December

It's December in two days! Ahh! I can't believe how quickly time is going by. I feel as though I just arrived in Istanbul, and yet I feel like I've been here forever.
I "put up" a Christmas tree today. Well, I don't have any decorations yet... except for one that I got from my sister. I will buy some little lights and put red and green yarn on it for garland so it won't look so much like a Charley Brown tree. I'm excited for Christmas.... I really just wish it would snow...

Thanksgiving

Here's an example of what the invitations I made looked like. Each one was a little different.

Well Thanksgiving has come and gone, and I didn't miss home as much as I was worried I would. We had the teacher's party the day after, and the meal was delicious.
appetizers...I didn't find a whole Turkey, but was able to get Turkey breasts, so we got four of those. I had to borrow a huge pan from the Diko Cafe, and then bring the seasoned turkey to their oven to cook it! It was pretty funny walking down the street with a pan of turkey breasts, and then I had to go there every half hour to check on its progress. I also made stuffing with Turkish bread that I cut up and let get stale. I seasoned both with sage, thyme, salt, pepper, celery (which is hard to find), and onions. It was soooo good. I also made homemade salsa (even though I couldn't find cilantro..), and triple berry pie (with raspberries, blackberries, and sour cherries), a salad, and ranch dressing. Plus the other teachers brought a lot of other food. We even played Christmas music at the party to make ourselves feel at home, and we are hopefully going to set up a Christmas tree tomorrow. :)
3 1/2 weeks until Egypt/Christmas! I'm getting so excited I can hardly wait.
Time is flying!

Thanksgiving

Well, today is Thanksgiving. It doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving. There was no parade to watch on TV, no rush to get the final cooking done for the party. We are, however, having a Thanksgiving party tomorrow with co-workers at Dilko (even though there's only one other American besides Leyla and I). I made home-made invitations for everyone that were really cute. :)
We are still trying to figure out if we can get a turkey, but more importantly if we will be able to cook it...Regardless of if we get a turkey I'm planning on making some stuffing, salsa, a salad, and probably a pie. If we get a turkey i'll probably be the one to season it and cook it... even though I've never done that before! haha. It'll all turn out great, even if not absolutely perfect. Here's hoping it's a success!

Saturday is Teacher's day here, so my students made me come to class today even though I don't teach them today. They had gotten my co-teacher and I gifts, and one student made a cake and they had coke to drink. It was really fun, and at that moment it did feel like Thanksgiving for a moment because I was very thankful to be here.

Halloween

Wow it's been forever since I've written in here! Things have been pretty crazy here - but nothing noteworthy has been happening, just working. I was really sad about not being home lately because fall is my favorite season and I absolutely love doing things like seeing the leaves change colors, going to apple orchards, drinking fresh hot apple cider, picking out a pumpkin and carving it... and here they don't really have pumpkins like we do... they are huge and white and ugly and they sell them by the kilo- people just buy a chunk to cook with, they don't buy the whole one... but I asked how much the whole thing was and they weighed it and it was 38 YTL!! (32 dollars) I scratched that and did the next best thing I could think of... I bought a watermelon. And carved it. Yep, you heard me right! haha, I felt oh so ridiculous, but it was beautiful. Then we used it at the Dilko Halloween party and it was great.
Posing for a picture with Pinar (the sweet sweet office lady that gives us board markers when we need them, etc), two of my students, and co-worker Anthony at the Halloween party.
My beautiful "pumpkin" on display at the Halloween party! :)