Jaimi again. I know that others are planning to post but we have all been kept extremely busy and we have been pretty tired from our long days and internet access hasn’t been quite as easy to get as we had hoped so I fıgured that while I have access I would post another day (I am usıng my host’s computer wıth a Turkish keyboard wıth extra letters on it so please excuse punctuation problems).

We woke up ın Istanbul and got all of our stuff together – not so easy to get everything back into the suitcases, then went for breakfast (included with our hotel). There was a buffet with toast, different spreads, vegetables, cheeses, meats and some warm blintz/crepe like things which were pretty good. There was also a chef cooking omelets, etc. outside. He made Scott an omelet and then brought us in flat bread with feta cheese and spinach in it. It was good but I can’t remember what it was called.

Esra met us at the hotel and we walked from there to start our site seeing at a huge mosque. She gave us a great tour of it sharing lots of different stories. Our tour continued through Hagia Sophia which used to be a mosque and then a church and is now a museum. Then we went for lunch and had kabob sandwiches. As we were leaving, Scott made a quick pit stop, but when he came out, it looked like he hadn’t made it in time – the front of his pants were all wet. It turns out that when he went to flush the toilet he hit the wrong button and a bidet of sorts sprayed water at him (or so he claims).

Our next stop was to do some shopping at the Grand Bazaar then we made a quick stop at spice bazaar and walked through the fish market on the way to the ferry. The ferry ride took us about 90 minutes to get to Bursa where we were dropped off in a parking lot to meet our host families.

I was picked-up by Serup. She is sweet, but is not comfortable speaking English. So, our short ride to their house was not full of conversation. My host family lives in a gated/guarded community. They have a very pretty house. And, they gave me my own “flat” – the third level. Yes, the third level, which means that my very heavy luggage had to make it up two flights of stairs – yikes. There is a nice sitting room with a tv (that only gets Turkish channels unlike the one they have in their living room) and then a bedroom with a bathroom. The bathroom has a toilet and sink, no shower. Serup told me that I could use the bathroom on the second floor for showering.

I met the rest of the family, Adnan, Serup’s husband is an eye surgeon and their two kids, Tarcan, 10 and Tamay, 7. I got my stuff settled in and then dinner was ready. Adnan and Tarcan speak English quite well. I think that Tarcan may actually be better at it than Adnan. And, I am told that Tamay speaks well too, but she seems a bit shy and didn’t want to talk to me. Dinner was good, they put out quite a spread for me. I ate the full bowl of soup I was given and tried everything else, but there was tons of food left and I think that they had hoped I would eat more. Dinner conversation was a bit stifled, English became a bigger obstacle than I had hoped it would be but we did okay.

After dinner, they offered me Turkish coffee. I said no thanks and they then pretty much insisted that I have tea. So, we sat on the back patio and I did drink a cup of tea. Not my favorite, but I thought that it was best to be polite. I did stop them when they tried to refill my cup though. The kids played in the backyard a bit and during a lull in conversation, I went upstairs and got my photo album. I showed them the pictures and did my best to explain them.

Then, Serup brought out some of their pictures. Most were from a party that they had had. I noticed immediately that the way that Tarcan was dressed in a white military dress type outfit that it matched something that I had read about in my Turkey book before my trip. Serup said that it was a party and then there was conversation in Turkish between Serup and Adnan. The funny part for me was that I, without knowing any of the Turkish they used, knew that they were trying to decide how to tell me that the party was for Tarcan’s circumcision. Adnan finally said that it was a “special celebration for a Muslim boy”. I was laughing inside because they didn’t have any idea that I knew what the party was really for and I could tell how awkward it had been for them to figure out what to say to me. Not long after, I went up to bed.