This Ankarali Life

Lots has happened since my last blog update (I know, I've been remiss): I finished my language grant, went on vacation, and had the usual motley adventures that seem to spring up when one lives in this city. I sadly can't go into too much detail without taking up way too many paragraphs, so I'll give the Cliffs Notes version:
Met up with my friend Jim for Thanksgiving, which was really fun; it was good to see someone I've known longer than 4 months, and adventures ensued. Came back to a crazy few days of grad school applications and last-minute Turkish lessons before the language part of my grant officially ended and Kurban Bayram began. Kurban Bayram (or Eid, if you're an Arabic speaker, or Tabasky if you're from Niger) is the sacrifice holiday, and every family slaughtered a sheep. I did not; what would I do with a sheep? I did venture out that evening to go grocery shopping, only to find every single shop on my street other than the bakery closed. So I had pogaca and chocolate-chip cookies for dinner. So traditional, and so healthy. I was really relieved to see the stores reopen slowly over the rest of the week, so I could buy some pomegranates and vegetables. At the end of the week, I hopped a bus to Bursa, which is a bit south and east of Istanbul, to meet up with 2 Istanbullu Fulbrighters for a whirlwind vacation. Bursa is famous for its silk market, its textile industry, being the birthplace of Iskender kebap, and the Yesil Cami, or Green Mosque. To gloss over a lot of history, the Ottomans kind of hung tight there for a bit before conquering Constantinople. Ceylan, Emily and I had Iskender kebap at the restaurant that invented the dish: there is a line out the front of the restaurant all day long, and when you enter they ask you how much Iskender kebap you'd like. There's nothing else on the menu. Once you're seated with your kebap, they have waiters walking around with pitchers of hot melted butter to pour over the kebap.
A side note: Iskender kebap is kebap meat (so, usually beef, lamb, or a combination of the 2), shaved doner-style onto a plate with chucks of bread lining the bottom. The meat is then smothered in yogurt and usually something tomatoey as well. It's wildly unhealthy, but delicious, and is named after Alexander the Great. It's said to have been his favorite dish, but then again the Turks say a lot of things.
Anyway, in Bursa we also went through the silk han (marketplace), spent a lot of quality time in the bazaar, had some pretty excellent salep (it was pretty darn cold out). We also spent a lot of quality time in mosques: Bursa has 3 decent-sized and historic mosques, and Emily and Ceylan both are studying Islamic art. Our first mosque was the Yesil Cami, which was gorgeous. The caretaker turned on the lights just for us (after we spent a lot of time trying to see green tile patterns in the semidarkness), and even let us go up and explore the Sultan's Loge, where the Sultan's family prayed. It's on the second level, so the royal family didn't have to brush up with the ordinary people, and was pretty cool. The other two mosques had some interesting parts, but had both been extensively damaged and restored on the interior, and really not very well. The Ulu Cami in particular was this huge gorgeous old building pretty much whitewashed on the inside and decorated with Arabic script, which I think normally looks beautiful but which was really overdone there.
I got back to Ankara late, and spent the rest of the weekend unpacking, before my next houseguest showed up: Kirk, another Fulbrighter from Istanbul in town for a few days to meet with professors and such in Ankara. I spent some quality time shopping for warm clothes for my sister when she shows up fresh from Cairo's warm climate, had a fantastic lasagna with some Fulbright friends, and have been working on the odds and ends that invariably clutter life for most of this week. Next week, I'm heading to Istanbul to catch a lecture on Ataturk, which promises to be interesting, and to pick up Kelly and her 2 friends from Cairo and shepherd them back to Ankara just in time for Christmas (with a stop at the best restaurant in Istanbul and one of the 3 best in Turkey en route. Gotta get my manti fix).
I'm looking forward to Christmas, although it'll be a little weird being the only ones celebrating. There are decorations up all over the city, particularly in the shopping malls, but they're for New Years. They have New Years trees, decorated in red and green, with New Years presents underneath. New Years lights are everywhere. And there are even New Years Santas. It's a little bizarre, but definitely appreciated.
That's about it for the time being; I'm slowly uploading more photos to Flickr, and have part of my Bursa trip up so far. I'll try to post some highlights here later.
Kendine iyi bak,
-R