Karamürsel

 Seda, Serhat, Volkan, me, Chris

The 14th to 19th of October was Kurban Bayrami, which translates to the sacrificial holiday. It's been explained to me as a way to honor Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son to Allah before He intervened with a sheep to sacrifice instead. When I first witnessed the holiday in 2009 I had been in Turkey for only a month, I could barely use present tense and, as would be a theme throughout my time in Turkey, had no idea what was going on. In Adana, parking lots are converted to sheep holding pens and then to slaughter yards. According to tradition, a third of the meat is kept by the family, a third goes to neighbors and friends and a third is donated to the poor. I have absolutely no idea how the logistics of meat division and preservation work, but the idea of a holiday based in giving away two-thirds of your food strikes me as a nice one. I think now a lot of people just donate money.

I was planning on going back to Adana to celebrate the holiday there but because everyone is traveling at this time tickets are insanely expensive and my host sister was going to be staying with her father in Antalya. So rather than going to the south I made a much shorter trip about two hours south of Istanbul on the Sea of Marmara. My friend Chris lives with two Turks, Volkan and Emrah, but nearly always there is a group of guys around the apartment. Though all together the group is large and most of them have known each other for years from their hometown they are extremely inclusive and invited Chris, Lizzy (the newest tenant of their apartment) and I to their hometown for the holiday.

Vokan's friend Seda,  was kind enough to give us a ride so we set out on Wednesday afternoon. Seda is not from Karamürsel either, and since I was sitting shotgun I was in charge of helping us get to town. Let me just say I am the worst person to be sitting in that seat, not only do I have absolutely no idea where we're going and I can't remember a string of directions in Turkish past turn left and then right. Also, due to Turkish construction mishearing one letter at the end of a word can have drastically different results. Upon arrival we were immediately shuffled from one of their hometown spots to the next. First a  cafe, then Emrah's house-the place Chris and I had been most looking forward to because we've heard many times about was an incredible cook Emrah's mom is--and the experience didn't disappoint. Minutes after greetings had been exchanged the coffee table had been converted to a a full dining room table and was filled with lamb, borek, cakes and cookies, and my favorite sarma--rice with all sorts of herbs and spices and then rolled into grape leaves. Emrah's mom is exactly what you would expect from a generous Turkish mother who kept popping into the room to encourage us to eat more! eat everything!

Ever the tour guide Volkan pointed out his high school, old apartments and places they used to hang out before bringing us to one of their main spots, a sort of boardwalk cafe that was completely deserted for the fall. The water was completely glassy, and as perfection requires, we set up backgammon and bought Efes-the most popular beer in Turkey. The whole group of us, in total fluctuating between 12-15 people stayed at Serhat's "village home", an unassuming white box from the outside but a big, open living room with cushion-lined walls, an couches. I often refer to Serhat as Silent Serhat, responding just a smile. Ulu is another main character in the cast at Chris' house, and while he's always the first to make fun of my Turkish errors he's also the first to cover up the person dozing on the couch with a blanket, or to force me to sit front of the fire as my hair drys.

For the most part the weather was awful and due to the absence of cars and noise it was a sleepy weekend; a welcome change. We spent most of our time drinking tea, playing backgammon and chatting. A large group of my peers speaking quickly in Turkish is a challenging environment to participate in, but I know them well enough now that I'm able to follow along and jump in. Plus because we were basically limited to the indoors there was a lot of time to talk, I even got some words out of Serhat!

No weekend away in Turkey would be complete without eating vast amounts more than you should.
 Here, Lizzy is trying to decide what to do with her portion. 

Tavla was a main source of entertainment.
Ulu (right) is defending himself against Emrah, who regularly beats me 5-0.