Holidays

Well it's quieted down somewhat here in Ankara--I gained 3 houseguests, lost two, and now am gearing up to take off for a jam-packed tour of Eastern Europe with my sister. This week has been mostly settling things up and packing/buying wool socks and other warm things in preparation for the snowy wilds of the Balkans; Lonely Planet casually mentioned that the part of Romania we're passing through gets to -35 Celsius in the winter. Oh boy.
Last week I picked up Kel and her 2 friends in Istanbul, after some miscommunication on meeting points and rain. We headed straight out to Arnavutkoy, to drop my stuff off at my hostel and then to have manti at my favorite Istanbul restaurant, Bodrum manti. They all got different kinds of manti, and we stayed for coffee and got free dessert, so it was a good time. We then headed over to ARIT, where I was staying, because there was a lecture there that night by a professor from Princeton. I'd been told it was going to be about Ataturk, which I was excited about, but when we got there, the guy started talking about 14th century Ottoman expansion into the Balkans, so we were a little bewildered. It was a really interesting lecture though, and we met up with friends and fellow Fulbrighters of mine at the reception afterward. ARIT, incidentally, is the American Research Institute in Turkey, a very awesome organization with offices, libraries, and hostels in Istanbul and Ankara. I stayed at the Ankara hostel when I moved in August.
We took the bus back to Ankara Tuesday, after Kel and her friend Katelyn toured Dolmabahce Palace and the 3 of us headed over to Kadikoy for the Tuesday Bazaar only to be told that the Tuesday Bazaar was "finished". We were a little confused, and later saw a news report of policemen violently suppressing something at the Tuesday Bazaar earlier that day, so I'm not sure what was going on in Asian Istanbul that morning. Our bus back to Ankara was a little interesting: the ticket man called it a 'bistro bus,' because it was 2 levels, and the bottom level had a 20-seat cafe, serving hot snacks. It was pretty darn cool. It also had wireless internet, but I sadly neglected to bring my computer, so couldn't enjoy that.
Wednesday, I sent the three travellers off to Ulus to see the citadel and Museum while I made stew and danced around my apartment to Christmas music. Once they got back, we all headed to the Vatican Embassy for midnight Mass, which was at 7:30. We arrived early enough to snag a pew, but over half of the people who showed up ended up standing in the back, in the aisles, and even behind the altar. It was packed. There also was beefed-up security, as there was at least one Ambassador and his family there (I think it was the French Ambassador). The Papal Nuncio celebrated Mass, which was very cool as I'd never seen him before; the Papal Nuncio is the Vatican's Ambassador, an archbishop in his own right, and usually assigned to a posting for life. They are awesome. Mass was beautiful: all the songs were sung in English, Latin, French, and Turkish, and there were songs in Tagalog and an African language as well. The readings were in Spanish and Portuguese, and the Gospel was in Arabic (and then in English by little kids). After Communion, some of the members of the African community here in Ankara sang 2 songs and danced through the center of the church, which was really lovely. A friend of mine tried her hand at matchmaking and found a Marine to sit next to me for Mass; he was nice but a little confused by all the Latin as he wasn't Catholic. Anyway, he seemed nice and is also here for a year, but I never end up running into the Marines in the city (maybe they go to all the student bars that I never get to). After Mass, there were homemade Christmas cookies and spice cakes and wassail in the church library, and I introduced my posse of houseguests to an Arabic-speaking acquaintance of mine, who proceeded to chat with them for a good while. As we left, he told me Kel's Arabic was "super", so that was nice.
Back at chez moi, we had an enjoyable Christmas Eve of chicken stew, hummus, and Love Actually. Kel and I got to talk with the extended family via Skype, and opened our gifts over video; we both got lefse boards, and were inordinately excited about that. The next day was a bit of a lazy day: my posse went off in search of Anitkabir while I got some work done, and we watched Christmas movies all day. I didn't really want to cook, so we went to my neighborhood traditional Turkish restaurant for guvec and gozleme, which they'd not had before. The next day, Katelyn and Tommy both skipped town, one for the airport and a flight home, the other for Istanbul and a flight to Serbia, so it was a little discombobulated around the old apartment. I had my last Turkish lesson, which was bittersweet, as I really enjoyed those lessons and learned quite a bit.
Friday night Kel and I met up with several of the Ankarali Fulbrighters for dinner at Sedir and dancing at the Turkish American Association's 'Send in the New Year' party. The party was a lot of fun, and we all danced dorkily, as is our wont. It helped that I think we were the only yabancis in the room. Kel wowed the crowd with her snazzy Ecuadorian-night-club dancing, and Joan and George I think were polka-ing it up at one point, so we were an eclecticly fun group of dancers.
The weekend was pretty much given over to working on this round of grad apps, planning out our trip, and watching way too many movies (I have to get my fill of internet before going computerless for the entire length of the Balkans, you know). I stopped by ASTI to see when we could get a bus to Plovdiv, which is our destination in Bulgaria, and was slightly disheartened when, after asking the Varan representative "Bulgaristan'a gidiyor musunuz?", he responded with "I'm sorry, I don't speak English." Fantastic. At least the Metro rep was appreciative of my Turkish and had 6 busses to Bulgaria, to boot.
The whole neighborhood loves Kel; every single checkout girl stopped to ask if we were sisters, and how long she's in town, and such, as well as the corner shop guy next door and the restauranteurs down the street. Today I stopped by one of the grocery stores without Kel, and the checkout girl asked if my sister had left already, in a slightly worried tone; I explained that she'd be in town for a few more days still.
It snowed here for Christmas, which was wonderful, and again on Sunday, which really brought winter to the city. I'd forgotten how much I love taking a walk while the snow falls. We should see plenty of that up north; I'll probably be ready for another trip to Gaziantep or Antakya by the time we get back.
I'm heading out tomorrow for Istanbul, and then on to the shiny metropolis of Plovdiv, and then beyond to the great cold wonders of Eastern Europe. I'll try to keep this updated on the road, and inshallah will be able to upload pictures from larger cities along the way.
Hope your holidays were/are relaxing and wonderful,
kendine iyi bak,
-R