closed to celebrate Bayram, the holiday at the end of Ramadan.) Tomorrow we will start teaching English at the kresh, and hopefully this week we will have a translated conversation, so that we can get the ball rolling at the center as well. Its a little scary that we have been here for just about a month, and I feel like we haven't actually done anything yet other than observe. But now that Bayram is over, things will be on a more normal schedule. Here we go!!
One night we took a tour of Chimaera, the natural gas fires that burn constantly out of little holes in the mountain. We went rafting one day, and spent another day being lazy on the beach. It was a great vacation! (Schools were closed to celebrate Bayram, the holiday at the end of Ramadan.) Tomorrow we will start teaching English at the kresh, and hopefully this week we will have a translated conversation, so that we can get the ball rolling at the center as well. Its a little scary that we have been here for just about a month, and I feel like we haven't actually done anything yet other than observe. But now that Bayram is over, things will be on a more normal schedule. Here we go!! 
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