Sunday, October 5, 2008

Spot the Foreigner

On countless occasions, walking through the streets, on the bus, at the grocery store, we have been instantly identified as tourists. Without words, we somehow stand out as very non-Turkish, and more to the point, are also correctly identified as Americans - all without us even speaking!! What is it about me or Alli that states this so clearly? I have tried to pick out people in crowds that seem to be less Turksh to me, only to walk closer and hear them speaking fluent Turkish. I thought for a while that it was hair color, but both Alli and I have dark hair. We don't wear clothes that are more or less conservative that everyone else. We don't wear American flags on our backs. The only detail that I can come up with, is that we wear fewer sequins than Turkish woman. We are less sparkly. Honostly - most of the women here in Antalya wear lots of sparkly jewelry, sequins on shirts and pants, and large fake sparkly stones in their shoes. Alli and I also wear a lot less makeup than most folks here. I was not expecting to be less formally dressed than everyone else here - complete surprise.

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