Crap, Why Did I Get Myself Into This

No, no, not moving to Turkey (although there are many days when that IS my thought...). This time I have invited some new friends over for dinner on Thursday night. Sounds like fun, right? Sure, except that now I have to cook. Those poor, poor people. I think we will be crossed off their friend list after Thursday.

Even if you don't know me well, you know I don't cook. At least not well. This is due mainly to 2 reasons: 1) It takes too long. I have many other things I'd rather do than come home and then spend an hour in the kitchen preparing, cooking, and then cleaning up with Christopher. All for 15 min of eating? I think not. and 2) and I get distracted part-way through, go and check my email, oh, I should put in a load of laundry, and is that the phone and then oops, I smell something burning... This is not my only problem here in Turkey, however.

I can cook a decent American meal when I have to. I don't know how to cook Turkish food yet. And I can't find the ingredients for an American meal. So I'm left with the dilemma of what on earth am I going to cook for our guests?! I have to work late that night, b/c AFTER I invited them, a student re-scheduled. I guess I have 3 days to get it figured out. And I welcome suggestions, but keep in mind, it has to be a big meal, b/c I'm serving them their first meal in over 12 hours (remember, it's Ramazan here, they haven't eaten all day). AND, Chris and I were invited over to their house on Saturday night, and it was a 4 course affair. Delicious and all homemade, of course. (We started out with soup and salad, then had a delicious eggplant and meat dish with yogurt, which is ALWAYS present, then pasta, then fruit for dessert, THEN tea and cake later. whew!)

So these friends are a blast, btw. We met them when I saw the woman and her little girl on my way down the hill to catch the bus. (In a side note, have I told you all that to catch our bus, we have to walk down the hill, and by the hill I mean about 3 city blocks of steep, sloping steps? Insanity... And coming back UP the hill? We're going to be in EXCELLENT shape if we keep this up!) Anyways, so being me, I stop to admire the baby and although the mother speaks no English, and I speak no Turkish, we manage to communicate a bit just fine. Well, then we began seeing them everyday that we come down to catch the bus, and began talking, using a LOT of miming and hand gestured, and that lovely Turkish-English dictionary! The mother's name is Sibel, the baby's name is Yamur, and there is also an 18 yr old son named Doan. We met the father on Sat night a little after 10PM, his name is Mesut. He works 12 hours 7 days a week at a tea (chai) restaurant. (Remind me of that whenever I whine about 5 days a week for 8 hours...) You would be amazed at how much we can talk about and find out about each other with the limited language that we know. And surprisingly, although it is frustrating every once in a while, Sibel is such a good sport about it that we actually have fun. Yamur is in LOVE with Chris. I get ignored, she just goes right over to him, grabs his pinky, and hauls him wherever she wants him to go with her. She's 15 months old, and has quite a mind of her own. We both pretty much adore her.

So I got the bright idea to invite them to our place on Thursday night to return the favor of the meal and also just to spend an evening with them. Really wish there was takeout food I could pretend was mine :) Ah well, I'll just wing it somehow.

Anyways, it's almost lunch time, and Chris should be here any minute. He is attending orientations every couple days at Izmir University of Economics, and getting ready to start there in a few weeks. Hope you all are well, and sorry this post was a little random and discombobulated, but you'll live. Love you and miss you all!