Making My Own Merry In Turkey

Look! It is a new post within a month of the last one! I am getting better. With it being Thanksgiving today, I thought it would only be proper to send out a little holiday cheer from this country that I am pretty sure is named after the centerpiece of almost every home in America today. (Yes I am very informed on this county’s history!) Actually ironically enough, it is incredibly hard to find whole turkeys here. Chicken and beef are the popular proteins, but if you find the right butcher, you can get a turkey. Unfortunately we found the wrong butcher who said he would deliver the bird on time, and then at the last minute said he couldn’t. In the end it all worked out though; we had an amazing Thanksgiving feast of all sorts of “American” Thanksgiving food with chicken and ham! The very best part was that I was surrounded by the  wonderful friends I have made here in Turkey, so the holiday was as it should be, full of wonderful fellowship with wonderful people. I am truly blessed!

            I will say though, holidays here are very different. It is mainly because my “traditional” holidays- Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter- are not celebrated here. The whole holiday atmosphere I am use to experiencing in stores, at schools, in the neighborhoods is totally not here. No bell ringers in front of the storefronts, no drives in the car to look at lights, no nativity scenes; I really miss it all!  Now this may come as a surprise to people who know me well because let’s be honest, I am kind of a Grinch when it comes to “Christmas” tradition. I use to complain if someone played  one more Christmas song, or groaned every time my mother mentioned driving around to look at lights. Now I want it all (I can hear the “You always want what you can’t have” echoes).  But instead of wallow in my sorrows because the “Who’s down in Whoville” would not approve, I decided to make my own holiday “merry”!  For me that mean baking and cooking holiday food, and my favorite seasonal yummiest food in the pumpkin roll!!!! Problem is canned pumpkin is nonexistent here sooooooooooo an already putsy (a word my mom made up to mean lots of tedious steps that I didn’t know was a word she made up until a few years ago) recipe has become even more putsy. I had this amazing idea to show you the steps in photographs, and it all went well until I got to the fun parts of rolling the roll, filling the roll with cream cheese frosting, and then eating it, but you’ll get the gist. Love you all and soak up some extra holiday merriment for me! Blessings!  

Step 1: Get a whole bunch of raw pumpkin from the pazar

Step 2:  Boil pumpkin in water until it is nice and  mushy!

Step 3: Pretend like you know how to cut the rind off of a pumpkin then later realize using a spoon is a lot easier!

Step 4:  Mash it into a nice baby food texture

Step 5: Store a whole bunch extra in your freezer, so you don't have to keep doing this process all year!

Step 6: Add a whole bunch of other ingredients after you run the names through googletranslate

Step 7: Pour the batter into a parchment paper lined cookie sheet (odd color!)

Step 8: Bake in the most finicky oven known to man!

Steps 9, 10, and 11 which are roll, fill, and eat are sadly left out because I was so excited that it turned out that I forgot to take pictures! I promise; it was delish!

Three months later...

Cappadocia

So I am officially the worst "blogger" ever! I have basically not posted anything for almost three months which is yes, I know, pathetic. I wish I could come up with an amazing excuse, but in reality life has just been happening, just like it does for everyone. Before I knew it, it had been three months and the last post I posted was a about toilets! So let we just flush my excuses down the pipe (Ha Ha Ha that’s so punny) and instead tell you what I have been up to these last few months:

SCHOOL, SCHOOL, AND MORE SCHOOL

Cappadocia

Well as you may have guessed it, when someone goes overseas to teach school, one spends the majority of  their time teaching and doing other school related activities.   I just happen to be half way across the world doing it. Yes my students come from 40 or so different nations, but surprisingly they are still kids! Shocking news I know. They still have that amazing ability to drive me crazy, inspire me, frustrate me, and make me laugh all at the same time. It has been so fun to get to know them and all their unique personalities. That is definitely the best part of my job. I love talking to them about literature and writing (even math sometimes because this English teacher is teaching Algebra 1), but I mostly love talking to them about who they are and who they want to become. I truly feel blessed that I get to be in the "business" of being a part of these students' lives. Not that it is always sunshine and butterflies, but I just hope that I always strive to see each student for who they are and all they can become. (Yep they probably have that last statement on a mug somewhere- it's a sappy statement, but it is true). 

Cappadocia with my teacher friends

EXPLORING

Now, though teaching does consume about 90% of my life, there has still been some time to explore this side of the world. Turkey in and of itself is a diverse place to explore, and I have gone on two long weekend trips so far. The first one was shortly after we started school. We had a three day weekend for a national holiday. All the new teachers went up to a little town called Amasra which is located on the Black Sea. It was beautiful and so relaxing; we swam, ate fish (heads and all!), hiked. It was wonderful. The next long weekend we had, I went  to Cappadocia or Kapadokya (which is how they spell it here). This is probably one of my new favorite places. The only way I can really describe it is that it is like entering a landscape conjured up by Dr. Seuss! Unbelievable rock formations that people built h

Dinner on the beach  in Amasra at sunset 

omes into, underground cities, hot air balloons at dawn. It is crazy! I can definitely see myself going back to Cappadocia many

Amasra

more times.

Let’s see where else have I gone..... um oh yeah for our fall break (another national holiday)  I went to GREECE! Since Turkey is so close to so many countries, hopping over to Greece is just like hopping from state to state in the U.S. A fellow teacher and friend Lori and I went to some of the iconic islands of Greece for a few days and stopped by Athens while we were at it. I never really thought I would be standing in the places I read about in my history books and in Greek mythology; it was kind of a surreal experience, and I am still in awe about the whole experience.

Well I think that is about all the news I have to offer for now. I am going to get better at posting more than once every three months; I promise! Thanks for reading this and keeping me and my students in your thoughts. Lots of love

Athens

Crete

Charissa

Oia, Santorini

Patmos