Ooops

Well, I did it. It was bound to happen. That one really big cultural faux paus that people will be laughing about for years to come. I might as well join them. Haha!

This Sunday I got to spend the day with a young teacher friend of mine at her family's house. We were sitting around the breakfast table with my friend Funda, her sister and brother in law, her mother, her fiance, and her cousin, talking and joking around. At some point, Funda showed me a hand signal that looks like the ASL sign for the letter T. She explained that in Turkey, it means the same thing as our middle finger. I suddenly felt a little sick when I realized that I have been singing a song in one of my classes all month that uses that sign! The preschool song "Slippery Fish" uses the T sign to represent a tuna fish, which I have been singing in Gulsemin's class, and asking the students to copy all the motions! No wonder the song gets such a strong reaction from the students! Haha, oh man. I wish someone had told me earlier, like maybe the first time I tried to teach Slippery Fish. When I told this to Funda, and she translated for her family, they all burst out laughing, and didn't stop for some time. Later that day they told the story to some of the neighbors that stopped by, and they laughed as well. I have a feeling this will be a story they tell for a long time.

On that note, I did spend the day with Funda and her family, learning how to cook some traditional Turkish dishes. It was wonderful!! I met up with her in the morning, so we had a long leisurely breakfast with her whole family. A Turkish breakfast consists of olives, several kinds of cheese, lots of bread, honey, jam, tomatoes, cucumbers, Nutella, hard boiled eggs, nuts, grilled peppers, and countless glasses of tea. Funda's mother also made a really yummy hot dish out of peppers and tomatoes stewed together with melted cheese. Amazing, especially on the fresh, soft white bread that accompanies every meal!

Then we took a break from eating to play "Okey" for a several hours. This is a game based on strategy, luck, and numbers. Alli and I learned how to play one version when we visited Istanbul, but this was another, entirely different version. I had a ton of fun. Only four people can play at a time, so the family members just rotated through whenever someone got bored or had to go. It was really nice to be with a family for the day.

Then the dinner preparations began. We made pilav, tarhana soup, and karni yanik. The pilav is the way most rice is served here - cooked with oil and little brown things that I think are orzo. So good! I am really excited that I now know how to make this. Tarhana soup is a brown soup with chickpeas in it. Funda's grandmother makes the main ingredient, tarhana, which is a powdery brown substance. The karni yanik was a lot of fun to make, and I think can be used as a base for a few other dishes as well. Basically, it is stuffed eggplants. We used little tiny eggplants, stuffed with seasoned ground beef, topped with tomato, green pepper, and garlic. Again, amazing! I am excited to make pilav and karni yanik when I come home so you all can taste it too! Apparently another name for the karni yanik translates to "Unconscious Imam", which I thought was pretty funny. For dessert we roasted chestnuts (which are actually pretty good!) and drank a million more cups of tea. Oh - I also learned how to make Turkish tea, of which up till this point, I was ignorant.

All in all, it was a wonderful day to spend relaxing with in a family setting. I loved that, because it reminded me a little of my Whitney grandparents' house - always open and welcoming to friends. It was a constant influx of neighbors and family members at Funda's house - her fiance was there, and his family came in and out all day, as did their neighbors, cousins, and friends. In Turkey, Sundays are a family day and many Turks spend it picnicking, no matter the temperature outside.