Kurban Bayram

Kurban Bayram is the sacrifice holiday.  For Islamic Turks it means that it's time to sacrifice some sheep, goats, cows, camels, etc. in public places throughout the city or village.  For Hilary and me it meant our first of two vacations this year.  It began on Wednesday and today (the following Monday) is the final day.

Hilary and I certainly made the most of our time off.  With little preparation or forethought and a heap of incredible blessings, we returned home last night from our amazing adventures.  We celebrated our friend Can's birthday, went on a 3 day backpacking trip in the Taurus Mountains, and spent two days in the beautiful city of Antioch.  We will give a more in depth account of each trip in separate posts to save a little sanity for our beloved readership.

Today we are soaking up the blessings and acclimating back to life as we know it here in Adana.  Upon returning home, we really felt comfortable and content in our new place.  After vigorously exploring the mountains and Antioch, the streets, sights, sounds, and smells of Adana were familiar and endearing.

We are loving our new surroundings, friends, and lives here.  Of course we are also really missing everything and everyone at home in America (and China, Reuben), but we are so grateful for this incredible opportunity and these fantastic experiences.  We feel so blessed.

I'm sure we'll crash back to reality when classes begin again tomorrow morning.  Until then we'll relish the moment and the new memories that we hope to never forget.

Lots of love and warm wishes to our family and friends,
Mike and Hilary

A Brief Update in Simplest Form

Since our last blog post one or both of us have

• eaten liver
• rejected a brand new watch offered as penance from a student
• reluctantly accepted a humongous bouquet of flowers from the same student
• watched Taken: Istanbul at the movie theater and discovered Turkish movie theater's have 15 minute intermissions, even if it interrupts one of the most intense scenes of the movie
• gotten sick 
• recovered
• almost gone to a soccer match between two local, rival teams
• played ultimate frisbee
• played soccer
• grown more accustomed to teaching
• kicked 2 high school girls out of class in the first 10 minutes
• Played cards with some new friends
• Skyped with several of our favorite people
• Made friends with the lady that works behind the nut counter at our grocery store- She even learned a little English to ask ''How are you?''
• Gone to a symphony concert featuring the music of Beethoven, Wagner, and Liszt
• Eaten at Waffle House - a place that serves waffles exclusively as dessert with lots of sugary toppings
• agreed to go backpacking in the Toros Mountains for a few days and then go to Antioch for the rest of our Fall Break

Outside the Stadium hours before the local soccer match

Our neighborhood mosque - which often wakes us up around 5:30am with the call to prayer

At the Concert Hall

Day Trip to the Mediterranean

Hey Folks,

This weekend we were finally adventurous enough to do a bit of traveling.  Before the weekend, our traveling consisted of getting our bearings in our new city.  Together with a couple we've met here who are actually from Minnesota, we took the train to the neighboring city of Mersin - a Mediterranean port.

We ate a delicious dish called Tantuni and checked out an old Catholic church, the opera house, and a museum.  Then Luke and Emily - our new friends - headed off to meet up with some friends and Hilary and I were on our own.  We went back to the opera house to take a few quick pictures and one of the workers there let us go into the concert hall to listen to the orchestra and choir practice for their upcoming performance of Carmen.

Afterward we walked north along the coast.  When we returned to our starting point there was a small line of fishing boats-turned-restaurants along the waterfront.  We boarded one and tried their fish sandwich, fries, and coke.  The Turkish music, fishing boats scattering the harbor, and full moon made for quite an experience.  My first taste of the Mediterranean was certainly worth remembering.

Here are the pictures:
Day Trip to the Mediterranean

- Hil and Mike

The Views Outside our Apartment

The Views Inside our Apartment

Front Hallway

Bathroom

 Kitchen/Laundry Room/Living Room

With Hilary

Without Hilary

Bedroom

Saturday in the Park (Not Chicago)

Friday after work Laura (our friend from Mora, MN) and her husband Can (pronounced 'John') took us to the Optimum Outlet mall to setup a cellphone.  On the way, Can took me through "Old Adana" which was a dodgier part of the city where we entered a mall filled with like fifty cell phone stores, rubbed elbows with the antique dealers, and walked through a meat market which consisted   of freshly butchered animal parts (its smell is still fresh in my mind, though its smell was anything but fresh).  

Saturday morning Hilary and I walked to the park nearby our apartment.  It is called Merkez Park.  Despite the repressive heat and humidity, we managed to explore and take pictures for about an hour.  Left of the mosque is a river (not pictured) with a bridge that lights up at night which we hope to frequent this year.  

So far we've not been adventurous enough to enter the mosque, but we will soon.  Laura said if we're lucky a worker at the mosque may let us go up into one of the minarets to look around.

The rest of the weekend we laid pretty low, settling into our new apartment, preparing for our first week of classes, and visiting a bazaar/farmer's market/pazar where we bought apples, plums, and persimmons - which is Hilary's new favorite fruit. 

Transition is slow, exciting, exhausting, fun, difficult, and progressing.  We hope our friends and family around the world are doing well and really appreciate the email, skype and ESP communication we've gotten so far.  It's nice to know we're not forgotten yet.

A few photos from our new Surroundings

A cup of coffee at our new apartment

The view from Laura and Can's Apartment

Me in Frankfurt, Germany's Airport with Walter.